more Obama
I'm enjoying this. He's an intelligent guy, but quite careful to not be too partisan just for the sake of being that way. He's a Democrat and not at all shy of it, he just doesn't (in his writing at least) do the knee-jerk "Republicans are BAD!" thing.
(On moving to DC)- "At first, I tried to embrace my newfound solitude, forcing myself to remember the pleasures of bachelorhood- gathering take-out menus from every restaurant in the neighborhood, watching baseball or reading late into the night, hitting the gym for a midnight workout, leaving dishes in the sink and not making my bed. But it was no use; after thirteen years of marriage, I found myself to be fully domesticated, soft and helpless" (p. 72)
(Talking about the Constitution)- "It's not just absolute power that the Founders sought to prevent. Implicit in its structure, in the very idea of ordered liberty, was a rejection of absolute truth, the infallibility of any idea or ideology or theology or 'ism,' any tyrannical consistency that might lock future generations into a single, unalterable course, or drive both majorities and minorities into the cruelties of the Inquisition, the pogrom, the gulag, or the jihad. The Founders may have trusted in God, but true to the enlightenment spirit, they also trusted in the minds and sense God had given them." (p. 92)
K, so the first one is just kind of amusing.
The second one I like a lot. Yes, the Founders of this country embraced both God AND Science!? What the hell?! Of course they were just human, but this idea that we're being true to our "foundations as a nation" by being more religious in the face of science (rejecting Evolution in favor of ID for example)...it's ridiculous.
(On moving to DC)- "At first, I tried to embrace my newfound solitude, forcing myself to remember the pleasures of bachelorhood- gathering take-out menus from every restaurant in the neighborhood, watching baseball or reading late into the night, hitting the gym for a midnight workout, leaving dishes in the sink and not making my bed. But it was no use; after thirteen years of marriage, I found myself to be fully domesticated, soft and helpless" (p. 72)
(Talking about the Constitution)- "It's not just absolute power that the Founders sought to prevent. Implicit in its structure, in the very idea of ordered liberty, was a rejection of absolute truth, the infallibility of any idea or ideology or theology or 'ism,' any tyrannical consistency that might lock future generations into a single, unalterable course, or drive both majorities and minorities into the cruelties of the Inquisition, the pogrom, the gulag, or the jihad. The Founders may have trusted in God, but true to the enlightenment spirit, they also trusted in the minds and sense God had given them." (p. 92)
K, so the first one is just kind of amusing.
The second one I like a lot. Yes, the Founders of this country embraced both God AND Science!? What the hell?! Of course they were just human, but this idea that we're being true to our "foundations as a nation" by being more religious in the face of science (rejecting Evolution in favor of ID for example)...it's ridiculous.