Tuesday, July 11, 2006


As Good Today As When Written

The Missing Middle Ground
Phil Brennan

Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005

Among the sour-grapes comments from the sore losers who can't accept the victory of President Bush is that he failed to keep his promise to bring us together.

That's garbage – sophistry at its worst. Simply put, you can't unite people whose political and moral opinions are diametrically opposed. Anyone who thinks that's possible is either prevaricating or dreaming. Apples are not oranges and no amount of coaxing will make them so.


When George Bush made that promise, he was utterly sincere in the hope that he could persuade the American people to put aside petty differences and unite for the good of the nation. But what he failed to recognize was that the differences that divided us were far from petty. In assuming the presidency he was walking headlong into a battleground where the issue is between what is right and what is wrong.
Someone once said – I think it was Abraham Lincoln; it sure sounds like him – that we must not allow ourselves to be deluded by those who would have us believe that there is some middle ground between right and wrong.

Yet the only way to unite those who uphold what they believe in their hearts is right, and those who they are convinced espouse that which is wrong, is to arrive at that elusive middle ground between the two, and it just plain does not exist.

One of the burning issues of our times is abortion. Roughly half of the American people believe that the killing of the unborn is not only wrong but also wantonly atrocious, while the other half think it's a perfectly acceptable way for a woman to solve the problem of an unwanted pregnancy.

Where's the middle ground here? How can you bring together people who regard abortion as murder and those who either deny that it is murder, or worse, insist that it doesn't matter if it is? A woman's right to choose to kill her unborn child simply trumps the right to life of an unborn human being. Period.

How can you bring together the two sides of this issue, which is, no matter how you put it, a matter of life and death? Did George Bush fail here? Well, if he couldn't do what is clearly an impossibility, you could say he failed. But you'd have to be Michael Moore or some other disingenuous fool to buy that nonsense.

There are genuine issues that divide this nation, and in almost all cases they involve matters of Judeo-Christian morality vs. the secular doctrine of anything goes. Most Americans, for example, adhere to the ancient doctrine that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. But the media and a large number of moral misfits insist that marriage should also be recognized as a union between a man and a man or a woman and a woman – an absurdity on its face.

This has been called a culture war, but it is far from that – it is a war where what is at stake is the nation's soul. We are either a Godly people adhering to a moral code as spelled out in the Ten Commandments, or a godless people wedded to the idiot notions that if it feels good, do it, and if it works, try it.

There is no middle ground here. There is right and there is wrong, and never the twain shall meet.

Writing in the current Weekly Standard, P.J. O'Rourke played ghostwriter for President Bush's inaugural address and he hit the issue head on.

"My Fellow Americans," he had the president saying, "I had intended to reach out to all of you and bring a divided nation together. But I changed my mind. America isn't divided by political ethos or ethnic origin. America isn't divided by region or religion. America is divided by jerks. Who wants to bring a bunch of jerks together with the rest of us? Let them stew in Berkeley, Boston, and Ann Arbor.

"The media say that I won the election on the strength of moral values. If the other fellow had become president, would the media have said that he won the election on the strength of immoral values? For once the media would have been right.

"We are all sinners. But jerks revel in their sins. You can tell by their reaction to the Ten Commandments. Post those Ten Commandments in a courthouse or a statehouse, in a public school or a public park, and the jerks go crazy. Why is that? Christians believe in the Ten Commandments. So do Muslims. Jews, too, obviously. Show the Ten Commandments to Hindus, Buddhists, Confucians, or to people with just good will and common sense and nobody says, 'Whoa! That's all wrong!'"

O'Rourke has it right. On one side are the great mass of the American people whose heads are screwed on right. On the other are the jerks, the self-appointed elitists who think the majority of their fellow Americans are an illiterate bunch of yahoos who live in flyover country, probably in trailer parks or shacks with hound dogs living under the front porch, and whose opinions are not worth listening to.

The jerks are the intellectually superior class who think they can bring a president down by using forged documents on a TV news show and get away with it. The jerks are the politicians who lie to senior citizens that the president's attempts to solve the looming Social Security problem are really meant to cut benefits of those retirees now getting them.

The jerks are the people who would like to see the greeting "Merry Christmas" outlawed and that sacred holy day driven into obscurity. The jerks are the people who want to convince us that the universe and those within it created themselves.

Does anybody really want to be united with the jerkery?

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

oooooooeeeeeeee, you go wild bill!!

now yer "thankan"

I just love you!

11:50 PM, July 11, 2006  
Blogger Wild Bill said...

I've seen several places and people that have proposed the "caint we all just get along" theme lately and want to UNITE .. The Old Ranter had a piece about it too the other day..
I have a several files I keep full of stuff like this that come in handy, even if they are old material..
This story says a lot, but still leaves a lot unsaid too.. He musta had a space limit on it or somethin..
Its time that the conservatives stiffen their backs and drive some hard bargains for a change.. I'm tired of seein Frist and the rest of em runnin back under the porch with their tails between their legs like a bunch of whipped pups !!

12:19 AM, July 12, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No matter if the world at this point knows it or not----they will soon see we are on the verge of thermonuclear war.

All it will take to "wake up" will be one mad dog killer terrorist. And, last I checked we got 'bout 4 or more of em out there with itchy button fingers. that'll make Iraq look like a cake-walk.

Sorry to say I am not an optimist when it comes to man's future.

Yep, it IS a battle between light and darkness.

AND, it is coming to a head soon.

1:08 AM, July 12, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanx for supporting E, Wild Bill. I know he values yer input. So do I. Thankyou.

11:08 PM, July 13, 2006  
Blogger Wild Bill said...

Its me that is so very Thankful for the folks like E, and You !!
Its just disgraceful that more folks dont feel that way tho..
Too many watch whats on the 5 oclock news and thank they know all about whats happen.. They never bother to go to the trouble to find out what REALLY is happenin.. They then try to PUSH and CRAM down the throats of everybody else what they learned from the distorted, slanted news they watched..
It breaks my heart that E has a thankless job and has to endure what he does, and then has to tolerate the gotdam educated idiots everwhere !! I guess thats why I'm the crusty ol sumbitch that I am today.. I dont HAVE to tolerate the worthless ungrateful dirtbags in our society anymore, and I dont !! I dont suffer FOOLS very well.. Not well at all..
I have very little to offer our Warriors, but my support and thanks is ALL theirs.. And I thank you are pretty special too, MamaBear..

12:04 AM, July 14, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Went to see "Pirates of the Carribean, Dead Men's Chest" last night. And it causes me to think...you DO have something to give----yer very soul! And that you have by yer continued support, prayers, and not to mention the blood sweat and tears of those long ago days. You have a bank of gifts already given. Ain't it great? you have been to the proving grounds and not found lacking. Soooooo many of those out there COMPLAINING do not have the mettle to even test themselves yet feel they can judge.

I am 57 years old in Sept. and like you I find I do not tolerate fools as EZ as I used to. LAZY and his sister STUPID are too much for me to bear at times.

Wish I could age with grace and not let anger get in the way but it seems the times and our culture won't allow it.


sooooo, I will continue to take my high blood pressure pills and try to get on with it. It is a battle, as you know, thanx for being our battle buddy.

That pirate movie was great. It was a good respite and made me forget the middle east for at least 160 minutes. I give it an 8 out of 10 stars.

8:10 AM, July 14, 2006  
Blogger Wild Bill said...

My birthday is the end of Sept. too..

7:26 PM, July 14, 2006  
Blogger Scott from Oregon said...

"This has been called a culture war, but it is far from that – it is a war where what is at stake is the nation's soul. We are either a Godly people adhering to a moral code as spelled out in the Ten Commandments, or a godless people wedded to the idiot notions that if it feels good, do it, and if it works, try it. "

Actually, this statement of yours reflects why the rifts exists to begin with. IT IS YOU who cannot see that there are alternatives to bipolar thought. In your statement, you make the claim that the Judeo-Christian tradition is the only way to adhere to a moral code and maintain a relationship with God. This is absurd, patently false, and willfully blind.

My God doesn't write books. I believe in "him", but I think the Judeo-Christian Books are farcical and wrong. It is a good thing you are crusty and old. Simple mindedness should be extinct soon, God willing...

5:24 PM, July 16, 2006  
Blogger Wild Bill said...

I guess I need to remind you that it was a bunch of simple minded folks that wrote a constitution and fought to remove this country from England's rule, and it was a bunch of simple minded folks that fought and organized the Great State of Texas too..
Due to narrow minded people like you, Scott, both my God and your God are in danger..
My Bible is not a book, but is the Living Word of God.. Should you decide to give it a try, you may be able to find peace for your tormented soul..

7:52 PM, July 16, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great site lots of usefull infomation here.
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1:27 PM, July 22, 2006  

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