It’s truly remarkable how a society that worships so passionately at the twin altars of political correctness and non-judgmentalism can indulge in such unabashed group-think and censorship of thought and speech.
I just saw Ben Stein’s extraordinary documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which chronicles the attack by the mainstream scientific community — not against the concept of “intelligent design” but against allowing any debate whatsoever on the subject. Stein compellingly demonstrates how today’s amoral and intolerant culture of dogmatic Darwinism mirrors the Darwinian euginics movement that contributed to the rise of Nazi Germany.
I couldn’t help but draw a parallel with the mainstream media’s love affair with one presidential candidate and its unapologetic assault against the other. WSJ columnist Daniel Henninger shines the light of objectivity on the lopsided coverage (with special attention to SNL producer Lorne Michaels’s unsually candid comments), while Michelle Malkin makes a mockery of the media portrayal of Sarah Palin as a bumbler.
(One snippet: which VP candidate, in an interview with Katie Couric, praised FDR for his response to the stock market crash? Answer: it wasn’t the one in high heels. Oh, and FDR wasn’t president when the stock marked crashed in 1929. Bonus points if you know who was; you may also be qualified to run for high office.)
If one side has a 100,000 watt speaker system and the other side has a cardboard megaphone, where is free speech then? (This is actually the answer to those on the far right who accused John McCain of “trampling on the First Amendment” with his finance reform legislation.) And if those who try to speak out are ridiculed, censured, or otherwise browbeaten for their minority opinions, how long until even freedom of thought is disallowed.
Case in point: Joe the Plumber, who had the audacity to hope that he could get a straight answer to a fair question. Actually, the answer the candidate gave was straight. But the attack dogs that pounced on him afterwards are bound to discourage other questioners. On that point, I’ll give Jonah Goldberg the last word.
… except for this: here we have two striking examples of the culture war about which I’ve already written.
Torah Ideals 