Rod Dreher and His Obsession with Sex
Rod Dreher has posted seven blog items in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog in the last few weeks concerning John Edwards' extramarital affair. Another topic covered well by Dreher is Barack Obama's celebrity. "Obama overexposed -- just like Paris Hilton!", "McCain pounces on Obamessiah", and "Britney, Paris, Adolf and Barack" tell you all you need to know about Dreher's fair and balanced approach to that topic.
Yet neither Dreher nor any other editorial board member of The Dallas Morning News has seen fit to say a word about Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind's report that the Bush administration ordered the CIA to forge documents linking the 9/11 terrorists with Saddam Hussein and Iraq.
When this is pointed out to Dreher, he defends himself by saying "This is such a lame dodge. You could say that about any story." But an alleged criminal and impeachable act by the President of the United States is not just "any story." And no one suggests that the John Edwards' story shouldn't be covered. It's the balance that's in question. The only lame dodge here is Dreher's defense of his obsession with John Edwards' sex life and total lack of interest in alleged criminal acts by the President.
Dreher goes on to say, "OTOH, once Barack Obama becomes president, reverses the rise of the oceans, and heals the planet, then we'll all have more time to pay attention to the minor things." WTF?!? Non-sequitur, straw man, ad hominem, what other logical fallacies does Rod Dreher display with that childish and petulant comeback?
When reader "harvey lacey" asks Rod Dreher where his outrage is that John "McCain dumped his family for a society girl whose daddy gave him a job" Dreher responds, "Harvey, your silly comment brings out the Latin in me. You have not only engaged in non sequitur, but also the ad hominem fallacy. You're a grown man, and not a dumb man. Why not argue logically?" All of which shows Dreher is not ignorant of his own logical fallacies, he just doesn't hold himself to the same standards he demands of those who challenge him. Rod Dreher, why not argue logically yourself? Start by answering harvey lacey's simple question? What do you think of John McCain's own admitted extra-marital affairs?
Finally, Dreher warns, "nasty ad hominem posts will be unpublished." Evidently, Dreher means nasty ad hominem attacks other than his own will not be published.
A Majority-Minority Nation by 2042
William McKenzie, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, reports on new census data that predicts the U.S. will become a majority-minority nation as early as 2042, when the number of Americans who identify themselves non-Hispanic whites dips below 50% of the whole population. McKenzie asks what can the U.S. do to prepare for this change?
The tone of McKenzie's blog post implies that this demographic shift is undesirable, a threat, a problem to be fixed. Reader comments certainly see it that way, with suggestions to limit immigration, "CLOSE THE BORDERS" and "git rid of all 'em."
McKenzie himself claims to believe "that our country is enriched by having so many different cultures" but even he seems uncomfortable with the census trends. He promotes assimilation as the answer.
Americans have a mistaken notion of how assimilation works. The famous metaphor for America is a melting pot. But how does a melting pot really work? When a new ingredient is added, it isn't magically transformed into the ingredients already in the pot. Instead, the whole mixture is transformed. Assimilation works both ways. The newcomers lose of lot of what made them different, but the nation is subtly changed as well.
Over time, those changes build up. The America of today bears little resemblance to the America of 200 years ago. Then, the challenge was to assimilate the Methodists and Quakers and Catholics into a whole. A hundred years ago, it was the Irish, the Germans and the Italians who resisted assimilation. Today, it's Americans with ancestors from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America who seem impossible to stir into the melting pot.
What keeps people wanting to come to America and jump willingly into that melting pot is the shared belief in the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. As long as we keep teaching the children the importance and value of those principles, the differences in language, cuisine, entertainment and religion should rightly be viewed as a strength to be preserved, not a problem to be solved.
2 comments:
Rod Dreher wouldn't recognize logic if it fell out of the sky, landed in his lap and *wiggled*. He's quite the embarrassment, no doubt.
That's the ironic thing. Rod Dreher understands logic. He just can't apply it in his own writings, which exhibit the same logical flaws he picks up in others. Especially ad hominem attacks, but not limited to that.
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