Random thoughts

I am determined not to fall into the trap of having to explain why I haven't posted for X number of days every time that something like that happens. BUT...it has been 8 days since I last posted (not that anyone's counting), which is a record for me in the 3 1/2 months since I've been doing this. The reasons: 1) Several things have come together to make me very busy right now, including classes, recruiting work and our annual 4th of July church musical and 2) As I see it, nothing is really going on right now in the election race, except for hot air being exchanged on both sides. Ed Rendell (D) and Rob Portman (R) are going at it on Fox News Sunday right now (well, it's tape delayed from this morning, but you get the idea), for instance, about McCain flip-flopping on guns and Obama flip-flopping on NAFTA, yada, yada, yada. I don't think anyone is listening much; it is background noise to most people's 4th of July celebrations.

Dick Morris said the other day that he thinks McCain is sleepwalking through this election race. Upon reflection, I don't agree with that. McCain has come out swinging with something new every day since Obama clinched the nomination a couple of weeks ago. I think that is smart because it keeps him in the news cycle and doesn't leave Obama out there garnering all the press.

Will it be enough in the end? Who knows? But, there is a lot of drama potential yet to come, including conventions, running mate choice, debates, etc. At least, that is drama for me, and if it isn't for you, you probably aren't finding a lot to interest you on this blog, anyway. The two are really about tied, with Obama certainly having an edge right now. But the election is still 4 months away.

We did have a couple of Supreme Court decisions in the last couple of weeks that should have warranted some comment from me, so I'll do so now.

The most recent one struck down Washington, D.C.'s ban on handguns. A great victory for the Second Amendment. What more is there to say?

The second one, which came down earlier, gave the detainees at Guantanamo the right to request a hearing in order to appeal their detention. I am troubled by this, because I think, as a conservative, that precedent is a very important factor in our history of American government, and we have never before granted this type of right to any foreign combatant or anyone accused of being such. Yet, we are also an open society and as a Christian, I feel I have to consider the argument from mercy's point of view. A request for a hearing doesn't even guarantee the hearing that the prisoner is asking for, let alone a trial. Isn't this a minimally decent standard for a good and fair country?

So ultimately, I would have to say that I am uneasy about the direction in which this ruling could lead us, as a rule utilitarian. As a stand-alone decision, though, I would have to support it on the basis of Christian principle. (I've just been teaching Ethics again and we've discussed rule utilitarianism vs. act utilitarianism a number of times; briefly, rule utilitarianism considers every choice, personal or corporate, in the light of other actions that could stem from those choices, while act utilitarianism judges every decision on the basis of that act alone, in a vacuum.) Clearly, in the light of history, FDR's internment of innocent Japanese-Americans, the vast majority of whom loved their country and even fought for its betterment after their release, was an appalling injustice, though an argument could have been mounted in its defense (and has been, by Michelle Malkin and others). Such treatment today is inconceivable; imagine if George W. Bush had tried such a tactic.