Roy Moore ran for Senate in Alabama in 2017 and lost. He had many weaknesses as a candidate, but the most important one was the accusation that he had made sexual advances to an underage girl four decades before. The Washington Post, which reported that allegations could not prove it, but bolstered it by adding claims that Moore had legal relationships with young women in their late teens when he was in his late twenties.
I was asked, on the spot, to comment on the Moore story when it came out. I said that the underage allegations, if true, were very bad, but I also pointed out that the Post had deliberately conflated legal relationships with an illegal one. I didn't say this at the time, but one of the reasons I was sensitive to the issue was that I myself met my wife when she was 17 and I was 27. We began dating at 18 and we have been happily married for nearly 14 years, with three children.
Long story short -- I was accused of defending a pedophile, and pedophilia. A writer for the Bulwark -- the Trump-hating, so-called "conservative" outfit -- repeated the false accusation today. I responded on Twitter. But it's worth noting the depths to which some people will descend in an attempt to smear their opponents in a political argument.
One more point: Moore recently won a defamation suit against a Democratic super PAC for the kind of conflation I am describing.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
