Tuesday, December 22, 2009

'Anti-science and anti-gay'

Science and gayness go naturally together, see?
Why I Left the Right, Exhibit P for Pawlenty
Newsweek has an interview with Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, the very model of a modern GOP candidate, considered by many as a possible front runner for the Presidency in 2012: Anti-science and anti-gay.
What follows from that Charles Johnson introduction are quotes from Pawlenty's Newsweek interview, including this:

Well, you know I’m an evangelical Christian. I believe that God created everything and that he is who he says he was. The Bible says that he created man and woman; it doesn’t say that he created an amoeba and then they evolved into man and woman. But there are a lot of theologians who say that the ideas of evolution and creationism aren’t necessarily inconsistent; that he could have "created" human beings over time.
Tto which Johnson responds:

Pawlenty has no problem with teaching creationism as science, but he wants to protect children from cross-dressing elementary school teachers, whether they actually exist or not. And he wants to make sure that gay couples don't receive medical benefits -- a position he's reversed as the GOP has moved farther and farther to the right.
But the GOP has not "moved . . . right" on this issue. Was the Republican Party more in favor of same-sex marriage benefits (or cross-dressing school teachers) in 2004? Or 1994? Or 1984?

Certainly Charles Johnson is not the only one peddling this "hijacked by extremists" myth about the GOP -- Frank Schaeffer seems to be making a career of it -- but it simply doesn't square with the facts.

What's really more interesting about the Newsweek interview is why the reporter felt the need to interrogate Pawlenty about his religious beliefs. Maybe they want to be extra-careful for 2012, after getting burned on that Jeremiah Wright deal last time around . . .

6 comments:

  1. Jimmy Cammeron is homophobic. Well, maybe not actually homophobic, but his movie, Avatar, is homophoblic even if he did not intend it. There is not a single gay Na'vi in that latest movie of his. When Andrew Sullivan noted that the Na'vi men are nine feet tall, and have very big feet...well the laws of proportionality and all...well he got the vapors.

    Until he realized that none of the Na'vi were swinging on the wild side. Well, except perhaps for that one avatar scientist who seemed a little light in his loafers...but his avatar body dies so that rules him out.

    But hey, I am just asking questions.

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  2. Reproduction is vital to the existence of the human species. Perhaps its Homosexuals who hate science?

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  3. So Pawlenty believes that evolution and creationism are not mutually exclusive? Oh, the horror. Oh, the shame of it all.

    That extremist bastard! How dare he have views in line with the majority of Americans.

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  4. "What's really more interesting about the Newsweek interview is why the reporter felt the need to interrogate Pawlenty about his religious beliefs. Maybe they want to be extra-careful for 2012, after getting burned on that Jeremiah Wright deal last time around . . . "

    Yes, that is classic..the interviewer is all so concerned about probing the religious beliefs of the governor, hoping to do some hard hitting reporting. But Barrack's church and pastor Jeremiah Wright? No interest. Never heard of the guy.

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  5. Why are these questions never asked of Liberal Jewish politicians? Schumer or Feinstein or Waxman or Levin? Wasn't Genesis from Hebrew teachings?

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  6. Violence. It really has a place in political discussion sometimes.

    Threats of violence.

    Or this.

    Sometimes it is justified.

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