Noonan's comments

Peggy Noonan's latest has several worthy points.  (tip to Kathy at relapsed catholic)

You would think the world's greatest scientists could do this, in good faith and with complete honesty and a rigorous desire to discover the truth. And yet they can't. Because science too, like other great institutions, is poisoned by politics. Scientists have ideologies. They are politicized.

All too many of them could be expected to enter this work not as seekers for truth but agents for a point of view who are eager to use whatever data can be agreed upon to buttress their point of view.

And so, in the end, every report from every group of scientists is treated as a political document. And no one knows what to believe.

We can only dream of scientist being seekers of truth in this era.  Some criticize religious folk for taking the God's Word without scientific proof.  But then we should turn around and take their word as Gospel without questioning it.  Let me tell ya, it ain't the religious that are playing footloose and fancy free with the Truth.

 

Ralph Reed lost this week in his race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor of Georgia. This strikes me as significant in several ways.

I always thought the question about Mr. Reed is: Is he a Christian who went into politics, or a politician who went into Christianity? Was he sincere and driven by a desire to have a positive impact on public policy, or a mover driven by a desire to get a piece of the action as American Christians,

I have wondered the same.  Is he a Kinkade or a witness to the Gospel?  Is he just Christian because it is profitable and he looks the part?  Dunno, but I distrust much of the "Christianity" in politics.

 

Conservatives don't live for government and don't love it, either. They like other things. They think government is a necessity and a potential evil. This is because they know human nature, and they know humans run governments. Ergo extremely flawed and even damaged people are governing us. Ergo don't give them a big sandbox to play in; keep it as small as possible. That way their depredations will be, by definition, limited.

This point of view--humans are imperfect, governments even more so--is not inherently pessimistic but rather optimistic about other things: life, faith, relationships, gardens. A conservative politician who does not enjoy gardening, reading, taking a walk or seeing a play more than governing is a human warning sign: Don't go there.

Words to live by there.  As Jefferson (?) said, Government is like fire, a useful tool and a fearful master.