[OFFTOPIC:] The Lesson of Tonight’s Iowa Caucuses

_{William Dembski

January 3, 2008

Off Topic}

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My wife’s family is from Iowa, and we got to listen to a lot of the presidential candidates in person during our visit there this December. Here’s our daughter with two of the more successful candidates:

The lesson of tonight is that people are tired of business as usual. How far does that disaffection extend? To the uncritical teaching of Darwinian evolution?

Comments

I think Huck can give the Slickster himself lessons in Slickness. That's not a good thing. Hey, Gods iPod, when do you think Dubya's finally going to get around to opening up those camps for the people who questioned the results of Florida in 00? He only got a year left. The closest thing to a "fascist" in this race is the only one that can get away with wearing a dress. And I don't mean Rudy since he didn't get away with it.tribune7_{January 4, 2008
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Nochange, you said "Huckabee is one of us" Who are the "us?" If that is true then ID has no future. Huckabee is not one of mine so speak for yourself. Besides don't you believe in evolution? ID is all about bringing good science to evolution not disclaiming it. Also on the politics of war, I think you should just leave it alone. Your numbers are not correct and both Germany and Japan were broken countries after World War II and so was South Korea in 1953.jerry_{January 4, 2008
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Very cute girl. She looks like a kid who would be fun to be around. If Huckabee hadn't played the religion card so hard and sabotaged Romney with it he'd be easier for me to like. As it is I think he's sneaky and underhanded. I used to like McCain until I found out he wants to raise my taxes. Romney's position changes make me a little uneasy, but at least he changed the right way. I would love to see him and Hillary or Obama debate directly. I think he could handle either easily. Anyone see the plug on MSNBC last night during the Iowa returns on the new NAS book defending science education in the schools against creationism and ID? There was a sound bite from a bewhiskered member of the NAS whose name I didn't catch saying that ID was scientifically indefensible. (I told the TV he was wrong but no-one but my wife heard me) Since they increasingly can't defend Darwinism on its merits they more and more must work to silence its detractors.dacook_{January 4, 2008
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Frost, While counting the number of Iraqis freed, we must also count the number of Iraqi civilians killed. Are 1 million civilian casualties worth 26 million free? How many civilian deaths does it take to make it not worth it any more? What goes on in other countries should be none of our business. Iraq has demonstrated that you can't fix a broken country (we went in and took a bad situation for Iraqi's, and replaced it with a bad situation for Iraqi's - I don't call that a win). That said, Huckabee is no Bush. Huckabee is one of us. Bush just pretends to be one of us.Nochange_{January 4, 2008
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Very nice pictures. I think Huckabee is business as usual in at least one critical matter - he, like the current incumbent, has no respect for the importance of maintaining state and church separation. This is a defining American principle, and abandoning it will only hurt all, religious or non-religious. I think it is a sad day that we have to even ask questions about a candidate's faith. This is exactly what the founding fathers did not want to happen.tdean_{January 4, 2008
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God's ipod, If you can't say anything challenging then why bother? You diminish yourself and bore your readers. Frost122585 Try to be more to the point. This is a blog, not a journal. If you can't state you're points in a couple of small paragraphs I doubt that anyone will read your blog entries. To the point, This is a good day for ID. Huckabee has publically stated that he does not believe in evolution. In fact, he has said that the US Congress is proof of devolution because the senators act more like moneys. This can only bode well for support of ID. How this supports materializes may be difficult to predict, but at least Huckabee has the smarts, and guts to stand for the truth.Peter_{January 4, 2008
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Dr. Dembski: Politics aside, these are very sweet pictures of your daughter. I'm sure she (and you) will cherish them for many years. It is really special to have been able to meet and be photographed with two distinguished politicians. Kudos for getting her interested in such things at such a young age! May she not become jaded over time.SCheesman_{January 4, 2008
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Dr. Dembski, Your daughter is adorable! My wife and I are hopefully going to have a child soon too.Tedsenough_{January 4, 2008
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Gods Ipod, Fascists are liberals with socialist policies. Both Mussolini who originated the concept and Hitler were socialists. While George Bush has tended to increase the size of the government his policies are not of government control of production as much as Clinton and Obamba would be. So Hillary is more of a fascist then Bush and I would guess that Obamba is not far behind.jerry_{January 4, 2008
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Gods Ipod- C’mon, give us a holly break on the fascism stuff- The guy liberated some 26 million people! from a sadistic despot who allowed his kids to feed their girl friends to lions- hardly a “fascistic” comparison to GWB. All the media has done (as usual) is focus on the negative side of Iraq- for example they talk about 5 dead troops in a country 15 times the size of Maryland. Dembski, interesting take - but I must say that I think faith played a bigger role in this one than the general public and media was anticipating. On the RNC side that is. It was Romney and Huckabee neck and neck and both men carry a degree of spiritual baggage. My take on the Iowa thing is pretty cynical. I don’t like how all of the state elections in the primaries are done in a stochastic fashion. I think it should all be on one day because now the media will use the results of a small state to essentially propagate and give free invaluable publicity to the winners- which to me is totally unfair when the first state is a liberal state that is not representative of the rest of the nation. It is a bit of a joke anyway look at the amount of notes we are talking about- Obama got 940 votes! 940! Iowa should be very inconsequential if not for the free press and hype of the media. But they got the buzz- they got “the win” in one of the smallest states in the world. On the results, I am not a Huckabee fan because when I listing to him speak he just seems to be dishonest. I cant say what it is exactly - something in the was he answers questions- not his overall speaking though when he actually speaks about a subject from a position of offense I find him ok but its when he is asked a tough question or is caught u in a political challenge that I can tell he is not an honest man. I am a christen but I wont vote for a man just because he shares a close resemblance to me political faction of christen faith. Mitt Romney however on the other hand is the total opposite- When he speaks I know it is rehearsed and he really doesn’t say much of anything (playing the politically safe card) but that is slightly better than the regular BS to me.- but in my heat I feel like the guy is the most decent of all of the candidates. I know that he is big money Massachusetts and all of that- but the guy just comes off to me as "a man" and someone who I feel is qualified to run a functioning white house with dignity and class. One of the things that helped to solidify my belief is that Romney switched from a social liberal to a social conservative and people have called him out as a flip-flopper on it but he stands against stem cell research and even in the face of his wife's battle with MS. Now that either makes him an evil man (if you believe that virtually unregulated government funded stem cell research is a morally right thing to do) or it means that he stands pretty heavily on a very serious issue. I think he is being true. I think the guy looks presidential and overall I trust him more than any of the others up there. Even though Romney is a Mormon he is still a Christian and it isn’t his fault that he was born into a Mormon family. And I don’t find it useful to judge people based upon what they claim to be their faith- you should try and understand what they believe in their hearts. To me that is far more important than going to "the right church." I also would like to ad that i beleive that the elitests have deep sixed Romeny as much as possible because they think he is the only one that can beat the demoracic nominee. After watching the last election (house and senate) the RNC needs a strong and rich candidate if they are to stand a chance inthe general election. As far as Obama- I really don’t agree with all of the random "hope" rhetoric and the unifying concepts of togetherness. If you are fundamentally wrong on an issue then I believe divide is necessary and a mark of character. As Americans we can compromise on strategy but not on principal. Obama is a socialist in the way that he wants to raise taxes and socialize medicine and I have seen what government run business is ultimately about so as a Reagan conservative I cant be exited about him. Nonetheless, I don’t hold it against people for being excited about his candidacy- to me no one is bad for voting the other way just I believe their fundamentally wrong on important issues. As this all applies to DE and ID to me in a introspective sense. The analogy that comes to my mind is that by popularity and politics. People jump on bandwagons- I remind you that is was Rudy Giuliani (whom I don’t really like) that was the front runner just a month ago. DE is very much a political movement and one that “can” be swayed- but it is the media and mainstream opinion that keeps chanting "ID IS NOT SCINECE” setting the sides and the tone- making everything a strategic and structural battle and giving free publicity to the anti- ID campaign insted of letting the evidence and truth speak for itself. Perhaps we should break away from what the crowed is saying and forget about preliminary results- instead of the old adage that "there is truth in numbers" we should set the options down side by side and weigh the truth ourselves. Forget about a corporate and internationally owned media or meaningless debates about nothing- look at the options and evidence and let is speak for itself. ID is ultimately not interested in popularity or perceptions- but in Truth.Frost122585_{January 4, 2008
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?? Huckabee is not business as usual then? Sorry, he is a clone of Bush down to the fascist ideologies. There's nothing remotely dissimilar between them Huckabee = Bush 2.0Gods iPod_{January 4, 2008
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