Posted on 04/28/2014 1:20:49 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It’s been no secret for a while that Sarah Palin, erstwhile vice-president candidate, is no longer a serious political contender — for evidence of that transition, note that even among her faithful, at CPAC this year, she got just 2 percent of the vote in the straw poll, tied with Condoleezza Rice. But as her crowd-pleasing performance in the very final speech of that event — and her lucrative contract with Fox News and huge social-media following — indicate, she’s gone from being a potential political leader to something of a cultural totem.
That means her speeches have gone from being standard political pablum to something even more substanceless — more or less a long string of hokey but often amusing jokes. But for all the lightheartedness, her appeal is to a set of people who take seriously their commitment to faith and freedom, right? Well, should this line garner laughs from such a crowd?
Oh, but you can’t offend [Islamic terrorists], can’t make them feel uncomfortable, not even a smidgen. Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
As Rod Dreher explains, this is pretty perverse:
"Not only is this woman, putatively a Christian, praising torture, but she is comparing it to a holy sacrament of the Christian faith. It’s disgusting — but even more disgusting, those NRA members, many of whom are no doubt Christians, cheered wildly for her. . . . Palin and all those who cheered her sacrilegious jibe ought to be ashamed of themselves. For us Christians, baptism is the entry into new life. Palin invoked it to celebrate torture. Even if you don’t believe that waterboarding is torture, surely you agree that it should not be compared to baptism, and that such a comparison should be laughed at. What does it say about the character of a person that they could make that joking comparison, and that so many people would cheer for it. Nothing good — and nothing that does honor to the cause of Jesus Christ."
Torture — waterboarding being something reasonable people may consider to constitute it — is and should be a question of grave moral consequence for Christians, and is for any Catholic familiar with the Catechism. Palin wasn’t even just jokingly comparing a serious violation of human dignity into one of the most important transcendental recognitions of it – she was mounting an expansive defense of something near torture, on the grounds that our prisoners ”would obviously have information on plots,” and therefore ought to, apparently, be subjected to a horrible practice not as a morally necessary last resort but a habit of quotidian intimidation. There’s a word for that kind of practice: barbaric. The Greeks used to use it to describe the other guys.
Ha. Sorry.
No, I was just agreeing with you.
John Elway?
Hahahahaha! How that Pizza Uno? Any new flavors or varieties? Soros still buying?
Shuuush listen can you hear.... i.e. Willaim Buckley turning in his grave..
National Review has be Sodomized..
Disgusting statement on Palin’s part. Clearly she has given up any idea of participation in serious conversation, having opted to toss chunks of red meat to yahoos. This isn’t statesmanship; it’s self-parody as performance art.
He's welcome to greet that remark with grim seriousness and outrage but he risks looking like a humorless dork in doing so. Point, Palin, IMHO.
yet....
Not only do you marginalize a person that truly cares about this country and did the all steps to claim that mountain but you somehow think you are all that by claiming she doesn’t.
You sir not only are infected by the disease that the effects the body politic but indeed you are a carrier...
The word “baptism” has long been used in a wide variety of contexts that have nothing to do with the Christian sacrament of baptism, and no one ever said that these usages were perverse or sacrilegious. For example, you might read about a soldier: “My baptism in combat occurred on just the third day of my tour, when we were ambushed by insurgents just outside of Fallujah.” Or in a football game you might hear: “Smith’s injury will bring in Jones, the redshirt Freshman quarterback who will have a baptism under fire here in the fourth quarter with the game on the line.”
So you went from being her biggest fan to condemn... Oh, wait, you always disliked her, didn’t you?
Yep, the Palin cult is alive and well, and ready to strike.
Indeed.
..from a state that elected Jesse Ventura as Governor and Al Franken senator?
You could only dream of having a woman for a 1/2 term like Sarah Palin.
If Sarah would have had a Conservative at the top of the ticket instead of Juan "Amnesty" MeCain it would be a different story.
..and a MeCain campaign manager like Steve 'asshole" Schimdt demeaning and belittling her during the campaign.
It’s called “a joke.”
A jejune prig! I love it. I hate to say it but Buckley set that tone years ago. It’s why it was never my favorite conservative rag.
Haha! Yep, onward Palin soldiers. Strike down the Satanists who oppose her!
It’s even worse here. We have Sen. Amy Klobuchar. After the floods here of 2009, she said she was going to seek funding for some reconstruction projects because “it is the role of gov’t. to make people happy.”
I assure you I haven’t killed anyone that I know of, so the comparison to Al Sharpton doesn’t seem to fit. Strawman much?
I hear you on that, though at least he himself outgrew the jejune part.
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