Peggy Noonan: Way Too Much God (Freepers let's tell her our thoughts)

WSJ ^ | 1/21/05 | Peggy Noonan

[Timeout]

Neo-progs.

You NAILED it. That's perfect.

I can almost hear it dripping from Chris Matthews' lips.

[Earthdweller]

"Trying to democratize people who cannot be democratized is not breathtaking, it is pointless."
---
Unless you think they are subhuman..I don't get your point. All humans want to be free if they learn what it means.

[syriacus]

Peggy Noonan is a devout Catholic

Don't know how old this column is...

Religion is something that took decades to catch up with Noonan.

"My parents were not religious people," she says. "On Sunday mornings they listened to Frank Sinatra." What religious training she had came from her great-aunt Jane, who "used to take me to Mass when I was a little girl. I absorbed something from seeing her say her prayers on her knees at night, and seeing religious pictures in the mirrors in her bedroom. It just sort of suggested to me that all these things may be true. Eventually, by the time I was an adult and in my forties, I just knew I needed God in my life I knew I needed faith very much. I set out to really feel it and to find it and to know it."

Today, she says, "I love to go to Mass. It's the happiest moment of my day, and if I'm home, I'm there."

Her faith is part of what makes her writing unique, according to Bently Elliot, Noonan's former boss at the White House and now vice-president of communications at the New York Stock Exchange. "She embraces God fervently, and helped the President articulate his own, deep faith." Elliot hired Noonan on the recommendation of close friend Kevin Lynch, then the articles editor at National Review.

[iconoclast]

He wrote this to be read by historians or to be played on A&E

My information is that 20 or more persons wrote this thing, and it reads like the work of a (loony) committee.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Peggy Noonan is a devout Catholic; I would hardly call her "uncomfortable with God." She's also a well-known and well-grounded conservative, and a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan. She's not some neocon newbie.

All true except for the "well-grounded conservative" part.

[syriacus]

Matthews is often taken in by the emotion of the moment and the charisma of people whom he would normally be drawn to....that is, until he regains his "liberal senses" and begins his bashing.

How true. Juan Williams has the same trait.

[ArGee]

Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self.

Once again pointing out the Libertarian fallacy. It does matter what you do in the privacy of your own home, even though the government must not have the right to snoop into it without evidence of crime.

Shalom.

[AmishDude]

Indeed. I misspoke (miswrote?) when I said "he wrote" it. Surely, he indicated the direction he wanted to take with it and he approved the final draft. Generally, these speeches are largely the product of one person, with others giving tweaks. But if you have sources inside the Bush inner circle...

[syriacus]

My information is that 20 or more persons wrote this thing, and it reads like the work of a (loony) committee.

It hangs together so much better than Clinton's committee-written speeches.

I guess the method is being perfected.

[valkyrieanne]

"A lot of Arabs have been educated in the US. Whether reason and free markets can prevail and overthrow the ignorant Islamo-fascists remains to be seen."

The 9/11 hijackers (some at least, like the ringleader Atta) were western educated--heck, they even learned to fly (sort of) in the US. Exposure to western education did not make their minds right.

Exactly. A perfect example of this is found in the based-on-a-true-story film "Not Without My Daughter." American Betty Mahmoody marries a very "Westernized" Iranian doctor, goes with him to visit his family in Tehran, and ends up a virtual prisoner forced to escape on the sly through Turkey. The "westernization" was basically a veneer.

[syriacus]

Trying to democratize people who FOR CULTURAL REASONS cannot be democratized is not breathtaking, it is pointless.

Like the Japanese?

[Earthdweller]

"Trying to democratize people who FOR CULTURAL REASONS cannot be democratized is not breathtaking, it is pointless."
---
Tell that to the African Americans and the Irish Americans..people said the same thing about them. Are you a Vichy French elitist transplant?

[syriacus]

Indeed. I was timpressed by how touched Juan Williams was by Bush's (SOTU?) speech in which he outlined a plan to help fight AIDS in Africa.

Juan positively glowed.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Exactly, ArGee. I'm glad you highlighted that part. It was excellent. Did my heart good to hear him say that, and I do not think it was a meaningless addition. This speech had some big -- OLD -- concepts in it. I found it to be quite sound and very tied to other historical speeches and writings.

Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self.

I thought it was worth posting again. I love that line. It's a very important point.