You can be ethical and moral without religion. You can give money to the poor not because Jesus did it, but because it will keep them from starving, and because it's a good thing to do. Don't avoid killing bugs and animals because you think karma will have you reincarnated as a spider that gets stomped on by a four-year-old's heelies. Let it live because it's cruel and a waste of time to kill for no reason. What if a fly has been buzzing around your ears for a good while and you can't concentrate on finishing a good Diamondback column? Swat it, because it's worth it. It's better to make your decisions based on practicality, rationality and reason.
The decisions get bigger and bigger, from stealing Tater Tots at The Diner to abortion. Stem-cell research. Terri Schiavo. The only decision that matters is the godless one. Politics is about keeping people alive, happy and not killing each other. You may have a relationship with God, but you also have a relationship with humanity. Politics is based on humanity, the here and now.
So I say to Barack Obama, who spent close to a minute (for a 10-second question) relating God to humanity to political goodness and stumbling the whole way, that yes, we have lost a "sense of empathy towards each other." We have been "governed in fear and division." That is all you can expect when God is strung so tightly together with American politics.
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This is one of many articles regurgitating the same refrain this morning.
Thompson has now shown that with his folksy style and low-key approach to campaigning, "he pulls off the reluctant candidate role a bit too well," said Corey Cook, an assistant professor of political science at the University of San Francisco.
Cook said Thompson is "either getting bad advice, is not focused on the race, or is assuming his natural charisma will carry him through."
Cook noted that among the recent speed bumps have been some headline-grabbing misstatements, such as calling Russia "the Soviet Union" - which hasn't existed since 1991 - and some shocking unfamiliarity with issues such as the ethics debate that consumed the country surrounding the death of Terry Schiavo.
"Apparently he didn't watch the 'Law & Order' episode - that he was in - about that case," Cook said.
GOP Thompson's TV debate debut falls flat
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