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Giuliani and Abortion: A Lightning Rod Issue, Part 2

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In part one, I criticized Giuliani for permitting abortion even though he personally opposes it. Since Giuliani is a Catholic, this stance has also drawn a lot of fire from the Catholic Church. At the end of part one, I suggested that Giuliani could instead defend an unborn child once it reaches viability, the point at which it can exist outside the womb. At the same time, he could avoid a full frontal assault on Roe v. Wade. In part two, I explain how Giuliani the Catholic can unite with Giuliani the presidential candidate on the issue of abortion.

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Let Race Not Divide Us

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Today, the Supreme Court made a historic decision involving race in Parents Involved v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1, outlawing the use of race as a factor in placing students in public schools. Had the Supreme Court ruled the other way, they would have turned back the clock 53 years. For those who do not know what I am referring to, in 1954, Brown v. Board of Education prohibited segregation in our schools based on race.

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Giuliani and Abortion: A Lightning Rod Issue, Part 1

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Back during the CNN presidential debates, Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani faced a harsh question comparing his permissiveness towards abortion while personally opposing it to Pontius Pilate’s permissiveness towards Jesus’ crucifixion while personally opposing it. To complicate matters, lightning interrupted Giuliani’s answer, drawing huge laughter from the crowd. Divine intervention or not, the inevitable spread of this incident over the Internet has attracted attention to Giuliani’s abortion stance like a lightning rod.

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Putting Politics over Progress on Stem Cells

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Congress has returned to its old games on embryonic stem cells. Having just passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, which federally funds embryonic stem cells, Congress forced President Bush’s hand into vetoing this legislation. Democrats have pledged to override Bush’s veto, but they face one critical obstacle: they do not have enough votes. The act passed 63-34 in the Senate and 247-167 in the House, both short of the requisite two-thirds vote to override a veto.

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Illegal Immigration, With a Focus on "Illegal"

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Given that there are so many close contests ranging from local county elections to presidential elections, people have started to realize that every voice counts. With such a narrow margin for victory so often, imagine how adding 12 million people to the United States could change the dynamics of our country!

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The Wrong Right: Hamas' Right to Run in Elections

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Back in 2005, Israel took a huge step toward peace by withdrawing from Gaza, a move that would not be forgotten. Praises of Israel echoed in the streets in the form of Qassam rockets being fired from Gaza. Then, a delegation from Gaza visited Israel to pay tribute to them by kidnapping Cpl. Gilad Shalit. And now, the Islamic terrorist group Hamas has decided to throw a huge party in Gaza after seizing complete control of the area and capturing all the strongholds of the more moderate Fatah.

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So Who Is Ron Paul, Part 2 – The Internet Factor

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When I wrote Part 1, I did not anticipate the numerous comments it would elicit, and after seeing so many, I knew they had to come from somewhere I hadn’t expected. Eventually, Web Editor Chris Barnes solved the riddle: the answer was Google News (The Cornell Daily Sun is a member, in fact the first collegiate member, of the Associated Press).

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Republicans Debate, McCain Wins

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While the difference between Republicans and Democrats in their beliefs was not unexpected, I was surprised that they did not take off the gloves and go at it with each other like the Democrats did, especially with the Republicans’ greater diversity in opinion (particularly Ron Paul). Overall, McCain, Romney, and Giuliani all performed well, and no second-tier candidate had a performance strong enough to catch up to them (though I will give an honorable mention to Huckabee for his views on religion, which set the tone for all Republicans, and also his focus on respecting life not only for babies in the womb, but also for the neglected, abused elderly and the children in poverty in this world). Each first-tier candidate had some great moments, and no one ran away with this debate, but ultimately I have to give the victory to McCain.

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Democrats Debate, Obama Wins

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New Hampshire, a state known for its political activism and involvement, and also the site of the first Democratic primary, played host to a Presidential debate between all eight Democratic candidates last night.

Overall, the format of the debate was excellent. Abandoning the rigid structure with candidates speaking in a predetermined order with the yellow and red timer lights really helped the candidates come alive. Wolf Blitzer, who did an excellent job of moderating the debate, used his freedom with such a flexible format, creating some good follow-up discussion and debate among the candidates. This became especially effective in drawing out the differences between the candidates. Speaking of which, since Cornell decided to choose our convocation speaker from CNN, why couldn’t we choose Wolf Blitzer?

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So Who Is Ron Paul, Part 1.5

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Due to the large number of comments in Part 1 of my previous entry about Ron Paul, I have decided to respond here in Part 1.5. Now many (but not all) of the comments stemmed from Ron Paul’s support on the Internet, which is measured in online polls. His actual support, which is measured in more conventional polls like Zogby, proves to be much smaller. So when my blog appeared in Google News under the search phrase “Ron Paul”, many of his supporters quickly flocked to this website thanks to Google News Alerts. But I’ll get into that with more detail and research in Part 2.

According to some of those commenters, I watch Fox News and Sean Hannity in particular, do not know what the term “blowback” means, do not know that the CIA invented that term, never did any research on Ron Paul (including reading that pro-Paul commentary from CNN I linked to in Part 1), got all my talking points and inspiration from the mainstream media and neocons, think the terrorists hate us because of our freedom, specialize in Bush’s tactics of fear and hate, etc. Well, guess what? None of that is true.