80% of Good Writing In One Post

Scott Adams of Dilbert Fame begins his blog entry:

I went from being a bad writer to a good writer after taking a one-day course in “business writing.” I couldn’t believe how simple it was. I’ll tell you the main tricks here so you don’t have to waste a day in class.

I’m curious enough to read the post, aren’t you?

Confusing the Issue

Charles Hulbert’s Letter to the Editor shows a confusion in terms:

For the graduate Kaylan Vogele, practice what you preach. In your comments made June 4 you said, “It’s really hard today, it seems, to have a strong sense of what morality is unless you’re coming from a religious background.” Then you said: “People need to understand each other’s perspective a little bit more. People, I think, need to be more willing to actually learn about different world views …”

Before you learn about different world views, learn about the views of our own society. I am not a religious person in any way. Yet you say I have no morals simply because I don’t believe in religion. When I was in high school, students would get drunk at lunch, students would go smoke a joint when they were snowboarding and students would get so intoxicated that they throw up or pass out. Almost all of them believed in a religion of some sort and probably practice it in some way or another. I have done none of these examples, and yet you say I have no morality.

I think both Vogel and Hubert are confusing the issue. The issue is not whether people without religious faith can be moral people. Obviously, you find one decent law abiding agnostic and that argument has ended. The real issue and the meatier debate is over whether morals in society can be maintained apart from religion.

And that I believe is not possible. There’s no doubt in my mind, we’ve seen a general decline in morality in recent years. Sadly, much of this has been due to the Church letting down standards in many cases. Still, I would caution that Hubert’s asusmption that his high school classmates practiced their religion is just that-an assumption. High School (and college) years are a time when many drift from their moral bearings. But let’s be clear, our society’s problems are not helped by the church’s refusal to be counter-cultural.

I Respond to Senator Stennett

Over at New West, I take on Senator Clint Stennett’s attack on Republicans for closing the primary. Here’s an excerpt:

I’ve followed politics for many years, but I must confess that this is the first time I’ve seen a political leader argue that his own ineptitude in candidate recruitment should be the basis for government policy. That Senator Stennett can’t get enough Senators elected to fill a Toyota Sequoia should not mean that the Republican nominee should be a Democrat-lite. Contrary to what some argue, Democrats are not out of power because of facist mechanations in the Republican Party, but because their ideology doesn’t play well outside of the North End of Boise or Sun Valley.

Click here to read the whole thing.

Update:

Randy Stapilus responds:

The point, albeit made in a partisan way, is legitimate. For one thing, there’s no obligation of the Republican Party to nominate someone “acceptable” to non-Republicans, other than (if they feel the need) as a matter of political strategy. Besides that, if Republicans nominate a candidate who represents the views of only a minority of the voters, then logically that should open an opportunity for Democrats (or an independent) to seize the seat. If it doesn’t, then maybe a closer re-look at the voter population, or the candidates in question, is in order.

Indeed, Stapilus goes on to write:

Over the years, we’ve discussed the idea of party registration in Idaho with a number of elected officials. Among those who were Republicans, the view was overwhelming: Registration would be bad Republican strategy, for two central reasons. One is that many independents in Idaho have naturally gravitated toward Republicans; force them to formalize that, and who knows what they might do? The second point is equally simple: Republicans have fared spectacularly well under the current system, so why should they change it?

The issue is going to be out of the legislator’s hands. Supreme Court rulings on this are clear. The legilslature has the right to close the primary and it will be closed, that I can assure you of.