Comments on: Update III: Leading Paleoconservative Hails Her Hero (Warning; It’s Not Pretty)

By: Barbara Grant

Barbara Grant — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:12:20 +0000

The way I have been taught, is that there is a difference between _forgiveness_ and _restoration._ For example, most in the fellowship at Ted Haggard’s former church in Co. Springs forgave him for his sinful conduct; he was not (and will not be) restored as Pastor there.

[Clarity, as usual. Thanks.]

By: Virgil

Virgil — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:56:59 +0000

I’m all for forgiveness; but not the instant clemency Christianity offers these days. No sooner has someone offended than he is swept up in a wave of love. I’m not a Christian, so I have no clue as to whether Christian expiation was supposed to be a Federal Express easy ride. A Jew can’t expect to get to the Pearly Gates if he does bad things. In Judaism, your actions determine your fate on earth and in the hereafter (the first being far more important than the last).

Well, in Christianity one's actions are important as well. Christ said that not everyone who says to Him "Lord! Lord!" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of our Heavenly Father. Christ also noted that on the Day of Judgment that people will be separated into two groups, the "sheep" and the "goats". This division will be based on the actions or in-actions of people (Matthew 25: 31-46). The Apostle James noted in his epistle that faith without good works is dead (James 2:17). In other words, the perpetually wicked (even if they call themselves "Christians") will have no share in the Kingdom of Heaven.

By: Michael J. Nucci

Michael J. Nucci — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:49:06 +0000

I believe it is unfair to ask that a man do any more than apologize and get himself sober, which it appears Mr. Epstein did. Although I do not know the particulars regarding the case for inacceptance to law school it would surely be a witch hunt and more likely a result of his expressed views than the incident in question. I am in agreement that his actions do not make him a hero but nor do they make him a villain.

[As I understand it, he was accepted initially, but then when the case was revealed, things changed. Hardly unreasonable.]

By: Van Wijk

Van Wijk — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:12:14 +0000

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.

–Aristotle

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:21:12 +0000

Barbara and Ilana: While 20% of affirmative action may be justified, 80% or more is nonsense. Bakke got rejected with a score of 468/500 but (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_of_the_University_of_California_v._Bakke)
later became a resident at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN which is certainly not shabby and later became an anesthesiologist in Rochester.MN. The website http://www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Allan_Bakke.html
gave him 4 stars. However, the minority who was chosen over Allan Bakke, Patrick Chavis was a collossal flop (www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin080702.asp ) thus justice won out in the end. Consider also Robert Aumann
and 8 other Nobel Laureates: “In the years when top-flight private schools were restricted to the children of the Protestant Establishment, thousands of brilliant individuals (especially Jewish students) attended City College because they had no other option. CCNY’s academic excellence and status as a working-class school earned it the titles ‘Harvard of the Proletariat’, the ‘poor man’s Harvard’, and ‘Harvard-on-the-Hudson’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_College_of_New_York) but sadly
“During a 1969 takeover of South campus, under threat of a riot, African American and Puerto Rican activists and their white allies demanded, among other policy changes, that City College implement an aggressive affirmative action program..”
I like to think that the best attitude is: “Don’t get mad, get even!”

By: Roger Chaillet

Roger Chaillet — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:32:28 +0000

Had Marcus been a rap “musician,” then all would have been forgiven.

Interesting how contemporary tribalism operates.

You can say and do the most obscene things imaginable, but all is OK or at least tolerated because you are airing it within the boundaries of the tribe.

Sardonic humor aside, the young man is going to have to wear a hairshirt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cilice for a long time to expiate his sins.

By: Barbara Grant

Barbara Grant — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:23:42 +0000

I agree that if an “Anglo male” (I think that means Caucasian male of European descent, not necessarily a male who descends from Anglo-Saxons) can’t make it into Harvard, but has admission to Cornell, or what have you, it might not cause him grief to matriculate at the university that accepted him, prove his worth, and move on. In some cases, however, like the CT firefighter, there is no place else to go (unless he wishes to leave town); and if the individual wants to achieve a specific goal, he has to fight.

The first case I clearly remember in this regard was the famous “Bakke Decision” in California, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_of_the_University_of_California_v._Bakke
in which Allan Bakke sued for not being admitted to a UC medical school based on his merit, while less qualified minorities were admitted. I specifically remember this because I was the president of a very large community college student body at the time, and was asked to protest Bakke, which I refused to do.

For the record, I believe that racial and gender discrimination does indeed exist; I could share my stories but this is not the place. However, tearing down qualified individuals is not the way to go.

By: M. B. Moon

M. B. Moon — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:48:34 +0000

Liberty and license;
they’re really not the same.
One allows the best in man;
the other brings on shame.

[Wonderful; thanks]

By: Virgil

Virgil — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:40:56 +0000

I don't know too much about Marcus Epstein, beyond the occasional article he'd write for Taki's Magazine website. I certainly hope Mr. Epstein has overcome his own character weaknesses and turned a new corner (as a Christian I do believe in seeking forgiveness and obtaining redemption). If he has overcome his baser self, this is certainly a praiseworthy act, but hardly seems grounds to cast him as a hero. To me, a real hero is someone like Dr. Ron Paul, a man who struggles day and night in the cause of liberty and refuses to sell out. Another man who I have come to view as heroic is the former jihadist turned Christian evangelist Walid Shoebat, who risks his life to call to (true) peace and warn against the dangers of radical Islam and jihadism. Then again, in our modern world, someone who pulls a cat out of a tree is considered a hero, so the word has lost much of its meaning. [And in the same vain: Wafa Sultan, Geert Wilders, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.--IM]

By: Vic Jones

Vic Jones — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:34:33 +0000

Thomas Szasz posed the question: Why should we pathologize struggles in life? I think he would also entertain the question: Why should we pathologize obnoxious and/or criminal behavior?