If Mitt Romney does succeed in disposing of Rick Santorum in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, I won’t be particularly upset (although I gather Santorum has belatedly said some sensible things about cutting legal immigration). While Santorum was our US senator from Pennsylvania, he was a total lackey of the Bush administration and before that, the shameless flatterer of his leftist Republican colleague Arlen Specter.
But I did draw the line when the Chicago Tribune’s house-trained libertarian columnist Steve Chapman went after “Rick Santorum’s Moral Delusions” (January 9, 2012).
Apparently, like other theistic Neanderthals, Santorum believes that “gay marriage will destroy the family” and that in some sense our “culture is sick.”
But, Chapman assures us, the “familiar line of argument among religious conservatives” doesn’t work. There’s already “a mass of evidence that amounts to a thunderous refutation.” According to Chapman, states that smile on gay marriage, rigorously adhere to secularism, and have adopted state-of-the-art social attitudes are the happiest and safest places to live in. These states, which are mostly in New England, have the lowest teenage pregnancy rate and relatively few divorces and are the least prone to violent crime.
Despite the widespread availability of abortion there, he says, Massachusetts has “less teen pregnancy than the country as a whole. Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Vermont, which have also sanctioned same-sex unions, are also far better than average.”
As a clincher, Chapman brings up the Bible-reading Yahoos in Mississippi: in this atavistic society
Mississippi has the highest rate of church attendance in America, according to a Gallup survey, with 63 percent of people saying they go to church "weekly or almost weekly." But Mississippians are far more likely to be murdered than other Americans.
On the other hand, we have Vermont, where people are the most likely to skip church. Its murder rate is only about one-fourth as high as the rest of the country. New Hampshire, the second-least religious state, has the lowest murder rate.
Liberty is not a race issue or at least needn't be, however what Chapman fails to see, can't see because of his ideology is that Vermont is small lily White and well off state and Mississippi is 37% Black, mostly poor
ReplyDeleteWith Non Wealthy Blacks 4-6X more likely to commit violent crimes (federal stats here) than Whites, that a lot of murder.
Now to be fair,Southerners are more liable to violence the Yankees. There are cultural differences in the way force is approached on a social level.
Even if a magic comet turned all the Blacks and Hispanics to ash, the state would be a bit more violent than Vermont. But not grossly.
The Bible however has little to do with it.
Now to be fair,Southerners are more liable to violence the Yankees.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.