Skip to main content

Some Thoughts on the Second Presidential Debate

    Sunday night offered up yet another raucous affair disguised under the name "debate."  It was, pardon my french, a heck of a time!  This was the entertaining encounter that I was disappointed we didn't get the first time around.  Allow me to offer my thoughts on this far more enjoyable debate.

    1) Hillary is a stuck-up prick.  I said it the first time and I'm saying it again.  I say it in the most respectable way I possibly can.  Really.  Honestly.  Alas, it's undeniable.  The looks on her face when Trump brought up her illicit behavior, say, deleting something to the tune of 30,000 emails AFTER receiving a subpoena, told the whole story.  Her face said, "Who are you to question me, earthling?"

    2) Hillary is still the better politician.  She answers questions in a far more succinct way than Trump, which was especially noteworthy in a debate that had audience members asking questions. She's such a good politician that she honestly sounded like she cares about people, which, we just saw is notoriously false.

   3) Trump won this debate, hands down.  I'm pretty unbiased, as I'm voting for Jim Harbaugh (#jimharbaughforpresident), so I think I have a pretty good perspective.  Trump did exactly what he had to do.  He painted Hillary as just another politician, someone who has been getting rich doing nothing for the last 30+ years.  The fact that he's right helps the validity of the argument, despite the fact that he has funded her campaigns in past times.

   4) Trump's hair is bad, and he should feel bad.

   5) Trump dodged the whole "groping" thing pretty darn well.  "Locker room talk"!  What a great PR move.  Sadly, people actually bought it.  Now, I'll concede that guys are pretty gross and that they do say things that they don't mean.  The level of vulgarity in Trump's words was pretty high though, and I just don't buy it.  Trump is a billionaire who has a track record of libidinous behavior.  He's done things that frat boys dream of doing.  He just got caught this time.  That makes his juke here even more amazing.  It also shows just how high the gullibility of American Evangelicals is.

    6) Speaking of American Evangelicals...no, I really shouldn't...

    7) Hillary lives in a bubble.  I was, at times, fuming at her words (just ask my wife!).  She says things that make sense to ignorant people, and she gets away with it.  She told us that Bush's tax cuts hurt our economy after Clinton's prosperous years.  Trump will do the same thing, but she will tax the rich and grow our economy.  Nevermind that that just won't work in the real world!  Nevermind that Clinton's bubble was directly responsible (in part) for the Great Recession.  Nevermind that someone has to be rich in order for a middle class to exist.  She reveals the type of grasp on real-world economics that you would expect out of a lifelong politician.  Her view on Obamacare was as equally revealing.  Saying that forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions and to charge men and women the same all sounds great in a political speech, but in real life it just doesn't work. Once again, government bureaucracies always waste money because they have no sense of spending only what money they actually have (or they don't care).

    8) This was a flat-out slug-fest.  The first debate featured an unexpectedly high amount of policy discussion.  This debate played out more like an episode of Jerry Springer.  Potshots were taken. Names were called.  Fun was had by all!  America looked stupid.

    9) Bill Clinton looked like he was legitimately going to urinate in his rich pants.  The strategic move of bringing in a consort of his accusers was a genius move by someone within the Trump campaign.  Somehow a video of Trump revealing his true character came back to bite Hillary in the butt, and Hillary knew it!  As the kids say, it was cray cray!

    10) Finally, let me just observe that America is going to hell in the proverbial handbasket, but, it's okay, because so is the world.  Trump and Hillary went back and forth on foreign policy, specifically Iran and Syria, and it struck me just how unstable the world is right now.  Now, a brief study of history will show that the 80's and 90's were marked by instability in Russia (the Soviet Union) and the Middle East, just like we see today, but we all sort of thought that that was pacified, at least a little bit, right?  Wrong.  Europe and the Middle East are a hot mess right now.  It's like someone took a ball of aluminum foil and threw it in a microwave--sparks are flying and something is going to blow up!  So, step back, fellow Americans, and wave your flag proudly.  World War III is right around the corner!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

4 Reasons I Affirm Paedocommunion

If you have interacted with me on social media, you know that I have always been outspoken on the issue of Paedocommunion .  It is a theological position and a liturgical practice about which I am passionate.  Having been raised, and having raised my children, at the Table, I cannot imagine attending a church that didn't allow PC.  I hope that when I am old and gray, I will still be an advocate for bringing little children to the Sacrament. Throughout the 12 years that I have had this blog, I have written scattered thoughts on the topic, but it appears that I have never written a concise summary of my reasons for affirming PC.  I was thoroughly convinced that I had, but I can't seem to locate it, so I guess I never did.  So, to rectify the omission, here are four reasons I hold to PC. 1) Paedocommunion is Biblical.   Any discussion of the topic should start here, and I would hope that both sides of the debate would make this assertion.  However, l...

1 Corinthians, the Covenant Hermeneutic, & Paedocommunion

As an adherent to Paedocommunion  (hereafter PC), I have always found it painfully ironic that Credocommunionists use 1 Corinthians 11 to withhold children (among others) from the Table.  One can imagine St. Paul shaking his head as he watches theologians using his discussion of unity at the Table to divide the body at the Table.  You're missing the point! he would say in exasperation.  Not only does 1 Corinthians 11 not forbid PC; I would go so far as to say that there is no better defense of PC in the New Testament than the epistle of 1 Corinthians. Credocommunionist logic is pretty straightforward.  1 Corinthians 11:28 says, "Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup."  If, they argue, one is unable to fulfill the exhortation to examine himself, then he may not eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  This is a pretty logical deduction, right? Credobaptists would adamantly agree.  Acts 2:38 says, "Repe...

The Real Presence & Paedocommunion: A Deeper Rift Between Reformed Churches

You're going back to Rome! Theological disagreements within the Reformed world, especially those of the last half century, often devolve into these sorts of accusations.  As controversialists like Doug Wilson and Peter Leithart began to break away from the larger conservative Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, it became clear that the rift was deeper than semantics and systematic minutiae.  Much like the Reformation four centuries before, the Table was a primary point of conflict.   What does it mean?  Who may partake?  What do we call it?    These questions, along with a few more, divided Reformed brethren as the physical elements of our religion reflected deeper conflicts.  Good men began to understand that the problem wasn't just in our logos, but in our pathos and ethos, as well. Paedocommunion (hereafter PC) has been one of the hottest points of contention.  PC has always been normal to me as I grew up with it.  I underst...