The report in The New York Times suggests that Candidate Santorum messed up by engaging college students in New Hampshire on the question of same sex marriage. I think that Mr Santorum was showing respect to the students and their ideas.
To me it is a question of not just his position, but also his willingness to enter into an exchange of ideas. The NYT take-away that he was booed by the students belittles his willingness to engage. His willingness to engage is to be applauded.
Regards — Cliff
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Among the Republican candidate misfit toys, Santorum disturbs me even more than Ms Bachman. His absolute positions on sexuality and reproductive privacy are frightening because he wants to impress his religious "law" (what is the difference between this and Muslims insisting they want to institute Sharia?) over the rights of we individual Americans who happen not to believe as he does. That he and his wife chose to apply an abortifactant to cause the death of their unborn child a few years back, yet he would institute laws making such an act illegal and tantamount to murder is the height of hypocrisy and dangerous presumption and hubris. He chose to save the life of his wife. We all should be so lucky to be able.
At whatever point we lose the thread on this, and want to give credit for "willingness to enter into an exchange of ideas" with someone who insists there can be no compromise to his position, we have lost the meaning of what an exchange really is. Santorum has no room to accept any of the ideas of the students he "engaged". Their booing is as much for that as anything else. And they were right. Santorum is anything but.
Terrifying, really.
His wife was already in labor.
But, as to the difference, Sharia IS the law in some countries. I think that is an important distinction. To be like it we would have to go back to the days of the Holy Roman Empire, when Canon Law was the law. But, Canon Law with the belief it is fixed and interpretation done by scholars. And no jury nullification.
He is pushing an idea as a political proposition, just as I would strike all government and personal immunity for violations of the Fourth Amendment. He isn't going to achieve his Goal and neither am I.
Regards — Cliff
You do know that Sharia is nowhere a uniform and codified set of regulations, right? That it's an interpreted standard the same way Santorum advises we embrace interpreted Judao-Christian values into our legal system? Saying "Sharia" is like saying "Christian Values", only it's Muslim. Yes, Sharia is more "eye for an eye" about a lot of things than the "Christians" are, and brutal by many standards, but it's the same logical approach. "Christians" decry how backward the Sharia repression of women appears. I will say I find the "Christian" repression of women to be no less anachronistic and unfair, even if not as extreme.
In my opinion, religious-based legal systems are all by definition flawed and unfair. They would have us to adhere to a standard that's interpreted by a class of people not chosen or elected by the People, (the clerical class), and that cannot be right.
I'm still waiting for those huge numbers of "pro-lifers" to voluntarily incarcerate themselves for being "pro-death-penalty", just the same way as I'm waiting for Mr. Santorum to volunteer himself to jail for being party to an abortion.
In Sunni Islam, four legal schools. I get that. But, that doesn't mean it is just something out there wandering around. There are principles of interpretation. It is a legal system, just like ours, but without the safeguards we have. Islam came about, in part, to end injustice. One can argue that the standards have changed, and I for one would do so, but still, it was a step forward for it's time and place.
As for the Santorum family, I don't see it as an abortion. I could be wrong on that.
Regards — Cliff
We agree that there are problems with any value system that cannot reflect the collective wisdom of The People, and move forward accordingly. "Christian Values" (not least for their unfairness to citizens lacking the right gender or sexual orientation) and "Sharia" (for these and many more) both fall short in my eyes in this respect.
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