Addendum about that half-baked Alaskan

Sam Harris responds to criticisms of his article in the LAT about Sarah Palin:

Sam Harris: Sexist Pig and Liberal Shill

I've received more than the usual amount of criticism for my recent opinion piece on Sarah Palin, most of it alleging sexism and/or an unseemly infatuation with Barack Obama. For those who care, I'd like to briefly respond:

My alleged sexism: It is true that I used some hackneyed, gender-slanted language in the piece ("get sassy," "girl-next-door," etc.). This was deliberate. Clearly, I played this game at my peril. I can say that if Sarah Palin were a man of similar qualifications, I would have used equally slanted language to describe him. I might have called Mr. Palin a "frat-boy" or a "lumberjack." I would have invoked some silly macho phrasing like,"Watch Cousin Jim flip Putin the bird." My concern is not that Mrs. Palin is a woman. My concern is that she is a totally unqualified and poorly educated woman who was added to the Republican ticket as a token woman (and Creationist wacko). For what it's worth, the article was vetted by the two women closest to me (wife and mother) and by two female editors at the LA Times. If anything, the editing at the Times made the piece even more "sexist."

My alleged Obamamania: Many McCain supporters have written to say that (1) Obama is also unqualified (or even less qualified than Palin) and (2) I have shown myself to be a hypocrite by not objecting to Obama's religiosity. Briefly: My criticism of Palin should not be construed as uncritical acceptance of Obama. Needless to say, I find Obama's religious pandering repulsive. The suspicion that he is pandering, out of obvious necessity, and not quite as religious as he makes out, is somewhat comforting, however. But even if Obama were precisely as religious as he appears, he is not a Creationist, Rapture-Ready blockhead. Palin, by all appearances, seems to be one. This is a difference worth noting. Whatever you may think of his politics, Obama is very intelligent and reasonably well educated. Palin thinks the universe is 6000 years old. Unfortunately, I wrote my article before some of the most disturbing signs of her religious extremism came to light.

So, let me simply declare that I would be overjoyed to have a qualified woman in the White House. I would, likewise, be overjoyed to have a qualified African American in the White House. In fact, I would be overjoyed to have a qualified WASP man in the White House. I will be guardedly optimistic to have a very smart (and somewhat qualified) Barack Obama in the White House. And I would be frankly terrified to have a religious bumpkin like Sarah Palin in the White House. I think you should share this last conviction. Hence my latest opinion piece.

Best,
Sam

"The greatest thing about Obama isn't really about Obama at all, per se."

As a man of words myself, I admire Mark Morford, my favorite columnist for the SF Chronicle. He regularly pours out such a torrent of verbal pyrotechnics that it's sometimes overwhelming. But today's column has a soberness, a restraint, that strikes deeper than many of the shards of wit he normally launches. I think he has found the most hopeful sign for our long dreary, sad, painful time. His news:

It's actually about, well, us.

This is the great revelation: We still got it. The collective unconscious, the deep sense of inner wisdom, that intuitive knowing that borders on a kind of mystical proficiency, where millions of people can actually look beyond rhetoric and media spin and merely feel the presence of something great in the room? Yep, still there. Who knew?

See, this is what I hear most from relatives and readers and friends and newborn activists who were never activists before: Obama speaks to the intuition.

Archive of Morford's articles.

Friend Chris Raymond responded with this intelligent insight:

Yeah, I totally totally agree with this....on every point. Obama gives me
hope, not because I really think he can change everything that has become so
corrupted, but because there are so many of us who are responding to his
leadership. For all the right reasons. That is why I am hopeful.

Yes, it's not about him so much as about US, what people can do to change things. It'll take a long time and probably involve sacrifices. What we need is leadership, the intelligence and temperament to bring together disparate resources and go forward out of the quagmire we have sunk into these past 8 years.

Sam Harris on Obama's religious tightrope walk

Sam Harris is another of the intelligent, articulate observers of the current upheaval in the "spirituality" movement. Remember when spirituality was the "megatrend" that would blossom fully by 2010? Ain't going to happen. Of course, full-blown atheism isn't going to happen by then either, because the issue is so widely disruptive.

Since John Edwards quit the race, I've been an enthusiastic Obama supporter. Harris commends Obama's recent speech on religion but shows why it was so circumspect in many ways. A good read.

Here's an excerpt:

Like every candidate, Obama must appeal to millions of voters who believe that without religion, most of us would spend our days raping and killing our neighbors and stealing their pornography. Examples of well-behaved and comparatively atheistic societies like Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark--which surpass us in terrestrial virtues like education, health, public generosity, per capita aid to the developing world, and low rates of violent crime and infant mortality--are of no interest to our electorate whatsoever. It is, of course, good to know that people like Reverend Wright occasionally do help the poor, feed the hungry, and care for the sick. But wouldn't it be better to do these things for reasons that are not manifestly delusional? Can we care for one another without believing that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is now listening to our thoughts?

What Barack Obama Could Not (and Should Not) Say