Opining Online

The Liberal

A month or so ago, I got involved in several discussions over on ScienceBlogs in which conservatives were maligned rather harshly by other commenters. So I asked one of them to define what he meant by “conservative” and he directed me to his blog’s Ideology archives.

Obviously some of the entries are simply political snark and Coturnix of A Blog Around The Clock is a prolific blogger. He refers to George Lakoff’s books, particularly Moral Politics, very often. I haven’t read that book. After having read so much of Coturnix’s writing about it, I’m tempted, but then wonder if I’d just be bored.

I’ve chosen what I hope are representative posts of this one liberal’s idea of conservatism. Note that neither the author nor I have made any attempt to organize these in a manner of one thought flowing to another. They are basically chronological, which is fitting. Some of the following links go to a previous blog written by Coturnix. 

Regressives: What Should We Call Them? – March 28, 2005
Moral Order - June 23, 2006
Nurturant is not Coddly! – July 21, 2006
Why Creationists Need To Be Creationists - July 26, 2006 (see last comment for links to updates)

The Conservative

Assistant Village Idiot has thoughtfully arranged links to his series of posts on the roots of liberalism here. I cannot thank him enough because that makes finishing this post so easy on me.

The title of this post is a saying I’ve heard from my father over the years. And it’s truth becomes more evident as time passes. The saying does not address getting the money, only the severity of the problem. If your problem is that your shoes have holes in them, money can get you a new pair of shoes. 

If your problem is poor health — say you have cancer — no amount of money can buy a cure. That’s a Real problem. Money may buy you years and because of that, a “cure” is defined, medically or statistically, in years. Five years, usually.

If your problem is a cluster of diseases possibly or probably caused by somewhere you were 45 or so years ago, no amount of money is going to buy a cure.

If you’ve got a problem that money can solve, then your goal should be to earn that money. It may seem impossible, but it probably is not. If money can’t solve your problem, ponder that infamous creek and missing paddle.