Addendum
Shorter Andrew McCarthy: As Newt Gingrich pointed out, the exclusionary, authoritarian practices of Saudi Arabia provide a better model for religious tolerance and pluralism than the Constitution of the United States. We should do more to emulate the former.
…also. Extra props for the video featuring the late, great Kirsty MacColl and her superb Tropical Brainstorm album. Firing that up on the iTunes was a lot more pleasant than thinking about Andy McCarthy…
We are asked to take seriously the opinions of a man who is apparently unaware of the existence of The Arm, The Sword and the Covenant of the Lord, of the Army of God, of Eric Rudloph, of Operation Rescue, and of the Huttaree Militia? His aspiring to match the House of Saud in our religious tolerance is the least of his idiocies.
Ronald Reagan would have said that all those groups were Freedom Fighters. Hell, Reagan would have sold cruise missiles to Iran to fund those groups.
What Doc Amazing said. Also, why do conservatives hate America and the Constitution?
i dunno, i had a weak moment and i clicked through the link, and after two paragraphs, all i could say was “he thinks this is a ‘thought’ experiment? where’s the thinking? this makes no sense at all.”
Ohhhh yeah. Now THAT’S the kind of Andrew McCarthy crazy that one always looks for. Pure and uncut. Someone help me find a vein.
More seriously, this continues his fine tradition of obliquely reiterating well-understood points of knowledge and acting like there’s some new wisdom there. This boils down to ‘Saudi Arabia is a repressive pseudo-theocracy.’ Did anyone paying attention not know that?
His only shading of an inkling of a legitimate point is that we probably ought to do a better job confronting and denouncing that. And you know what? If a conservative is prepared to say openly ‘the House of Saud and the strains of Islam they support with billions in oil money are not our friends and actively undermine our interests and our values; we should isolate and oppose them through our words and actions’ I say he deserves our support.
That’s what he actually meant, right? Because the less charitable interpretation is ‘the Obama administration and leftists in general are cowards and hypocrites operating under double-standards for not adopting rhetorical and policy positions that I will hint at but not adopt myself.’
And that would just be MEAN on his part.
Bikini tolerance, Scotty! Leftists just can’t stand to see women freed from the Islamist creed!
Oh, I get it. The cheesecake photos on your site are meant to show off that the jailbait posing are not, in fact, wearing burqas and are therefore free from any patriarchal religious authority, because we all know how you despise all patriarchal religious authority.
There’s no ignorance like willful ignorance, is there?
Americans who can’t tell the difference between Saudi Arabia and the United States of America should be shipped to S.A. and left there until they figure it out.
Andy, however, can be delivered by parachute-free airdrop for floating “Waah! Why can’t we build a church in Mecca?” as a thought experiment rather than the incredibly stupid tantrum it is.
I’m not even sure how McCarthy thinks this is a gotcha. I mean, I thought liberals supported increased religious tolerance in Saudi Arabia and would be very happy to see them eliminate their ban on non-Islamic houses of worship. Furthermore, if a Christian terrorist attacked Mecca and Saudi Arabia blamed all Christians for the attack, I’m pretty sure liberals would point out that there is, in fact, a variety of Christianties and that Eric Rudolph (for example) should not be used to represent all of them.
What does McCarthy expect liberals to say in response to his thought experiment?
It is bad enough that the repellent Newt Gingrich appears repeatedly on my television and in my newspaper, but why is he now in one of my favorite blogs? The man says nothing! nothing! that is worth repeating, broadcasting, listening to or acknowledging. Cross the street and pass him by, with a little Vicks rubbed under your nose to control the stink.
Since when is the WTC equivalent to the Kaaba?
Hello? Capitalism is the official state religion.
That’s the National Review for you, though I’m sure they consider militarism a coequal belief system that coexists comfortably. They’re like Haitians with voudou and Catholicism.