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Charles Krauthammer on Special Report with Brit Hume
Primetime Politics ^ | May 1, 2008 | Charles Krauthammer

Posted on 05/01/2008 5:04:35 PM PDT by moderatewolverine

Charles Krauthammer, who happens to have his M.D. from Harvard, is asked how he feels about Reverend Wright's declaration that black children learn differently from white children because they use different parts of their brains. As usual, the Hammer doesn't disappoint.

(Excerpt) Read more at primetimepolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: krauthammer; obama; video; wright
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Charles Krauthammer is sharp as usual, and this is an area of expertise for him. You can hear the anger in his voice.
1 posted on 05/01/2008 5:04:35 PM PDT by moderatewolverine
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To: moderatewolverine

Dr. Krauthammer was a psychiatrist.


2 posted on 05/01/2008 5:06:15 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
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To: moderatewolverine

Very seldom do I disagree with him.


3 posted on 05/01/2008 5:06:57 PM PDT by Past Your Eyes (Bill Clinton: Life Member of the Liars' Club.)
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To: moderatewolverine

Saw it on tv.

He was so disgusted.

No PC. (fear of having Wright or his apologists come after him for daring to “dis” Wright)

It was great.


4 posted on 05/01/2008 5:07:40 PM PDT by txrangerette (Just say "no" to the Obama Cult and the Clinton Machine!!)
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To: txrangerette

I wish they would replace Gretta with Special Report showing again in the evening.


5 posted on 05/01/2008 5:09:49 PM PDT by unkus
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To: moderatewolverine

Crackpot os correct. And for the frickin audience to applaud is outrageous.


6 posted on 05/01/2008 5:10:27 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys--Reagan and Bush)
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Bump for reference.


7 posted on 05/01/2008 5:11:14 PM PDT by bcsco (To heck with a third party. We need a second one....)
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To: yldstrk

And don’t forget, this is an audience that votes!!


8 posted on 05/01/2008 5:19:14 PM PDT by caisson71 (Times change, values don't.)
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To: unkus

Ratings are the reason they don’t.

Greta is second only to O’Reilly, I think.

Or maybe third after Hannity and Colmes.

Special report is the best national news on the tube, though.

It is repeated at 1 am and 3 am CT.

But not in the late evening and that’s too bad.


9 posted on 05/01/2008 5:20:29 PM PDT by txrangerette (Just say "no" to the Obama Cult and the Clinton Machine!!)
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To: moderatewolverine

Charles nails Wright. And Obama. Best pundit around, bar none. “A measure of how those who claim to lead the civil rights movement have degenerated over half a century”.

Rotted I think is a better term.


10 posted on 05/01/2008 5:20:33 PM PDT by txzman (Jer 23:29)
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To: yldstrk

I believe he was allowed to bring his own cheering section, which is unusual. Also, his invitation came from a Clintonite who has something to do with the Press Club - a few raised eyebrows,


11 posted on 05/01/2008 5:20:57 PM PDT by elpadre
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To: COUNTrecount

Psychiatrists, I believe, are MDs with a specialty in psychiatry.

I could misremember, however...


12 posted on 05/01/2008 5:21:26 PM PDT by MortMan (Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. - Alexander Hamilton)
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To: moderatewolverine

It doesnt take a shrink to see how effed up this is.


13 posted on 05/01/2008 5:21:51 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: MortMan

Your right.


14 posted on 05/01/2008 5:26:05 PM PDT by Diggity
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To: txrangerette

“Special report is the best national news on the tube, though.”

Exactly right. Good points-thanks. It comes on again at mid-night here. Sometimes I stay up.


15 posted on 05/01/2008 5:30:21 PM PDT by unkus
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To: moderatewolverine

BTTT


16 posted on 05/01/2008 5:38:15 PM PDT by Earthdweller (Look both ways when crossing the street son and don't throw Gramma under the bus!)
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To: elpadre

His “cheeering section” were Nation of Islam members.


17 posted on 05/01/2008 5:44:25 PM PDT by BunnySlippers (Buy a Mac ...)
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To: COUNTrecount

Psychiatrists have to have a medical degree. No other mental health profession does.


18 posted on 05/01/2008 5:46:00 PM PDT by BunnySlippers (Buy a Mac ...)
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To: MortMan
Psychiatrists, I believe, are MDs with a specialty in psychiatry.

True.Psychiatrists are physicians and go through the same basic medical training (medical school) as do brain surgeons,dermatologists and cardiologists.I think Dr Krathammer went into psychiatry because,given his enormous physical disabilities,it was the only specialty that he could practice.

19 posted on 05/01/2008 5:48:16 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Women swooned in Mao's presence too.)
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To: unkus

Me too. It was great on the Left Coast to watch the rerun at 9:00.


20 posted on 05/01/2008 5:54:07 PM PDT by pbear8 (Typical Bitter White Person but better dipped in cinnamon and sugar)
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To: unkus

When you get old and don’t sleep...you should know that show repeats in the middle of the night. ;^)


21 posted on 05/01/2008 6:03:28 PM PDT by DCPatriot ("It aint what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that aint so" Theodore Sturgeon))
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To: DCPatriot

I hope you sleep well, my friend.


22 posted on 05/01/2008 6:05:58 PM PDT by unkus
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To: pbear8

We switched from cable to satellite TV which came with a DVR, and we now record Brit’s show at 3:00 p.m. Pacific time, with one touch of a button. Best thing since sliced bread!


23 posted on 05/01/2008 6:21:02 PM PDT by Inspectorette
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To: moderatewolverine
The left-brain/right-brain dichotomy was a favorite piece of new age junk science back in the seventies. As often is the case with junk science there are kernels of fact layered over with mounds of BS.

Wright, a surprisingly ignorant fellow with little or no serious knowledge base in anything pertaining to the complexities of real life, is parroting an obsolete drugstore-paperback level version of a once-interesting idea which never went anywhere.

24 posted on 05/01/2008 6:23:38 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: yldstrk
"Crackpot os correct."

Uhhh..riiighttt.

Shu-nuff certain os.

25 posted on 05/01/2008 6:31:03 PM PDT by diogenes ghost
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To: moderatewolverine

Forget Hillary debating Obama. I’d pay money to see a Krauthammer - Wright debate.


26 posted on 05/01/2008 6:33:26 PM PDT by chopperman
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To: moderatewolverine
Krauthammer gives the usual response to Reverend Wright's comments. But I do believe that Pastor Wright is somewhat more sophisticated and understanding that most give him credit for.

The problem is that the average black IQ is 85 and the average inner city child IQ is 85 or less. (includes white, black and all other races).

If the average is 85 about 50% of all black children will have trouble graduating from HS since 85 is the usual cutting score for passing HS classes in the average mixed suburb. This means, blacks will not only have a lower HS graduating rate but an increased proclivity to crime, out-of-wedlock pregnancies and so forth. All of these are correlated with intelligence.

Intentionally, or unintentionally, Pastor Wright is asking for a different way to teach the left hand side of the bell curve. I know he goes for right and left brain but discussing any group IQ black-white IQ differences is an anathema in the black community. Even the brilliant Thomas Sowell denies this even though the academic literature has shown this over and over again to be the case.

In addition Krauthammer does not take into account ressentiment which accounts for some of the seemingly irrational behavior and beliefs by some black people. If you want a better and more complete discussion, you can find it on FR: HERE.

It goes without saying that what is at issue is a statistical average IQ difference; both individual blacks and whites can be dunces or geniuses. It also goes without saying the different pedagogical approach needed for blacks with an IQ less than 85 is the very same as that of whites with an IQ of less than 85.

Our society has focused on the college bound when we need not worry about the top 20% of the bell curve (IQ 110 or better) in a service and high tech economy. The problem for the next 60% or so is also not insurmountable by todays educational approaches, but the bottom 20% of the bell curve need, and deserve, different pedagogical techniques destined to make them productive, law abiding citizens.

A new school of education would focus on basic, necessary information and values enhancement. Originally, education in this country focused both on basic learning and values and it is time we returned to these approaches.

IMHO Pastor Wright is right about the need for a different educational approach for some children; however, his explanation is flawed. It may be, and I suspect to a degree it is, that he tacitly knows the real problem but politically cannot state this. Actually, stating it here might result in it being banned. The issue of intelligence and its influence on education and social conduct is the big forbidden topic of the day.

Again, like many seemingly wacky ideas, what Pastor Wright says, has a glimmer of truth. By the way the average Ashkenazim has an IQ of 115. But no one need despair, in the average family children will routinely vary by 12 IQ points.

27 posted on 05/01/2008 6:36:22 PM PDT by shrinkermd
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To: COUNTrecount
"Dr. Krauthammer was a psychiatrist."

Still is, I think, although I don't think he practices.

A psychiatrist is an MD. A psychologist is not.

Given the prevalence of drug therapy in psychology today, there is no way I would take any psychotropic drug unless it was an MD who prescribed it.

Psychiatrists are much more valuable today, now that we better understand the connection of the physiological body to the operation of the brain. A psychologist would not have the expertise to collate the two.

28 posted on 05/01/2008 6:36:27 PM PDT by magellan
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To: moderatewolverine

Reverend Wright doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but he sure knows how to make money.


29 posted on 05/01/2008 6:54:42 PM PDT by popdonnelly (Please pass the arugula.)
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To: magellan
"there is no way I would take any psychotropic drug unless it was an MD who prescribed it"

As far as I know only MDs (or D.O.s) can write prescriptions, whether for psychotropic drugs or anything else. PhDs (Psychologists) cannot write prescriptions. Osteopaths (D.O.s) can write prescriptions in all 50 states but I'm not sure if they usually do much psychiatry or not.
30 posted on 05/01/2008 6:55:10 PM PDT by Enchante (Obama: My 1930s Foreign Policy Goes Well With My 1960s Social Policy!)
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To: COUNTrecount
Dr. Krauthammer was a psychiatrist.

All psychiatrists are medical doctors.
31 posted on 05/01/2008 7:00:09 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: COUNTrecount

The Hammer wasn’t just a psychiatrist. He was an excellent one.

He is a Harvard Medical School grad and Chief Resident in psychiatry at Mass General. That is a very big deal.

He is also the author of a number of important papers in the area of mania and Manic-Depressive disorders.

No slouch, he.


32 posted on 05/01/2008 7:06:18 PM PDT by MindBender26 (Leftists stop arguing when they see your patriotism, your logic, your CAR-15 and your block of C4.)
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To: shrinkermd
Your post unfortunately misses the critical element regarding the mass failures within the Black community.

Failure within the Black community is a direct result of two cross-reinforcing elements of Black society. The first is an expectation of failure. The second is the institutionalized belief system that failure is universally caused by White oppression and therefore it is not a requirement or ability of Black society to change it.

Jessie Jackson, et. al. make excellent livings perpetuation the victimhood of Black America. As long as Black America blames White America for the disastrous rates of illegitimacy, illiteracy and crime within the Black community, nothing will change, because White America is not the cause of Black America's problems!

Black America has an average IQ of 85, in large part because Black America is conditioned to not try very hard in such activities. Ashkenazim (Jews of European descent) do well on standardized tests, not just because of native intelligence, but because from day one, they are taught that they are expected to work hard and excel in intellectual pursuits.

Black America will do much better when it gets off it's “Oh, pity us” butts.

33 posted on 05/01/2008 7:19:59 PM PDT by MindBender26 (Leftists stop arguing when they see your patriotism, your logic, your CAR-15 and your block of C4.)
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To: MindBender26; COUNTrecount
He is also the author of a number of important papers in the area of mania and Manic-Depressive disorders.

And after he leaves Fox News I eagerly await his papers on Juan Williams, Alan Colmes and Bill O'Reilly... /grin

34 posted on 05/01/2008 7:20:18 PM PDT by tarheelswamprat
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To: unkus
I wish they would replace Gretta with Special Report showing again in the evening.

Have you noticed that Greta and Nancy Grace both do the same type of crime show...

35 posted on 05/01/2008 7:25:11 PM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: MindBender26
Nice warm thoughts suggesting, after all, we are all just alike. It is only the dratted culture that keeps us back.

If you have time count the Nobel Laureates who are Jewish. Then count the number of Jews and Asians who are tenured in mathematics, physics and so forth. Then, remember that in the US only about 5% at most are Jews.

Then also remember that American blacks, on the average, have a 20% white bloodline. Blacks living below the Sudan have even a lower IQ. I won't give the figure because that usually incensing the thought police and the thread is pulled.

It is true, IQ measures academic potential; however, using factor analysis, it is possible to calculate “g” or general intelligence. This in turn, correlates with individual, family and national income among other things.

The very effort to make everyone the same with respect to intelligence simply tells one how important it is seen in modern society. No one seems to mind differences in other human attributes—actually, the differences are celebrated and touted.

I have little hope any time soon that society will become rational in respect to this issue. It will be the last holdout of post-modernism in politics, governance and the soft academic disciplines.

36 posted on 05/01/2008 7:35:43 PM PDT by shrinkermd
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To: unkus

I agree!


37 posted on 05/01/2008 7:51:52 PM PDT by Calm_Cool_and_Elected (So many books, so little time!)
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To: shrinkermd
HERE is a relatively recent report on the matter: Black Americans Reduce the Racial IQ Gap: Evidence from Standardization Samples. Black as well as Hispanic I.Q. has been a little bit more than 1.1 S.D. below white for quite a while. This was to have been published in Psychological Science in October 2006. I accessed it through the Brookings Institution.

On a related note, a week ago before the major Wright news appearances, The Audacity of Hope and Dreams of My Father were both for sale at $28.99 at Walgreens and prominently displayed at the checkout counter. Today, both books were marked down 50%.
38 posted on 05/01/2008 8:03:20 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: Inspectorette

Good suggestion.


39 posted on 05/01/2008 8:08:58 PM PDT by pbear8 (Typical Bitter White Person but better dipped in cinnamon and sugar)
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To: shrinkermd
From page 9 of the aforementioned paper:
This would imply that blacks have gained a total of 7 points on whites. But racial differences on the tests used in the Coleman Report may not be comparable to the tests in our sample. It is safer to say that: blacks today aged 12 have a mean IQ of about 90.5; and young blacks have gained 5.52 points on whites over 30 years. Using the 95% confidence limits according to our regression estimates, the gain falls between 4.8 and 6.3 points. It is worth noting that the only data set (the WISC) that covers the entire period of 1972 to 2002 gives a gain of 5.67 points.
So progress is being made. I wish, though, that the results of these tests could be distributed in terms of the parents' degree of illiteracy and extent of education. I think that would be extremely revealing.
40 posted on 05/01/2008 8:39:34 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: txzman
"Rotted I think is a better term."

It is. These NAACP folks once served a useful and honorable purpose, but once the legal revolution occurred, accompanied by a gradual but powerful shift in white attitudes about race, the NAACP began to subliminally realize that if the lot of blacks were to actually improve significantly, they (the NAACP) would be - so to speak - out of work.

Thus for the past 30 years, the black leadership has vigorously inculcated in its people a psychology of suspicion, defeatism, and paranoia designed to hinder black accomplishment in all but the most narrow areas of sport and entertainment. They have bought into white liberal ideas of sexual "liberation," anti-intellectualism, and anti-capitalism, fostering a cult of failure, family dissolution, and male swagger and irresponsibility. We are living with the results.
41 posted on 05/01/2008 8:47:14 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle ("Above all, shake your bum at Burton.")
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To: shrinkermd

85 IQ is 17th percentile meaning 83% of folks have higher IQs basically.

Borderline mental retardation starts at 79.


42 posted on 05/01/2008 8:50:06 PM PDT by wardaddy (Wright offers church for blacks who can't quite stomach Islam)
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To: Gay State Conservative

What are his physical disabilities? I’ve always noticed that he appeared to be kinda hunched around the shoulders, but never knew the cause. Thanks.


43 posted on 05/01/2008 8:52:57 PM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde ("When the government fears the people there is liberty ... " Thomas Jefferson)
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To: MindBender26; shrinkermd
I disagree.

Nurture helps but as a father of five and observing differing levels of God given talent 24/7 since 1988 and to be continuing basically to be raising minor kids till 2024 God willing.

I can tell anyone who cares to listen that we are born with a lot of what we are.

And there is no doubt that stupid begets stupid more often than not.

Jews are smarter due to their somewhat closed gene pool as much if not more than because of nurturing.

Civilizations, cultures, ethnicities, races, etc all have differing levels of intellectual accomplishment and it is not by accident and this notion that we can all be on the same results plane in short order has only done one thing.

It brings the top down not the bottom up.

Like Shrinker, I'm not optimistic and fear our future looks more like Idiocracy than Blade Runner.

IQs for sub Saharan Africans are low all over the world. Do you think accomplishment is discouraged in Kenya?

or the Gambia?

Laplanders have rather high IQs but they aren't lining up to be nuclear physicists.

Amerindians score low as well....all over the Americas...is this because they wish to underachieve?

What about Aborigines..same thing?

Why don't folks take the same effort to discount the obvious notion that blacks are more physically strong, can jump higher, tolerate heat better, etc than others?

or why not explain that maybe it's not true that whites actually tolerate cold better?

or that whites swim better (in the media today)?

this could go on and on but my point is that nurture has a more limited effect than folks would like to admit....there are simply inherent differences based on what?

timelines?

geography?

hell if I know to tell the truth

44 posted on 05/01/2008 9:06:14 PM PDT by wardaddy (Wright offers church for blacks who can't quite stomach Islam)
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To: aruanan; shrinkermd; blam
That report you allude to was prepared to counter the argument from Rushton, Murray, Hernstein, and Gottfredson amongst most other academia that still have the audacity to study such things that the black white variance has not changed since WWI.

Rushton and company's report was 2005 and claimed there was no increase and the report you alluded to was 2006.

Rushton and the others have been vilified since the Bell Curve days for telling the truth as they see it.

Dickens and Flynn who did the report you linked are both well known for pushing the notion that IQ is mostly environmental and not genetic.

I guess folks here will just have to decide for themselves.

They and Rushton’s group have been arguing this for some time and Rushton now has his refutation study I think.

There are folks here much more up to date on all this than I and I think I'll let them explain more if they'd like.

For the record I believe IQ is genetic and is hereditary and that nurture serves to enhance or diminish that which is inherent.

45 posted on 05/01/2008 9:25:53 PM PDT by wardaddy (Wright offers church for blacks who can't quite stomach Islam)
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To: aruanan

btw here is Rushton’s rebuttal to Flynn’s rebuttal of Rushton if you get bored..lol

http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/faculty/rushtonpdfs/2006%20PSnew.pdf


46 posted on 05/01/2008 9:28:12 PM PDT by wardaddy (Wright offers church for blacks who can't quite stomach Islam)
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To: moderatewolverine

Krauthammer God love him.....is alas a bit of a gun grabber.

Youngbloods here may not know that little factoid.


47 posted on 05/01/2008 9:29:05 PM PDT by wardaddy (Wright offers church for blacks who can't quite stomach Islam)
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To: moderatewolverine

Charles is probably my favorite political commentator.

This is an area of expertise for him. He is not only a doctor, but he was a chief resident in psychiatry for years.

He was the director for scientific research in psychiatry for the Carter administration, and discovered what is now called “secondary mania” in bipolar illness.

It’s funny, but until Rush mentioned it, I never knew he was a quadriplegic. You have to be an extrordinary individual if you have that kind of handicap and no one thinks to ever mention it about you, because so many things you do are so remarkable.

I love to listen to him. His intellect dwarfs the rest of the panel, and no one on it is a stupid person.


48 posted on 05/01/2008 9:31:11 PM PDT by I still care ("Remember... for it is the doom of men that they forget" - Merlin, from Excalibur)
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To: wardaddy

He’s also pro abortion and very anti intelligent design. I heard him once talking about it, the scorn was dripping from his voice.

Just the same he always has something important to say.


49 posted on 05/01/2008 9:37:30 PM PDT by I still care ("Remember... for it is the doom of men that they forget" - Merlin, from Excalibur)
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To: I still care

I did not realize he was pro-infanticide.

that is VERY dark


50 posted on 05/01/2008 9:40:06 PM PDT by wardaddy (Wright offers church for blacks who can't quite stomach Islam)
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