Never thought that this one would resurface after years of the administration giving money to abstinence-only education and the patriarchal traditional marriage movement. I thought that soundbite was one for the history books, given that the current wingnuts are firmly trying to do social engineering, including trying to influence what science reports. But Derbyshire argues the old chestnut:
Conservatives are the people who do not believe in social engineering. I don't merely doubt that we can transform Iraqi society; I believe that to think we can, is a preposterous fantasy. A gyroscope has only two moving parts; yet if you try to push it in direction A, it confounds you by moving in direction B, at right angles to A. A human society has a trillion moving parts. If you try to push it in any direction, all sorts of things might happen, but the probability that what happens is the thing you wanted to happen, is very tiny.
How can he be so clear-eyed about it in Iraq but not at home? And not only is he clear-eyed, he is also cold-hearted, chillingly rational and horrifyingly honest:
One doesn't want to be accused of inhuman callousness; but I am willing to confess, and believe I speak for a lot of THWTHs (and a lot of other Americans, too) that the spectacle of Middle Eastern Muslims slaughtering each other is one that I find I can contemplate with calm composure.
Does Derbyshire calmly contemplate the death of little Muslim children in this slaughter?
It's interesting to learn what makes wingnuts tick.