Thursday, November 27, 2008

Praying for Obama

Of course, I will. The Bible tells me so. But today I was reading a blog about a Socialist Spanish Senator who converted to Catholicism and changed her views on abortion and is now pro-life. Wow. What would it take. . . I wondered. Then I found another blog called Obama Hears A Who.
    Obama Hears A Who! is an inquiry into the possibility of persuading Barack Obama to change his mind on the abortion issue and become pro-life.

    Many pro-lifers will consider this to be an exercise in tilting at windmills. (And Obama himself said in a speech to Planned Parenthood that "I will not yield and Planned Parenthood will not yield!")

    But I beg to disagree, not only because of believing in a God of surprises who swoops in with Black Swans, but also because of the fact that Barack Obama is made in the image and likeness of God and we have a responsibility to try and persuade him because of that. . .
The blog has only been around about two months but is interesting. The reference to Black Swans is unexpected events that totally change direction of a presidency burying the campaign promises--9/11 for George Bush, a man who had plans for his domestic policy but not jihad terrorists, and the September financial meltdown for Barack Obama, who was anti-war and pro-social programs, but will need to rebuild not just a national economy, but a global economy.
    [Nassim] Taleb is fascinated by the rare but pivotal events that characterize life in the power-law world. He calls them Black Swans, after the philosopher Karl Popper's observation that only a single black swan is required to falsify the theory that "all swans are white" even when there are thousands of white swans in evidence. Provocatively, Mr. Taleb defines Black Swans as events (such as the rise of the Internet or the fall of LTCM) that are not only rare and consequential but also predictable only in retrospect. We never see them coming, but we have no trouble concocting post hoc explanations for why they should have been obvious. Surely, Mr. Taleb taunts, we won't get fooled again. But of course we will. WSJ

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