In my world, everyone's a pony. And they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies.

Thank you, Katie, for giving me the perfect title for today's blog post.



I have moments of wondering if I'm living in the same world some political figures are talking about.  I had one of those moments this week, reading about Newt Gingrich's speech at the Values Voter Summit.  Here are a few choice tidbits about Newt's own version of McCarthyism.

"...on the other front we have radical Islamists who would fundamentally change this country into a system none of us in this room would recognize."

"We as Americans don't have to tolerate people who are supportive of violence against us, building something at the sight of the violence."

 "This is not about religious liberty, they want to build that mosque in the South Bronx, frankly they need the jobs," he said. "But I am totally opposed to any effort to impose Sharia on the United States, and we should have a federal law that says under no circumstance, in any jurisdiction in the United States, will Sharia be used in any court to apply to any judgment made about American law."

Well, THANK GOD Gingrich is out there, protecting us against the threat of Sharia Law.  Because there are SO MANY people trying to impose Sharia Law in the US.  We're seeing it in courts all over the country!  Activist judges are ignoring the Constitution in favor of the religious principles of a fraction of a percent of the population.  What would we do without heroes like Newt with the courage to call our attention to it?

(Cut to Jon Stewart, putting his hand over his ear, listening to his imaginary producer:  Oh... there's not any instance of Sharia law being imposed in the US?)

Newt is either Don Quixote, tilting at windmills, or he's carefully inventing an enemy against whom he can lead the charge.

Newt misspoke at the American Enterprise Institute recently and accidentally told the truth:

“The fight against Sharia and the madrassas and mosques which teach hatred and fanaticism is the heart of the enemy movement from which the terrorists spring forth.”

Yes, Newt, it is.  Your fight is exactly the kind of thing that spawns terrorism.  You've cast a group of people as "other," as the "enemy," as a threat to a particular way of life.  You use inflammatory rhetoric in an attempt to engender hatred of that group.  In doing so, you become the enemy yourself; the enemy of reason, of compassion, of tolerance, and of acceptance.  You are a greater threat to our nation than any terrorist, because your rhetoric may actually have the effect of fundamentally changing our nation into one which does not recognize individual liberty and religious freedom, where some Americans are more equal than others as the principles of civil liberty are inequitably applied.

You may be getting attention now for your thoughtless words.  You may even score some political points for them.  History will judge you harshly, as it has your kindred spirit Joe McCarthy.  You are the lowest of the low, because you prey upon the fears of the ignorant to advance your personal agenda.

Shame on you and those like you.