Thursday, December 6, 2007

Mitt Romney throws the dogs a bone

If you're ever looking for an example of specious inanity, this is it. Mitt Romney spoke in front of a group of conservative Christian leaders in Texas [I feel sick just thinking about such a setting], and this is what he said.
Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.

Ewww. Don't you feel dirty now? It's so imbecilic I shouldn't even have to refute it, but sadly, this is the kind of tripe that the demos just lap up like hog slop. So, here we go... [sigh]

#1. Freedom requires religion.
No, it doesn't. Proof: Europe. More freedom, less religion. Icelanders, Norwegians, Swedes, and yes, even the French, all have more civil liberties and much less religiousness than Americans.
#2. Religion requires freedom.
Gah, even George Bush wouldn't say something so stupid. There is very little freedom in the Muslim world, and the fact that it's called the Muslim world should tell you how much religion there is. (A lot.) Next.
#3. Freedom opens the windows of the soul...
Ohhh... kay. First, souls are just pretend. Second, even if they were real, no one ever said they had windows. And even if they did have windows, what evidence is there that freedom would open them? Yes, I know, this is just a metaphor, but let me tell you, it's a bad one. Maybe you could get away with "Love opens the windows of the soul" or "Music..." or even "Ben & Jerry's Berried Treasure Sorbet..." but freedom? Come on, Mitt. Get a speech writer with some, ahem, writing skills.
#4. ...man can discover his most profound beliefs...
I actually like his use of "man" instead of "humankind" or "people" or some other lame compromise of a PC word. But I do not like the idea of discovering beliefs. You can't do that. If you believe something, you know you believe it. If you didn't know and you had to "discover" that you believed it, you could hardly call it a belief, now could you?
#5. ... commune with God.
You can have that one, although it might be a topic for another discussion. But not here.
#6. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.
Yikes! Someone tell Mitt Romney that the Cold War is over. Again, just look at Europe: lots of freedom doing just fine without religion. No perishing going on there. And now the Muslim world: lots of religion cranking alone with very little freedom to help it out. No signs of perishing in sight, unfortunately.

I didn't read the rest of the speech. I don't even want to imagine what other nuggets of horse hockey I might find.

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