Thin crust fundamentalism

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”

-Martin Luther King-

Faith and Freedom – you can make it into a phrase and chant it over and over again, but just like oil and vinegar, it all separates into salad dressing when the shaking stops. Florida Governor Dei Gratia Jeb Bush thinks Thomas Mohaghan the Pizza man’s town of Ave Maria where Catholic Church Doctrine will be the law and the Constitution be damned, is a new kind of town where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens. No heretics need apply.

I think this utopian experiment, with it’s truly hideous cathedral; the most ghastly public structure since Albert Speer is a sign to all the world that nothing we say about democracy, freedom or faith is really true and lest I be accused of being anti-Catholic by some anonymous twit, Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, likened Monaghan's concept to Islamic fundamentalism.

"This is un-American," Kissling said to CNN. "I don't think in a democratic society you can have a legally organized township that will seek to have any kind of public service whatsoever and try to restrict the constitutional rights of citizens."

Monaghan’s rationale for this neo-medieval enterprise is that “It’s God’s will.” In an unwittingly neo-Zoroastrian statement, he tells us “"I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil. I don't want to be on the sidelines." He’d rather put freedom on the sidelines. How many of history’s most evil enterprises have been touted as God’s will by men with pizza for brains?

Where’s the beef?

The news is all over India, but if all I had done was to watch CNN this afternoon, I would never have known of the massive countrywide protests in India. Although we got clips of Laura and Big Bird; although we got shots of smiling Bush and smiling Singh, not only were the streets filled with burning effigies and chants of “Killer Bush go back” but The Parliament too witnessed uproar in both the houses on the issue of Bush coming to India. Left Parties and Samajwadi Party leaders protested and chanted slogans of "Barbarian Bush Go Back."

"We will not allow the House to run till Singh apologizes for receiving Bush at the airport," SP Parliamentary Party leader Janeshwar Mishra said.

Baghdad is imploding, billions of people call us monsters and we get Sesame Street East. We’d be better off outsourcing the news.