“Lowest Grade of Ignorance”

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/12/news-ireland.php

Like a dark cloud obscuring the sun, the powerful odor of mendacity hung over Washington after George Bush concluded his State of the Union speech last week. Bush certainly seems to have bamboozled the press (The Boston Globe inexplicably found the speech “soothing,” the L.A. Times decided the speech was evidence of Bush’s “flexibility,” while CBS’s Bob Schieffer gushed that it was “one of the best-delivered speeches I have ever heard President Bush make”) and seduced the public (a Gallup overnighter showed 60 percent approved of the speech and 26 percent “somewhat approved,” while a new Newsweek poll out this week now shows Bush’s overall rating is the highest it’s been since right after last year’s Republican convention — 50 percent approve, just 42 percent disapprove).
Despite this collective mesmerization, here are a few plainspoken truths about Bush’s lies the mainstream media didn’t tell you:

This is a very interesting article written about Bush’s State of the Union Address, and, IMO, rings with an uncanny truth that, no matter how loudly the conservatives yell about liberty and family values, or how hard they try to hush the other side up, speaks of a time when all of the hatred and vitriol will catch up to them. And by then, I just hope it isn’t too late to fix this country.
The thing that completely freaked me out the most was about how reported ‘gay bashing’ has risen 13% since the last annual survey done by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects. 13%?!?! Is anyone else really disturbed by this horrifying trend? Our president is fostering hatred and bigotry for an entire group of people, condoning it directly in a public speech for the first time since the days of slavery. WHY are not more people speaking out about this appalling nonsense?
And what’s this about Laura Bush being in charge of fighting gang violence?? What the hell does that woman know about gangs? WHAT exactly does she think she is going to do? Is she going to leave her tea parties and go to my son’s school and protect him from the gangs that are there already at the 6th grade level? That is some funny stuff, I tell you.
But honestly, I think the most frightening part of all is the growing religious overtones that are growing to color EVERYTHING said by this man. It’s all well and good to have faith, but he seems to have no notion or care that not everyone ascribes to HIS faith, nor should they be required to, nor should a governing body allow religion to so completely rule their decisions for the good of ALL people. The last part of the article kind of sums it up all too nicely for me, so I will just leave with that thought.

Well, historical truth tells us that our Founding Fathers — products of the Enlightenment — detested religion, and one of the best rebukes to Bush was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1813 when he declared: “History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.” That’s a pretty fair description of our politics and governance today with the second coming of Bush. And it’s why the real state of our Union today is so bloody frightening.