God's amendments

Former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, whose fortunes appear to be in a downward spiral since his triumph in the Iowa GOP cauci, dispensed this little nugget of wisdom the other night:

"I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that's what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards, rather than try to change God's standards."

I don't know about that.

Exodus 20:13

Thou shalt not kill. (King James Version)

You shall not murder. (New International Version)

Easy peasy. (Vegetarians prefer the KJV, killers in general the NIV.*)

As for Huckabee's context, I can think of few things more ridiculous than using the United States Constitution to legally define marriage and thereby denying same-sex couples the benefits of same. Have a look at the plaintiffs here, compare their situations with the character pictured above, whose first marriage lasted 55 hours, and then explain to me what a "marriage amendment" would accomplish.

h/t Lost Albatross.

* NIV: zOMFG EDITED BY SODOMITES!!!!!11

eta: More principled campaigning from the Rev. Pastor Huckabee, who's currently informing South Carolinians that rival John McCain "voted to allow scientific experiments to be done on unborn children." That must be what they call liberal fascism.

h/t The Chief, who maintains a fine and frequently raucous political blog expounding on many questions both national and local.

And, still more Huckabeenian assclownery, courtesy of Paul Soglin. Surely we can at least expect a president who's read the very damn thing he's vying to uphold. Even if he's read it sideways.

Unusual Pakistanis

On MSNBC's “Morning Joe” today, Mike Huckabee spoke approvingly of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto and another former Prime Minister and political opponent of President Pervez Musharraf, Nawaz Sharif: “While Bhutto probably brought the most pro-American position, both she and Sharif brought essentially centrist and secular perspectives to the government.”

But just a couple of weeks ago, Huckabee, stumping in Utah for a presidency of his own, told a gaggle of Baptist preachers, “I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ.”

So Pakistan, which is 97% Muslim, should be governed by secular politicians, whereas the United States needs to be “taken back for Christ” by its leaders, despite being only 76% Christian (78% if you count Mormons, which Huckabee probably doesn't).

Arrogance, or clueless naïveté? The latter, more likely, given that Huckabee went on to criticize Musharraf for failing to control Pakistan's eastern border with Afghanistan. Except Pakistan's eastern border is with India. It borders Afghanistan (and Iran) to the west.

He also warned of “unusual activities by Pakistanis” entering the U.S., and yesterday offered “apologies” to the people of Pakistan after Bhutto's assassination.

Later today, a high ranking Huckabee spin doctor admitted that the candidate has “no foreign policy credentials.” Somewhat amazingly, Huckabee leads a recent LA Times/Bloomberg poll by 36 to 28 percentage points over his closest rival, Mitt Romney, going into the Iowa GOP caucus next Thursday.

Iowa is on the eastern border of Wisconsin, where unusual activities by Republicans have been reported.

Teach "intelligent design," sez Huckabee

Why is Mike Huckabee annoyed at questions about creationism? Maybe it has something to do with this:

Huckabee, at a dinner in Des Moines, told reporters that the theory of intelligent design, whose proponents believe an intelligent cause is the best way to explain some complex and orderly features of the universe, should be taught in schools as one of many viewpoints.

Many viewpoints? Yes, let's teach them all. There might be just enough time left over to show the kids how to light a bunsen burner.

There is no “theory of intelligent design.” Its leading proponents look at things, decide they appear “designed,” immediately conclude they are “designed” (after having made the same conclusion in advance), but refuse to identify the “designer” — on the advice of counsel.

Isn't that just like science, where all research must be vetted by attorneys for compliance with the Establishment Clause caselaw.

Huckabee's ridiculous suggestion is arguably irrelevant to a president's powers and responsibilities, but it's a pretty good indicator that Huckabee doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, which may in turn be an indicator of his other proclivities.

Still, Huckabee's got nothing on Sherri Shepherd, one of the hosts of ABC's The View, who doesn't know whether the Earth is flat or spherical, and says if she really needed to know, she'd go to look it up at the library. Not only that but:

Goldberg: When [Epicurus, 341-270 BCE] was around, there was no Jesus Christ stuff going on.

Shepherd: No, no, they still had Christians back then. ... They had Christians and they threw 'em to the lions.

Goldberg: This might predate that, I think.

Shepherd: I don't think anything predated Christians.

Behar: The Greeks came first, then the Romans, then the Christians.

Shepherd: Jesus came first, before them.

Three things: 1) Television is not a meritocracy; 2) Both the Old and New Testaments were written in Christian; 3) Mike Huckabee can probably count on Sherri Shepherd's vote.