Mother Jones Interviews Jimmy Carter

Carter has some great things to say about the evils of Fundamental Christianity. The whole interview can be found here. I particularly liked these comments:

MJ.com: As you know, the Bible stresses the need to help the poor, and yet the government appears to have moved away from that notion in recent years.

JC: I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. And one point that is made openly by some so-called neoconservatives is that we need to drive the nation into debt – which they’ve done grossly – to prevent future administrations from having the funding flexibility to increase government services to the poor. Whether in the field of housing or education or health care or social services, there’s a deliberate idea there that is quoted quite freely in some of the right-wing political periodicals.

It is amazing how distorted the teachings of Christ have become within the ranks of the American Taliban. Fortunately, most of the extremists who fill these ranks are pretty stupid -- I guess that goes with the territory.

Take, for example, the GOP's latest gay-bashing effort:

President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives.

If I was a gay-hating member of the American Taliban, I'd be pretty upset by the G.O.P.'s weak attempt to throw a bone at me. After all, Bush spent a ton of time touring the country during his "Let's Destroy Social Security" misadventure, even though his ideas with regard to social security also had a scant chance of passage. But most of the extreme religious right will be happy with the president and Congress spending a mere few days on this anti-gay amendment before moving on to more important issues (like more war-time tax cuts for the very rich).

One would think such a weak effort on an issue so near and dear to the extremists' hearts would piss them off to no end. In fact, I'd love to see them get very angry over this, but that probably won't happen.

And speaking of the extreme religious right, Rev. Pat Robertson now claims he can leg press 2000 pounds, shattering the previous record by 665 pounds. Robertson credits his super-human strength to "age-defying protein shakes."

I wonder if George W. Bush was drinking one of these shakes when he shattered the perch record?