In the race for the designation of American's dumbest state, Alabama is Carl Lewis and the other 49 might as well be Stephen Hawking. Already home to the cosmically ridiculous Judge Roy Moore and the outrageously stupid Gerald Allen (the state senator who wants to ban all books that even mention gay people), now they've got state Senator Hank Erwin as well. And Erwin is joining the ranks of cretins and halfwits claiming that hurricane Katrina was sent by God as punishment for our sins:
"New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness," wrote Sen. Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, in a column, according to the Birmingham News. "It is the kind of behavior that ultimately brings the judgment of God."
Erwin said he was awed, but not surprised after surveying the damage to hard-hit regions including Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss., and the fishing town of Bayou La Batre on the Alabama coast.
"Warnings year after year by godly evangelists and preachers went unheeded. So why were we surprised when finally the hand of judgment fell?" he wrote. "Sadly, innocents suffered along with the guilty. Sin always brings suffering to good people as well as the bad."
"America has been moving away from God," continued the former talk-radio host and now a media consultant and senator. "We all need to embrace godliness and churchgoing and good, godly living, and we can get divine protection for that point.
"The Lord is sending appeals to us," he said. "As harsh as it may sound, those hurricanes do say that God is real, and we have to realize sin has consequences."
Erwin said the catastrophic storms are part of a pattern evident in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, claiming God has removed an umbrella of protection from America due to an increase in abortion, pornography and prostitution.
"If you are believer and read the Bible, you know sin has judgment," Erwin said. "New Orleans has always been known for sin. ... The wages of sin is death."
I'm sure every state has its fair share of morons; Alabama actually puts them in office.
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Know what really chaps my britches? The way the fundies love Bill "$3 million on Red 27" Bennett, who wrote a "book of virtues" and later said it was his own business if he spent millions entertaining himself at casinos. What a hypocrite.
I must object. Utah certainly has the credentials to challenge Alabama for primacy in legislative idiocy. I offer as evidence this from today's on-line edition of the Deseret News:
The [C]ampaign [to Defend the Constitution] also highlights the nation's top 10 "Islands of Ignorance," where science education is threatened. Utah is among them due to efforts of Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, to include so-called intelligent design into human evolution discussions, the group reports....
Buttars shrugs off the campaign altogether.
"Consider the source: ACLU, the devil's law firm, struck again," Buttars said.
decrepitoldfool wrote:
Did you see Bennett's latest? He said on his radio show the other day that if you just aborted all the black babies, the crime rate would go down. He was virtuous enough to admit that this would be a morally reprehensible thing to do, but holy cow.
flatlander-
I'll admit that Chris Buttars is working admirably to keep Utah in the hunt for the title. But I've still gotta give the edge to Alabama. It's hard to top having a judge (and likely future governor) who thinks the state should execute gays, and a state senator who thinks that all books written by or about gay people should be banned from libraries. That kind of sheer insanity is pretty difficult to keep pace with, though I do admire Buttars for trying.
Um, Bill Bennett has a radio show? I suppose that the advertisers have no shame.
NB: You don't attack the talk show host. You complain to the advertisers and threaten to avoid them.
New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness," wrote Sen. Hank Erwin...
...And have been known for an even longer time as being hurricane-prone. What a dope.
Ed... are you suggesting that aborting black babies in order to reduce crime is not morally reprehensible? If not, then you and Bennett have no disagreement. (The president, according to his press secretary, does disagree, however.)
Grumpy wrote:
No, certainly not. I would have a difficult time coming up with a scenario that is more morally bankrupt than that.
Bennett defended himself today, saying that people were taking his comments out of context. He claims that people are leaving out the second part of his statement, where he said that "that would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do", even though I saw that portion included in every quote I've read or heard on the subject. Of course in his qualifier he leaves "morally reprehensible" for last; I guess the logistics of this proposed genocide should be addressed first. I wonder what Bennett's opinion would be if an Iranian suggested that "you can solve the israeli/palestinian conflict by aborting every jewish baby. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but it would work."
If anyone wants to get outraged at Bennett's remarks, don't do it because it's a "proposed genocide," because it isn't.
Feel free to be outraged because of his casual association of black = criminal. Mass abortions of white babies would likewise create massive social disruptions, possibly resulting in less crime, but that example didn't occur to him.
It sounded to me like he was saying in one breath that one shouldn't accept the concept that abortion could be resposible for lower crime rates, and in the next breath he seemed to accept that vety theory.
Could this be the same god that might be punishing the money lenders/ money changers in the temple of US government, the Capitol? Mighten we be justified in saying that if this god is condeming the people of the Gulf Coast for their evil ways, that he/she is also punishing Tommy and Billy for their transgressions????