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"It's turtles all the way down!"



FOX News interviewed Republicans in Iowa, of whom a majority were convinced that Barack Obama was a Muslim, or that he was not really an American.  


It is of no consequence that Obama says he is a Christian, and that the State of Hawaii has his birth certificate, or that two newspapers reported his birth, at the time.  His middle name is Hussein.  His father was born in Kenya.  The earth rests on the back of a turtle.  Lots of the turtles live in Iowa.  


Barack Obama is very clever--one can hear the old lady denying science, again--but it is no good!  "It is turtles all the way down!"


Those Iowans are going to caucus and nominate someone to run for the Presidency of the United States, and they believe the earth rests on an endless stack of turtles.  


It isn't that they are Iowans.  It is true that Steven King is an Iowan, and that he disproves, by his very existence that Neanderthals not only are a part of the human lineage, but that they built ships and sailed halfway up the Mississippi.  Michele Bachmann isn't an Iowan, although it appears she is going to spend a lot of time there, as the nominating process begins.  She thinks Obama is anti-American.  


It is an insanity!  Facts, whether they are Constitutional facts, historical facts, scientific or logical facts, do not affect them!  Barack Obama was born in Hawaii as surely as I was born in Washington State.  Both of us have copies of our birth certificates.  Obama is an almost hopelessly devout, prayer-breakfast, Christian.  (He has me there!  In a former life, I attended a couple of those meetings.  I was embarrassed.)  


Even though the Constitution specifically states that there may not be a religious test for election to public office, there is almost no chance that someone who is not religious can, at present, be elected to high office.  
That is not really Obama's failing.  He is more religious than most of us, in a most specifically Christian way.  And his place of birth is not even remotely in question.  Barack Obama's real sin is that he is Black.  He isn't one of us!  


You see, when we get scared, and really angry, and really, really want to find someone to blame and to hurt for what is happening to us, we get mean!  We lash out like lizards, without thinking.  We blame Blacks, because we aren't Black, and we blame immigrants because they have just recently immigrated.  We blame taxes!  We blame Communists, Muslims, government employees, whoever is in office, and elect know-nothings to take their places.  We believe in conspiracies; conspiracies everywhere:  communists under every bed, government takeovers, anti-americans in American government.  We believe nut-cases!


The chairman of the Colorado Republican Party quit a few days ago.  He said, "I have tired of those who are obsessed with seeing conspiracies around every corner. . . .  I'm tired of the nuts!"


It's turtles all the way down.  
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