Mike Huckabee wants you to read the Bible more, blogs less. Get to know him in his own words.
Everyone tells me I'm a dreadful, heartless conservative. But if I'm a conservative I don't know what the hell Mike Huckabee is, because not only do I not agree with him on almost any issue: his beliefs actually scare the hell out of me.…
Article comments
126 - Lee Richards
Our main problems in governing ourselves honestly and effectively in the US stem from ignorance and indifference.
Most Americans have little knowledge or interest in the mechanics and day-to-day functioning of government. We prefer toys, entertainment, and diversions to the boring stuff. As a nation we don't have the political maturity--or want it-- to comprehend what's happening to our system, or have the attention span to try to fix the problems.
And our lying politicians want to keep that indifference just the way it is, especially those with an extremist, anti-constitutional agenda.
127 - Colin
"Simply, it's illegal to discriminate on the basis of a person's religion - which effectively knocks that whole argument on the head."
I don't think that's true Stan. The Blasphemy laws here relate only to Christianity - there is much controversy about various 'solutions' to this 'problem'. The racial discrimination laws only protect on the grounds of race - Sikhs are regarded as a race for these purposes I believe. We have a kind of lazy separation of church and state by apathy to be honest - the Queen is still the head of state and also the head of the Church of England (cheers for that Henry VIII) hence the no Catholics rule, a very large number of our schools are church schools - largely CofE (although from what I can gather that means little more than a prayer with morning assembly). And, as part of a new Blair initiative private businesses are being allowed to set up or sponsor their own 'state' schools with a certain amount of autonomy - some of these businessmen are evangelicals who may yet make evolution/creation as issue in our class rooms.
Clavos: we do have a few parties in our Parliament, but only two who have any chance whatsoever of forming a government - and they are becoming so similar it gets hard to tell. The only other national party is the Liberal Democrats, who are the most likely coalition makers in the event of a hung Parliament. The rest are Welsh and Scottish nationalists and Northern Irish parties (though Sinn Fein still won't take up their Westminster seats).
128 - Baritone
I think Lee hit upon one of the fundamental problems in the U.S., and I would suppose elsewhere as well - that being apathy. The fact is most of us do believe politics and government are mind numbingly boring. As a group Americans are more and more programmed with a 7 minute attention span - the average time between commercial breaks on the tube. We have come more and more to expect that government pretty much runs itself - that we expect its various services to be carried out largely without our input or concern. We get pissy if the streets aren't cleared of snow in a timely manner. We're incensed if our trash isn't picked up as scheduled.
I remember being struck by a news story on the tube some time ago which told how people in Beijing would pour out of their apartments after a snow fall to clear the streets with shovels. They all had asigned areas along their particular streets and also did the sidewalks and so forth. Only the streets not in residential areas were cleared by the government.
It's not that I particularly want to jump out of my Lazy Boy and go shovel my block, but there was something to be said about the involvement of the people in the maintenance of their space. It was said that in the spring the same people would go out and fill pot holes as well. I've no doubt that it was all mandated by the government. Given a choice, I'm sure a lot of those same people would lose those shovels.
But we expect our federal, state and local governments here to provide a myriad of services. We complain about taxes, but would probably be up in arms when and if any of those services which serve or in some way pertain to ourselves were to be cut or curtailed. Put another way, it's all right to cut the other guy's pork, but you keep your slimey hands off mine. My pork is important. Your's is a waste of my tax dollars. Protecting the snail darter is vital, studying cow farts is not.
There will always be people who can stand up in a public forum and enumerate a number of sound reasons why what may seem the most ludicrous of expenditure, is important and justifiable. They may be right.
Yet government waste owing to misguided expenditures, duplication of services, gross overpricing and just plain graft and corruption - as NBC News refers to it, "the fleecing of America" is cause for alarm and a demand for accountability. That so many get away with these kinds of waste, whether intentional or not, is in no small part owing to the aforementioned apathy of the majority of Americans. "Ah, who gives a shit? What the hell can I do about it, anyhow?"
I don't really have a solution to offer. Obviously, it would benefit us all if more of us were actively involved in the political process and in the day to day function of government at all levels. That the current presidential election cycle seems to have piqued the interest of a greater number of people, including more of our younger citizens is a good sign. Will more youthful voters actually come out and vote come November? Will they, as a consequence become more interested and involved in the process and follow through by maintaining that interest and involvement in the doings of government? I hope so, but fear not.
B-tone
129 - Jarod S
You wrote, "..I think of religion as a private affair between man and God...." While there's some small truth to that, the plain fact throughout history is that religion has never been a 'private affair'. Political history of ANY civilization has always been intertwined with religion in some way. It's inescapable. And look at some of the other candidates: Romney's a Mormon, O'Bama was raised both Muslim and Catholic (two theologically opposed religions? How does that work out?), Hillary has suddenly turned up quoting the Bible. I don't know about McCain, but I'll bet he wishes the POW camp he was in had been run by christians.
Let's face it, when people want to keep their religious experience private, it probably has more to do with fear or shame than anything else, and if you're going to be afraid or ashamed because of what someone else might think of you, what's the point? Even if I didn't agree with someone's religion, I could at least commend them for having courage to stand and say, "This is what I believe. Here's why....."
I don't agree with Huckabee on everything, but his idea about making divorce illegal is actually a pretty good one. If you knew that once you were married to somone, THAT'S IT!---no going anywhere else, wouldn't you put more consideration into whom you were marrying? People change spouses like they change cars. Besides, kids are getting tired of having to go to 4 or 5 different family get-togethers for the holidays and keeping track of who all their step-siblings are. Pain in the butt.