To prove that interviewing me raises the IQ of his Web-TV program by 40 points, Gordon Howie publishes our lively conversations about federal spending and debt and the Second Amendment with this dreary fluff-fest with District 35 GOP House candidate Lynne Hix-DiSanto:
Notice that at not one point do Howie and DiSanto, talk about any specific policy issue or practical solution. They are simply singing in the shower together, reciting Glenn-Beck karaoke par excellence as if they were less interested in running for public office than auditioning for guest host spots on The 700 Club.
Howie and DiSanto take a moment to regurgitate the popular conservative co-opting of tolerance, groaning that we liberals don't extend tolerance to right-wingers like themselves because we're really just using tolerance as a backdoor assault on faith and freedom.
First, I don't preach tolerance as an absolute or primary value, so I don't bite the critique.
But you are right, Lynne: liberals like me are hugely intolerant of conservatives like you... but not because we are waging some absurd war on faith and freedom. I haven't needed faith yet, but I haven't seen the need to take it away from anyone else. Even when theocrats like you and Gordon try to violate the First Amendment by forcing your personal Jesus into government, I don't respond by trying to convert you to atheism; I just respond by fighting your effort to use the state to proselytize for your religion. I don't have to tolerate your theocracy.
Nor do I have to tolerate your vacuity. In this five minutes of video time, DiSanto says nothing practical or intelligible about politics. She mostly nods in wide-eyed wonderment and Howie's pronouncements—six out of seven of her responses begin with some form of "Absolutely, yes it does," or "I completely agree with you," suggesting DiSanto brought no original thoughts to the show, just reflections of whatever Howie is saying about half-full glasses and oxygen and government.
For a taste of DiSanto's tasteless, calorie-free Bosworthian word salad, consider this exchange toward the end of the video, with my mouse-roll-over annotations:
DiSanto: I agree, Gordon. And truly I just believe that our country at this time more than ever with so many of the serious situations we're facing around the world, now is the time that we need to really come back to that faith and remember what america was built on and why are we here, what is the purpose of America, the greatest country on earth, where would America, where would the world be if it were not for America and the principles that it was founded on? The world would look much different.
Howie: Well, And it's becoming a world that looks very different isn't it?
DiSanto: It definitely is, absolutely. I just heard lately that no longer is America considered a superpower by the other countries, because of the fact that we have walked away from our faith, and therefore many people see that we have lost our status in the world.
Howie: We not only lose our status, but we lose our bearings, because really, America still is one nation under God [Gordon Howie and Lynee Hix-DiSanto, interview, Liberty Today, 2014.06.08].
District 35, I know Lynne Hix-DiSanto is a snappy dresser, and she loves Jesus. But could you please, please, pretty please, elect someone else, someone who grasps the real practical issues on which the Legislature can act to make life better in the Black Hills and across South Dakota?
'Merica Interview Lynne Fluff-fest
Looks and sounds like a high-maintenance ding-a-ling.
Our country was built on freedom of religion or freedom FROM religion if you prefer.
If you want to be a Christian, fine. If you wanted to be a Muslim, fine. If you wanted no religion at all, fine.
Google Lynne Hix-DiSanto. First 12 hits are Madville's and Epp's blog, followed by her LinkedIn, then nothing, just like her interview.
I cannot decide which bubble head makes the most nonsense.
1. There is no such thing as "going back."
2. Things were not so wonderful in the "good old days" either. Did these two fail to learn history while they were attending school?
3. Religion, like everything else is constantly changing. If people are unable, or unwilling to adapt to those changes, religion as some know it as it WAS, religion will die.
Since dumbass dubya claimed he consulted his Father(god) before invading Iraq,do you need more proof of god's faulty judgment? What was god thinking-that He could break every one of his own commandments and us atheist/agnostics wouldn't notice or comment on it? More proof positive that wingnuts live in the 51st state-that of denial.
That video segment would have been more credible if they were handling snakes. They had the speaking in tongues thing down pat, but they needed snakes.
Gordon and I have one thing in common, we both like the rear dining room at Perkins for a Saturday morning breakfast. I take that back, we both like the Gordon and Cory show as well
In a brief visit with Gordon, he was excited about being able to discuss conservative and liberal ideas so openly with Cory and did agree that Rounds must be taken out in November. I liked him for that part.
As to the gibberish in the video, I keep wondering exactly who they are talking about when they say they are losing their freedoms. I just don't get it, have people had their mouths duct taped? Are there court orders and threats of jail if Christians don't shut up?
This issue of tolerance has been a common thread with conservatives for sometime, they attempt to turn the tables when liberals passionately point out the loss of freedoms of select groups. And they are right to a point, I am intolerant when Gordon rants about the Christian foundation of this country and being deprived of liberty, the Constitutional Amendments granting those freedoms not only belong to Christians, they belong to all of us with equal strength.
The last thing America needs to do, is go back to any period of our unglorious history. Do we want to go back to the founding when only white men had rights and slavery was legal? Or do we want to go back to the genocide of Native Americans? Do we go back to the happy days of the 1950's and 60's when Jim Crow was not only legal, but acceptable?
America hasn't grown up yet, the daily struggles of the LGBT community are just beginning, citizens are still deprived of their right to vote, we still have the barbaric laws for capital punishment, and so much more.
The worst part of all of the Gordon types is that they actually believe that the Bible can solve American and world problems.
Damn Roger, great post.
The Blindman
Madville: Interested Liberals Faithless.
Roger, I'm all for more conversations with Gordon and breakfast at Perkins. Can we get a gig at the Central States Fair?
The whole "get back to our faith" thing doesn't make sense. If I assume Gordon's and Lynne's position, I must believe that America was much more faithful in the past. Faithful Americans carried out the Red Scare in the 1940s and 1950s. Faithful Americans perpetrated the corruption of the Gilded Age. Faithful Americans led us into the Civil War. Faithful Americans killed a whole lot of Indians. Where is the empirical evidence that getting more people to read the Bible and go to church solves any social or economic ills?
Conservatives' definition of tolerance: remaining silent as they punch you in the nose.
Liberals' definition of tolerance: defending people's right not to be punched in the nose.
Such outstanding comments from Madizens. Doug's first one, El Rayo X, Roger, Cory.
I watched the interview and learned more than I ever wanted to know about Howie. (Apparently his craziness is baaaack.) He got to espouse his pet theories and give his guest a few moments to do her favorite bobblehead imitation.
Here is my favorite quote:
". . . no longer is America considered a superpower by the other countries, because of the fact that we have walked away from our faith."
Yep, that's the only reason. Fewer righty Christians will tank a nation. That's exactly what is wrong in the Middle East and elsewhere around the globe. Not enough fundamentalist Christians.
Thanks Blindman and good to hear from you, I trust you are doing well.
Deb, I liked that same comment about being a superpower, notice how DiSanto said she heard that? No references or documentation, just I heard that.
Well Ms. DiSanto, I'm sorry to take the air out of your paranoid balloon, but America is a superpower. A country that has the nuclear power to wipe the world several times over is a superpower and faith in God or believing in the Bible isn't going to change that one way or the other.
You are so right Roger. And "nuclear power to wipe the world several times over" is so Christian!
"You are so right Roger. And "nuclear power to wipe the world several times over" is so Christian!"
BUT, BUT, Only God influences climate and weather.
You don't have to believe in superstitious nonsense in order to be a good person with morals and values, ethics and integrity.
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There is ZERO mention of Jesus Christ or any other deity in the Constitution.
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The Declaration says "...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator..."
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THEIR Creator - not YOURS. THEIRS:
Allah, Shiva, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, YahooWahoo...
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Religious BS needs to be kept out of our schools and political institutions. Period.
http://www.juanitajean.com/2014/06/20/because-we-love-jeeeesus/
Tolerance from the "christian" right-not. From the Faith and Freedom Conference. Hope it improves their aim.
Please God, make it stop. Amen.
Please humans, exercise some self-control to make it stop!!
Minutes Intelligible Lively Faith
The Church of the FSM. Thus far they have no issues of child molesting, greed, prosletyzing, political power plays, schisms, misogyny, etc. That's a lot to recommend a religious organization in the US of A.
Cory, in your discussion about Disanto you ask "But could you please, please, pretty please, elect someone else, someone who grasps the real practical issues on which the Legislature can act to make life better in the Black Hills and across South Dakota?"
Help me out. Who can I vote for other than Disanto and Campbell? Aren't they the only two individuals on the ballot for District 35, which as two house seats up for grabs?
Bearcreekbat, take heart! According to the Secretary of State's list of candidates, you have one Democrat in the race as well, Dave Freytag. You're going to be stuck with one honyocker, either Campbell or DiSanto, but you can keep one out. Who's worse, Campbell or DiSanto?
Freytag (pronounced FRAY-tag) spoke at the Family Heritage Alliance forum in April. He warned of oligarchy, said his politics are based on the Christian principles of love and equality... and then said of the porn-shop question, "What a tar-baby subject" (get background on that term's etymology and racial slurriness here) before saying he'd rather spend more time talking about teacher pay, Medicaid expansion, and other topics more fitting for the Legislature.