More deep thoughts with Babs

Following the drubbing her party took on election day, it seems Babs has finally unclenched herself from the fetal position long enough to emerge and offer up this message of hope to those awaiting her guidance with bated breath:

In response to the results of the Presidential election last week, I would like to share with you a quote from Thomas Jefferson. Although written in 1798, I feel his words speak perfectly to the strong sentiments of frustration and disappointment 48% of the country feel.

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt......If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."

This is an excerpt from a letter by Jefferson written to John Taylor in 1798 and the impetus of its sentiment was Jefferson's strong belief in maintaining the union amidst talk of its secession. Interesting that Babs would choose an excerpt from such an epistle when it's her ilk who are claiming that America has shown itself to be a divided nation, hinting that the overly religious and simpleton red states are not worthy of being in union with the more enlightened smattering of blue states on the coasts. Hence, the irony is that it is Babs herself and her ideology of extreme hatred and divisiveness for our union that is the "reign of witches" to which Jefferson is referring.

Here's an excerpt from the same letter that Babs failed to mention (probably because, unlike me, she neglected to read the entire letter and put it in its proper context):

"If to rid ourselves of the present rule of Massachusetts and Connecticut, we break the Union, will the evil stop there? Suppose the New England states alone cut off, will our nature be changed? Are we not men still to the south of that, and with all the passions of men?"

In answer to Jefferson's query, Babs and her friends would answer with a resounding "no". Anything to the south or in the vast heartland of America are not inhabited by men but Neanderthals who actually go to church on Sunday and pray to a spurious God of the bible rather than an enlightened and secular deity such as Noam Chomsky. It's the mind-set that prompts buffoons like Bill Maher to say of religion, "I always call religion a neurological disorder. I really do believe that. I mean it's not criticizing. I'm just saying if you took religion out of it and somebody went to a psychiatrist and said you know I believe in you know this crazy, illogical thing, the shrink would say, well you have a neurological disorder. And you need to really get therapy or take a pill."

What can you say to such unenlightened cynicism about faith in God and bumper-sticker dismissal of a moral foundation to the universe and our human condition?

I'll let Thomas Jefferson answer it:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

He must be crazy.

In further researching this letter cited by Babs, I found a rather hilarious omission. If you look at her Jefferson quotation you'll find a "........." interjected smack dab in the middle of it. I was curious to see just what the heck she had decided to edit. Here it is:

"...But who can say what would be the evils of a secession, and when and where they would end? Better keep together as we are, haul off from Europe as soon as we can, and from all attachments to any portions of it; and if they show their power just sufficiently to hoop us together, it will be the happiest situation in which we can exist..."

Ouch. Can't have that anti-globalization passage in there can we? I don't think Jefferson would have thought too kindly of your guy's "global test", eh Babs?

Siggh. Babs, please try to refrain from quoting founding fathers. It really doesn't become you.