Post by mominatrix on Jan 25, 2015 11:48:56 GMT -5
January 24, 2015, 08:28 pm Huckabee: 'A beheading is a far greater threat than a sunburn' By Jessica Taylor
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) bemoaned the Obama administration’s foreign policy priorities in the final speech of the Iowa Freedom Summit on Saturday.
The winner of the 2008 caucuses criticized President Obama’s indifference toward foreign threats throughout much of his speech, slamming his State of the Union address this week for singling out climate change as the greatest threat to the country.
“Not to diminish anything about the climate at all, but Mr. President, I believe most of us would think that a beheading is a far greater threat than a sunburn," he said, echoing criticism the president took last year for not taking seriously enough the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) amid the beheadings of journalists.
Huckabee is exploring another run for president, recently ending his eponymous Fox News show to do so. That anticipated time conflict was one reason the former governor was given the final slot of the evening, so he could have made it from New York City to speak to the conservative gathering.
Instead, the audience that had been there since early morning had thinned out and was much more muted, something the former Baptist preacher even joked about.
"They that endure to the end shall be saved,” he said, referencing scripture.
Huckabee used his time to defend his conservative positions, many which have been under fire from activists who see him as insufficiently conservative on fiscal and education issues. While the former pastor’s social credentials have never been assailed, with a diverse field and a party that’s moved further to the right than when he was the insurgent favorite seven years ago, it’s a weakness he has to address.
He bemoaned Democrats assailing the GOP about income inequality, blaming over-burdensome regulations and government overreach for stunting economic growth.
“Sometimes I think the greatest challenge we face economically is intelligence inequality,” Huckabee said to laughs. "We will never be able to build a strong economy when we punish productivity.”
Huckabee also defended his past support for Common Core standards, saying he supported them when they were controlled at the state level but that once the federal government got involved, he grew opposed.
“Education is not a federal function-- it is a local function,” he said.
There are probably more deaths in the us today from just melanoma (not the only skin cancer of course) than all the beheading of the last decade.
And that's just the tip of the melting iceberg.
This is exactly what I just said to my H. How many people have been beheaded in the last year? And how many people will be affected by raising sea levels, mass extinctions, freak storms, rising energy demand, poor crop yields, and everything the fuck else that is happening as a result of climate change?
AND climate change leads to things like drought, famine and governmental instability, which makes a ripe breeding ground for...... Wait for it...... TERRORISTS!
So he's doubly stupid.
I think we're at a logarithmic or exponential scale of stupidity at this point.
Post by miniroller on Jan 25, 2015 14:30:01 GMT -5
The most irritating/ infuriating part about this, though, is that I can just see people (jackass Americans who's vote counts the same as mine) nodding along to these statements! 'He's Right!! Beheading is worse than a sunburn!!' GAH!!!!
No, he's right. Beheading is a legitimate threat to my future. It's more likely to happen because someone wants to steal my last jug of potable water, though.
I was going to try to come up with something pithy, but then I just got too angry. Fuck him. You guys, if I die from my stage 4 melanoma soon (which I pray will not happen for a while yet), please send Mr Huckabee a big "Fuck you" letter in my memory, OK? *tries not to go into another panic attack about the future of our planet with jerks like him in charge*
I keep coming back to this thread and then leaving because I can't think of a way to deal with the level of absurdity in this comment. Sure, I would rather have a sunburn than be beheaded. To be honest, though, I don't spend a great deal of my time in fear of beheading. And I certainly worry more about the political instability that climate change is driving than any increased chance of sunburn, so, where does that put me?
This is an example of the sort of thing that happens when we try to put extremely complex issues into snappy sound bites.
Post by downtoearth on Jan 26, 2015 12:17:37 GMT -5
He's coming to my state this next week for a Christian School fundraiser... they are already on my crap list for trying to get charter schools into our state (with Christian boards) and now bringing Huckabee here! Seriously, why do people pay him to speak?!