Palin, ignorant and contradictory?

1 September 2008 by lolife
Filed under Astronomy + Politics

PZ points out this little gaff.

Sarah Palin is asked:

Will you support the right of parents to opt out their children from curricula, books, classes, or surveys, which parents consider privacy-invading or offensive to their religion or conscience? Why or why not?

To which she replies:

Yes. Parents should have the ultimate control over what their children are taught.

Later she is asked:

Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

To which she replies:

Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

First of all, the founding fathers had nothing to do with the pledge. “The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855-1931), a Baptist minister, a Christian Socialist…”

Second, it did not contain the words “under God” until the 1950’s. It was added because “The Knights of Columbus in New York City felt that the pledge was incomplete without any reference to a deity…”

The quoted text is from Wikipedia.

So Sarah Palin has a strong opinion on something she apparently knows nothing about.

PZ also notes the irony in the answers to these two questions. Parents should decide, unless it is about the Pledge, in which case she’ll fight them!

MinnPost points out that the single-issue Christian wackos love Palin.

It looks to me like she is another Michele Bachman — perhaps slightly smarter but just as much of a party-line Right Wing ideologue.

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