Out of control political analogies:

A Trotskyite thinks he knows Sarah Palin:

"Obama — ‘Terrist’ — ‘mahzlem’ — scary Black man — vote for me, the Alaska Taliban, youbetcha, dang-goshdornit."

Indeed. Sarah Palin's religious faith can only be analogized to Taliban zealots, an example of whose ethics we can find here:

"Reports of Taliban terrorism are widespread. In one case, scores of Taliban fighters confronted Iqbal Ahmed Khan, the brother of Waqar Khan, a member of the provincial assembly. The fighters ordered Mr. Khan, who was with two of his sons, to choose the son he wanted killed, said the president of the Awami National Party, Senator Asfandyar Wali. After Mr. Khan was humiliated into choosing one son, the Taliban killed both boys, Mr. Khan and seven servants, Mr. Wali said."

Why travel so far afield, to Taliban territory, when a much more plausible American homegrown religious fanatic could be offered by way of analogy, like Jimmy Carter and his demonstrably- insane religious beliefs?

Here is where Carter’s faith takes him:


“On his first visit to the Jewish state… Carter writes…” I had long taught lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures and that a common historical pattern was that Israel was punished whenever the leaders turned away from devout worship of God. I asked if she was concerned about the secular nature of her Labor government.”

Jews, in my experience, tend to become peevish when Christians, their traditional persecutors, lecture them on morality, and Carter reports that Meir was taken aback by his “temerity.” He is, of course, paying himself a compliment. Temerity is mandatory when you are doing God’s work, and Carter makes it clear in this polemical book that, in excoriating Israel for its sins — and he blames Israel almost entirely for perpetuating the hundred-year war between Arab and Jew — he is on a mission from God.”

Here’s Hitchens on same:

“Here is a man who, in his latest book on theIsrael-Palestine crisis, has found the elusive key to the problem. The mistakeof Israel, he tells us (and tells us that he told the Israeli leadership) is to have moved away from God and the prophets and toward secularism. If you ever feel like a good laugh, just tell yourself that things would improve if only theIsraeli government would be more Orthodox. Jimmy Carter will then turn hisvacantly pious glare on you, as if to say that you just don’t understand what itis to have a personal savior.”

Why choose to call Sarah Palin "'an Alaska Ttaliban"? If Christian faith is what animates her politics (something as yet to be plausibly shown to be true), why compare her to the most irrational, unhistorical, brutal bunch of religious zealots currently adorning parts of our world? Why not compare her to that other famous American in thrall to his Jesus? Why not call her "a Conservative Jimmy Carter"? Can anyone argue, in good faith, that Palin's reported belief in Creationism is not about the same level of intellectual sophistication as Carter's belief that Israel's problems are a result of Israeli Jews choosing secularism over devotional adherence to the ten commandments?