Proof that being a brain surgeon does not necessarily translate to having a tenable grasp of reality, nor to a broader knowledge of the truth and the world outside of your chosen career field bubble:
Fox News contributor Ben Carson joined the growing list of American conservatives praising Vladimir Putin's Russia for its ultraconservative social policies, asserting that Russia is "gaining prestige and influence throughout the world" thanks to Putin's hardline brand of Orthodox Christianity.
In a February 12 column for TownHall.com, Carson echoed Pat Buchanan and Breitbart.com in musing that the former Soviet Union - once pilloried as the "godless, evil empire" - has long since overtaken the United States in the realm of "Christian values." Carson lauded Russia's religious conservatism while endorsing Putin's recent remarks suggesting that the U.S. and western Europe have become "godless."http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/12/foxs-ben-carson-putin-is-right-for-calling-amer/198028
The Gadfly is having difficulty determining whether teabagging Dr. Carson truly believes his own, easily disprovable bullshit, or if he simply believes that Fox "News" viewers are just collectively dumb and fearfully paranoid enough themselves to believe his easily disprovable bullshit. Either way you look at it, it paints the good doctor as nothing more than a dishonest political opportunist and cynical demagogue, which btw, The Gadfly is convinced are prerequisite character traits for employment at Fox these days.
Dr. Carson states basically that he agrees with former communist Soviet KGB Lt., and current Russian President Vladimir Putin, that America is "Godless." Based on what evidence? Apparently because -- ummm -- American does not hate and has not persecuted teh gays as viciously as the Russians have.
Call The Gadfly contemptuous if you must dear readers, but isn't there something inherently mentally disturbing about someone, who in an attempt to promote the benignity of his own religion and religious values, actually praises one of the worst human rights abusing countries on the face of the planet, along with the long-time communist who has ruled that country like a dictator for a dozen years? In fact, on the universally respected Democracy Index, out of a total of 166 sovereign nations in the world, Russia is ranked as the 122nd most democratic country - even lagging behind those venerable bastions of democracy such as Libya, Cambodia, Pakistan and Uganda. And Carson isn't the only right-winger, as the article denotes, who has been praising Putin and Russia for their draconian religious renaissance recently. It seems to be the newest fad among the wing nuts.
All of this is why The Gadfly has been unflagging in his years-long efforts at trying to warn you dear readers, that today's modern American conservative movement is not so much conservative as they are radical authoritarians, and by all available evidence, perhaps even collectively batshit insane.
Oh - and btw Dr. Carson - a December 2013 Harris poll shows that most Americans, by a huge majority of 75%, still identify themselves as God believing Christians. So for you to go on national television and bemoan America turning in to a "Godless" nation while simultaneously praising a communist dictator and that dictator's repressive state religion simply validates The Gadfly's views that you and your like-minded fellow conservatives, right here in the good ol' US of A, constitute much more of an existential threat to American democracy, individual freedoms and the individual pursuit of happiness than do a handful of bearded lunatics hiding out in the caves of Afghanistan.
"Godless." You conservatives keep using that word. The Gadfly does not think it means what you think it means. [ The Gadfly admits stealing that line from the character Inigo Montoya in the movie 'The Princess Bride' and altering it to suit the point he is attempting to make here ].
----TFG
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