Today Mitt Romney invited his friend Paul Ryan to the Republican ticket.

Don’t they look happy together? They have been friends since the mid-fifties, when they went on boyish adventures together. Oh the hijinks and shenanigans of those days! Here is a picture of the duo as kids, driving Romney’s first speed boat, which he got at the age of 12, and traded in two years later for a yacht. (It was just a small yacht – totally an appropriate size for a teenager.) 

Here’s another picture of the presidential pair when they were a little older:

  It was a simpler time, and, perhaps Romney and Ryan might argue, a better time.

It was a time when women didn’t care about their reproductive rights, when minorities knew their place, and poor people were content working any job they could get – if they wanted a job, there was one to be had – regardless of the conditions. They weren’t always whining to the government about safety and workers rights, because major corporations loved and cared for their employees and looked out after their best interests.   Poor people pulled themselves up by their boot straps and everyone got a second chance. Commies were outed and gays kept closeted.   The rich were wealthy because they work harder and smarter and by golly, they deserved it! America was a place were people could express themselves freely without fear,    and the government didn’t have to get involved with all that political correctness mumbo jumbo, like all that hooey about the precious, delicate earth, or organic foods http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyfCxrKW3XY, or any of that crap.

Of course, I speculate. How do I know what the Romney Ryan team want? All I have to go on is their actual words. Here is what Paul Ryan said in his acceptance speech today:

But America is more than just a place…it’s an idea. It’s the only country founded on an idea. Our rights come from nature and God, not government. We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.

I’m sure many countries might disagree that America is the only country founded on an “idea” or guiding principle, but I won’t quibble with that logic. I have some questions about our rights coming from Nature and God.

Like in nature, isn’t it the right of the weak to destroy the strong? Snakes are free to steal eggs from nests and eat them, right? Do I have the right to invade another’s home,and  kidnap and cannibalize his young simply because it’s my nature? Should humans have the power to prey on each other just because they can?

And God…which God are we talking, here? I’m not going to argue about the existence or the word of God, but humans have had a spectacular record of using religion and righteousness for cruelty, exclusivity and atrocity, from well before the Inquisition to well after 9/11. Under God’s laws do homosexuals have rights? Do women? Children? Do the wicked? Is George Bush still The Decider?

I think the rhetoric of today that is becoming increasingly common and acceptable is scary.

Yup. That’s what I think.

Look at the remarkable restraint I showed by not posting these pictures!

P.S. Don’t you just love the word “quibble”?