Friday, February 1, 2008

Maybe Mike Huckabee is onto something

There was a lot of hand-wringing from political writers recently when former Arkansas governor and God-fearing Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said he thought the Constitution should be based on the Ten Commandments. Or something like that.

Personally, I think that would be a great idea.

For openers, we would have to immediately pull our troops out of Iraq, or at least disarm them, because of the sixth commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Try as I might, I couldn’t find any clauses in there about being able to kill people with whom we disagree. And the death penalty? Forget about it. (Oh, yeah – no more abortions, either: Mike was right about that).

No graven images. What would that mean for the advertising industry?

Welcome back, Blue Laws.

Honor thy father and mother. Doesn’t that kind of sound like we should have a national health care plan, especially for the elderly?

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Oops – time to rethink the way political campaigns are conducted.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t interpret the part about taking the Lord’s name in vain as being only about the things we say when we smash our fingers with a hammer. Maybe it also refers to how many people use that name in order to raise money or get elected.

Thou shalt not steal. I don’t see any exemption for the government.

All in all, Mike, you’ve really hit on something. Let’s get that ball rolling!

One thing, though – there's nothing in there about gay marriage. Sorry.