Goode Not Good

Speaking of Virginia, it's hard to believe that the state that once produced great minds like Washington, Jefferson, and Madison is now giving us nitwits like George Allen, Pat Robertson, and Virgil Goode. Virgil Goode is a Republican congressman who is so appalled that Minnesota's Fifth Congressional District elected a Muslim - Keith Ellison, who took his oath of office on a Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson, who was intellectually curious about the world's great religions and everything else - that he's proposed banning Muslims from immigrating to the United States and barring American Muslims already here from running for federal office. Goode says he has proposed this out of fear of a Muslim takeover of the House of Representatives. What is wrong with Goode's proposal?

a) His proposal would negate the Bill of Rights guarantee of religious freedom.

b) Immigration bans on Muslims would not have affected Keith Ellison, who was born in Detroit.

c) Goode's attempt to keep Muslims out of the country would not have affected Ellison because he converted to Islam as an adult.

d) Keith Ellison is the first Muslim elected to the House of Representatives in the chamber's 218-year history. At the rate Muslims are elected to the House, it would take until some time in the sixty-sixth or sixty-seventh century for Muslims to comprise a majority in that chamber.

e) all of the above

If you answered "e", congratulations - you're smarter than most Virginians. When are my dad's younger brothers going to move out of that damn state?