Dumb as Stumps

It's clear that no one will accuse the Honorable Representative from the Fifth District of Virginia of taking the admonition "know your enemy" too seriously.

Today, in his alloted time in the debate on the surge resolution, Congressman Virgil Goode again demonstrated his highly developed concern about worldwide jihadism. He simultaneously proved once more that he doesn't know the first thing about the people he is afraid of.

Painting for all of us the stark picture of what could happen if we fail to support the surge, (or even if Congress passes a non-binding resolution saying that it thinks it is, you know, maybe not really the best idea they've ever heard of), Rep. Goode said this:

I fear that radical Muslims who want to control the Middle East and ultimately the world would love to see In God We Trust stricken from our money and replaced with In Muhammed We Trust.

Not only is it absurd to think that there is any chance that jihadists could actually conquer the United States and start deciding what appeared on our money, but that they would put Muhammed's name there is just plain stupid.

Perhaps someday Mr. Goode might pick up an elementary school book on religions, and discover that, in fact, Muslims pray to the same god that Christians do, the one English speakers call God and the one Arabic speakers call Allah. That God in whom We Trust? It's the same God! The Islamic god is already on our money! (Whoa. Trippy, huh?)

Though tempted, I won't expect that Mr. Goode go so far as to spend time thinking about the similarity between In God We Trust, originally 'In God is our trust', and the common American phrase 'God willing'. Because then he would be vulnerable to having his teeny-tiny head explode if someone told him about the common islamic phrase 'inshallah', or "god willing." (Someone who can't quite get that the Muslims don't pray to Mohammed doesn't seem capable of really getting the interesting distinctions between Western and Islamic concepts of fate and relationship to the diety wrapped up in the cultural use of those phrases, or really in understanding, at all.)

Just take a hint, Rep. Goode: Should your great fear become realized and the House passes the non-binding resolution, leading inevitably to the day the Muslim hordes sweep into control of our government, In God We Trust is the last thing about our money they're likely to change.