With 2012 drawing to a close, we continue our review of what we heard from the far right over the past year. You can read more quotes from 2012 and previous years here.
“I tell you what, Richard gave a two-word axiom that we ought to emblazon on everything we have: liberalism kills.”
— David Barton, head of the Texas-based organization WallBuilders, quoting Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention
“Get a grip fellow — if you want to be an American act like one and be proud of our country and stand up for our military. If you can’t do that then go where people are sensative [sic] enough for you — I guess that would be Afghanistan — where they still live like they are in the Stone Age — but still very sensative.”
— Texas State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, writing in a Facebook exchange with a Houston law student
“I know in your mind you can think of times when America was attacked. One is December 7th, that’s Pearl Harbor day. The other is September 11th, and that’s the day of the terrorist attack. I want you to remember August the 1st, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates.”
— Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pennsylvania, likening the implementation of a new mandate that insurers offer coverage for contraceptive services to Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
“In this case, Northside is the Antichrist.”
— Steven Hernandez, father of a San Antonio-area high school student who refused to wear the radio frequency identification tags inserted in student badges at the school, claiming it is a sign of submission to the Antichrist as described in the Bible’s Book of Revelation
“That’s why we shouldn’t eliminate the word lunatic. It really has application around this town.”
— U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, on why he cast the only vote in Congress against a measure removing the word “lunatic” from federal law
“Atheists don’t like [Christians’ Christmas] happiness, they don’t want you to be happy, they want you to be miserable. They’re miserable so they want you to be miserable.”
— Evangelist Pat Roberson, offering his take on the mythical “war on Christmas”
“I did pretty well with textbooks. Benjamin Franklin did pretty well with textbooks. Are they going to say reading books is not effective? Should we all stop reading our Bibles?”
— Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle, a Republican, on whether students should exclusively use print textbooks. Not using print books “dehumanizes” learning, she says.
“Christianity is not a religion, it is a philosophy.”
— Fox News entertainer Bill O’Reilly, confronting David Silverman, the president of American Atheists, about the mythical “war on Christmas”
