People have to stop defending the teddy’s naming by saying “it was just an innocent mistake”. No. It wasn’t. It wasn’t a mistake of any kind. Gillian Gibbons behaved totally reasonably and a bunch of ranting nutters decided they wanted her shot for no reason at all. That is what happened, and it’s exactly that simple.

There’s a case to be made that she might have forseen this reaction and that it was therefore a mistake in the sense that, had she known what was going to happen, she might have chosen to act differently, but that’s a pretty weak case. She’s managed to raise some pretty good awareness of just how fucked up Sharia Law is (although this is the thin end of the wedge — for example, Sharia punishes people for being raped) and to be fair it seems like she’s been treated pretty well throughout. If four days in prison to help fight oppressive and insane laws is a “mistake”, then Gandhi looks pretty damn silly.

“There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us. If so, they are at odds with the nation’s founders.” It’s amazing that people can run for president who’ve plainly never read the constitution or the declaration of independence. If I wanted to run a country I’d at least read up on it first. And I don’t know what “freedom opens the windows of the soul” means but I presume it’s to provide access to the Birdhouse In Your Soul.

I also like how he makes a big deal out of his faith, but then immediately tries to downplay it in case anyone asks which one it is. Apparently, most US voters said “the fact that a candidate is a Mormon would not be a factor in the way they vote for president”, although given the present incumbent they may have misread the question.

I don’t know anything much about Mormonism, though. It might be a fairly sensible religion for all I know, but equally it might be one of those culty ones like Scientology, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Catholicism.