JFK's speech nauseates Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum just gets crazier and crazier, doesn't he?

The follow-up clip, showing how college changes people, is pretty funny, too. (Note that the Comedy Central site seems to be having problems today, so that's a link to the video clip on Hulu.)

But for Rick Santorum, this is a holy war. Santorum sees Satan everywhere among his opponents. Even Mainstream Protestantism is "gone from the world of Christianity."

Of course, Santorum is a Catholic true-believer. If Rick Santorum had his way, we'd still be in the Dark Ages, selling indulgences and burning witches.

Karen Santorum, Rick's wife, explains that it's all "God's will":

She said the campaign has been challenging, and said some would "have to be crazy to want" to be president. But she said she and her husband escape that because for them "it's completely a spiritual thing. This is God's will."

"The 'want' is a mission to make the culture a better culture, more pleasing to God," Mrs. Santorum said. "For us it's all about making the world a better place."

This isn't just a political contest, where you're competing with your fellow Americans, people who simply disagree with you. No, this is a battle against Satan. How do you compromise with Satan?

This is about making American culture "more pleasing to God" - the Catholic God, of course, especially since Protestants have been seduced by Satan himself. Only the Pope can save us!

Think about that. This is the Taliban. This is al-Qaeda. This is exactly that kind of thinking.

In 1940, science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein wrote a novella, "If This Goes On—". (Later, in 1953, it was published in Revolt in 2100. You might be more likely to have read it there.)

In that story, a backwoods bible-thumper was elected President of the United States and makes himself dictator. He cancels future elections, turning our democracy into an authoritarian theocracy. And when does that take place? In 2012.

Yup, Heinlein's story, written more than 70 years ago, picked this year for America's destruction. It was 2012 when we elected ourselves a religious fanatic, instead of someone who'd respect our secular democracy and the strict separation of church and state, and he destroyed our nation.

Spooky, huh? Forget those Mayans. What do they know? By the looks of things in the Republican primary, we're far more likely to destroy ourselves this way.