by P. David Gardner
Oh, Fox News. I guess this is the end of our long and tenuous relationship ... the one where you supposedly protected atheists, that is.
Snif.
On Monday, the weekend's insanity continued as Fox News "Outnumbered" host Ainsley Earhardt pulled out the big guns and hollered at a contributor for defending atheists, or any minority, really.
"I'm tired of protecting the minority!" she shouted. "What about the majority? What about the rest of the country?"
What devolved quickly into a shouting match began with a segment on a Missouri sheriff's decision to affix "In God We Trust" bumper stickers on the backs of his deputies' cruisers.
When Sheriff Doug Rader got called out for it, he complained about being singled out, claiming that there must be "hundreds, thousands of departments" that do the same.
"Where's our patriotism?" he grumbled. "Any time someone wants to be patriotic and make a symbol these days, they're attacked."
Considering that the bumper sticker isn't so much patrotic as it is a proclamation of theism, it clearly doesn't belong on any government vehicles. Yet other participants on the show agreed with the sheriff's decision. Andrea Tantaros made a tenuous connection between the bumper sticker and currency because money has "In God We Trust" boldly emblazoned on it too.
Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky argued that the phrase doesn't belong on currency either because it could offend atheists.
Which caused a predictable outrage.
Earhardt quickly shut it all down, proclaiming that because a "majority of Americans, 77 percent, believe in some sort of God" and "only 23 percent are atheist or agnostic," the majority should rule out over the minority.
Fortunately, Fox New's mock court of "law" doesn't really apply in the real world, save for entertainment for those a bit vacant in the brain pan.
For if it did, the weighted scales that Earhardt employed on Monday could easily be used to deny a voice to any minority at all, be they LGBT, black, Middle Eastern, Native American or yes, even atheists.
