You can always count on a member of Congress to say something completely asinine. This time it’s Virgil Goode, who was my congressman when I lived in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Keith Ellison, who will become the first Muslim member of Congress next month, has said that he plans to use the Koran for his ceremonial swearing-in. In response, Congressman Goode sent a letter to some of his constituents that says the following:

When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran. We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country. I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.

The Ten Commandments and “In God We Trust” are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Koran. My response was clear, “As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Koran is not going to be on the wall of my office.”

In addition to bigotry, the letter is a big non sequitur: Keith Ellison is a natural-born U.S. citizen and has traced his family’s American roots back to 1742.

Charlottesville is an oasis of blue in a sea of red. Too bad it’s not possible to secede from a Congressional district.

Holy cow. Poppi, bartender at the Duplex, looks amazing. Granted, she was always beautiful, but what an awesome accomplishment this is for her. Congrats!

President Bush says that Mary Cheney will make a “fine mom.” He also believes that “every child that comes into this world deserves love and he believes that Mary Cheney’s child will in fact have loving parents,” according to Tony Snow.

But for some reason he doesn’t think they should be allowed to get married.

Look. Gay families already exist. De facto gay marriages already exist, except that they don’t get governmental recognition. They will exist even if they never get governmental recognition. They will exist even if the Constitution, God forbid, is someday amended to ban governmental recognition of them. There is no governmental policy that will make gay couples go away. There is no governmental policy that will make gay people go away.

“We don’t want to condone this sort of behavior,” some people say.

But this behavior – um, this orientation – is going to exist no matter what the government does or doesn’t do.

Some anti-gay people are still under the illusion that homosexuality is somehow “chosen” and is somehow going to disappear, if only we create a sufficiently discouraging atmosphere.

But even if the government and the culture become totally oppressive of homosexuality, we’re still not going to go away. Homosexuals have always been born and they always will. Unless a gene is found and potential parents start engaging in gene therapy, we are always going to be here.

And you know what else?

We’re never going to be more than about 4 or 5 percent of the population.

So what are you so worried about? Humanity will continue to be fruitful and multiply.

Think of gays as the cooling rods in the nuclear reactor of the human overpopulation machine.

And heck, some of us are even being fruitful ourselves.

Bush’s comments remind me of when Dan Quayle, staunchly anti-choice as he was, said that he would support his daughter’s decision if she got pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. It’s not quite analogous, but it’s another case where a general principle smacks into a real live person.

President Bush: if Mary Cheney will make a “fine mom,” and if “Mary Cheney’s child will in fact have loving parents” – why shouldn’t that child be allowed to have married parents, too?