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/ dave /
Ventura criticizes organized religion, defends Tailhook
Star Tribune Published Thursday, September 30, 1999
Gov. Jesse Ventura says organized religion is a ``sham,'' a Navy sexual harassment scandal was misunderstood and he wants to be reincarnated as a 38-DD bra, according to an interview in the upcoming issue of Playboy magazine.
Ventura blamed organized religion for the unpopularity of legalized prostitution, which he has said should be considered.
``Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers,'' the governor told a Playboy interviewer. ``It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business.''
He later added, ``The religious right wants to tell people how to live.''
In an interview conducted over three days this summer with contributing editor Lawrence Grobel, Ventura aired his views on subjects ranging from beautiful women to his dim view of life inside the White House to his past drug use. The interview appears in the November issue, which goes on sale Monday. The Associated Press obtained an advance copy.
Ventura's spokesman John Wodele said he wanted to clarify Ventura's quotes on religion.
``Understand that he was talking about extremists of the religious right who are often intolerant, and the governor cannot stand intolerance,'' Wodele said. Ventura and his wife, Terry, are members of a local church, Wodele added. Ventura, however, has said he does not frequently attend church.
The governor, a former Navy SEAL who spent time in Southeast Asia in the early 1970s, said he couldn't condone the Navy's Tailhook scandal, but he understood it. Female officers were groped and fondled by aviators attending parties during a three-day conference at a Las Vegas hotel in 1991.
``These are people who live on the razor's edge and defy death and do things where people die. They're not going to consider grabbing a woman's breast or buttock a major situation. That's much ado about nothing,'' he said.
Grobel suggested it wasn't trivial for the women.
``So? You have to create these people for your own protection,'' Ventura said.
Ventura declined to detail his military service or answer when asked whether he had killed anyone, calling it an ``inappropriate'' question and ``no one's business.''
Among the lighter subjects was how he would choose to come back in another life. ``If I could be reincarnated as a fabric, I would like to come back as a 38-DD bra,'' Ventura said.
Ventura talked about the best part of his job. ``It's good to be king,'' he said. ``The best thing is that there's no one in this state who can tell me what to do.''
And the worst: ``You become a slave. I can't go anywhere without guards. You become a prisoner of your own success,'' Ventura said.
Although he has said he doesn't plan to run for president next year, Ventura said if he did, he would wait until summer to enter the race.
``I would let (Vice President) Gore and (Texas Gov. George W.) Bush hang each other with all the rope they have, to the point where the public couldn't stand either of them. Their disapproval ratings would skyrocket,'' he said. ``Then you enter the race three months before the election and take the whole thing.''
But he wouldn't run because the president ``lives in a jail cell. He's the king of the jail cell. He's the most powerful man in the free world, but he's not really free, is he?''
Ventura said drugs and prostitution should not be ``imprisoning crimes'' because the government has more important things to do. During his campaign for governor in fall 1998, he said Minnesota should consider legalized prostitution and marijuana.
He didn't answer yes or no when asked whether he would legalize them, but said, ``Prohibiting something doesn't make it go away. Prostitution is criminal, and bad things happen because it's run illegally by dirtbags who are criminals. If it's legal, then the girls could have health checks, unions, benefits, anything any other worker gets, and it would be far better.''
And he added, ``The prohibition of drugs causes crime. You don't have to legalize it, just decriminalize it. Regulate it. Create places where the addict can go get it.''
Playboy asked Ventura when he last chewed a peyote button, smoked marijuana or used LSD. Ventura said it was a ``while ago,'' that he hadn't done most of those things, but had ``smoked a joint, and there's nothing wrong with that.''
Ventura detailed his previously expressed belief that John F. Kennedy's assassination was a conspiracy. He said he believes assassins were hired. Playboy asked who hired them.
``I don't know if I want to get this on your tape. I don't want people to think I'm some sort of erratic nut running the state of Minnesota. If you truly want to know, I believe we did, the military industrial complex. I believe Kennedy was going to withdraw us from Vietnam and there were factions that didn't want that,'' Ventura said.
The governor said armed guards at schools are something that should be considered, in part because of the two teen-agers who killed their classmates in Littleton, Colo.
``You can't negotiate with people like that. You take them out,'' Ventura said.
The governor has a permit to carry a gun, but said he ``hardly ever'' does and only if he's alone.
On other issues:
-College athletes shouldn't have to take classes to play, he said. ``If you go to college to play football, why don't they teach you how to deal with agents? Schools should prepare these kids for what they're going to do.''
-Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes: ``I don't like his flat tax - we already have that; it's called Social Security and look what a mess that's in.''
-Women's wrestling: ``Women's wrestling can thank silicone. Breast implants are what make it popular. Before that, it was right up there with the midgets, an added attraction.''
-Death threats: He said he gets one a week.
-Sophia Loren: The ``most beautiful woman who's ever set foot on the planet.''
-Attractive women: ``I've always been attracted to brunettes more than blondes. I enjoy women whose bodies are real. I don't care for the ones who have had breast implants and their lips done.''