Stoopid is as stoopid does

Fear and hatred of “the other” has reached ridiculous levels.  The President of the United States is going to speak to school children, and white “conservative” ignorant people are keeping their kids home from school, or bombarding their school administrations with fictitious objections to stop “the socialist indoctrination” from happening.

Did they protest President George H.W. Bush when he spoke to kids and asked them to “help the President”?  No.

Did they protest when President Ronald Reagan spoke to children, and gave his misguided “trickle-down economics” theory in answer to a question?  No.

But the “black fascist socialist hitler” is doing something wrong, right?

More and more, as the untruths are piled on top of each other like corpses in front of outnumbered and scared invaders beating a slow and forced retreat, I am unnerved by the inability of rational people, conservatives, liberals and progressives alike, to stem the tide.  This latest objection against the President speaking to schoolchildren and encouraging them to do well in school is merely another straw (although the camel’s back is noticeably strained).  On top of the birthers, the deathers, the death panels, “Obamacare”, the bailout of the banks (which was President Bush, but what are facts?), the negotiations with terrorists (I mean the diplomacy with Iran), the failure of the war in Afghanistan (that President Bush began and forgot), the stimulus package which is saving the deregulated orgy that was wall street, and the reform of the for-profit health insurance industry into an actual health-care industry, the white people who wanted John McCain to be president are proving to be sore losers.

They’re showing up to public discussion with arms, misunderstanding both the first and second amendments to the Constitution.  They’re arguing the primacy of the tenth amendment, or the Reserve Clause, and stating the federal government doesn’t have the power to legislate to the states.  They’re abusing the very rights they “cherish” because they lost to a black man, who’s aiming to keep the promises he made when he was campaigning.

I’ve said before I hate stupid people.  But that hate is beginning to eat me up.  So I’m working on understanding that Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity are simply expressing a different point of view based on insecurity and challenges to white male domination of this country that they are unable to fathom.  I’m working on being more like Senator Franken who is able to address people who disagree without displaying the frustration at their idiocy and unfounded accusations that I’m simply unable to do at this point.

Keeping your kids home so that they won’t hear the President say go to school and do your work so you can grow up and be big and strong and successful is stoopid.  And I don’t hate the parents for being stoopid.

I just feel sorry for their children.

Text of President Obama’s Address

Planned Obama Speech to Students Sparks Protest

Obama’s education speech no cause for debate

another stupid person

This is why I hate stupid people.  It must be hard to be smarter than your brother, better looking than your father, and overlooked by everyone with morals, intelligence, and taste.  So Jeb Bush is trying to get in the limelight by admitting he’s an idiot.  If he doesn’t know whether the President of the United States is a socialist, then . . . he’s stupid.

I wanna be prez, too.

With the Republican Party in disarray – Senator Ensign’s parents paid his mistress and her husband $96,000 after he’d screwed and paid them; Governor Sanford’s hike on the Appalachian Trail makes him pariah on two continents; ex-Governor Palin hates quitters and is quitting her job at the same time (talk about self-loathing); Representative Boehner is . . . Representative Boehner; Governor Jindal hasn’t been seen or heard form publicly since he died like a quail after President Obama’s State of the Union speech in February; Michael Steele?; Senator McConnell is impotent politically because Senator Franken IS the 60th Democratic vote; and all the able elephants are keeping their heads down and their mouths closed – the son of 41 and the brother of 43 is trying to step into the void, and only managing to stick his foot in his mouth.

He’d be amusing, if he wasn’t so sad.  I hate stupid people.

Youth is wasted on the young

unless you run a bank that you have over-leveraged to the point of insolvency and need a government subsidy to stay open. Then it’s wasted on you, too.

Often in my profession I am called upon to silence large groups of thirteen and fourteen year old children. It usually takes one loud noise to get their attention, and then two commands to quiet them. But there are always those students who keep right on talking. Into the growing silence, with their peers staring them in the face, they keep describing their latest soccer practice, the three-point shot they made, or who called their house last night. It takes a special, personalized direction for them. I have to step into personal space, make eye comtact, and say, “yes, I’m talking to you, too.”

The latest bank bailout million dollar junket is that clueless seventh grade boy looking like Alfred E. Newman as he gets reprimanded for not following directions. These executives, though, are not listening with my taxes, and that’s not okay.

It’s one thing to be young and stupid, because with age and growth come wisdom and the experience that help one develop better judgement.  These guys, it seems, simply got older.