A Quantum Theory of Mitt Romney
Fig. 2: A Feynman diagram of an encounter between a Romney and an anti-Romney. The resulting collision annihilates both, leaving behind a single electron and a $20 bill.
Things that make me laugh at 10 in the morning. David Javerbaum is officially the cleverest person in the universe.
Thomas Jefferson, 1816.
You can learn the most interesting things about history. From what I can gauge from my recent history class readings, Thomas Jefferson absolutely despised the financial industry and had serious misgivings about capitalism. Republicans and Tea Partiers would totally call Thomas Jefferson a dirty socialist if he was around today.
Oh, and Thomas Paine, too. People should really read what that guy had to say about property redistribution and mandatory government aid. The stuff of capitalist nightmares, I tell you.
GOP presidential contender Rick Perry, misstating the U.S. voting age, which is 18. (via officialssay)
His team must be DYING.
There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today’s Republican party (I disavow the ridiculous ‘GOP’ nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered ‘grand’) is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today’s Republican Party ‘in spite of’ is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.
…The population of the United States is more than 300 million and it includes some of the best and brightest that the human species has to offer, probably more so than any other country in the world. There is surely something wrong with a system for choosing a leader when, given a pool of such talent and a process that occupies more than a year and consumes billions of dollars, what rises to the top of the heap is George W Bush. Or when the likes of Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin can be mentioned as even remote possibilities.
…a politician’s attitude to evolution, however peripheral it might seem, is a surprisingly apposite litmus test of more general inadequacy. This is because unlike, say, string theory where scientific opinion is genuinely divided, there is about the fact of evolution no doubt at all. Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as well. Evolution is not some recondite backwater of science, ignorance of which would be pardonable. It is the stunningly simple but elegant explanation of our very existence and the existence of every living creature on the planet. Thanks to Darwin, we now understand why we are here and why we are the way we are. You cannot be ignorant of evolution and be a cultivated and adequate citizen of today.
”Mainline: Richard Dawkins Takes on Gov. Rick Perry and the Republican Party
RICHARD DAWKINS IS OFFICIALLY THE SEXIEST MAN IN THE WORLD. IT IS KNOWN.
You can’t be an expert on politics without being an expert on life
Got into an argument with an old middle school peer who idolizes Bill O’Reilly (wtf, for real, I know). I said that Bill O’Reilly doesn’t even know that ocean waves are caused by the moon, and he said, “so what? That doesn’t have anything to do with his political opinions” or of the like.
OH. In that moment, I wanted so, so badly to just verbally abuse him with a string of insults like “asshat”, “moron”, “wouldn’t recognize logic if it punched you in the face” and just call it a day.
Politics are influenced by life. Science IS life. Therefore, science influences every single itty-bitty part of our political system, down to the tiniest minute detail. You are CRAZY if you think that science can ever be separated from politics. They are inextricable, more so than anything else on this planet.
So when a person doesn’t know basic fifth grade science, then that person isn’t qualified to give their opinion on life. That includes the political process. So, to all “political people”, please take a biology or environmental science class. Take a sociology class. Take a European history class. Take a Greek philosophy class and actually understand the philosophy of a democracy instead of tossing the word about meaninglessly. Knowledge is not an elitist flaw.
Oh, and after I told him something similar of the sort, he blocked me from his Facebook wall.
