I've become rather tired of railing on and on about how idiotic and
venal one Republican politician and pundit after another are. After
all, if another guy is stupid and crooked it doesn't mean I'm a genius
and free from error, nor those with whom I agree. I'd like to say I stay
calm and rational and analytical or I stay quiet, but sometimes. . .
sometimes the things you hear them say just take your breath away like a
sudden blast of 25 below Chicago wind and you've just got to say
something and call an idiot an idiot.
Washington State Rep. Ed Orcutt (R),
who would like to tax bicycles (what, you really thought they don't
like to tax things?) would like to justify it by telling constituents
that bicycles, or at least people who ride them, give off more carbon dioxide
than they would driving a car. OK, so you passed middle school science
and I don't have to tell you that even Honest Lance in his prime wasn't
sucking in 400 CFM of air and oxidizing several gallons of gasoline an
hour moving a couple tons down the road, but Eddy boy here either is
grossly uneducated, dumb as a doorknob, a damn liar -- or all of the
above. Am I repeating myself here? I guess so, I already mentioned that
he was a Republican politician.
He doesn't need to be
otherwise. He doesn't need to be truthful or make any kind of sense
when flatulating to the fold. Republicans will believe anything as long
as it's part of the creed or think it will save them or their owners a
buck, which is pretty much the same thing. No, as you might suspect,
and like the bulk of the things Republicans rant and rave about, it's
not true.
In a way, you and I can smile and act
dismissive of such idiotic antics but there's a danger in it. Fighting
with idiots can make us lazy and it can make us smug and sometimes we
get caught with our pants down and our dunce caps on. The Nietzsche
thing about fighting with monsters applies to arguing with idiots. We
still have to be as careful as ever to be sure of our facts, not to
sound like idiots ourselves and sometimes when you look into the abyss
of stupidity, the abyss looks into you.
Lucky for Orcutt that there is no tax on bad science...
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of bad science out there and you know the government needs the income.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the pols that sit on the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP's side of that brain trust is mostly from resource rich (as in "O(i)l bidneth") states like Texas. It's also got a number of avowed anti-science RWA dickwads on it.
The Senate's is similar.
You're right and bad science is big business all by itself. Marketing in lab coats. Then there's "creation science."
ReplyDeleteYessuh - my Gulfstream 5 makes less pollution than yer average protest rally and trees are the main source of smog.
Why is it always Texas?
Don't forget there is also a huge need for bad scientific evidence and "experts" in product liability lawsuits. A lucrative field for the chosen few. Some deep pocket contracts.
ReplyDeleteIf there were a FLATulent tax on gasbags, we wouldn't need to sequester.
ReplyDeleteWe talk about the greedy drug and health care industry, but the industry based on fake studies, miracle berries, diet supplements and all that -- the bad science industry -- is just huge.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I remember when some "experts" set OJ free by claiming that a blood sample would degrade over time so as to make someone else's blood test as OJ's. Americans will buy anything, it seems.