Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, David Addington, Alan Greenspan and many of the architects of the conservatives' disastrous policies are well educated, highly intelligent people.

Obama's clearly smarter than Bush, but his judgment, in many ways, is only marginally better. Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton, Bob Gates and Jim Jones continue to advocate counterproductive, failing policies.

They may have higher IQs than Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin and George W. Bush, but I don't think they're much wiser.

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Amerika is built on it, and is irretrievably lost to it.

E.O.S.

Captain OUT

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typical mindset that plagues liberals..they are the smarter politicians.. again let me refer you to Chicago politics, Ill gov,, Baltimore mayor, NY gov, NJ gov.. Madoff and a host of other "intelligent" democrats.

Considering their were a number of factors that got Obama into the schools he went to, none of which had to do with his "intelligence", we do not yet know how "intelligent" he actually is.

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put a comma after "no one."

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I believe our culture is very ambivalent about intelligence.

There's no denying our love affair with idiocy. But America fell in love with Alfred Einstein and twice elected Bill Clinton, a man with an 180 of IQ. So the election of Obama does not totally break the mold.

Our culture creates simple-minded characters who are charming and wonderful, as with Forrest Gump. But the film's subtext is clearly that a hidden intelligence lay behind the hero's apparent simplicity. Gump was the archetype of The Holy Fool"--the apparent simpleton who is in truth wiser than the rest of us. Our popular culture is full of examples of this ambivalent archetype.

Some current TV shows, like "House" and "NUMBERS," are actually making smart folks the heroes. The super-smart characters in these shows are a mixture of good and bad qualities, betraying the mixed feelings we seem to have about intelligence.

PS: A propos, here is my latest foolish and silly clip.

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Under representative democracy stupidity is a vested interest and time honored tradition.


FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

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I'm afraid our cup no longer holds any water.

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who was also a serious US presidential candidate.

Rice was a brilliant man, the son of a pig farmer, who made a big name and several fortunes with his clowning and organizing skills. He also drank, brawled and lost money. It was as though both the intelligence and stupidity we think of as characteristic of Americans were at war inside one man. Rice craved respectability but invited disrespect and his fellow citizens gave him both.

I think that this duality is based upon the divide in our communal psyche. On one hand we admire and reward ambition and achievement, but on the other, while we know we fall short of it, we want to uphold the ideals of fairness and equality.

Carlyon's book is a tremendous achievement, well researched and a delight to read. It gives a great perspective on a classic American/human dilemma--wanting to be part of the crowd while at the same time wanting to stand out from it.

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That is how historians one-hundred years fro today will remember the years between 1981 and 2009.

Think about this for a moment or two. At the height of America's power the American people decided to send a feeble-minded, failed "B" movie actor to the White House. Twelve years later, they decided to elect the half-witted son of the movie actor's mediocre vice-president.

Eight years ago, poll after stupid poll said the most of the people who voted for George W. Bush said they did so because they would have preferred to have a beer with him over the smarty pants, policy wonk, Al Gore. Sure! I would prefer to have a beer with Bush over Gore any day of the week - if only to smash the little thug upside his head with a bottle of Papst Blue Ribbon. But I'll let you in on a little secret: I sleep much more soundly at night knowing that my president is an articulate, intelligent human being. Imagine how troubled my slumber has been these eight, long years knowing that the man with his finger on the "NEW-CUE-LAR" trigger has the IQ od a half-eaten box of Milk Duds.

That this idiotic little guttersnipe was elected twice to the most powerful office in the world defies credulity. And considering the gravitas of the two men he was able to defeat, his tenure as president is all-the-more embarrassing. It is akin to Jascha Heifetz and Itzhak Perlman losing to Jack Benny on the American Idol violin competition.

All in the First Crime Family

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

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"The trickle down should come soon, but for now the big signal that the era of style over substance (and not that much style) is on it's way out (probably through the "in" door) is the election of Barack Obama." [Emphasis mine.]

Umm... Sorry to mention this, but "it's" should be "its." It's a possessive pronoun, like "his," and you wouldn't write "hi's," would you?

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Yes, George W. wasn't the brightest bulb. But his main fault was not a lack of IQ: It was his arrogance, his lack of curiosity, his strutting macho posturing. This has little to do with intelligence and more to do with character.

George W. has some serious character flaws; so does Bill Clinton; so does John McCain.

I'm hopeful about Obama because he appears to be a man of strong character--which is much more important than raw IQ.

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""We finally elected someone who... stopped swallowing Wall St's bullshit..."

This comment makes me wonder where the naivete ends and the self-delusion begins.

Did you happen to notice who Obama's major backers were? Hedge fund and private equity predators and parasites.

Did you happen to notice who he has appointed to his economic team? The people - Rubin, Summers, et.al. - who bear direct responsibility for the catastrophe that has befallen us. With the proposed appointment of Geithner as head of the Treasury Department we have one of the principals behind the massive, secretive and continuing redistribution of wealth from the treasury to finance capital.

I voted for the man, but only because I felt that his judicial appointments were likely to be better than those of McCain. Yes, he has a compelling personal story, is intelligent and eloquent, and has a lovely family, but that hardly means that he will be acting in the interests of middle and working class people. Just watch as he betrays Labor by caving on the Employee Free Choice Act, takes his foreign policy cues from AIPAC, imposes de facto structural reajustment policies on the country, and accelerates attacks on public education through re-authorization of No Child Left Behind and expansion of charter schools.

"Change We Can Deceive In."

My only hope is that, having raised hopes that he will likely betray, some interesting and creative possibilities will result from the widespread disappointment that people are likely to feel.

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In short, those who seek to appear intelligent but really aren't will cause this promising trend to reverse itself very quickly. I personally am grateful that moron culture may be on its way down the toilet (about damn time!), but when intelligence becomes culturally appreciated, you get a large number of posers whose actions ultimately torpedo any real cultural progress that is made. Fashion will suddenly dictate that airheaded celebrities start using big words they don't know the meanings of and begin quoting those who had actually deep thoughts which they don't understand-and doing it very badly and obviously. In time, fake brilliance will begin to look like a laughingstock and moron fashion, like the herpes-esque disease that it is, will spring back into style yet again.

What we need to do is banish stupidity for the long term. How that can be done is beyond me, but I think this sudden acceptance of brains over idiocy is temporary at best- merely a pause in the demolition of society rather than a full-on stoppage. I hope like hell I'm wrong, but as I seem to be more often than not these days, depressingly, I doubt that I am.

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PLANNERS CONGRATULATE THEMSELVES ON SITING DENSE DEVELOPMENT CLOSE TO TRANSPORTATION, BUT DO NOTHING TO DISCOURAGE UNSUSTAINABLE POPULATION GROWTH.

Population density contributes to global warming. Water tables are dropping, and not enough snow is falling on the mountaintops of Asia and CA to sustain the large families that teenage mothers are starting.

Yet progressives no longer talk about population issues, just because the largest families are those of immigrants, while planners and the Sierra Club congratulate themselves on Smart Growth initiatives for high rises.

Celebrating diversity should not mean just not whistling Dixie while nodding in approval to non sustainable population growth while overcrowded schools limit opportunities for the immigrants we claim to cherish.

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In song:

"I'M JUST A LONELY SYNAPSE IN GEORGE W. BUSH'S BRAIN"

www.soundclick.com/mikenobel

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JT: Kids aren't passed along just "for federal dollars". Everybody wants strict standards in school---until his own kid is flunking. Then parents fly to the school on broomsticks, pressuring teachers, administrators, and counselors to "give Johnny the benefit of the doubt", charging "personality conflict" with the teacher, insisting that the workload was unreasonable or the teacher incompetent, and in every other way trying to get Johnny passed along. I actually knew of one father who wrote to his Congressman trying to get his 11th grade son's grade changed. Parents who REALLY want their kids to take school seriously do not take them out of school for a trip to Disneyland, babysitting the little sister, or sleeping late after a rock concert. They do not let their kid go on an abbreviated school schedule to allow time for a fast-food job the purpose of which is to finance a car that is needed to get to the fast-food job. Attitude toward learning begins at home.

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I can't believe that an article concerning the demise of stupidity contains the misused "it's" as a possessive more than once.

"The trickle down should come soon, but for now the big signal that the era of style over substance (and not that much style) is on it's way out (probably through the "in" door) is the election of Barack Obama."

and

"It may not have been Paris in the '20s (we'll discuss it's less-bright side later) but it was probably the last time smart was cool."

In addition, "tribble" is not a proper noun, so "tribble-esque" should not be capitalized. (One would not capitalize "feline-esque" because "feline" is also not a proper noun.

I know these are small quibbles, but one would expect that the author might do a better job of proof-reading when writing an article concerning the dumbing down of Americans.

I work for a public school system, and it is truly amazing how many so-called educators cannot write more than two sentences in a row that are grammatically correct and don't make one cringe. Many school principals think "high school" is a proper noun. Few of them know what a gerund is, and even more of them don't know that "I" is never, ever the object of a sentence even if it follows the word "and." They write in the future tense for situations in the present. (For example, they insist on putting phrases in their handbooks like "chewing gum will not be permitted" when chewing gum is clearly not permitted now.) They don't know where to put periods or commas, which words get capitalized, or how to use possessives.

I am probably overly sensitive to incorrect grammar used by people who should know better, but when one writes for a living, it seems only fair to expect that writing to be grammatically correct.

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Ever since WWII, Americans have been subjected to a concerted and deliberate dumbing-down program designed to turn the populace into compliant sheeple, and what a HUGE success it's been. Americans certainly have become, as a society, dumb as bricks.

Critical thinking? Who even knows what that is? March to a different drummer? Everyone seems much too cowed to do anything like that. Conform, fit in, follow the crowd, downplay intelligence, these are the dumber guidelines we're expected to live by.

SAVE yourselves! TURN OFF your TVs! RUN from the Mainstream Media! Circus Maximus is on your video screen right now in the form of "reality" TV. No need to even go to the Coliseum. It's only a matter of time until death is on display on TV, in real time. Every ad is a dumbing-down ad. Every one of them! turn them off. Read a book, see a play, write something, make something, anything but watch TV.

We are reliving the fall of Rome. The executive has taken monarchial powers. The senate is made irrelevant. The story is the same. Only we can stop it. Does anyone even care? Turn off your TVs. Do not listen to MSM news. Read blogs instead. Read independent media, not mainstream media. For your own good, for your family's wellbeing, for the good of society.

If we continue down this road, America is done for. The grand experiment in democracy will have failed. Only under the US Constitution are the people sovereign, even if only in theory. If we fail to uphold that, and the bankers and corporations hope we fail and are working hard to help us fail, if we fail to uphold our constitution, we will have lost our republic and will be thrust back into total economic slavery, under the bootheels of the "captains" of industry, the robber barons.

It's our choice but we have to stop the dumbing down. The first step is to turn off the mainstream media, turn off the TVs. Do it! Do it today.

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Even if it turned Misery (MO) to Mccain. Besides, neither Mccain nor Obama had any intentions of changing course. Both are nothing more than big business/military status quo puppets. You stupid Obamabots will be breaking down in tears by the end of his term as he keeps pandering to the Republicans !

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Ok. I was trying to come up with something witty to say about my fellows, but can't. It's that sad.

Education is glossed over, and it's not just your imagined great satans--the deer slaughtering, wrestling-watching hill rabble that raised me lovingly, with a great education, to be successful.

It's also the folks who prize abstract, selfish things they've invested in, over education. Words like "diversity", "moral values", and "intelligent design" (of all stripes, mind you...) have taken the place of giving our kids the cynicism, skepticism, and brazen "prove it" attitude that we need to function as a nation progressing, rather than necessarily a "progressive nation". When you hear anything that someone says, your first response should be "bullsh_t, until I know better". Kids don't say bullsh_t enough these days. You've convinced them, in large part, that fairy tales and projected outcomes trump pragmatism and hard data. Look at those who deny grobal worming. Look at the schools that are instituting "Islam week" as a function of "cultural studies".

We did it. They buy it. The reading, the maths, children learning isn't as important as it is in other cultures, and we ain't just talking yogurt, folks (to borrow liberally from Bushayan quotes). We'll reap what we've sown.

Now we have to deal with it. You can call it stupidity; I call it a failure to put emphasis on rigorous challenges just because someone said it on duh TeeVee or the internets. We've lost our objectivity, and you religious people who invoke the satan Rand every time you hear the word objectivity can kiss my ass in hell, thanks. Politics aside, the notion of objectivity is a heckuva nice place to start, rather than your contrived "values".

Oh, and yah. You two sides in this poo flinging contest egg each other on. 'Gratulations for your contributions to the systematic dumbing down of Terry Constance Jones.

Now, can someone from alternet go check on Palin's spawn and the younger Spears sister again? It's been a while since my juicy gossip appendage was stroked appropriately.

Personally, your subjective brand of so-called "intellectualism" smacks more of your personal take on "moral values" than any sort of intellectual pursuit, although I do give some preliminary praise to Obama for filling some of his cabinet seats with qualified, competent, and knowledgeable people, in vast difference to the last sixteen years of demoboob and republicrat control.

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I'd like to think that we're passing through the idiocy stage. But when I see how our society responds to Israel's illegal activities, I realize that we have a long ways to go. Too far, really. And this lunacy isn't the result of one village idiot - it's the whole Congress, the whole Media, and the whole Society.

It's times like this that I'm ashamed to be an American

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For me the height of the American media's love affair with stupidity came in 2003 with the story of one Aron Ralston.

Mr. Ralston, a rock and mountain climbing enthusiast, amputated his right arm after having it trapped under a bolder for five days in the Utah desert. Mr. Ralston would not have been in such dire straights had he not broken the cardinal commandment of so-called "extreme" sports: He told no one where he was going.

"...Aron Ralston realized that he had violated one of the most basic rules of the outdoors. Always make sure someone knows where you are. But in a lapse from his normal routine, Aron had not told a soul. He wasn't expected back at work for days. No one would miss him, and when they did, they wouldn't know where to begin to look."
MSNBC.com

Pretty friggin' stupid on Mr. Ralston's part, eh? Yet for sacrificing his right arm to the American cult of stupidity Mr. Ralston is lionized to this day.

Unlike the talking heads of the mainstream American media I do not consider Mr. Ralston a "hero." Amputating his right arm was not brave, it was an act of desperation and a matter of survival that all stemmed from Mr. Ralston's initial stupidity.

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Once it was discovered that if tempted we would eat up empty-calorie TV 24/7, we got it, 24/7.

Did anyone ever think this would not be the case? Surely, the people who started calling televisions "idiot-boxes" and "boob-tubes" not only could have predicted, but were predicting this eventuality.

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Don't blame Homer!
The first 12 years or so of the Simpsons was filled with brilliant satire.

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People tend to confuse EDUCATION with INTELLIGENCE. Bush went and graduated from Harvard (now if that wasn't because of family connections I don't know what is) because he surely isn't intelligent!

The dumbing down of America has happened slowly over time, however, it surely culminated in the election of 2004 of GWB and the blind support that he was given after 2001!

Wake up America!!!!!!

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He sounds that way. At least until the teleprompter breaks.

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The title of the article implies that a certain percentage of Americans have a choice.

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There was a time when the Left's discourse remained civil, well researched and polite. Instead, the author of this article and many others on Alternet utilize the slams and "How Dumb is that?" verbal tactics of the right. It smacks of elitism and condescension, that, if Left authors would take a cue from President-elect Obama, it's time to end, as well.

While I have many criticisms of Obama's proposed agenda, I celebrate his civility, his desire to reach across party lines and to end the political bifurcation of america with honest, open debate. Obama concedes too much sometimes for my progressive tastes, but he has a way of disarming his contractors with intelligent, reasonable argument, and that's necessary in these divisive times.

It's time for Progressives, Liberals and Lefties to reach out to those we disagree with and find common ground. In the end, it might change both our minds about who we are what america needs to grow and mature into a New World Example.

Peace

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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1aBaX9GPSaQ

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The problem is not stupidity exactly because everyone is ignorant until they become educated; the problem is schizophrenic delusions on the part of the public and sociopathic decisions on the part of the leaders. No amount of education, however erudite, can reverse a mental illness promoted and abetted by society. Remember the Nazis?

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James A. Swanson
www.bushleagueofnations.com [For FREE download of entire book]

Is flamboyant hair a good indicator of a politician’s lack of intelligence?

Keep reading only if you like poetic humor.

With apologies to Carl Sandburg, I offer the following six-line poem about two of my favorite nitwits—Rod Blagojevich and Sarah Palin:

“The Bug Was Hid in Blago’s Hair”

The bug was hid in Blago’s hair.
Fitzgerald thus did not play fair.
As for the hair, I do not care,
Be it Blago, or Palin fair.
But when one looks beneath the hair,
For Rod and Sarah, nothing’s there.

by James A. Swanson, Los Altos, CA

"Bush League of Nations"
www.bushleagueofnations.com [for FREE download of entire book]

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. . . but don't put the cart before the horse.

Obama is not president until the 20th, and expectations are very very high. People are already making the comparison, with a straight face, to Kennedy and/or Lincoln. I worry, given the ADD-like tendencies of the masses (and the unrelenting efforts of Republican operatives) that unless things get drastically better in a very short period, Obama will get the blame and we'll end up with President Palin in 2012.

That terrifies me.

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On January 7, second-term Republican Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia and two friends prayed over a door. It was not just any door, but the entranceway beneath the Capitol that President-elect Barack Obama will pass through as he walks onto the inaugural stage to take the oath of office. “I hope and pray that as God stirs the heart of our new president that President Obama will listen and will heed God’s direction,” Broun proclaimed.

Standing beside Broun, Rev. Patrick Mahoney launched into a prayer originally delivered by Billy Graham at Richard Nixon’s inauguration in 1969. “For too long we have neglected thy word and ignored thy laws,” Mahoney preached. “…We have sowed to the wind and are now reaping a whirlwind of crime, division, and rebellion. And now with the wages of sin staring us in the face, we remember thy words.”

While Mahoney prayed, Rev. Rob Schenck turned his palms to the sky and muttered, “Yes” and “Have mercy” over and over. Then, he dipped his fingers in a jar of oil and painted several crosses on the door’s brass framing “as they did the furnishings of the tabernacle in the temple to the use of God and his word,” he prayed.

http://www.thedailybeast.com
/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-14/inaugural-freak-show

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.

While slavery was practiced in America, a slave could be put to death for learning how to read.

It seems that the slaveholders felt that an educated slave was harder to keep under control.

Interesting, that.

.

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judging by this article and the comments that followed.

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Tom Deagan, I love you! This comment of yours is
brilliant!

Thanks!Chappie

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YOU ARE LIKE THE LUNATIC IN THE MENTAL HOSPITAL

With a Nuclear Bomb Hidden Up Your Arse

Whilst We Have Got You in a Straight Jacket in a Padded Cell

We haven't yet worked out how to stop you having a shit and letting it off

But WE - The Rest Of The World - is Working On It

Tony

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I fear there may be an uncomfortable truth to dustdevils' remark ..Obama has been groomed for president as evidence by his rapid rise as DNC speaker in 2004 to winning the election in 2008. He has achieved what few ever do in 4 years.The political puppeteers have relied upon (if not created) a hope starved America. So in continuing to be hungry for hope, perhaps the movement becomes larger than the man and the machine. The expectations and stakes are much higher and the public may have finally woken up. Only time will tell.

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If you can believe the latest poll, Bush's approval rating is at 34%. One third of the population. That means 100,000,000 of your neighbors are certifiably ignorant. We are doomed.

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we are still as stupid as ever. Some evidence:
1. Palin's ticket got 47% of the vote. That's about half of the voters voting for a VP who thinks that living in Alaska makes you an expert on Russia!!who does not know whether Africa is a country or a continent.
2. At Airports: A flight was delayed and a guy was kicked off an airplane because he has Arabic writing on his tee shirt that nobody knows what it means. Bottled water is still a threat to the passengers safety on an airplane..and millions of passengers have to take their shoes off before they board airplanes. The leader of that department advise the pres on the national security.
3. When we rescue our failing economy, we rescue the rich first who do not need to be rescued in the first place. Nothing for the minimum wage earners whose taxes we are spending.
4. We keep electing the same corrupt congress over and over while we give them a 20% approval rating. We are a democracy but nobody can have a viable political party outside of the two parties (for how long now??)
5. We think that government should give us more health care, college education, meds for the elderly and strong military but want to pay lower taxes. We think government should take care of our elderly.. not the kids and grand kids.
6. We love freedom but less than 5% know what freedoms are granted in the first amendment.
7. We think that the murder of a million Iraqi has made us safer and our new president wants a do over in Afghanistan (another million muslim martyrs will make us really really safe.
8. We think that watching TV shows about fat people who lose weight or workout would make us lose weight.
9. everybody is entitled to a free college education, graduate with an A average and a job that can not be outsourced to hardworking teen from India and China
10. Everybody entitled to have sex with whoever whenever and wherever without commitment or marriage but expect to have stable relationships and loving spouses and children who are well behaved and special. There are no irresponsible parents. There are no bad kids. Only greedy corporations

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Just a friendly reminder...the use of proper grammar does not actually indicate that an individual is intelligence or rational. Actually, the use of proper grammar only demonstrates the ability to follow academic authority.

IMO, many gramatical, language and spelling rules are impractical, over-complicated, and illogical...especially English.

In the end, what is more important...style (grammar) or substance?

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I understood a dumb person to be one who lacks intellectual ability, and a stupid person to be one who doesn't use the intelligence s/he has. There could never be a dumb Harvard professor, but such an intellectual could concievably be stupid.

Being stupid is therefore derogatory, whereas being dumb is merely unfortunate.

As for intellectual ability in general, I'd say it is far more important than basket-weaving talent but, contrary to what a lot of people think, it is not the sole measure of personal worth.

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is not a possessive pronoun. It is the contraction for it is. It is easy to see a lot of non-Americans are writing on this site, and that is why they don't know how to use the language.

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Obama's no Lincoln.

-As the country prepares for a new administration Obama acts like a "political rock star" with his train trip to DC and his parties along the way (a bit like Roosevelt). But this is not same century.

-Nor will this train trip ruse bring him an image of those previous heroes of the people. The media looks the other way and will tear us apart when we try to do change or remove bad policies (Obama the hero of the RW Chicago Tribune...a failing media giant about to go bankrupt).

-Obama was in Congress for six years and did little to object to the Bush administration policies or even protest against the lies to the people. Obama gave his "terrorist fear speech" on CSPAN. He never demanded the truth about who the "terrorists" were on 911. Lincoln never spread fear. He never demanded Cheney and Bush be required to tell the truth about their involvement and stand down on Katrina or 911.

-Obama promised accountability but never remembered it when he went to DC. He gave Bush open access to our treasury and freedoms. It was his duty under the Constitution to protect the people's treasury. He has given Bush, Inc. $700 billion dollars as he exits out the door of the White House. No accountability or over sight by government guarantied.

-Paulson refuses to give answer for the bailout money yet remains in power to do his robbery of American tax dollars. The "secret" of the bailout is for Mafia like bankers around the world who would profit off us for their Empire agendas. Lincoln demanded less corruption by war profiteers. No tax dollars to foreign governments, greedy CEOs, or Mafia.

-Lincoln tried to keep the union together. Obama is a globalist who bargains with the Mexican President for amnesty and Empire (against the will of the American people). He cares little about our borders or nationhood.

-Lincoln refused to give the evangelicals power in our government when they demanded money and his support. He told them that they should be thinking about what they could do for god not the other way around. Obama wants to increase our tax dollars to his religious cronies. Even though it violates our Constitution Osama wants a combination of religion and government (which is Fascist).

Obama can compare himself to previous American hero Presidents like Bush...but is this "change"? Seems like the same "dog and pony show" to me. I know Obama is no Roosevelt or Lincoln.

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Let's not become victims of faith on a man.
The problem with bad governments comes from what the People allow, more than what the rulers impose, or in any case, it is a combination.
As hopeful as I am about Obama, let's be careful not to fall prey to irrational faith that will blind us.
To succeed, Obama needs a People to hold him up to his word and to push him, and Congress, to uphold their promises to US.
They still work for US, they are public servants, not saints, not gods, not super-heroes.
Until we work to transform our government into one BY THE PEOPLE, and not by the military machinery, we are not going anywhere.
Drop faith, let a new age of reason and compassion begin.

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Duh, D' oh

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I emailed some thoughts, yesterday, to some of my friends.


You know me well enough for me to share these thoughts with you.


Only recently did I discover that our 44th President is of a minority.

I wanted a candidate who was competent, intelligent, knew history and would provide leadership.

Barack Obama impressed me as being such a person. He was articulate.
I wasn’t interested in Race, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Ethnic background, Age, Gender, Family heritage, Physical attributes, Economic status, etc. I just wanted a competent person who could lead our country, to be the candidate. And so, that is how I voted.

With all the political commentary, today, I was made aware that our 44th President is Black.

I am so astonished. I hadn’t noticed. And I don’t care.

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Not a chance. Think of this as a disease that has to be managed because there is no cure.

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What about people who HAVEN'T gone to Yale, Harvard, or Stanford who still have their critical thinking skills intact? Universities, corporatized as they are now, are socializing institutions for the economic elite of the world and their lumpen-bourgeoisie followers .

We need people who can THINK and ACT in ways that are beneficial to the planet and its peoples, not take orders from Raytheon and General Dynamics while driving home in a Volvo to their McMansions and their retirement funds, which are maturing (well, somewhat) at the expense of people of color and in poverty who are conveniently out of sight from the metropolitan capitalist core.

I don't see this happening with the Obama administration. I see a return to neo-liberalism, 90's-style---continue the feast on the world's resources and poor and talk a lot about being "green" and "compassionate". It's time to pay the ignorance tax---AGAIN!

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I sincerely hope that President Obama will also serve as a role model for young people who constantly use "upspeak" -- the practice of ending virtually every sentence uttered as if it were a question -- to inspire them to speak with assertiveness, confidece, and intelligence. Of course not only young people do this, but it is certainly more prevalent among them. I recently took a graduate class in which practically everyone in the class, including the professor, spoke like this, and although I'm certain many of them are quite smart, they all sounded like a bunch of blithering idiots. Will somebody call folks on this practice, PLEASE???

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"...the future commander in chief is a welcomed experience, potentially leading to an improved cultural environment." (italics added).

Commander in chief of the Armed Services of the USA. Not commander-in-chief of the free citizens of the USA; merely elected President in the Executive Office of a three-branched Constitutionally governed country.

Or are we the New Warrior Society?

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It may well have its origins in the UK. It's origins are about social integration and avoidance of competetion particularly in primary education. No child must feel "left out" or inferior to others. It's logic is based on the concept of "Equality".

My education started in the 1950's in a deprived area of the UK in a very ordinary school. The school was streamed according to ability and achievement - a bit like a football league table. If you were bright and worked hard you could move from the bottom class through to the top class even at the age of 7. The ultimate objective was to pass your 11+ exam - and go to Grammar school.

The content of the classes was structured according to ability. The result was that if you were bright - even in a completely ordinary school - the academic content of for example science and maths taught at the age of 11 - would be higher than that taught now at the age of 18 or even higher in University.

This competetive system was completely dismantled and replaced with a system where virtually all levels of ability are only taught to a level that all can participate in.

The result is that for example - the fundamentals of science and maths - are no longer taught in ordinary schools in the UK. What is taught - is the story of science.

It is now possible to get straight A's in coursework and exams by reproducing the content of the story that was taught - without having any real understandng whatsoever of the fundamental principles behind the content.

You may be able to do this without having any problem solving capability whatsoever, nor any capability of thinking logically or creatively.

You may be able to describe someone from the past and what their achievements were, yet have absolutely no idea or ability to do equivalent and potentially even better work yourself.

The content of TV programs being so dumb, is partly because of this educational system dumbing down the creative capability of those now in the business of creating TV programs, together with them needing to supply what they think the audience wants.

Of course there are exceptions and of course part of the problem is the massive increase in volume of channels and programs.

It is rare however to see something completely original and innovative - and this doesn't just apply to the media and the arts.

Western civilisation is not only dependent on innovation to progress - it is also dependent on fundamental skills just to maintain the society the live in.

Us old farts are retiring - and the younger generation are so short of fundamental skills that we actually need to import better educated immigrants from "third world" countries - to do the jobs that we do not have the skills to do. This is extremely unfair to the third world country of origin - because we are depriving them of their innate skills.

The social experiment is an almost complete disaster.

We need to get back to basics. There is nothing wrong with being a skilled craftsman, and there is nothing wrong with competetion - it encourages excellence.

The kid at the bottom of the class with no real academic skills shouldn't have been sent to University - he should have left school at the age of 15 and got a job as an apprentice - where he would not only be trained on the job - but paid as well.

If he had taken that option he would be earning considerably more than the guy with the PhD. Whilst the bloke with the PhD might be able to call himself a doctor - it ain't a lot of use if he can't earn a living.

Tony

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The first thing that has to go is the series of help books with something like "The Idiot's Guide to..." in the title.

There is nothing at all wrong with not understanding a subject. The wrong thing is to revel in being an idiot.

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The Palins of the world understand this one thing, If you can't blind em with intelligence , baffle em with bullshit. This woman knows how to work bullshit to an incedible level.Little she says makes sense but she knows how to keep it coming ,and keep it coming untlit reason gets buried by it.Never underestermate the power of relentless bull shit. some of it always sticks. If you don't beleive me , listen to one of her speeches. None of it makes sense, but she keeps it coming. After all it's get right wing radio going for years.

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We just elected another president who supports the death penalty (even for crimes other than murder), took tons of money to support the mythical "clean coal," has loaded his cabinet with corporate, Zionist, pro-NAFTA fat cats, is anti-gay marriage, and who has spent the last two days praying to his imaginary friend in the sky (with help from evolution doubter Rick Warren), not to mention a Chief of Staff named after a member of the murderous, racist Stern Gang.

Does the window dressing of his complexion and the feel good wishes of the wishy-washy "progressives" really make us smarter? If we were smarter, we wouldn't be relying on some ambiguous hope in the guise of a new face at the head of the same old machine.

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Denial plus a hefty dose of racism.

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Right now, I'm watching a documentary on Channel 4 TV (UK) called Dave Gorman in America Unchained.

Check it out guys. Its all about REAL people - in America. Real people are everywhere. Don't lose hope!

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Apparently, two separate lines of social lobotomy exist here.

Voters prefer dumb candidates because they are more easily caught when stealing, and thus steal less money. Case in point: the Clay Co., FL sheriff's candidate who promised to steal only for his first two years. His constituency was trailer-dwelling and poor. He was elected, became quite prosperous in his first two years, and then suddenly became reformist and a hard-line enforcer.

Second line is American corporate and HR influence which wants workers just barely smart enough to do their jobs, never smart enough to catch the boss man with his hand in the cookie jar, and never, ever smart enough to organize a union.
Case in point: Dalton, GA, home of the carpet under your feet, where union organizers inevitably never returned home. Their leaders wanted educated workers but never specified that that education was to be in Spanish language and Catholic catechism; no degree or diploma other than these were required.
White or black educated workers were permanent HR waiting room fixtures, and waited forever without result.

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In "The Big Bang Theory", smart men are played as social buffoons. The stereotype of geek = socially awkward is in part a cultural backlash against smart individuals. Average students often hate smart students, first because the smart students never seem to study and yet they get good grades, and second because clique exclusion of the smartest students is a status-building mechanism for each school's slightly smarter than average students.

- - -

I wish to stick up for people who mangle the posessive pronoun "its". "Can you tell a wise man by the way he speaks or spells? / Is this more important than the stories that he tells?" -- from "Mister You're a Better Man than I", a '60s tune.

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This country has been in a stupid funk since Reagan. Bush I wasn't any better, and Clinton, for all his smarts, acted stupid and seemed to be more worried about people liking him, so he dumbed himself down. We all know about Bush II.

The 90's was not a smart decade, it was as bad and in some ways worse than the 80's. Essentially, smart people like Clinton came in, and dumbed themselves down to the level of the stupid people. The 90's was an ugly decade, smarmy, snarky, cruel, and mean, with very little humanistic touches. People were really mean to each other. Clinton passed a lot of right wing goodies during that decade (welfare "reform" for instance), so let's not fool ourselves and think the 90's was some mystical decade where intelligence was rewarded. It wasn't. It was the decade of Adam Sandler movies, boy bands, snide, overrated comedians like Dennis Miller, and just a general attitude of "yeah, we're stupid, let's enjoy it".

Will the charm of the stupid fade from America now that an intelligent, thoughtful man is President, and is not ashamed of his intelligence? No, it never fully will, but it's going to be in hibernation for some time.

Keep this in mind too. The people in Bush's cabinet were all college educated. Just because you have a degree doesn't make you smart, as Bush himself displayed. It's much more complicated than you think. Sometimes smart people are too smart and think too much. Then when they finally get around to acting, it's been so watered down in their minds that it doesn't have the same impact that it did.

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Is America's Love Affair with Stupidity Finally Over? NO

Let's not forget America's present or fairly present love affair with the likes of Palin, Joe the Plumber, Brittany, Obama Girl, Glen Beck, and Hannity...just to name a few. Many Americans still seem to love their stupidity or at least their stupid media and political heroes.

BTW, approximately 54% (voters who voted for Obama or a third party candidate) of the "voting majority" is not much of a majority at all. Approximately 46% of voting Americans still voted for the Palin/McCain ticket...and of course there are also all the Americans who did not think it was even important to vote and to participate in their government.

IMO, there are still too many Americans who love their stupidity or at least their ignorance.

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M4R Converter

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