WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MERITOCRACY AND INTELLECTUAL PURSUIT IN AMERICA?

What makes a country such as America have in it people who reject meritocracy and intellectual endeavor?

I hear them speak, one by one deride, belittle and ridicule academic excellence, knowledge, facts and scientific research. One after another comes out celebrating their ignorance. This is the sad truth about what the Republican Party has become: a refuge for high school dropouts and intellectually challenged leaders. 

Now candidate Santorum is saying that a college education is “elitist” and if you go to college they will force upon you a liberal-leftist ideology…brainwash you to be a progressive secular traitor.

It started with George W. Bush lack of interest in anything intellectual and his opposition to science. It was alarming to see our President discarding scientific research and embrace a folksy negative attitude towards any scientific endeavors. 

When I heard candidate Cain utter that stupid “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan” crap it made me realize that blissful ignorance can be dangerous, especially on the foreign front.

When Cain insisted that it’s not important to know who the leader of Uzbekistan is (or, as he mockingly pronounces it, “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan”), he came off as clueless about the strategic importance of that nation. Even intellectually challenged George W. Bush wanted to use an air base in Uzbekistan to resupply U.S. troops in Afghanistan; Barack Obama has sought to curry favor with Uzbekistan so that America will have a better regional ally than Pakistan. Does Cain know any of that? 

Did Cain even gave it a second thought that preposterous “9-9-9” economic plan that may have very well have been drawn on a napkin in a pizza place by some idiot accountant from the Midwest would totally bankrupt the country?.

For crying out loud Herman, there are 196 countries in the world. Would it be too much to ask that you memorized the names of those countries and their leaders if you expected to be the leader of the free world? His insane economic 9-9-9 crap gave all of us a glimpse of what Republicans think about the economy and that failed Reagan "TRICKLE DOWN" theory.

I found Sarah Palin’s rejection of intellectual prowess terribly alarming when she played the victim of a “got you” question when asked what books she read…obviously she didn’t read any. Just like I find Rick Perry’s boasting of what a bad student he was in college. We all saw a video of Governor Perry making a disparate and erratic speech in New Hampshire…it was painful to watch.

Between you and me, I find it hard to vote for anybody who believes the world is only 6,000 years old and rejects evolution. I know that a person’s religious faith should not be a factor in determining whether that person is qualified to be President or not, but the way these right wing religious fanatics have put it, it is now imperative that not only a President be a Christian but a specific type of Christian: Fundamentalist-Evangelical-Christianist-Dominionist and science denier. It doesn’t hurt if that President in waiting is also opposed to learning and intellectual pursuit…If he/she is against public education, so much the better.

But the one reason I think should disqualify any of these religious fanatics from even running for dog catcher is that they believe that Armageddon is coming the day after tomorrow so there is no need to educate our children, build roads and bridges and make America a better place for future generations. Why would we want to worry about building or repairing a bridge if the world is coming to an end in a few months? Why would that President worry about unemployment, the sick, the poor and the prosperity of our nation if in their minds it is all in vain?

CELEBRATING IGNORANCE IS IN VOGUE

The alarming trend we have seen in the past few years is but an indication of the right wing proclivity to celebrate ignorance and academic achievement. When you have a Texas Governor seriously suggesting that he wasn’t the best of students or that he went to a higher institution of learning that does not have the academic standing and standards that you see for example in the Ivy Leagues, you know that because he says that kind of thing and it is cheered that those listening and cheering are simpletons, ignoramuses and underachievers who can’t even speak, read or write the English language.. 

It wouldn’t be so serious if this was the only indication of their prideful ignorance…we have an incompetent Governor like Sarah Palin rise to get the Vice Presidential nomination and one wonders if McCain had been elected and somehow incapacitated that she would be able to carry on the heavy burden of the Presidency. The woman is an idiot…and a greedy one who is only interested in making money by her outlandish statements and her display of ignorance.

Then you are facing another type: a Michelle Bachmann who not only has the facts of history mangled and misinterpreted in her mind but who thinks that by having been a mom to two dozen kids is enough of a qualification to run the country.

Throughout the Republican Party there are climate change deniers, Creationists, homophobes who are guided by some erroneous interpretation of the Scriptures…which by the way tell them that Armageddon is upon us and we have to prepare for the end of the world…and that disturbing ideology one would think makes them incapacitated to be at the helm of a government that is supposed to look out for all of America and keep us safe. I hardly think that someone who welcomes the Apocalypse should be running for the highest office in the land. Just think about it… How do we deal effectively and repudiate these extremist right wing simpletons?

“Here's the problem dealing with these simpletons; We can all argue about how things might turn out if we do this or that now, because this situation or that situation has not played itself out fully. It's much more difficult to argue with what actually happened when our ancestors did this or that back then. Those situations played out, for better or for worse.

Of course simpletons don't care much for all that. They are profoundly nearsighted.(ie. Myopic eye doctor Rand Paul) Besides, a knowledge of history requires a modicum of curiosity, and simpletons are also a profoundly un-curious lot. If mankind only produced simpletons we'd all still be sitting around in caves reinventing wheels and rediscovering fire.

Which is precisely what separates the enlightened from the simpleton. The simpleton seeks .... well.. simplicity. But hitching one's wagon to the simplest solutions at times of exploding complexity is like trying to navigate a maze with ones eyes closed. No, not a maze.. that's too benign a metaphor for these perilous times. It's more like navigating a mine field with eyes closed -- wearing logging boots while singing God Bless America.” The Smirking Chimp / By Stephen Pizzo

 

 

At a time when our country faces some of its most serious economic and divisive crisis we have to also deal with people who could not possibly fight their way out of a paper bag if they are given the power. If any of these Tea Baggers actually gets the Presidency there is very little hope for America ever being a great nation and even less hopes for the rest of that 98% of middle class and working people to regain the American dream.

LISTEN UP FROTHY MIX RICK: YOU MIGHT AS WELL KISS GOODBYE ALL THE VOTES FROM AMERICAN WOMEN AND ALL OF US WHO VALUE A COLLEGE EDUCATION.

(Image Credit: Andrew Goodman/Getty Images)

Rick Santorum backer suggests Bayer aspirin as a birth control method for women

Foster Friess caught MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell off-guard with colorful comment

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9069434/US-elections-2012-Rick-Santorums-triple-win-gives-yet-another-twist-in-Republican-race.html

Just recently, a chief backer of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum stunned viewers when he made an off-the-wall comment about birth control Thursday.

Foster Friess, the primary supporter of a pro-Santorum super political action committee, suggested on MSNBC that women use Bayer aspirin as a contraceptive.

“This contraceptive thing, my gosh, it’s so expensive,” he told host Andrea Mitchell.

“Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly.”

Friess’ inference that women can place a pill between their legs to keep from spreading them understandably sent some heads spinning.

Even Mitchell was visibly taken aback, saying she needed to catch her breath after the comment.

I think that what might do this asshole Santorum is his total rejection of our Constitutional values and what our Founding Fathers had intended with the separation of church and state. No, there wasn’t even a shadow of a doubt, any misunderstanding or misinterpreting what they meant because they expressed clearly in the FIRST AMENDMENT: 

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/rick-santorum-backer-suggests-bayer-aspirin-a-birth-control-method-women-article-1.1024101#ixzz1maxDNBgPRead more: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Column+Herman+Cain+know+nothing+presidential+candidate/5634851/story.html#ixzz1cUpYddl5SOURCE: http://www.prunejuicemedia.com/2011/herman-cain-says-obama-is-not-a-real-black-man/

Labels: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MERITOCRACY AND INTELLECTUAL PURSUIT IN AMERICA? SOURCE: http://www.alternet.org/story/152520/the_rise_of_the_pro-ignorance_right_wing_puts_us_all_in_dangerThe Smirking Chimp / By Stephen Pizzo