War, Recession, Kids Who Are Savages, Mexico in the U.S. - a "Bad Hair Day?"

An e-mail received this morning reminds me of people I've encountered repeatedly since having begun studying the national discourse by way of subscription to dozens of Internet websites, publishing my own website, and by debate with the public. As subscribers here will know, I am simply flabbergasted, nonplussed to explain the all but impossible stupidity of the U.S. public. More, I am even more disconcerted at having learned that relatively few people in the Land of the free are significantly alarmed by it all. Neither are they concerned at the abysmal state of children mentally.

It all scares hell out of me, so much so that I am keeping my survival gear in a state of first-class readiness, training assiduously in the gym (for those interested, I hit twenty-two chin-ups last week), and practicing with firearms daily.

Parenthetically, and apropos of that last, this morning's paper reports that forty - that's forty - percent of teachers in Texas intend to leave teaching as soon as possible. Wife Rita, a teacher with forty-two years experience, is of the same mind. The reason? --parents and a nation who obviously care little about their children's minds or behavior. "No child left behind" may very well leave every child behind.

It may - it probably will - destroy the nation.

While the following may be apocryphal - I haven't "Snoped" it - I doubt it, I have heard similar, and for years, from not only the public everywhere (I'm reminded of the guy recently who when I made reference to the turn of the century, asked "When was that?" and the guy who said he isn't concerned about air pollution, global warming, and the like because mankind "will evolve to take care of it") but from officials at all levels of government. The public discourse, including the pontification of so-called pundits, analysts, and experts in the media, are full of this sort of non compos mentis utterance and assertion (try the global warming issue, for instance, the reasoning having to do with Iraq, the nation's economy, or any of the matter subject of the current political debates).

A report says that a Washington, DC airport ticket agent offers these examples of why our country is in its current state:


"1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat on the airplane in order that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an Airplane!)

"2. I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information. Then she interrupted me with, 'I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts .' Without trying to make her look stupid, I calmly explained, 'Cape Cod is in Massachusetts ; Capetown is in Africa .' Her response? - click.

"3. A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that's not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, 'Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state!'

"4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked, 'Is it possible to see England from Canada ?' I said, 'No.' She said, 'But they look so close on the map.'

"5. An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car he said, 'I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.' (Aghhhh!!)

"6. An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 am and got to Chicago at 8:33 am. I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.

"7. A New York lawmaker called and asked, 'Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?' I said, 'No, why do you ask?' She replied, 'Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said 'FAT,' and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!' After putting her on hold for a minute while I looked into it (I was laughing). I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, CA is ' FAT' - (Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

"8. A Senator's aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, 'Would it be cheaper to fly to California, and then take the train to Hawaii ?'

"9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked, 'How do I know which plane to get on?' I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, 'I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.'

"10. A lady Senator called and said, 'I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola, Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?' I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola, Florida on a commuter plane. She said, 'Yeah, whatever, smarty!'

"11. A senior Senator called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China . After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him that he needed a visa. 'Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those.' I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, 'Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!'

"12. A New Mexico Congresswoman called to make reservations, 'I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York '. I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, 'Are you sure that's the name of the town?' 'Yes, what flights do you have?' replied the lady. After some searching, I came back with, 'I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Rhino anywhere.' The lady retorted, 'Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!' So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, 'You don't mean Buffalo, do you?' The reply? 'Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.'

"Now you know why the Government is in the shape that it's in!"

And as an aside here, I'll give you one guess concerning who the lady senator was (sixteen members of the U.S. Senate are women, and in the picture at the top here they are: Top row, Lincoln, Hutchison, Boxer, Clinton, Landrieu, Stabenow, Collins, Mikulski, Dole, Klobuchar, Murray; Bottom row: McCaskill, Feinstein, Cantwell, Murkowski, Snowe). There are seventy-four women in the comatose House of Representatives, three of them from Illinois, but only one from New Mexico. There is also only one congresswomen for New Hampshire. Ahem!

One might prepare his own list of examples where the stupidity of the U.S. Congress is concerned. For one recent instance, how bright would you have to be to know that you're going to be caught lying when you say something like Hillary Clinton's latest whopper, that concerning her having braved sniper fire? Or to expect people to find suspect (suspect, did I say - make that bald-faced, thunderously, obvious) her tale concerning how she learned to shoot?

How about John McCain's brilliant assessments of Iraq and U.S. occupation there. How do you "win" in Iraq?

And, of course, mentality of the public what it is, I dare not say anything about the other fellah, Obama. If I say anything positive about him, I've been negative about everyone else who's black; and I guess that means that should I say anything negative, I've paid everyone black a compliment - but I'm still a "racist" because I insulted a black guy. I'm too confused to talk about Barack Obama.

There are many root causes for how we came to be in the pickle we are, none better than abject stupidity both public and governmental. Invading Iraq was stupid, and the way we are proceeding there is stupid. The new - post WW-2, i.e. - U.S. way of conducting "limited," no victory war - war for "U.S. Interests" - is stupid (REALLY stupid). For a democratic nation like this one pretends to be to languish under the tax code we have is stupid. For the public to go on contributing to its own misery by continuing to drive at high speeds - consuming more gasoline, creating more demand, and raising prices - is stupid. To continue setting up shooting galleries - "gun free zones" - for the nation's psychotic nutcases is stupid (especially in a nation now dedicated to spawning, rearing, and otherwise providing for as many psychotic nutcases as possible). To leave the border between us and one of the most corrupt, rapacious and murderous societies and nations on earth - ever - is stupid. To protect people who are stupid - those who made loans to buy houses far beyond their fiscal means, for instance (and those who are up to their eyeballs in credit card or other debt, too) - from their own stupidity is stupid.

And to leave in office a president as obviously destructive of the Constitution he swore to protect and defend as this one is just, plain, STUPID!

Go down as you will the enervating list of our societal and national ailments today, you will not find one due to anything more than stupidity. When James. J. Kilpatrick, Steve Allen, Sidney Harris, and others the like first made note of what Allen termed the "dumbing down of America," they were reading the Biblical and proverbial handwriting on the wall for us. Jay Leno, Jeff Foxworthy, George Carlin, and the like make the nation laugh with people like the woman on Foxworthy's "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader" show - the adult female who thought Europe was a country, didn't know France was, and had never so much as heard of Budapest, the capitol of Hungary - but it isn't funny.

"Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader's" Kellie Pickler may run for Congress you know - lots of her sisters are already "serving."