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HuffPo has compiled the dumbest quotes of the last decade. Here’s a sampling…
Sarah Palin announcing her resignation as governor.
“It may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: ‘Sit down and shut up,’ but that’s the worthless, easy path; that’s a quitter’s way out.”
George Bush
“They misunderestimated me”
Sarah Palin when asked by Katie Couric what she reads.
“All of ‘em, any of ‘em that have been in front of me over all these years.”
Craig T. Nelson – Dumb conservative and actor on fiscal responsibility.
“I’ve been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No. No.”
I love this next one. Miss Teen South Carolina 2007 when asked “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?”
“I personally believe, that US Americans are unable to do so, because some people out there, in our nation, don’t have that, and eh I believe that our education, like such as in South Africa, and the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here, in the US, should help the US, or should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future… for our children.”
You know that she would of answered “What color is the sky?” in exactly the same way. She was told by her handlers, I’m sure, to fit in the words ‘South Africa’, ‘Iraq’, ‘US’, ‘children’, ‘future’ and ‘education’ into a single response. And, she did!
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“I think gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman.”
Michele Bachmann
“This is an earthquake issue. This will change our state forever. Because the immediate consequence, if gay marriage goes through, is that K-12 little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal, natural and perhaps they should try it.”
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I don’t know if it fits here, but here’s a fun little story that I just received from my very liberal father-in-law:
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It’s a slow day in a little East Texas town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit…..
On this particular day a rich tourist from back east is driving through town. He stops at the motel and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmer’s Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her “services” on credit. The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.
The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the $100 bill, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.
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Huh? How so? The hotel owner owed money for the meat, the butcher pays off the pig farmer, the pig farmer pays off the food and fuel supplier, Co-op guys pays off the prostitute, and she pays off the hotel owner. SO:
Meat
Pig farmed
Pig feed
Fuel
Services for prostitute
Services and rental at hotel
Looks to me like a lot of stuff was produced in this story. What difference does it make if I pay you for your goods and services at the moment of delivery or at some point in the future?
I have seen the story related by Tommy’s father in law before. It is humorous, and meant to be ironic. It is also an apt description about how economies work when they advance from the barter system. Currency takes the place of direct goods and services in person to person barter transactions, which is why there is no need to have a currency anchored by some other tangible asset (like gold). The story above describes how everyone does business if it is changed to reflect the person buying the room. So the question is, what specific policies are folks thinking of when they suggest that we (it is a democracy) are stealing money to support a series of credit transactions that make everyone happy and hurt no-one? Pursuant to that question, why should we care if the system fixes everything without hurting anyone?