Last month we set a record by needing almost two full weeks of posts to get all of the insanity documented and discussed. Given what I see today, we will be hard pressed not to get close to or exceed that record of insanity this month. It keeps getting worse and worse and the effectiveness of the political class gets less and less.
This is our seventh post in this month’s series so the insanity continues to flow out of the political class and into our lives, our wallets, and our freedoms. Makes you wonder when the insanity will stop:
1) We recently went through another tortuous and idiotic set of political campaigns leading up to the midterm elections. So much advertising had to result in some political class insanity, which it did:
A. Colorado Senator Mark Udall of Colorado wanted a redo on a very simple question that was posed to him when asked by an interviewer to name three influential books he had read “Let me think. We can play this over, right? I mean, re-tape this?” Senator, there is no crying in baseball and no retapes in political campaigns. Be a little smarter and prepared, this is not a movie set where you get several takes, it is real life.
B. Stupidity was the word of the day when Bruce Braley, running for the U.S. Senate seat of Iowa, a farming center if there ever was one, said: "[If you do not vote for me] you might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.” A little political tip Mr. Braley: given that the vast majority of the people voting in your election are farmers who never went to law school and never practiced law, better not to insinuate that there are not very bright.
3) The first two examples above were pretty silly and stupid. The next example of election year insanity was actually pretty cruel and heartless. Texas Democrat governor candidate Wendy Davis really stooped low when attacking her wheelchair-bound Republican opponent Greg Abbott: “And I guarantee you that anyone who tries to say otherwise hasn’t walked a day my shoes.” Unfortunately, Mr. Abbott has not walked a day in anyone’s shoes in a long time, low blow.
D) Give Montana Democratic Senate candidate Amanda Curtis kudos for at least being honest when asked by a reporter about her position on the border crisis: “I’ll need more time, you know only 11 days ago I was painting my storm windows.” Well, that’s great, those storm windows really needed it.
To defend her somewhat, she was a late entry into the race after the original Democratic candidate withdrew after it was found out he committed plagiarism. But really, shouldn’t you have at least a little bit of a more strategic statement on a top ten national issue than “I was painting my storm windows.” Does not build confidence among voters.
2) Two sayings come to mind on the next piece of insanity:
- “What goes around, comes around.” Author unknown.
- “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” The Who
In other words, both Presidents are sitting in almost identical positions in the second midterm elections of their administrations. So much for hope and change, the more things change the more things stay the same, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. We are right back where we started eight years ago relative to the voters' distaste for the American political class.
3) Joe Biden is a lawyer. That means that he had at least seven years of college, four as an under graduate and three in law school. He has been often considered an expert on foreign affairs, given his time serving in the U.S. Senate.
But you really cannot take him seriously, especially when he recently stated that China is part of North America in a speech he gave in late September at Boston’s John F. Kennedy Forum at the Harvard Kennedy School. There he claimed that North America, "meaning Mexico, China and Canada," will account for two-thirds of the world's energy growth over the next two decades.
Come on Mr. Vice President, look at a map before you speak. How embarrassing is it for the country in the eyes of the rest of the world when the second in command of this country is so geographically ignorant? Insanely incompetent.
4) The National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of the taxpayer funded Federal government entities that should be financing and looking for vaccines and new medicines to combat major diseases such as Ebola, Alzheimers, dementia, etc., has spent more than $2 million to promote how joining a community choir can be beneficial to older adults. The NIH is currently financing a five-year project that is recruiting 450 “minority elders” to participate in choirs at senior centers in San Francisco.
Really? We are spending $2 million on 450 senior citizens in a single U.S. city, over $4,000 per person to encourage them to get into a choir? According to the grant proposal, there are almost 40 million senior citizens in the country. To reach all of them at this rate would cost about $178 BILLION.
How stupid is this program, especially since its premise is based on a similar study out of Finland a study with an extremely small and statistically unreliable sample size: “One hundred seventeen older adults who sing in community choirs in Jyväskylä, Finland, completed self-report measures of [quality of life] QOL, depressive symptoms, and a questionnaire about the benefits of singing in choir,” the report said. “Results suggest that singing in a community choir as an older adult may positively influence several aspects of QOL.”
Look, I am all for older Americans having a higher quality of life. But the country cannot afford these types of studies. Tens of millions of people are about to enter their golden years and are facing the devastating aging diseases of Parkinson's, Alzheimers, and dementia. I would bet that if you took a poll of every American senior and asked if they would rather have that $2 million spent on choirs or finding cures for these aging diseases, it would be no contest, cure the diseases.
That is why I find the NIH claim that it does not have an Ebola vaccine because it is under funded. It is not under funded, it is poorly managed when the NIH leadership funds stupid studies rather than real science studies to cure real diseases.
5) Let’s finish today’s insanity with more laughing at Joe Biden. Back in October, Biden was doing a public speech in Joplin, Missouri, when he again made a fool of himself. He overstated the deaths that were the result of a tornado that had torn the city up in 2011. The Vice President claimed the tornado claimed the lives of 161,000 people, or about 54 times more than had died from the 9-11 attacks: “161,000 brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandparents lost.”
But Reuters reported back in 2011 that the death toll was a little less, only 161 people had died as a result of the tornado. Oops, the Vice President was off by a factor of a thousand. Again, how can you take this politician seriously when he keeps screwing up basic data and basic realities? Do you really think that he, and others like him in Washington, have any clue how to defeat ISIS, protect us from Ebola, plan for our energy future, fix our broken public education system, grow the economy, or fix any other major issue facing Americans?
His actual uttering of these words can be seen at:
http://threepercenternation.com/2014/10/video-biden-overstates-deaths-in-joplin-missouri-tornado-by-160839/
That will do it for today’s insanity. It seems to never end, especially when people like Joe Biden are running the show. If we are lucky, the latest series of political class insanity posts may end tomorrow. Until then, take a look at our website that is promoting term limits at:
www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
Given all of the insanity you have witnessed this week from the embedded political class across the country, but especially in Washington, how much worse could it get if we started over with a new set of people in Washington? At least most of them would likely know where China is on a map.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -
Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political
Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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