I’ve been thinking of a new name for an old favorite posting of mine about those individuals so depraved of any sense of decency and/or intelligence as to earn my contempt and scorn. I’ve tried titles like You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, only to find that it pretty much doesn’t matter whether you can make it up or not, the sheer fact that it happens is sufficient. Then I thought of Stupid is as Stupid Does, a take off on Forest Gump, but somehow that just didn’t nail it.
Then a stroke of genius. Why not try to shame them, so I came up with what I thought would be the perfect title: Shame on You. Except I soon realized you can’t shame people who are shameless in the first place. So I decided to go more visceral. WTF seemed to sum it up perfectly. My indignation at what I thought were egregious and unconscionable actions would suffice. Except, well it didn’t. Truth is the very nature of WTF denotes a question, and I was definitely not asking a question; I was stating what I thought was an unequivocal truth. Besides if it had been a question, it was meant as a rhetorical one. No, what I needed was a title that needed no explanations. It would stand on its own merits and speak for itself.
Ladies and gentlemen I present to you what I hope will be the last name change for this blog posting – that is until I come up with a better one – Idiots’ Delight. The name denotes the obvious: one who delights in being a moron, imbecile, dolt, dullard, ignoramus. But more to the point, he or she is someone who doesn’t get how ignorant they are and probably never will.
Idiots’ Delight will be a monthly or semi-monthly entry, depending on how I feel that particular month, which will highlight the individuals, or individual as the case may be, who went above and beyond bringing disgrace not only upon themselves, but to those for whom they supposedly represent.
As was the case in past entries, I will go in descending order from best (or worst) to last (or not quite as offensive, but still a stinker). This month we have four distinguished winners who have earned the coveted award. Hopefully, next time the number will be smaller, but these days, you never know.
The envelope, please?
Donald Trump. If Trump’s ego were a state it would take up an area twice the size of Texas. The Donald, as he is known within his entourage and, sadly, among much of the press in this country, has been spending the last few weeks not only embarrassing himself – which is his norm – over the President’s alleged status as a U.S. citizen, a matter long since put to bed by the sane and reasonable, he is threatening any chance of a serious discussion and dialogue over other pressing matters, like job creation, the deficit, alternative energy, investment in infrastructure, education, entitlement reform, defense spending.
Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot. Trump is running as a Republican. Make that, tax breaks for the rich, the continued pilfering of social programs for the middle class and poor, etc… Seriously, if you are a Republican operative, you have to be VERY concerned that a publicity hound with more than a few screws loose is running second to Mitt Romney in the New Hampshire polls, and among conservatives – who make up about 90% of the GOP these days – is a SERIOUS candidate for the nomination to run for president against Barack Obama. The laughter you’re hearing is coming from the White House. Somebody needs to “fire” this schmuck.
Representative Eric Cantor. You’d expect the likes of a Sarah Palin to be this ignorant on basic legislative rules and procedures, but when someone with the supposed intelligence of Cantor actually gets up in front of a mic and says that if the Senate and President don’t act on a House bill than it automatically becomes law, I have to assume either someone has performed a lobotomy on him, or the Mayans were off by a year in their doomsday prediction.
Things are getting pretty desperate in the House these days, what with the infighting between establishment Republicans and the Tea Party freshmen, but one would expect the Majority Leader of the House to have at least a modicum of awareness of just how asinine and profoundly wrong his comments were. Even more embarrassing was that there were several reporters present at the mic who never confronted him on his faux pas. Incredible. So that it wasn’t a total loss, Cantor’s screw up gave our good buddy Anthony Weiner a chance to do some old fashioned roasting, as he read “House Mouse, Senate Mouse” aloud on the House floor. Boy does Reckless Eric ever have some splainin to do to his caucus. Love to be a fly on that wall.
Senator Jon Kyl. When it rains, it pours. While Eric Cantor’s crime was that he had a senior moment and forgot basic Constitutional law, Kyl’s problem appears to be dyslexia. While addressing his fellow Senate colleagues on the issue of Planned Parenthood and why it should be defunded, this is what Kyl said:
“Everybody goes to clinics, to hospitals, to doctors, and so on. Some people go to Planned Parenthood. But you don’t have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your cholesterol or your blood pressure checked. If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.”
Seems, that Kyl was off just a bit; by 87%. Abortions constitute only 3% of what Planned Parenthood offers its patients, and none of them receive a cent of federal funding. The Hyde Amendment specifically prohibits federal funding of abortions. Kyl knows this, as does everyone in the House and Senate, Democrat and Republican. The attack on Planned Parenthood has nothing to do with stopping abortions; it is about eliminating yet another social program that rubs the far Right the wrong way. God forbid a single tax dollar gets spent educating a poor woman on how not to get pregnant. Are there no workhouses?
And bringing up the rear, Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY). This one gets filed under stick foot in mouth and choke. The Democrat not only made a ridiculous and slanderous statement, she gave the wingnuts on the Right some additional ammunition to attack the Left yet again. While addressing a pro-choice gathering over the proposed defunding of Planned Parenthood, this is what Slaughter said:
“This is probably one of the worst times we've seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus. In '94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now they're here to kill women.”
Okay, Ms. Slaughter, repeat after me. “I am an idiot, I will not pass go and I will not collect two hundred dollars. Furthermore, I will stay after class and promise never to get in front of an open mic again and utter another word on anything of import.”
This is the sort of thing that sets back Democrats. Just when they achieve the high ground on an issue they shoot themselves in the foot. Last year it was Alan Grayson who disgraced himself with that despicable ad attacking Daniel Webster over his faith; now this stunt by Slaughter.
How bad was this? All the following day Lord Fauntleroy, Sean Hannity, was practically beside himself exploiting Slaughter’s gaffe as evidence that Democrats – all Democrats, mind you – believe that Republicans are here to kill women. Never mind that we heard not a peep from him over the false claims of death panels during the healthcare debate – in deed Hannity and his coherts led the charge up San Juan Hill – he had his sound bite and he ran with it all day and all night. It’s hard enough keeping up with the rubbish Hannity and his lot shovel on a daily basis without having to contend with this nonsense. Talk about throwing one down the middle of the plate and having your opposition hit it out of the ballpark.
Next time representative, stay home, or better still, lock yourself in your office.
Then a stroke of genius. Why not try to shame them, so I came up with what I thought would be the perfect title: Shame on You. Except I soon realized you can’t shame people who are shameless in the first place. So I decided to go more visceral. WTF seemed to sum it up perfectly. My indignation at what I thought were egregious and unconscionable actions would suffice. Except, well it didn’t. Truth is the very nature of WTF denotes a question, and I was definitely not asking a question; I was stating what I thought was an unequivocal truth. Besides if it had been a question, it was meant as a rhetorical one. No, what I needed was a title that needed no explanations. It would stand on its own merits and speak for itself.
Ladies and gentlemen I present to you what I hope will be the last name change for this blog posting – that is until I come up with a better one – Idiots’ Delight. The name denotes the obvious: one who delights in being a moron, imbecile, dolt, dullard, ignoramus. But more to the point, he or she is someone who doesn’t get how ignorant they are and probably never will.
Idiots’ Delight will be a monthly or semi-monthly entry, depending on how I feel that particular month, which will highlight the individuals, or individual as the case may be, who went above and beyond bringing disgrace not only upon themselves, but to those for whom they supposedly represent.
As was the case in past entries, I will go in descending order from best (or worst) to last (or not quite as offensive, but still a stinker). This month we have four distinguished winners who have earned the coveted award. Hopefully, next time the number will be smaller, but these days, you never know.
The envelope, please?
Donald Trump. If Trump’s ego were a state it would take up an area twice the size of Texas. The Donald, as he is known within his entourage and, sadly, among much of the press in this country, has been spending the last few weeks not only embarrassing himself – which is his norm – over the President’s alleged status as a U.S. citizen, a matter long since put to bed by the sane and reasonable, he is threatening any chance of a serious discussion and dialogue over other pressing matters, like job creation, the deficit, alternative energy, investment in infrastructure, education, entitlement reform, defense spending.
Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot. Trump is running as a Republican. Make that, tax breaks for the rich, the continued pilfering of social programs for the middle class and poor, etc… Seriously, if you are a Republican operative, you have to be VERY concerned that a publicity hound with more than a few screws loose is running second to Mitt Romney in the New Hampshire polls, and among conservatives – who make up about 90% of the GOP these days – is a SERIOUS candidate for the nomination to run for president against Barack Obama. The laughter you’re hearing is coming from the White House. Somebody needs to “fire” this schmuck.
Representative Eric Cantor. You’d expect the likes of a Sarah Palin to be this ignorant on basic legislative rules and procedures, but when someone with the supposed intelligence of Cantor actually gets up in front of a mic and says that if the Senate and President don’t act on a House bill than it automatically becomes law, I have to assume either someone has performed a lobotomy on him, or the Mayans were off by a year in their doomsday prediction.
Things are getting pretty desperate in the House these days, what with the infighting between establishment Republicans and the Tea Party freshmen, but one would expect the Majority Leader of the House to have at least a modicum of awareness of just how asinine and profoundly wrong his comments were. Even more embarrassing was that there were several reporters present at the mic who never confronted him on his faux pas. Incredible. So that it wasn’t a total loss, Cantor’s screw up gave our good buddy Anthony Weiner a chance to do some old fashioned roasting, as he read “House Mouse, Senate Mouse” aloud on the House floor. Boy does Reckless Eric ever have some splainin to do to his caucus. Love to be a fly on that wall.
Senator Jon Kyl. When it rains, it pours. While Eric Cantor’s crime was that he had a senior moment and forgot basic Constitutional law, Kyl’s problem appears to be dyslexia. While addressing his fellow Senate colleagues on the issue of Planned Parenthood and why it should be defunded, this is what Kyl said:
“Everybody goes to clinics, to hospitals, to doctors, and so on. Some people go to Planned Parenthood. But you don’t have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your cholesterol or your blood pressure checked. If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.” Seems, that Kyl was off just a bit; by 87%. Abortions constitute only 3% of what Planned Parenthood offers its patients, and none of them receive a cent of federal funding. The Hyde Amendment specifically prohibits federal funding of abortions. Kyl knows this, as does everyone in the House and Senate, Democrat and Republican. The attack on Planned Parenthood has nothing to do with stopping abortions; it is about eliminating yet another social program that rubs the far Right the wrong way. God forbid a single tax dollar gets spent educating a poor woman on how not to get pregnant. Are there no workhouses?
And bringing up the rear, Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY). This one gets filed under stick foot in mouth and choke. The Democrat not only made a ridiculous and slanderous statement, she gave the wingnuts on the Right some additional ammunition to attack the Left yet again. While addressing a pro-choice gathering over the proposed defunding of Planned Parenthood, this is what Slaughter said:
“This is probably one of the worst times we've seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus. In '94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now they're here to kill women.”
Okay, Ms. Slaughter, repeat after me. “I am an idiot, I will not pass go and I will not collect two hundred dollars. Furthermore, I will stay after class and promise never to get in front of an open mic again and utter another word on anything of import.”
This is the sort of thing that sets back Democrats. Just when they achieve the high ground on an issue they shoot themselves in the foot. Last year it was Alan Grayson who disgraced himself with that despicable ad attacking Daniel Webster over his faith; now this stunt by Slaughter.
How bad was this? All the following day Lord Fauntleroy, Sean Hannity, was practically beside himself exploiting Slaughter’s gaffe as evidence that Democrats – all Democrats, mind you – believe that Republicans are here to kill women. Never mind that we heard not a peep from him over the false claims of death panels during the healthcare debate – in deed Hannity and his coherts led the charge up San Juan Hill – he had his sound bite and he ran with it all day and all night. It’s hard enough keeping up with the rubbish Hannity and his lot shovel on a daily basis without having to contend with this nonsense. Talk about throwing one down the middle of the plate and having your opposition hit it out of the ballpark.
Next time representative, stay home, or better still, lock yourself in your office.
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