Stupidity Epidemic: Fresh Outbreaks (was: Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-44F)

By Nathan Barton

Today, for the weekend, we will look at how stupidity is epidemic in these Fifty States, while we worry about silly things like Ebola and B85 and flu epidemics and elections.

In New Hampshire, it is now a fire-able offense in certain circumstances to say “God bless you,” even in response to a sneeze, because you are therefore “discussing faith.”  At least at an election polling place.  Although there are disputes over the facts, it seems that freedom of speech is being limited by bizarre interpretations of the very First Amendment that supposedly protects both religion and speech.  What next?  This smells like NYC where groups claim that saying good morning to someone is “harassment.”  But it is more sinister, as it seems to be intentionally meant to drive religion (“faith”) out of public life.

The “zero-tolerance” charade and madness just took another step downhill, with a school disciplining a student and panicking the student body and staff because an idiot kid downloaded a picture of a gun on his iPad and had batteries (presumably AAA) without labels, so that OTHER idiots mistook them for bullets.  Clearly, the mental capacity AND educational level of teachers AND students is so low that they are unable to recognize that a PICTURE of a gun cannot load and fire real bullets, or that a AAA (or even AA) battery, with or without its label, is a VERY different item from a real bullet.  (Of course, I do recognize that with the growing freakiness of the media and schools, some of these people may never have SEEN a real bullet and shell except as glimpsed on TV or in a movie.)

Why weren’t these people ARMED?  They live in Oklahoma City, for crying out loud!  Armed thugs invaded a home, made the family strip naked, and were preparing to do more when police surrounded the house and the thugs panicked and ran.  It was sheer luck that they didn’t just open fire and kill the unarmed family, or turn the situation into a hostage-taking exercise.  When will people learn?

Speaking of stupid people, in Seattle a bar employee AND the thug who tried to rob her were both incredibly stupid (as was the guy who decided to get revenge for his friend’s being threatened.)  A woman was behind the bar where she worked when she refused a request for a cigarette from a guy who whipped out a pellet pistol to threaten her.  She stupidly mistook the orange muzzle for a foam Nerf dart and grabbed it from him and threw the “toy pistol” (newsspeak) over a fence, went back in and told another employee what had happened: the guy went out and started shoving the perp around (just like the cops do).  The guy ran off, screaming for someone to call 911, and the bar did.  More than enough stupidity to go around here!

More stupidity here.  In Sandy, outside Salt Lake, some nutcase snuck into a home (stupid act 1) through an unlocked door (stupid act 2) and took a five-year-old girl out of the house (stupid act 3, also insane and evil).  The dad, unarmed (stupid act 4), went outside and asked for the child back (maybe stupid act 5 but…), and the perp complied “without confrontation” (which is really stupid on the part of the story writer, as just going out and asking was “confronting” – what I suppose they meant was “without protest or resistance on the part of the kidnapper”).  I’ve lost track but there are more stupid acts to follow. The perp went to ANOTHER nearby house and snuck in through the doggy door only to be frightened by the house’s dogs (stupid indeed: if the doggy door is big enough for a grown man to climb in, the dogs aren’t going to be toy poodles!).  So he goes back out while the second family yells for the cops, where the news report claims he was captured thanks to being bitten by a police dog.  (Given the situation, the K-9 might have speeded up the capture a bit, but it was a foregone conclusion the guy was going to be caught.)

Mama’s Note: Very lucky fools, indeed. This intruder wasn’t violent, but the next one very well could be. I wonder if they’ll lock their doors from now on? That would have been all it took to keep this one out. Doesn’t seem they have any appropriate tools either.

Man, if we could just package and export stupidity, our balance of payments would NEVER go bad!

Mama’s Note: I’d LOVE to see a video of the intruder’s face when he saw the dogs after climbing in through their door. That’s entertainment!

In Florida, that man is still feeding the homeless despite looming criminal charges.  “Despite being charged with violating a new law by feeding the homeless in South Florida, 90-year-old Arnold Abbott said he’s not deterred and even went back out to serve more food at a public park. The faceoff in Fort Lauderdale over the ordinance restricting public feeding of the homeless has pitted those with compassionate aims against residents and businesses trying to protect their neighborhoods.”   Who is more stupid here?  The city, or the people whinging about how feeding someone endangers neighborhoods and businesses?  It is NOT the man trying to help, as too many people want us to believe.

Well, on to other things.  I want to look at a couple of commentaries about this week, worth pondering.

Sheldon Richman points out “the good news and the bad” in Election 2104, in his column in/for Future of Freedom Foundation. “The 2014 midterm election delivered both good news and bad. The good news is that the losers lost. The bad news is that the winners won.” Amen.  When I look at what we have to endure for the next two years (barring open revolt, EMP, or other collapse), it is indeed bad news that these clowns made it into (or back into) office.

Meanwhile, in the SF Chron, Debra Saunders (one of the few people that make that rag anything other than a TOTAL blight on society) talks about a “U-turn at America’s ballot boxes.” She writes in part: “Tuesday … Republicans won the Senate handily, picked up 14 House seats, and won governor’s races in Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois. Good times. Two big losers weren’t on the ballot. San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer’s super PAC, the NextGen Climate Action Committee, blew through $65 million to help Democrats who agree with him on climate change. His money may have helped Sen. Jeanne Shaheen [D-NH] retain her seat, but he threw $20 million at Florida’s GOP Gov. Rick Scott, and Scott still won. Steyer went after GOP challengers to Sens. Kay Hagan [D-NC] and Mark Udall [D-CO], and the Republicans won. Climate change got frozen out. Bill and Hillary Clinton all but moved into Arkansas to bolster Democrats — only to watch GOP Rep. Tom Cotton unseat Sen. Mark Pryor, and former GOP Rep. Asa Hutchinson win the governor’s race.”  In other words, it isn’t JUST the Kochs who are TRYING to buy elections, and for once someone in a Tranzi news outlet is pointing that out.  Sadly, as Sheldon says, it really doesn’t make any difference.

Mama’s Note: So many people I’ve talked to are excited about the Republican “victory.” “THIS TIME…” But they refuse to relate it to the old saw about the definition of insanity… doing the same things over and over, expecting different results. What was the result the LAST time the Republicans were in control?

About TPOL Nathan


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