Stupid is as Stupid does....

 

 

 

"You just can't fix stupid..."

 

Ron White

 

 

Years ago, I worked with a man who had an interesting sign hanging in his office. The sign said the following in big, bold letters: "If you have a dumb question, ask it. It is much easier to handle than fixing a dumb mistake". One day I asked him what prompted him to put that in his office. He told me he never ceases to be amazed at the human capacity to do dumb and stupid things. Over the past few years, I am starting to think he was right.

 

What are some dumb or stupid things we have done? Here are some thoughts:

 

1) Sequester - Not going to talk much about this as it had been beaten to death already. All I will say is this - learn from it. The next time a poison pill is considered, remember this - the pill might not be poison enough to kill a bad idea and the results of ingesting it might end up being painful to all. Forget the blame game - everyone just needs to look in the mirror.

 

2) Shuttle - Plan "A" for many years now has been to impress the world by the wonders we have been able to do with our Shuttle. With nothing in queue, we have decided to scrap the program. What we have for a Plan "B" is begging the Russians for a ride on one of their rockets if we need to get into space. Meanwhile, since nothing is on the drawing board, we will be in this fix for years to come.

 

3) Ethanol - This one is so dumb, it almost deserves two spots. In a world of hunger, we have chosen to burn our own food. How much? We burn up about 40% of our corn. For what? To make E85 and other bio fuels which don't work very well. Our new car is able to use E85. The salesman told us it is cheaper but the mileage is much less. So we are burning our food to make a product which gets lousy mileage. Also, the production of ethanol consumes vast quantities of our depleting ground water and the smell is terrible.

 

4) Taxes - How is it when the top 50% of all income earners pay 97% of federal taxes, the narrative has become the rich are not paying their "fair share". Even when this statistic is known by both sides, the narrative continues. Our tax code is a Rubik's Cube of confusion and political favors and takes a masters degree in thinkology to get through even a part of it. It is now so hard, it either takes an expert or a computer aided program to file. Our solution? Make it even harder by intertwining Obama Care within it. Flat tax - where are you?

 

5) Education - Lord help us! As the world catches up with us, we are mired in the failed education policies of the past. These polices have given us graduation rates of 50% or less in major inner-cities at costs exceeding $20K per student. The cure? Many on the left say we need to spend more money. When the fire is out of control, you don't put it out with gasoline. We need to go back to the future to fix this one. The graduation rates in the sixties were in the 90% range and kids actually knew stuff when they got out of high school . DUH!!!

 

I could go on, but won't. Here are just a few examples on how we have dumbed ourselves down over the years. Critical thinking has given way to PC logic. Even Forrest Gump could figure out some of life's most basic problems. I guess maybe life is just a box of chocolates...