No accounting for idiocy

How many people who play golf know what the diameter of a golf ball is? The length of their clubs? The size of the cup? The finer points of the rules?

How many people who bowl know how long the alleys are? The weight of a pin? How far apart the pins are spread? How much their ball weighs?

Not many I’ll bet. But it doesn’t really matter much. People play golf and bowl and enjoy themselves even though they are quite ignorant of the basic facts and rules of the game.

Unfortunately, people tend to apply the same disinterest when it comes to politics or other important aspects of life. For example, three Republican ladies interviewed after the first day of the convention were quick to denigrate Fahrenheit 911. None of them had seen it. One of them said it would be a waste of money. No doubt for her it would have been. Another woman, when asked if Sadam Hussein had anything to do with 911 replied that of course he did. She had no doubt whatsoever. There are many people who still believe this even now. Just as there are still many who believe that Hussein and Osama bin Laden were acting together which, of course, we know now is entirely false. In the context of politics or human relations this is not merely ignorance, it is idiocy.

There is no doubt that many people, mostly Republicans, still believe what the Swift Boat Veterans for (un)Truth said about John Kerry is true. This in spite of the fact that they have been definitively shown to be deliberately and dishonestly smearing Kerry. The major media still keep on with this story which just adds to the smear. This, too, is idiocy.

The Republicans have demonstrated repeatedly there is no limit to how low they will sink to remain in power. They have maliciously smeared American heroes as if they were beneath contempt: John McCain, Max Cleland, and now John Kerry. Now they are even mocking the purple heart, the medal awarded for being wounded or killed in action. As the services do not distinguish how badly one must be injured to receive a purple heart this is a smear on hundreds of thousands of American veterans who have received such medals. It is totally unconscionable. People like Bob Dole should know better but it appears that Republicans have no shame whatsoever. John McCain says the smear is despicable, Bush does not condemn it, and McCain hangs around him like a mindless puppy, embracing him in public and supporting his presidency. That is what is despicable and even worse. And McCain even repeats the nonsensical claim that we had no choice but to go to war. This “war” was unnecessary, illegal, unconstitutional, and criminal. If McCain and others refuse to admit it they are just as guilty as Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, and the rest of the so-called neocons.

If this current administration is not thrown out of office be prepared to live in a truly Fascist country.