Stupid Questions

Florida man, 87, shoots
84 year-old girlfriend he
suspected of cheating.

What is this penchant people have for asking really stupid questions? Once, for example, a woman I knew was in a drug store looking at sun glasses. You know, looking at one of those revolving stands that display sun glasses. She was crouched down as near the floor as possible looking intently at pairs of sun glasses. A clerk approached and asked her, “You interested in sun glasses? She replied, without hesitation, “No, I just come in here for the exercise.” We encounter these kinds of really stupid questions on an almost daily basis. Upon entering a store that only sells shoes you might well be asked, “Interested in shoes.” Or, when standing at a bus stop waiting patiently you are asked, “Waiting for the bus?” Once I entered a cutlery store where the only things sold were knives. I was asked, “You want a knife?” And so it goes. It is not always easy to reply to stupid questions, sometimes they are so stupid you are left speechless with wonder. A really good reply is hard to come by, as in the well-known tale of a man who asked a stranger, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall,” and received an immediate response, “Practice, man, practice.” Or another wonderful example, as when someone was asked “Does the cross town trolley pass by this way,” and received “Do dah,” as an answer, but enough of this.

I was prompted to think of this when reading that Sarah Palin’s husband, Todd, berated her candidate for Senate from Alaska for refusing to say Silly Sarah was qualified for the Presidency. That is, when asked, Miller refused to give a straightforward answer. Now this strikes me as an example of a truly stupid question. Two years ago Palin was widely regarded as unsuited to be the Vice-Presidential candidate, and for good reason, as she demonstrated repeatedly her empty-headedness with a vengeance. In the two years since then she has given speeches in which she has demonstrated over and over again how little she knows and how ignorant she really is. So why would anyone ask if she is qualified to be President. When even one of those she is responsible for sponsoring refused to answer it is pretty obvious what an honest answer would have to be. I think it is fair to say that the overwhelming majority of American voters know full well she is completely unqualified. You cannot, as the saying goes, “Make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” But wonder of wonders, there actually are people who believe she would make a good President. I guess these are the same people who ask stupid questions on a daily basis, like, Do you believe President Obama is really a Kenyan Muslim secretly trying to insert Shari’a law into the U.S., or is he a communist, socialist, fascist, or perhaps a secret Zoroastrian?

I find what is currently going on in American politics to be virtually unbelievable, with a number of candidates with little or no experience, insanely absurd views of what should be done, being supported by tons of corporate money donated to them by corporations who don’t care who they are as long as they are anti-Obama. Even foreign corporations and companies are donating huge amounts of money to defeat Obama in an unprecedented and illegal manner. Illegality, hypocrisy, theft, dishonesty, deceit, immorality, you name it and it seems to be okay these days. Even blatant war crimes go unpunished. We even have some candidates at the moment whose only claim to high office is that they have fortunes so bloated they can afford to buy a seat in government at whatever the cost. Most of them will probably (at least hopefully) fail, but the very fact they believe high office can legitimately be purchased is a step so far backwards in time as to be pathetic. That, I fear, is precisely what our political system has become…pathetic.

LKBIQ:
They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program.
George W. Bush

TILT:
Kinkajous can live to be 23 years old in captivity.