# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1017
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20322 "2015-03-25T18:33:00Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > So, Cruz says the world is on fire (in the bad way, I guess), and one of his likely sparring partners is a guy whose name ends in “-arson”? I’m picturing those profiled faces from The Electric Company. c at cat! c arson carson! ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20323 "2015-03-25T18:45:03Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I’m going to give a pass to any idea, no matter how hare-brained, that involves taking the metric shit-ton of precipitation that’s fallen on the Eastern seaboard and get it to California, where it hasn’t rained in 5 years. > > (Slight exaggeration, but things are indeed dire here.) Well, barges would be a very wasteful solution, but perhaps propellers could be attached to rainclouds and… ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20324 "2015-03-25T18:48:24Z")
“Ted Cruz Compares Himself to Galileo, Calls Those Who Believe In Climate Change ‘Flat-Earthers’” [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/) > [@](#): > > Speaking to the Texas Tribune on Tuesday, Cruz said that contemporary “global warming alarmists are the equivalent of the flat-Earthers.” > > “You know it used to be it is accepted scientific wisdom the Earth is flat, and this heretic named Galileo was branded a denier,” he said. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20325 "2015-03-25T18:50:10Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I was trying to envision a scenario in which Roy Moore is forced to give his life to stop gay marriage and now I’m trying not to. In the near future, Justice Moore will valiantly stop a gay couple from intercourse by diving between them as they are about to copulate, causing the penis to penetrate his eye and into his brain, instantly killing him. Horrified at their deed, the gay couple become Evangelical Christians, traveling around the country to speak out against the evils of gay marriage. Their rapid rise in influence forces a beaten Obama to reluctantly sign an Amendment banning gay marriage. Moore is declared a national hero and a statue is erected in his honor at the Capital Building, which is coincidentally where the first people were Raptured as they prayed beneath his stony gaze…as Roy Moore writes in his own fan fiction of How Roy Moore Saved the World ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20326 "2015-03-25T18:53:56Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > “Ted Cruz Compares Himself to Galileo, Calls Those Who Believe In Climate Change ‘Flat-Earthers’” > [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/) That’s an excellent confirmation of what I’ve long suspected is the state of right-wing knowledge of science and history. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20327 "2015-03-25T18:58:19Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > “Ted Cruz Compares Himself to Galileo, Calls Those Who Believe In Climate Change ‘Flat-Earthers’” > [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/) Wow, who is that going to fool? Most of his constituents would burn Galileo at the stake. And what is this “the world is on fire?” Doesn’t that make him a global warming alarmist? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20328 "2015-03-25T19:36:15Z")
[Sarah Palin wants to do away with the VA and replace it with a voucher program.](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/watch-sarah-palin-push-a-koch-backed-scheme-to-kill-the-va-and-replace-it-with-vouchers/) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20329 "2015-03-25T19:46:32Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Sarah Palin wants to do away with the VA and replace it with a voucher program.](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/watch-sarah-palin-push-a-koch-backed-scheme-to-kill-the-va-and-replace-it-with-vouchers/) Saraħ Palin is little more than a spokesmodel. She has no actual thought process. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20330 "2015-03-25T20:25:38Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > “Ted Cruz Compares Himself to Galileo, Calls Those Who Believe In Climate Change ‘Flat-Earthers’” > [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/) Wait, what was Galileo’s relationship to the flat-earth controversy? Was he involved in any way at all? ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20331 "2015-03-25T20:29:09Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > “Ted Cruz Compares Himself to Galileo, Calls Those Who Believe In Climate Change ‘Flat-Earthers’” > [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/) The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. - Carl Sagan ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20332 "2015-03-25T20:33:59Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Wait, what was Galileo’s relationship to the flat-earth controversy? Was he involved in any way at all? Exactly! ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20333 "2015-03-25T20:40:52Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Wait, what was Galileo’s relationship to the flat-earth controversy? Was he involved in any way at all? If Cruz had said “earth revolves around the sun” instead of “earth is flat” it would have been a slightly better analogy, but even then he’s confusing Galileo with Copernicus. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20334 "2015-03-25T20:44:33Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Exactly! And above and beyond that: what flat-earth controversy? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20335 "2015-03-25T20:47:05Z")
It’s pretty much the same controversy as climate change, and pretty much the same sets of people except a few hundred years apart. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20336 "2015-03-25T21:00:54Z")
Except, acting upon the premise that the Earth is flat was of tremendous consequence, whereas global warming is wholly unimportant. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20337 "2015-03-25T21:55:43Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > If Cruz had said “earth revolves around the sun” instead of “earth is flat” it would have been a slightly better analogy, but even then he’s confusing Galileo with Copernicus. Nah, Copernicus was a slick motherfucker. He figured out that the Earth revolved around the Sun but didn’t want to rock the boat so when he published his astronomical treaties he took care to say “I’m only using this theoretical model because it simplifies calculations” - he never went one step further and assert “because that’s the way if fookin’ well is !”. Galileo was less tactful about it, which is why he got smacked (among other things, few of which were actually related to Galileo or astronomy really). But he did get smacked for asserting a geocentric model. As for the “flat earth controversy”, \*\*Miller \*\*is right : there never was any. People (well, scholars) have known the Earth is round-ish since Ancient Greece (and probably earlier - I’m thinking classical Egypt & Babylon here). ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20338 "2015-03-25T22:01:32Z")
errr that would be helio-, not geo-, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20339 "2015-03-25T22:18:24Z")
So Ted Cruz could look at becoming the example the dictionary will use when one looks at the definition of “Not even wrong”. > **[Not even wrong](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong)** > > Not even wrong refers to any statement, argument, or explanation that can be neither correct nor incorrect, because it fails to meet the criteria by which correctness and incorrectness are determined. As a more formal fallacy, it refers to the fine... > [@](#): > > _What you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul._ > —James Downey, Billy Madison[1] > > “_”That statement’s not even ignorant. That statement is like ignorance resin. Like, if you just take all of the stupid and just cook it down, and then scrape just the pure ignorance. Like crystal “duh.” It’s like crystal “duh.”_ > —Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, referring to one such insane statement. [2] > > Not even wrong refers to any statement, argument or explanation that can be neither correct nor incorrect, because it fails to meet the criteria by which correctness and incorrectness are determined. As a more formal fallacy, it refers to the fine art of generating an ostensibly “correct” conclusion, but from premises known to be wrong or inapplicable. > > The phrase implies that not only is someone not making a valid point in a discussion, but they don’t even understand the nature of the discussion itself, or the things that need to be understood in order to participate. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20340 "2015-03-25T23:04:02Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Missouri Rep legislator doesn’t want people on food stamps to be able to use them to buy fish.](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/anti-abortion-missouri-republican-criticized-for-new-bill-cutting-fish-out-of-food-stamp-plans/) Fish is a food for them bicoastal/bisexual elitist pervs. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20341 "2015-03-25T23:07:15Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I’m going to give a pass to any idea, no matter how hare-brained, that involves taking the metric shit-ton of precipitation that’s fallen on the Eastern seaboard and get it to California, where it hasn’t rained in 5 years. > > (Slight exaggeration, but things are indeed dire here.) Wouldn’t it be easier to pipe it due south from the Pacific Northwest, where “rain” is another word for “air”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1016) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1018)