# 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:** 1262
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25222 "2015-11-05T02:26:50Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Someone needs to be on the men-only island to record the results. I’ll volunteer to be on the women-only island to record the results. And to hike the Appalachian Trail. ---
**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:** [November 5, 2015, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25223 "2015-11-05T04:14:37Z")
[Ben Carson thinks Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-pyramids-grain-storage_563a7d2fe4b0307f2cabdf3e) ---
**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:** [November 5, 2015, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25224 "2015-11-05T04:50:47Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Ben Carson thinks Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-pyramids-grain-storage_563a7d2fe4b0307f2cabdf3e) [QUOTE=Ben Carson] “And when you look at the way that the pyramids are made, with many chambers that are hermetically sealed, they’d have to be that way for various reasons,” he said. “And various of scientists have said, ‘well, you know there were alien beings that came down and they have special knowledge and that’s how.’ You know, it doesn’t require an alien being when God is with you.” [/QUOTE] I have to admit that I agree with him that it didn’t require aliens, but I don’t think there are many scientists who think it did. Hasn’t he wondered about the wisdom of placing dead bodies where you store your food? ---
**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:** [November 5, 2015, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25225 "2015-11-05T05:40:58Z")
Marco Rubio said he wants to have a beer with Malala, who is underage, a Muslim, and a Socialist. [http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/marco-rubio-said-he-wants-have-beer-malala-underage-muslim](http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/marco-rubio-said-he-wants-have-beer-malala-underage-muslim) > [@](#): > > Today, presidential contender Marco Rubio fielded questions at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. One of the questions he was asked was who he would like to “have a beer with" out of anyone in the world who is not a politician. > > Rubio replied he would like to have a beer with football legend Dan Marino, Russian chess prodigy Gary Kasparov and Malala Yousafzai. > > The first two are acceptable answers. The third is odd, considering that Malala, the famed Pakistani girls’ education activist, is both underage and Muslim. She is also a socialist, something Rubio probably doesn’t approve of. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25226 "2015-11-05T06:59:45Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Ben Carson thinks Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-pyramids-grain-storage_563a7d2fe4b0307f2cabdf3e) I just noticed this in the news today and had to come here to post it too, of course. The article I saw quotes the same incoherent remark that **davidm** quotes above. Here’s another even more incoherent part: > [@](#): > > “My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain,” Carson said. > > “Now all the archeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big if you stop and think about it. And I don’t think it’d just disappear over the course of time to store that much grain.” (Anybody have any idea what he’s trying to say there?) Here’s the article I saw: [Egypt pyramids for grain not pharoahs[_sic_]: presidential hopeful Carson](http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-pyramids-grain-not-pharoahs-presidential-hopeful-carson-024912363.html). Note, by the way: This is from a talk Carson gave before some group associated with the Seventh Day Adventists, about 17 years ago. I guess somebody just noticed it yesterday. Oh, by the way: Joseph didn’t actually build the pyramids to hold dead kings either. Nobody thinks he did that. ---
**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:** [November 5, 2015, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25227 "2015-11-05T07:17:50Z")
He’s saying that it would have to be awfully big and wouldn’t disappear over the course of time to store that much grain. Okay. It makes no sense. He was sort of speaking English I think, but I suppose it’s just over the heads of us non brain surgeons. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25228 "2015-11-05T07:42:31Z")
Is that the one with the dream about seven fat cows, and seven skinny ones, and the skinny ones turn into carnivorous lacto-raptors and eat the fat ones? Canibulls. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25229 "2015-11-05T07:52:06Z")
For a neurosurgeon, his thought processes sure seem a little Abby Normal. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25230 "2015-11-05T08:25:44Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Note, by the way: This is from a talk Carson gave before some group associated with the Seventh Day Adventists, about 17 years ago. I guess somebody just noticed it yesterday. > > Oh, by the way: Joseph didn’t actually build the pyramids to hold dead kings either. Nobody thinks he did that. He’s doubled down: > [@](#): > > Asked Wednesday by CBS News whether he still believed the pyramids were primarily used for grain storage, Carson said, “It’s still my belief, yes.” Matching events in the Pentateuch to the chronology of historic Egypt is interesting and controversial. (I think the Exodus was inspired by events near the reign of Akhenaten.) _But AFAICT, there are no constructions which put Joseph in the time of the Old Kingdom_. Has Carson published his fascinating construction? Disclaimer: the preceding sentence was a joke. Sifting Carson’s comments for intelligible content would be like giving a clown’s farts equal billing in a political debate. (Oh, America is doing that as we speak? Wow!) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25231 "2015-11-05T11:06:46Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I have to admit that I agree with him that it didn’t require aliens, but I don’t think there are many scientists who think it did. > > Hasn’t he wondered about the wisdom of placing dead bodies where you store your food? Keeps away the organic polar bears. ---
**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:** [November 5, 2015, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25232 "2015-11-05T12:30:00Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Ben Carson thinks Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-pyramids-grain-storage_563a7d2fe4b0307f2cabdf3e) Must have gotten his history from Civilization III. Building the Pyramids gave you a free Granary in every city in that game, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25233 "2015-11-05T12:34:19Z")
I am sure others on the SD have visited Egypt as I have, and have visited the Pyramids, as I have. And some have probably been able to go inside the Great Pyramid or the smallest of the three (which I did). All I can say, if they designed them for grain storage, then the contractor needed to be fired…with a catapult…over the Nile. I was willing to give Carson the benefit of the doubt given that the comments were in 1998, but I see he has ‘doubled down’ on that. To borrow from The Bridge on the River Kwai: “Madness…Madness.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25234 "2015-11-05T12:38:13Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Ben Carson thinks Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-pyramids-grain-storage_563a7d2fe4b0307f2cabdf3e) I can’t access your link for some reason, but this isn’t an original theory of Carson’s – it’s an old theory going back to the time of the Crusades, when Europeans were trying to square the Bible with their own observations. Carson must’ve read something by someone who resurrected the notion. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25235 "2015-11-05T14:36:10Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > It’s conservative DAs who were making the assertions, and they made them based on past cases where investigations were slowed down by assertions of religious freedom, and that was prior to the law. “Slowing down an investigation” is not the same as “providing an exemption.” The article (certainly the headline) misrepresents those assertions. > [@vivalostwages](#): > > It doesn’t seem like much of a stretch, though, considering how many kids have died of curable illnesses because their parents’ religious beliefs kept them from taking the kids for medical care. > > [Faith Healing: Religious Freedom vs. Child Protection | Science-Based Medicine](https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/faith-healing-religious-freedom-vs-child-protection/) It’s a huge stretch. RFRAs do not apply where the state has a compelling interest in the subject of the challenged legislation. If the state requires parents to accept lifesaving medical care, the RFRA will not apply. > [@davidm](#): > > Marco Rubio said he wants to have a beer with Malala, who is underage, a Muslim, and a Socialist. > [http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/marco-rubio-said-he-wants-have-beer-malala-underage-muslim](http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/marco-rubio-said-he-wants-have-beer-malala-underage-muslim) I’m not sure why this qualifies. The thrust of the question is clearly “who would you like to have a conversation with,” rather than actually having a beer. In any event, Malala is an anti-Muslim-fundamentalist activist, and can legally drink basically everywhere in the world except here. As for socialism, I am fairly certain it is not her views on economic systems that Rubio respects. If anything, we ought to be cheering this as a _good_ Republican idea of the day. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25236 "2015-11-05T14:42:49Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Hasn’t he wondered about the wisdom of placing dead bodies where you store your food? Look, I already TOLD you, the only reason the corpse is in the fridge is because of the warm spell! The weather’ll cool down again tomorrow, and I’ll put it back out on the porch. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25237 "2015-11-05T14:51:57Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > I was willing to give Carson the benefit of the doubt given that the comments were in 1998 Why? He was 47 years old then, and it had long been known that all but a tiny fraction of the pyramids’ interiors were solid rock. Not to mention that the pyramids were built at least a thousand years before the earliest possible date for Joseph. Not to mention that they took decades to build, while Joseph needed the storage right away, to provide grain for the famine that would begin seven years from the date of Pharaoh’s dream. This is funny, but it’s also very disturbing. If someone that old and that educated and that intelligent is so deluded by his religion that he seriously proposes something so ridiculous that it goes even beyond what is taught by his [del]wacko cult[/del] denomination, then what kind of crazy thoughts might he have about ushering in the End Times by fighting Russia in the Middle East (a common theme in evangelical circles)? ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25238 "2015-11-05T15:06:32Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Ben Carson thinks Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-pyramids-grain-storage_563a7d2fe4b0307f2cabdf3e) If this guys is a brain surgeon, maybe we are wrong on how hard rocket science is as well. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25239 "2015-11-05T15:08:39Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > what kind of crazy thoughts might he have about ushering in the End Times by fighting Russia in the Middle East (a common theme in evangelical circles)? Well, it would be pretty apocalyptic, in a sense. ---
**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:** [November 5, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25240 "2015-11-05T15:15:45Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > If this guys is a brain surgeon, maybe we are wrong on how hard rocket science is as well. > **[Jack Parsons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons_%28rocket_engineer%29)** > > John Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons;\[nb 1\] October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952) was an American rocket engineer, chemist, and Thelemite occultist. Associated with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation. He invented the first rocket engine to use a castable, composite rocket propellant, and pioneered the advancement of both liquid-fuel and solid-... > [@](#): > > John Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons; October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952), better known as Jack Parsons, was an American rocket engineer and rocket propulsion researcher, chemist, inventor, businessman, expert witness, writer, socialite, and Thelemite occultist. Parsons was associated with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation. He invented the first castable, composite solid rocket propellant, and pioneered the advancement of both liquid-fuel and solid-fuel rockets. He was also an early proponent of using rockets for scientific research and exploration beyond Earth. > … > After a brief involvement in Marxism, in 1939 Parsons began practising magick and converted to Thelema, the English occultist Aleister Crowley’s new religious movement. In 1941, alongside his first wife Helen Northrup, Parsons joined the Agape Lodge, the Californian branch of the Thelemite Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). At Crowley’s bidding, he replaced Wilfred Talbot Smith as its leader in 1942 and ran the Lodge from his mansion on Orange Grove Avenue. Inciting criminal investigations into allegedly illicit activities, Parsons was expelled from JPL and Aerojet in 1944 in part due to the Lodge’s infamy, along with his quixotic working practices as a scientist. In 1945 Parsons separated from Helen after having an affair with her sister Sara; when Sara left him for his friend L. Ron Hubbard he conducted the Babalon Working, a series of rituals designed to invoke the Thelemic goddess Babalon to Earth. He and Hubbard continued the procedure with Marjorie Cameron, whom Parsons married in 1946. After Hubbard and Sara defrauded him of his life savings, Parsons resigned from the OTO and went through various jobs — including as a freelance chemical engineer and pyrotechnician — while acting as a consultant for the Israeli rocket program. Amid the climate of McCarthyism he was accused of espionage and left unable to work in rocketry. In 1952 Parsons died at the age of 37 in a home laboratory explosion that attracted national media attention; the police ruled it an accident, but many associates suspected suicide or assassination. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25241 "2015-11-05T16:26:04Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > [Jack Parsons - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons_%28rocket_engineer%29) No fair! A LOT of us brainy intellectuals are Crowleyites. Thelema is much less dopey than evangelical Christianity. Cocaine use and crazy monkey sex are part of the ritual, for example. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1261) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1263)