# 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:** 1263
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25242 "2015-11-05T16:54:01Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Ben Carson thinks Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-pyramids-grain-storage_563a7d2fe4b0307f2cabdf3e) Storing grain inside an almost solid structure seems a bit inefficient, no? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25243 "2015-11-05T17:12:25Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > “Slowing down an investigation” is not the same as “providing an exemption.” The article (certainly the headline) misrepresents those assertions. The way I read it was, they were concerned that if religious freedom issues could slow down an investigation without the law, then with the law it might be able to stymie it entirely. There have been some sickening cases in Georgia where children were beaten so severely that they required hospitalization by their parents, who were members of REALLY fundamentalist churches. I suspect that was what was on their minds. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25244 "2015-11-05T17:39:40Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Marco Rubio said he wants to have a beer with Malala, who is underage, a Muslim, and a Socialist. Enh. They could make it a \*root \*beer. ---
**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, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25245 "2015-11-05T17:48:31Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > Storing grain inside an almost solid structure seems a bit inefficient, no? It kept rodents out of the grain, right? There’s no evidence of rodents eating pyramid stored grain, so it apparently worked! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25246 "2015-11-05T18:15:14Z")
Moisture from the geyser would rot it, though. What’s the reason for denying the pyramids’ ritual motivation? Is it just that heathens could not possibly have done something so great for a false God? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25247 "2015-11-05T18:27:48Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > 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. No, no, not that Joseph. It was Joseph **Smith** who built the pyramids. Remember, Carson is a Mormon – well, he’s a 7th Day Adventist, but that’s a kind of Mormon, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25248 "2015-11-05T18:30:39Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > 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. I height Don Quixote, I live on Peyote, marihuana, morphine and cocaine. I never knew sadness but only a madness that burns at the heart and the brain, I see each charwoman ecstatic, inhuman, angelic, demonic, divine, Each wagon a dragon, each beer mug a flagon that brims with ambrosial wine. – [Jack Parsons](http://hermetic.com/parsons/i-hight-don-quixote-i-live-on-peyote.html) ---
**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:** [November 5, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25249 "2015-11-05T19:06:45Z")
> [@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. There is no evidence for that because they were _undocumented_ aliens. No good going there, he would be playing right into Trump’s hand. ---
**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:** [November 5, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25250 "2015-11-05T19:29:33Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Moisture from the geyser would rot it, though. > > What’s the reason for denying the pyramids’ ritual motivation? Is it just that heathens could not possibly have done something so great for a false God? The main reason is that the Egyptian civilization throws a monkey wrench into the biblical time line. [http://www.skepticreport.com/sr/?p=475](http://www.skepticreport.com/sr/?p=475) > [@](#): > > Egyptians > …who continued building their civilization and constructing monuments, and didn’t bother to take notice of the worldwide flood that was supposed to be drowning them all. (Creationists estimate that the flood took place about 4000-5000 ybp [years before present], which was the height of the Egyptian civilization.) -Adam Levenstein > > To which Keith Harwood adds: The prehistory of Egypt stretches from about 8000 BCE. The history, that is, what was written down at the time, stretches from ~3500 BCE through invasions by Hyksos, Hittites, Romans, through floods, famines, insurrections, twenty-odd ruling dynasties, massive building projects, and the mind-boggling minutiae of royal bureaucracy. During this period the whole world was engulfed in a flood which scoured the land clean. And in Egypt, nobody noticed. (They didn’t notice when they lost a Pharaoh under the Red Sea, either, but that was later.) So, besides the fundamentalists declaring that the Egyptologists are wrong on the chronology, it leads to fundamentalists into thinking that the explanations the experts give for the pyramids are wrong too, so we get people like Carson. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25251 "2015-11-05T19:36:42Z")
There’s a theory that Ben Carson’s campaign is [one big con](http://theweek.com/articles/586822/ben-carsons-campaign-big-con) and I’m starting to believe it. Just got a robocall from Ben. In Massachusetts. To a Democrat household. A full year before the election and at least three months before the primary. And Ben sounded like he was on qualudes as he described how fearlessly speaking out against Obamacare distinguished him from all the other Republican campaigners. If there was a better way for a candidate to piss away campaign cash, it would have to involve a fire pit, bales of fifty dollar bills, and a Ronson lighter. ---
**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, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25252 "2015-11-05T19:39:33Z")
as i observed above, the belief that the pyramids were “Joseph’s barns” (built to house the grain he advised Pharaoh to store up during the seven fat years in preparation for the seven lean years, as told in the book of Genesis) is a Medieval one. it was stated as early as the fifth century CE by Julius Honorius i his _Cosmographica_, repeated by numerous others, and was still being told in the 14th vcentury in _The Travels of Sir John Mandeville_ > **[Antiquity Imagined](https://books.google.com/books?id=X2lsCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT62&lpg=PT62&dq=Pyramids%2Bas%2BJoseph%27s%2Bbarns&source=bl&ots=eAA-2aXBXB&sig=ghY3IRz1ceMXUhteJUnGipto-_0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEAQ6AEwCWoVChMIpavdzIP6yAIVClYeCh2ILgH3#v=onepage&q=Pyramids%20as%20Joseph's%20barns&f=false)** > > Outsiders have long attributed to the Middle East, and especially to ancient Egypt, meanings that go way beyond the rational and observable. The region has been seen as the source of civilization, religion, the sciences and the arts; but also of... What modern Biblical literalist is still hawking this I do not know, but I suspect that Carson didfn’t pick up the idea from Sir John. ---
**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, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25253 "2015-11-05T21:14:08Z")
[New Ben Carson radio ad](https://soundcloud.com/abcpolitics/ben-carson-radio-ad). Is he really trying to appeal to black voters? ---
**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:** [November 5, 2015, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25254 "2015-11-05T21:34:18Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [New Ben Carson radio ad](https://soundcloud.com/abcpolitics/ben-carson-radio-ad). Is he really trying to appeal to black voters? Huh. I stared in disbelief as the thing finished, and then the audio stream flowed into Trump-hype (“trype”?). ---
**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, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25255 "2015-11-05T21:35:16Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I height Don Quixote, I live on Peyote, > marihuana, morphine and cocaine. > I never knew sadness but only a madness > that burns at the heart and the brain, > I see each charwoman ecstatic, inhuman, > angelic, demonic, divine, > Each wagon a dragon, each beer mug a flagon > that brims with ambrosial wine. > > – [Jack Parsons](http://hermetic.com/parsons/i-hight-don-quixote-i-live-on-peyote.html) See? If Parsons hadn’t already been making the big bucks as a rocket scientist, he woulda been an absolute BEAR as a professional limerick composer. ---
**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, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25256 "2015-11-05T21:48:23Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [New Ben Carson radio ad](https://soundcloud.com/abcpolitics/ben-carson-radio-ad). Is he really trying to appeal to black voters? See, that’s why he would be an _authentic_ black President. ---
**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, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25257 "2015-11-05T21:55:48Z")
I can totally see him as the black villain in _Breaking Bad_. ---
**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, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25258 "2015-11-05T21:56:15Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [New Ben Carson radio ad](https://soundcloud.com/abcpolitics/ben-carson-radio-ad). Is he really trying to appeal to black voters? “I’m Ben Carson and I can suck the life out of rap.” ---
**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, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25259 "2015-11-05T21:58:26Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [New Ben Carson radio ad](https://soundcloud.com/abcpolitics/ben-carson-radio-ad). Is he really trying to appeal to black voters? I’m not in any sense a rap fan, but am I right in saying that that’s not even good rap? ---
**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, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25260 "2015-11-05T22:03:21Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > There’s a theory that Ben Carson’s campaign is [one big con](http://theweek.com/articles/586822/ben-carsons-campaign-big-con) and I’m starting to believe it. Just got a robocall from Ben. In Massachusetts. To a Democrat household. A full year before the election and at least three months before the primary. And Ben sounded like he was on qualudes as he described how fearlessly speaking out against Obamacare distinguished him from all the other Republican campaigners. > > If there was a better way for a candidate to piss away campaign cash, it would have to involve a fire pit, bales of fifty dollar bills, and a Ronson lighter. Makes sense. Spend money to raise more money, then spend that to raise even more. The real payoff being large mailing lists of rubes with more money than sense. You can then either sell snake oil to those rubes, or sell the mailing lists to someone else who sells snake oil. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/25261 "2015-11-05T22:16:36Z")
And have your own Fox News show, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1262) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1264)