# 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:** 174
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3461 "2011-09-09T18:33:36Z")
Oh. I wouldn’t go so far as to use the word “suggest”. More like a scurrilous implication of a slanderous, unfounded innuendo. I’m not a nice person. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3462 "2011-09-10T16:00:24Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > So, this isn’t how you’re supposed to document weight loss. I knew my support group on Nutrisystem was fucking with me… Literally?😃 OTOH he DID make an outstanding weight loss, seriously, but this is ridiculous (Appropriately IRT weight loss, he was the head of the Huckabee campaign in PR until Huck dropped out back in '08. I know him from my politics work. Always wondered why he was so ultracon on the “moral” issues when he seemed more laid back on other policies…) Y’know, I felt sad for him for the way this all came out but at the same time I’m thinking: _“Oh, for Og’s sake, Roberto – did you lose weight in the brain, too??”_ If you’re gonna get outed, at least get caught with some hot dude or doing something dashing and fabulous. Not like this. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3463 "2011-09-13T16:43:07Z")
Here’s the substantive criticism offered by Fox and Friends and the New York Post about Obama’s jobs plan: It was fastened together with a [paper clip.](http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109130010) And people still claim that watching Fox News doesn’t make you stupid. ---
**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:** [September 13, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3464 "2011-09-13T16:45:41Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > And people still claim that watching Fox News doesn’t make you stupid. Well, it’s kind of an eternal philosophical question: Do Fox viewers watch Fox News because they were already stupid, or did they BECOME stupid watching Fox News? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3465 "2011-09-13T16:48:40Z")
Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3466 "2011-09-13T17:00:25Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Here’s the substantive criticism offered by Fox and Friends and the New York Post about Obama’s jobs plan: It was fastened together with a [paper clip.](http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109130010) He should have used a staple made in Scranton USA. Why does he hate America so? -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3467 "2011-09-13T17:14:11Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Well, it’s kind of an eternal philosophical question: Do Fox viewers watch Fox News because they were already stupid, or did they BECOME stupid watching Fox News? The attraction to Fox is proportional to the inverse square of the persons IQ. Meanwhile a persons IQ reduces in direct proportion to his Fox exposure. Thus like a black hole of stupidity, people on the periphery of Fox can find themselves slipping across the event horizon of ignorance, and being sucked into idiocity at an ever increasing pace until they reach the singularity of infinite density and vote for Palin for president. There may be some relativistic and quantum mechanical effects that I glossed over but the basic framework is there. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3468 "2011-09-13T18:52:22Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > The attraction to Fox is proportional to the inverse square of the persons IQ. Meanwhile a persons IQ reduces in direct proportion to his Fox exposure. Thus like a black hole of stupidity, people on the periphery of Fox can find themselves slipping across the event horizon of ignorance, and being sucked into idiocity at an ever increasing pace until they reach the singularity of infinite density and vote for Palin for president. > There may be some relativistic and quantum mechanical effects that I glossed over but the basic framework is there. I hope you realize the difficulty I had, to stop laughing long enough to clip this and email it to appreciative friends. I will confess, the first thing my (print-shop-employee) SO said upon seeing that clip was “Really? A Gem clip? CREATE JOBS, FOR GAWD’S SAKE - GET SOMEONE TO BIND THAT FOR YOU!” This was not, however, intended to be a commentary upon the _content_ of said document. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3469 "2011-09-13T19:00:59Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > …There may be some relativistic and quantum mechanical effects that I glossed over but the basic framework is there. That’s Heisenberg. Pretty sure about that. Well, kinda. Maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3470 "2011-09-14T02:20:04Z")
[Not sure if many of you saw this last night,](http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/audience-tea-party-debate-cheers-leaving-uninsured-die-163216817.html) but during the GOP debate, Tea Baggers actually voiced their overwhelming (based on audience applause) pleasure at letting the uninsured die. The video shows it all. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3471 "2011-09-14T02:42:44Z")
I saw that too. The teabaggers scare the shit out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3472 "2011-09-14T03:05:59Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > [Not sure if many of you saw this last night,](http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/audience-tea-party-debate-cheers-leaving-uninsured-die-163216817.html) but during the GOP debate, Tea Baggers actually voiced their overwhelming (based on audience applause) pleasure at letting the uninsured die. The video shows it all. I guess they realize that would include someone with a pre-existing condition who CANNOT BUY health insurance. Also, it would include someone who lost their job after a company went bankrupt because the company executive destroyed the company due to incompetence or malfeasance. Or, the person who dies might be a child of one of the two above. But hey… “Huzzah! Huzzah! Let the uninsured die!” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3473 "2011-09-14T03:07:26Z")
It was post-modernist irony. Tea Baggers are real big on that. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3474 "2011-09-14T03:09:56Z")
Actually, i think the Tea Baggers are pre-modern. Positively medieval, actually. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3475 "2011-09-14T03:12:34Z")
I guess I should be shocked, outraged even. I’m numb though. Has a more hateful display of what the Tea Baggers stood for been played to this many mainstream audiences? I want to believe that they are getting bolder, and this enthusiastic declaration of letting the uninsured die is a new thing, but I’m kind of afraid that its not… ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3476 "2011-09-14T03:16:13Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Here’s the substantive criticism offered by Fox and Friends and the New York Post about Obama’s jobs plan: It was fastened together with a [paper clip.](http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109130010) This is the sort of thing that, try as you might, you just can’t come up with ideas like this as a parody. “Fox and Friends Criticizes Obama Over Paper Clip Binding on Jobs Plan” sounds like a stretch for an Onion article. It’s too dumb to even be clever. And yet, in the Fox universe, this is some sort of “story.” Later, one of the Fox News programs that they consider news programs will mention in passing that the President is being criticized about the paper clip. People on talk radio will mention the paper clip in passing. There will be, in some alternate reality that the right-wing propaganda machine pretends exists, a common knowledge of a “paper clip controversy.” And the failure of the lamestream media to pay the proper attention to the binding of a $450 billion jobs plan will be further evidence of the lengths they go to to protect Obama. It’s not exactly that Fox News makes people stupid. It’s that Fox News creates a reality that’s subtly different than our own where this shit makes sense, and the more one trusts them, the more one is suspicious of reality as anyone outside the propaganda factory describes it. Eventually, things people were skeptical of, they accept. And then they start to have their doubts that Shep Smith or Brit Hume isn’t a liberal media stooge as well. I think the technical term is **cognitive dissonance** , and I seem to recall that **elucidator** told us ages ago that he was doing something about it. I don’t think it worked. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3477 "2011-09-14T03:23:04Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Here’s the substantive criticism offered by Fox and Friends and the New York Post about Obama’s jobs plan: It was fastened together with a [paper clip.](http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109130010) > > And people still claim that watching Fox News doesn’t make you stupid. What the fucking fuck what that shit?!?!? I was like :eek: Then I was like 😕 Then I went :rolleyes: And now I’m :mad: Of all the fucking things to criticize… ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3478 "2011-09-14T03:32:52Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Here’s the substantive criticism offered by Fox and Friends and the New York Post about Obama’s jobs plan: It was fastened together with a [paper clip.](http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109130010) > > And people still claim that watching Fox News doesn’t make you stupid. I would have bet $100 cash that was an Onion article. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3479 "2011-09-14T03:49:02Z")
Is this a “stupid” Republican idea or a slimy, disgusting, assholish Republican idea? NC Legislature votes for a referendum on an amendment to the state Constitution banning gay marriage. They schedule the vote for…[the same day as the Republican primary in NC](http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2011/09/nc-to-vote-on-s.php). Fucking bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3480 "2011-09-14T10:45:00Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > OTOH he DID make an outstanding weight loss, seriously, but this is ridiculous (Appropriately IRT weight loss, he was the head of the Huckabee campaign in PR until Huck dropped out back in '08. I know him from my politics work. Always wondered why he was so ultracon on the “moral” issues when he seemed more laid back on other policies…) Dan Savage is already attempting to coin the phrase “Puerto Rican diet”, to enter the lexicon next to “lifting my luggage” and “hiking the Appalachian Trail”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=173) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=175)