# 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:** 186
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3701 "2011-11-02T17:25:25Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > He’s worried that China might try to develop nukes, and we’d better keep an eye on it: > [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec11/hermancain\_10-31.html](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec11/hermancain_10-31.html) > In an interview with Judy Woodruff, about half way down the column (it doesn’t want me to cut and paste, for some reason). > It is reliably reported that China has had nukes since 1964 or thereabouts… > His ignorance really is appalling. Or maybe he’s gonna use the secret Presidential Time Twister/decoder ring… Maybe he’s just confusing North Korea and China. They’re pretty similar. Right? ---
**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 2, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3702 "2011-11-02T18:11:58Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Your link is buggered. One http:// too many. [Correct one](http://restoringtruthiness.org/7200/herman-cains-foreign-policy-afghani-ghani-ghani-ghani-stan-stan). Oops. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3703 "2011-11-02T18:16:57Z")
> [@redtail23](#): > > If he went to college directly from high school, which it looks like he did, he would have received SS benefits through, I think, age 23. Maybe they just forgot to mention that part? The use of SS survivors benefits for college was repealed under either Reagan or Bush, and although it was brought back under Clinton, it wasn’t retroactive for the orphans who turned 18 during the inactive time. Ryan was born in 1970, so he probably wasn’t eligible for any payments after he hit 18. But I weep not for him, because from his Wikipedia entry it appears that his late father was a lawyer and a direct descendent of the founder of a largish construction firm called Ryan Incorporated Central. In light of that, I strongly suspect that the SS benefits were just another drop in the bucket of family money. I also really resent the entry’s tone that implies that young Ryan was somehow morally superior because he saved those benefits. Most orphans don’t get to decide what is to be done with the benefits: their surviving parent or guardian does. And most surviving parents or guardians do not get to decide to stash them away, because they need the money to, you know, feed and clothe the kid. As the benefits are intended to do. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3704 "2011-11-02T18:53:43Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > Maybe he’s just confusing North Korea and China. They’re pretty similar. Right? He’s disoriented. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3705 "2011-11-02T20:27:41Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > He’s disoriented. Hey, it was simply the sort of occidental error any of us might make. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3706 "2011-11-02T21:06:05Z")
Chinese fixed land based missiles are normally unarmed: that is to say, the nuclear weapons are stored separately from the missiles, unless the leadership anticipates a crisis will develop. There are several reasons for this: command and control structure is not very robust, the leadership does not trust the junior officers to handle nuclear weapons themselves, nuclear policy in the PRC is strictly about deterrence, not MAD (first strike use of nuclear weapons is a no-no in their book), etc. Last I read, IRC, the PRC has between 200-300 nuclear land-based _sans_ nuclear tipped missiles along with four nuclear ballistic missile submarines (don’t have the numbers, but only one or two are on patrol at any give time) (YMMV since I don’t stay current on these issues anymore). Cain should be losing sleep over Russia’s nuclear forces. And our own (e. g., the[Bent Spear incident in Minot, ND](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/09/23/ST2007092300048.html)). I would not expect Cain to know this, BTW, because he’s been a businessman all of his life, not a nuclear foreign policy wonk. Assuming he’s grandstanding, this is no big deal–once you get into the White House, wishful thinking is converted to hard reality. Expect Cain to blunder on bigger, more pertinent issues. But I concede that it does remonstrate Cain’s off-the-top-of-his-head grasp of foreign policy issues has been found wanting. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3707 "2011-11-02T21:26:50Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > Expect Cain to blunder on bigger, more pertinent issues. But I concede that it does remonstrate Cain’s off-the-top-of-his-head grasp of foreign policy issues has been found wanting. This is the same guy who said a few weeks ago that when people started asking gotcha questions, like “who’s the president of Ubekibekistan”, that he’d say “I don’t know.” So not only is he wrong about China, he was wrong about admitting when he was wrong about things. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3708 "2011-11-02T22:00:47Z")
“I would not expect Cain to know this, BTW, because he’s been a businessman all of his life, not a nuclear foreign policy wonk. Assuming he’s grandstanding, this is no big deal–once you get into the White House, wishful thinking is converted to hard reality.” I don’t know, that didn’t work so well with the Bush neocons and Iraq… ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3709 "2011-11-02T23:07:53Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > “I would not expect Cain to know this, BTW, because he’s been a businessman all of his life, not a nuclear foreign policy wonk. Assuming he’s grandstanding, this is no big deal–once you get into the White House, wishful thinking is converted to hard reality.” > I don’t know, that didn’t work so well with the Bush neocons and Iraq… Since they [created their own reality](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community) as they went along, to them it worked just fine. > [@](#): > > The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3710 "2011-11-02T23:55:30Z")
Except to the rest of us, it looks suspiciously similar to psychosis… ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3711 "2011-11-03T03:19:10Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > Except to the rest of us, it looks suspiciously similar to psychosis… That’s only because you’re reading the reality-based DSM IV. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3712 "2011-11-03T03:27:19Z")
Is that the heretical one where the Iraqis _didn’t_ greet us with flowers? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3713 "2011-11-09T02:58:41Z")
Maine Republican Party: Same day voter registration is a [Gay and Lesbian Conspiracy](http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/maine_gop_ad_the_gays_are_trying_to_impose_same_day_voter_registration.php)!! > [@](#): > > “FACT! IN THE 2010 ELECTIONS, EQUALITY MAINE (ADVOCACY GROUP FOR GAY/LESBIAN MARRIAGE) DONATED $141,000 FOR THE ELECTION OF DEMOCRAT CANDIDATES TO THE MAINE LEGISLATURE. > > FACT! IN THIS ELECTION EQUALITY MAINE HAS DONATED $5000 AND RECEIVED OVER $46,000 TO COLLECT SIGNATURES IN SUPPORT OF REFERENDUM QUESTION #1. > > WHY… IS THIS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP SO INTERESTED IN REPEALING MAINE ELECTION LAWS?” With early returns in, this measure is going down to defeat. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3714 "2011-11-09T03:25:33Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Maine Republican Party: Same day voter registration is a [Gay and Lesbian Conspiracy](http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/maine_gop_ad_the_gays_are_trying_to_impose_same_day_voter_registration.php)!!With early returns in, this measure is going down to defeat. Yep the Maine GOP Chairman, Charlie Webster, talked to the press to explain ‘it wasn’t gay bashing it was educational.’ ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3715 "2011-11-09T16:13:41Z")
In other news, Mississippi Republicans’ idiotic “a fertilized egg is a person” initiative is [going down in flames](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/us/politics/votes-across-the-nation-could-serve-as-a-political-barometer.html?ref=politics). ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3716 "2011-11-09T17:09:52Z")
Thank god. I think more people really need to learn what the word “miscarriage” means. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vfbERKwNszU/hqdefault.jpg "Is god Pro-Life?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfbERKwNszU) ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3717 "2011-11-09T17:13:27Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > In other news, Mississippi Republicans’ idiotic “a fertilized egg is a person” initiative is [going down in flames](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/us/politics/votes-across-the-nation-could-serve-as-a-political-barometer.html?ref=politics). I am utterly shocked by this. In a good way, of course. But I expected this to pass easily in Mississippi and then be challenged in court (and found unconstitutional). ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3718 "2011-11-11T02:06:04Z")
Lee Terry (R- NE) wants to allow robocallers to dial mobile phones for “informational calls”. [Cite](http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-3035). Note that one of the nine cosponsors is a Democrat, so it’s arguably only a 90% Republican stupid idea. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3719 "2011-11-11T04:26:23Z")
I’m officially saying they can’t do that. Somebody let them know, okay? ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/3720 "2011-11-13T21:59:02Z")
_sigh_ here we go again… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/H0b-iI1eegg/maxresdefault.jpg "GOP Plan To Raise Your Taxes, Cut Taxes On Rich") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0b-iI1eegg) Seriously, is it unreasonable to question their motives at this point? Or rather, is it reasonable NOT to? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=185) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=187)