# 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:** 219
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4361 "2012-01-31T18:09:50Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > WOOT! First we claim the title of “Most Meth Labs” Is the “Most Meth Labs” title ranked on density (# of labs per square mile) or per capita? > [@Skammer](#): > > and now “Stupidest Republican Ideas.” WE’RE NUMBER ONE!! I dunno. Stupid as this idea is, it still has a ways to go to beat some of the ones coming out of Oklahoma, [like that one about not using human embryonic tissue in the production or research of food](http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/01/27/fetal-cells-in-soda-not-quite-the-discomfort-behind-the-controversy/) that **Truman Burbank** mentioned [above](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14701807&postcount=4277). ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4362 "2012-01-31T18:14:04Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > [Another update](http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2012/01/31/campfield-responds-to-controversy-via-blog) in the tale of Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield: He has written a post on his blog claiming that the restaurant owner was rude to him and comparing his ejection to Jim Crow era racial segregation. :rolleyes: > > Addendum: This guy [also tried to join the state Black Caucus](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9508168#.Tygkx_n4LEw), comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan when they rejected him. Hey! That shmuck apparently had the audacity to cite “a letter to the editor of The Straight Dope from 1988” as support for his idiotic HIV claims! He’s citing Cecil! Dah noive of him! ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4363 "2012-01-31T18:15:16Z")
Hey! What about us Texans?! We’re used to being #1 in all that kind of bad stuff. Why are ya’ll stealing our thunder? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4364 "2012-01-31T18:18:37Z")
That’s not thunder. Ever see the “bean scene” in _Blazing Saddles_? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4365 "2012-01-31T18:23:51Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Hey! That shmuck apparently had the audacity to cite “a letter to the editor of The Straight Dope from 1988” as support for his idiotic HIV claims! He’s citing Cecil! > > Dah noive of him! The really sad thing is that the column says the exact opposite of what he cites it to support (the column gives guesstimates of the risk of heterosexual HIV transmission; this clown was asserting that heterosexual HIV transmission just doesn’t happen to any significant degree). ---
**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:** [January 31, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4366 "2012-01-31T18:42:55Z")
It seems this guy is a wannabe James o’Keefe, performing goofy stunts to make liberals or blacks look evil. Some day he’ll make that connection and start bringing a video camera with on on his adventures. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4367 "2012-01-31T19:51:41Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Is the “Most Meth Labs” title ranked on density (# of labs per square mile) or per capita? Actually, I misspoke. [Tennessee leads nation in meth lab related crimes.](http://articles.boston.com/2011-03-02/news/29334974_1_meth-lab-missouri-narcotics-officers-association-busts) Suck it, Missouri! ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4368 "2012-01-31T20:26:56Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > [Another update](http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2012/01/31/campfield-responds-to-controversy-via-blog) in the tale of Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield: He has written a post on his blog claiming that the restaurant owner was rude to him and comparing his ejection to Jim Crow era racial segregation. :rolleyes: > > Addendum: This guy [also tried to join the state Black Caucus](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9508168#.Tygkx_n4LEw), comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan when they rejected him. OMG - the writing style of that blog post…where does **Starving Artist** live? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4369 "2012-02-01T11:30:31Z")
Nah, I would never say something so ungrammatical as “It was not I who lost out.” 😛 ---
**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:** [February 1, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4370 "2012-02-01T14:35:37Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Hey! That shmuck apparently had the audacity to cite “a letter to the editor of The Straight Dope from 1988” as support for his idiotic HIV claims! He’s citing Cecil! > > Dah noive of him! [Here’s the relevant Cecil column, for anyone interested.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/895/what-are-the-odds-of-getting-aids-from-ordinary-heterosexual-sex) > [@](#): > > According to a report by researchers Norman Hearst and Stephen Hulley in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the odds of a heterosexual becoming infected with AIDS after one episode of penile-vaginal intercourse with someone in a non-high-risk group without a condom are one in 5 million. With a condom it’s even safer — one in 50 million. Just to put this in perspective, the chances of someone in your family getting injured next year in a bubble bath are 1 in 1.3 million (source: The Odds on Virtually Everything, Heron House, 1980). You’re in much greater danger of being struck by lightning (1 in 600,000), having your house bombed (1 in 290,000), or being murdered (1 in 11,000). > > The numbers get a lot worse if you engage in “high-risk behavior” — having sexual intercourse or sharing needles with a member of a high-risk group, e.g., a gay or bisexual male or IV drug user from a major metro area, or a hemophiliac. The chances of getting AIDS from one such encounter range as high as 1 in 10,000 using a condom to 1 in 1,000 unprotected. Even if your partner tests negative for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the chances of infection from a high-risk person are still relatively high — 1 in 50,000 without a condom. That’s because there’s a 45 to 90 day window during which a newly infected person can infect others but test negative. (A few people go as long as 180 days.) I guess, strictly speaking, it does sort of back up his belief that it was almost impossible to contract HIV/AIDS from heterosexual contact during the Reagan administration. He _did_ say during the Reagan administration, right? ---
**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:** [February 1, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4371 "2012-02-01T14:44:12Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I guess, strictly speaking, it does sort of back up his belief that it was almost impossible to contract HIV/AIDS from heterosexual contact during the Reagan administration. > > He _did_ say during the Reagan administration, right? It’s from a source published in 1980, so that would be the Carter administration, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4372 "2012-02-01T20:23:46Z")
Busy day for Republican stupidity: First up, we have Florida Republican Rachel Burgin who introduced a bill without removing the ALEC mission statement, or rather, changing anything at all. Just downloaded and submitted it. [http://www.commonblog.com/2012/01/31/alec-exposed-for-24-hours/](http://www.commonblog.com/2012/01/31/alec-exposed-for-24-hours/) Next we have House Republicans having Oscar nominated filmmaker Josh Fox arrested for attempting to film a hearing: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts-law/oscar-nominated-filmmaker-joshua-fox-arrested-at-house-hearing-lacked-credentials/2012/02/01/gIQAl9u5hQ\_story.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts-law/oscar-nominated-filmmaker-joshua-fox-arrested-at-house-hearing-lacked-credentials/2012/02/01/gIQAl9u5hQ_story.html) Then we have Mitt’s latest gaffe: "I’m Not Concerned About The Very Poor’ [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/mitt-romney-i-m-concerned-poor-article-1.1015303](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/mitt-romney-i-m-concerned-poor-article-1.1015303) And finally, another completely tone deaf Republican. During an interview with Sharpton and Maddow, he gave this line: “I don’t understand this. The president sings, the president – Newt Gingrich makes a little thing, and all of a sudden it’s a racist thing. More people are on food stamps today because of Barack Obama. They fail in the schools, you can ask Al Sharpton , the democrats have failed in the public schools with the African- Americans , they abort their babies, they’ve done nothing to lift them out of poverty. I hear all the time the democrats have these great intentions, but their policies fail. Maybe we have good intentions too, but our policies haven’t been tried. Maybe we should try our policies that put people back to work and not give them a handout. Live in public housing , and shut up and vote for the democrat.” As you can imagine. Al Sharpton didn’t agree. [http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc-tv/46214067#46214067](http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc-tv/46214067#46214067) ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4373 "2012-02-01T20:57:56Z")
> [@Sinaptics](#): > > And finally, another completely tone deaf Republican. During an interview with Sharpton and Maddow, he gave this line: > > “I don’t understand this. The president sings, the president – Newt Gingrich makes a little thing, and all of a sudden it’s a racist thing. More people are on food stamps today because of Barack Obama. They fail in the schools, you can ask Al Sharpton , the democrats have failed in the public schools with the African- Americans , they abort their babies, they’ve done nothing to lift them out of poverty. I hear all the time the democrats have these great intentions, but their policies fail. Maybe we have good intentions too, but our policies haven’t been tried. Maybe we should try our policies that put people back to work and not give them a handout. Live in public housing , and shut up and vote for the democrat.” I’m at work and can’t listen to your link, but does that get any more coherent upon hearing it? Because I am trying to parse that shit and failing miserably. ---
**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:** [February 1, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4374 "2012-02-01T21:00:55Z")
I can’t even get the link to play. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4375 "2012-02-01T21:01:33Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > I’m at work and can’t listen to your link, but does that get any more coherent upon hearing it? Because I am trying to parse that shit and failing miserably. The transcript was really bad. I actually added a bunch of punctuation to make it more readable. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4376 "2012-02-01T21:07:54Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I can’t even get the link to play. Link works okay for me. Only other place I can find it at the moment is huff post: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/al-sharpton-rick-tyler-abort-babies-maddow-gingrich\_n\_1246425.html](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/al-sharpton-rick-tyler-abort-babies-maddow-gingrich_n_1246425.html) ---
**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:** [February 1, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4377 "2012-02-01T21:10:47Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > It’s from a source published in 1980, so that would be the Carter administration, actually. The Hulley/Hearst report was from 1988, same year as the column. AIDS wasn’t even identified in 1980; the 1980 date in the Cecil quote refers to the bubble bath statistic. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2012, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4378 "2012-02-01T22:33:24Z")
I have fearful news. An examination and comparison of the earliest pages of the thread with the last reveals a dreadful trend. The ideas of the first twenty pages register an average of 540 milliquayles, or roughly the cognitive capacity of a nematode. The last twenty register an average of 820 milliquayles, which is just slightly less than a tub of cottage cheese. ---
**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:** [February 1, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4379 "2012-02-01T22:56:13Z")
Are you theorizing anthropomorphic global dumbening ? ---
**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:** [February 1, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/4380 "2012-02-01T23:15:56Z")
err, anthropo_genic_, not morphic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=218) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=220)