# 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:** 856
**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:** [September 29, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17101 "2014-09-29T17:58:47Z")
Over in Oklahoma, state Representative John Bennett thinks that [genocide is the appropriate Kool-Aid flavor when it comes to Muslims.](http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/09/17/oklahoma-republican-calls-american-muslims-a-cancer-that-needs-to-be-cut-out-of-the-country-video/) At least if they’re living in the U.S. Does he come out and say this? No. But his language implies it strongly when he said > [@](#): > > all Muslims were violent and called for removing them from the country like “a cancer” that “needs to be cut out.” ---
**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:** [September 29, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17102 "2014-09-29T18:43:22Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > True about expertise in one field not applying to other fields. Something to remember when we ask politicians to legislate on subjects they don’t understand. Which is er, just about everything other than regulation of lawyers(which they don’t do enough of). > > Sanity? Now you’re marking yourself as insane. Who knew that Johns Hopkins had an insane director of neurosurgery. Does Johns Hopkins receive any federal funding? If so, shouldn’t that be revisited since they appoint insane people to operate on patients and supervise others who also operate on patients? You are really only getting in the team of the dense, obtuse, dopey, imperceptive, opaque, slow on the uptake, thick, and anti-Mormon guys. (That last one is for ignoring Barry Bickmore 🙂 ) Again, everyone should notice how inept you are at logic, since you did accept first that expertise should not apply to other fields then politicians and common folk should pay attention to what the related experts do say, but here you only certify that you have no clue what does accepting that implies; as Dr Seitz and others showed, they can still be great and good in a field like physics, for example, and it does not mean that the physics organization did have big issues or trouble with his related expertise when Seitz did lead their organization _when he was an active researcher_ - **This is very important to keep in mind** as I have seen this misleading appeal to authority fallacy many times in the past when dealing with creationists and climate change deniers. On top of that one should not give any credit to the ones that turn into stooges for the tobacco or fossil fuel companies. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17103 "2014-09-29T18:51:40Z")
[5 craziest things Ted Cruz just said at the Values Voters Summit.](http://www.salon.com/2014/09/26/the_5_craziest_things_ted_cruz_just_said_at_the_values_voters_summit/) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17104 "2014-09-29T18:52:06Z")
You can even be a scientist who knows the scientific method and its importance, and still be way out of your depth in another field. [William Shockley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley#Statements_about_populations_and_genetics) got a Nobel in physics for co-inventing the transistor, but his late-in-life fascination with eugenics and racism showed he should have stayed in the semiconductor lab. But at least he wasn’t a creationist like Carson. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17105 "2014-09-29T19:14:23Z")
I agree completely. But one who is smart can learn. Wasn’t that one of the reasons to vote for Barack Obama despite his lack of experience? “He’s just so smart!” He’s still brilliant, I guess. You just don’t see much of this brilliance in the job he’s doing. Maybe the same will be true of Carson. I would rather see him run for governor somewhere first. The Republicans tried to recruit him to run against Gary Peters in Michigan. But it could also just be that he wants the attention and will never really make a serious run. But some people’s accomplishments are so great that even when they are wrong, I think it’s inappropriate for them to be in a thread about stupid Republicans. Carson is no idiot. I wouldn’t put nuclear physicist Rush Holt in the dumbass liberal thread either. I guess even smart people say idiotic things on occasion, especially when they speak on subjects they aren’t experts in. But if we acknowledge that we’re all human, that everyone says dumb things, then we can concentrate on people who establish a pattern of serial stupidity and bring political discourse down. LIke Michelle Bachmann. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17106 "2014-09-29T19:16:24Z")
As a politician, and as a Republican who’s being touted as _presidential timber_, yes, Carson is an idiot. And those who think he could be a decent President are idiots themselves. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17107 "2014-09-29T19:19:23Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > But if we acknowledge that we’re all human, that everyone says dumb things, then we can concentrate on people who establish a pattern of serial stupidity and bring political discourse down. Wait – does this mean you’re leaving? ---
**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:** [September 29, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17108 "2014-09-29T19:22:32Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Maybe the same will be true of Carson. I would rather see him run for governor somewhere first. Nice to see you following your principles, after I reminded you of them. ---
**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:** [September 29, 2014, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17109 "2014-09-29T21:19:35Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I agree completely. But one who is smart can learn. Look at the examples I provided; when we are dealing with Tea Party Republicans one has to realize that no, they can not learn. > [@adaher](#): > > But some people’s accomplishments are so great that even when they are wrong, I think it’s inappropriate for them to be in a thread about stupid Republicans. Carson is no idiot. The idiocy is on constantly avoiding avoiding what I posted; again, he would be still a genius in neurology, _but that is most valid when he was an active researcher_ - This is very important to keep in mind as I have seen this misleading appeal to authority fallacy many times in the past when dealing with creationists and climate change deniers. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17110 "2014-09-29T22:36:28Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Wait – does this mean you’re leaving? Heh. Not until my favorite board starts picking up the political discussion a bit. They’ve been more interested in talking about knitting and football and cats lately. Part of the problem is that nearly all the liberals left because they are tired of defending the President, or maybe they just aren’t motivated to talk about politics because they aren’t angry about GWB anymore. But hey, the great thing about SDMB is that there’s no Democratic President that isn’t teh awesome. You guys’ll defend anything! BTW, I’ve got to find a thread for you to bitch at me about my complaining about Obama throwing Clapper under the bus on ISIS. Classic Obama, that was. ---
**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:** [September 29, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17111 "2014-09-29T22:40:24Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The world is \*not \*binary. Only the profoundly ignorant see it as such. And EVERYBODY ELSE doesn’t. Right? 🆒 ---
**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:** [September 29, 2014, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17112 "2014-09-29T22:42:29Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Remember how Mitt Romney was going to be good for America because all of his success in business? Do you want America to be run like a _hospital_? Well, you know . . . at least there’d be healthcare all over the place. . . ---
**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:** [September 29, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17113 "2014-09-29T22:47:53Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Hopefully, by outlawing corruption and abuses of power, we eliminate greed as a motive for politicians and public-mindedness is what’s left. Wouldn’t it be more straightforward to outlaw greed? 😛 ---
**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:** [September 29, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17114 "2014-09-29T23:09:03Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > But some people’s accomplishments are so great that even when they are wrong, I think it’s inappropriate for them to be in a thread about stupid Republicans. You think this thread is about ideas that stupid Republicans have? That’s weird. I though it was about stupid ideas that Republicans have. Of course, there is a GREAT DEAL of overlap, so I suppose whichever of us is mistaken can be forgiven. Judges? Can we get a ruling? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17115 "2014-09-29T23:27:13Z")
I’m imagining how long this thread would be if **adaher** discovered it a few years ago. 50,000 posts? 100,000? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17116 "2014-09-29T23:29:01Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > But some people’s accomplishments are so great that even when they are wrong, I think it’s inappropriate for them to be in a thread about stupid Republicans. Carson is no idiot. You certainly are tho. Thanks for pointing that out to the rest of us in the quoted text, even tho it wasn’t really necessary. I’m amazed at your ability to be wrong so often about so much. Scientists should study you so we can figure whether your DNA is bad or if you were just kicked in the head by a mule or something. Ddamn you’re a fucking idiot. ---
**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:** [September 29, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17117 "2014-09-29T23:31:41Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > I’m imagining how long this thread would be if **adaher** discovered it a few years ago. 50,000 posts? 100,000? Gawd, I hope not. I’m monitoring it in the hope that I get to make the Jean Valjean post.\* I only saw _Les Mis_ (the film) the first time last year, so I’m sure I wouldn’t have known to do it before then. \*24601. I’m pretty sure we’ll make it. Republicans have a LOT of stupid ideas. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2014, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17118 "2014-09-30T00:32:40Z")
And the stupidity of the Republicans continues: [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/29/3573254/joni-ernst-science-climate/](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/29/3573254/joni-ernst-science-climate/) > [@](#): > > On Sunday, the Republicans’ Senate candidate from Iowa, Joni Ernst, joined the ranks of politicians who confess to not knowing the science of climate change, but remain happy declaring we need do nothing about it. > > Ernst, a member of Iowa’s state senate, is going up against Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) for one of Iowa’s two seats in the national Senate. The two have been neck-and-neck in the polling, and last night they had their first debate at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. At about 41 minutes into the debate one of the moderators told Ernst they had received a number of emails concerning climate change, and asked her, “What do you believe about climate change, and what if anything will you do about it?” > > Ernst began her response by praising Iowans and in particular Iowa’s farmers for their conservationist streak — a point on which Braley later agreed with her — and pointed out that her own family drives a hybrid car and devoutly recycles. But on the point of climate change specifically, Ernst dodged: “I don’t know the science behind climate change. I can’t say one way or another what is the direct impact, whether it’s man-made or not. I’ve heard arguments from both sides, but I do believe in protecting our environment, but without the job killing regulations that are coming out of the [Environmental Protection Agency] which is what Congressman Braley supports.” > > “I do believe our climate is changing,” she continued, after being pressed. “But again, I’m not sure what the impact of man is upon that climate change.” > > Ernst sounded a similar note back in May, saying that “I have not seen proven proof that [climate change] is entirely man-made.” She’s also promised “to abolish” the Environmental Protection Agency, and she opposes the Clean Water Act. > > … > > If Ernst herself doesn’t know the science, that’s perfectly fair. One can’t be an expert in everything. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Florida Governor Rick Scott (R), and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R), among others, have all admitted at various times they aren’t qualified to adjudicate the science either. But there are thousands of climate scientists who are qualified. And 97 percent of them agree humanity’s carbon emissions are a big driver of climate change. According to the latest report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC), scientists have found a 95 percent certainty that the vast majority of the global warming observed since the 1950s was manmade. To put that in context, 95 percent is the same certainty level that scientists assign to the assertion that cigarettes can kill you. > > The IPCC has also determined we only have so march carbon we can still emit before we make at least 2°C of global warming an inevitability. Past that threshold, scientists are pretty sure climate change would become genuinely catastrophic. At the current rate America and the rest of world is emitting carbon, we’ll leave that marker in the dust in relatively short order. > > In short, the people who do know the science of climate change believe it’s real, that humanity is the key driver, and that if we don’t change our behavior drastically and rapidly, we’re almost certainly going to severely damage the global ecology — and human civilization’s own ability to keep functioning along with it. > > By this point, Ernst is a well known public figure. It shouldn’t be hard for her to get a climate scientist on the phone. The stupidity to me is the almost gleeful and wilful pride many Republicans have by remaining ignorant. And keeping others the same and to prevent any changes needed to deal with the issue. Après nous, le déluge. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2014, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17119 "2014-09-30T00:53:17Z")
[Quote=Joni Ernst] I have not seen proven proof that [climate change] is entirely man-made. [/QUOTE] GAG. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17120 "2014-09-30T01:00:12Z")
Well, you got your provable proof, and then you got the other kind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=855) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=857)