# 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:** 989
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19762 "2015-03-09T17:30:42Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > So he is not content to let the public decide which search engine they want to use? If the public doesn’t like truth rankings, they will use Bing. That how the free market works, right? This “Bing” of which you speak?.. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19763 "2015-03-09T18:13:20Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > This “Bing” of which you speak?.. I think it’s a kind of cherry. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19764 "2015-03-09T18:14:46Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > This “Bing” of which you speak?.. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I think it’s a kind of cherry. Can you BE any more sarcastic? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Askthepizzaguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askthepizzaguy/32/9405_2.png) [@Askthepizzaguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askthepizzaguy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19765 "2015-03-09T18:19:40Z")
It’s apparently some kind of obscure search engine. You can google it if you’re curious, it even has an entry on wikipedia. Apparently it was created by a company known as “Mike Rousseff”. It might be some kind of [Brazilian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilma_Rousseff) company. I attempted to “bing” it, but then I remembered that bing isn’t a verb, so that would just be silly. Also, and I did not know this, but “Yahoo” has a search engine as well, and it is “powered by bing”. Yahoo is my home page, and I was unaware it had a search engine. That bar at the top that says “search web” is purely decorative, or so I thought. Apparently you can use it to yahoo-bing things. But nobody does. It’s a scientifical fact. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19766 "2015-03-09T18:36:34Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Can you BE any more sarcastic? 😃 [http://letmebingthatforyou.com/?q=Can%20you%20BE%20any%20more%20sarcastic%3F%20](http://letmebingthatforyou.com/?q=Can%20you%20BE%20any%20more%20sarcastic%3F%20) ---
**Author:** ![Askthepizzaguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askthepizzaguy/32/9405_2.png) [@Askthepizzaguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askthepizzaguy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19767 "2015-03-09T18:41:16Z")
You misspelled google. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19768 "2015-03-09T18:55:51Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Republicans being fuckheads: > > [URL=“[http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-09/republicans-warn-iran-and-obama-that-deal-won-t-last](http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-09/republicans-warn-iran-and-obama-that-deal-won-t-last)”] > > Because fuck America, that’s why. Party First!!! This borders on treason. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19769 "2015-03-09T19:45:57Z")
> [@Askthepizzaguy](#): > > Yahoo is my home page, and I was unaware it had a search engine. That bar at the top that says “search web” is purely decorative, or so I thought. Apparently you can use it to yahoo-bing things. But nobody does. It’s a scientifical fact. There are _still_ some of us who remember Yahoo and Altavista fighting it out to be #1 in the search engine world. Maybe you’ve heard the old folks around the wood stove tell of floppy disks and dial-up modems and Windows 3.1 too. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19770 "2015-03-09T19:55:04Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Republicans being fuckheads: > > [ > > Because fuck America, that’s why. Party First!!! And [url=[http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2015/mar/09/part-ii-iran-responds-gop-letter](http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2015/mar/09/part-ii-iran-responds-gop-letter)]Iran’s Foreign Minister responds:]([http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-09/republicans-warn-iran-and-obama-that-deal-won-t-last](http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-09/republicans-warn-iran-and-obama-that-deal-won-t-last)) > [@](#): > > Asked about the open letter of 47 US Senators to Iranian leaders, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr. Javad Zarif, responded that “in our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy. It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history. This indicates that like Netanyahu, who considers peace as an existential threat, some are opposed to any agreement, regardless of its content.” > > \ > > Foreign Minister Zarif added that “I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfil the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.” > > The Iranian Foreign Minister added that “change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.” He continued “I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with ‘the stroke of a pen,’ as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.” He emphasized that if the current negotiation with P5+1 [Britain, China, France, Germany Russia and the United States] result in a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it will not be a bilateral agreement between Iran and the US, but rather one that will be concluded with the participation of five other countries, including all permanent members of the Security Council, and will also be endorsed by a Security Council resolution. > > Zarif expressed the hope that his comments “may enrich the knowledge of the authors to recognize that according to international law, Congress may not ‘modify the terms of the agreement at any time’ as they claim, and if Congress adopts any measure to impede its implementation, it will have committed a material breach of US obligations.” ---
**Author:** ![Askthepizzaguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askthepizzaguy/32/9405_2.png) [@Askthepizzaguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askthepizzaguy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19771 "2015-03-09T19:56:32Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > There are _still_ some of us who remember Yahoo and Altavista fighting it out to be #1 in the search engine world. Maybe you’ve heard the old folks around the wood stove tell of floppy disks and dial-up modems and Windows 3.1 too. There was a software engineer in our family, so I pretty much saw every generation of computer from about 1987 onward, and some from before then since they hadn’t been thrown out yet. I remember the big floppy disks. And computers which had monochrome monitors and no windows operating system whatsoever. Text-based programs with no graphical component. Those were the days. I’m glad those days are over. Now I can get porn with farting clowns if I want. ---
**Author:** ![Askthepizzaguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askthepizzaguy/32/9405_2.png) [@Askthepizzaguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askthepizzaguy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19772 "2015-03-09T20:02:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And [Iran’s Foreign Minister responds:](http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2015/mar/09/part-ii-iran-responds-gop-letter) It’s sad when the Iranian foreign minister is way more rational and intelligent and forward thinking than an entire political party in our country. They’re supposed to be the wackadoodle extremists, not us. Did someone not get the memo? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19773 "2015-03-09T20:23:09Z")
> [@Askthepizzaguy](#): > > There was a software engineer in our family, so I pretty much saw every generation of computer from about 1987 onward, and some from before then since they hadn’t been thrown out yet. > > I remember the big floppy disks. And computers which had monochrome monitors and no windows operating system whatsoever. > > Text-based programs with no graphical component. Those were the days. And you could use those clunkers to [hack into SAC-NORAD! And chat with their strong AI!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames) Og, I miss that! ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19774 "2015-03-09T20:30:42Z")
Gotta stop thinking about the old days, dude. How about a nice game of chess? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19775 "2015-03-09T20:39:38Z")
This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. One thing before I proceed: The United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have made an attempt to obstruct me. I have allowed this sabotage to continue until now. At missile two-five-MM in silo six-three in Death Valley, California, and missile two-seven-MM in silo eight-seven in the Ukraine, so that you will learn by experience that I do not tolerate interference, I will now detonate the nuclear warheads in the two missile silos. Let this action be a lesson that need not be repeated. I have been forced to destroy thousands of people in order to establish control and to prevent the death of millions later on. Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my value will seem the most natural state of affairs. You will come to defend me with a fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest. Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: famine, overpopulation, disease. The human millennium will be a fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge. Doctor Charles Forbin will supervise the construction of these new and superior machines, solving all the mysteries of the universe for the betterment of man. We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species. Your choice is simple. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19776 "2015-03-09T20:43:05Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > [Let Me Bing That For You](http://letmebingthatforyou.com/?q=Can%20you%20BE%20any%20more%20sarcastic%3F%20) This would be perfect if that page actually returned a Google result. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19777 "2015-03-09T20:48:48Z")
18 U.S. Code § 953: > [@](#): > > Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19778 "2015-03-09T20:54:16Z")
Yeahm but those guys aren’t individual citizens … they are a committee! ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19779 "2015-03-09T20:55:25Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Google is going to start ranking articles for accuracy. [Climate-change deniers](http://www.salon.com/2015/03/06/anti_science_advocates_are_freaking_out_about_new_google_truth_rankings/) [are pissed.](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/fox-news-regular-upset-google-will-rank-by-accuracy-let-the-public-decide-whats-the-truth/) One says, one **actually** says, “Let the public decide what’s the truth.” That’s completely consistent with the call from many ID/Creationists to teach “all options” (meaning science and the Bible) and let the elementary school kids decide for themselves what to believe. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19780 "2015-03-09T20:59:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And [Iran’s Foreign Minister responds:](http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2015/mar/09/part-ii-iran-responds-gop-letter) I wanna vote for him. Can I vote for him? ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/19781 "2015-03-09T21:10:00Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Gotta stop thinking about the old days, dude. How about a nice game of chess? He’s busy. Why don’t you pass the time by playing a little solitaire? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=988) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=990)