# The dumbest thing you've heard anyone say this week is... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 1, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630 "2009-07-01T21:13:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![ashman165](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@ashman165](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashman165)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/81 "2009-07-04T22:51:39Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > The next time I go out for Chinese with her, I’m totally gonna order the Beijing duck. Sweet. I’ll have the Pekeking Duck then! ---
**Author:** ![ashman165](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@ashman165](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashman165)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/82 "2009-07-04T22:57:41Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > Inconcievable! I don’t think that word means what you think it means. > [@Scissorjack](#): > > I think a lot of people confuse oxymorons, or self contradictions, with tautologies, or repetitive redundancies: brutal elegance is an oxymoron; frightened coward is a tautology. Crying hysterically is neither, since it is quite possible to cry without being hysterical, and it is equally possible to be hysterical without crying. > > Either way, it pales in comparison with the woman at work who announced that she wasn’t going to succumb to swine flu because she’d made up an aromatherapy antidote. She’s a really sweet lady, but sometimes I’d like to seize her by the shoulders and shake her roughly. Please, if you can, explain an aromatherapy antidote. The science community has stopped all work pending resolution of this breakthrough. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/83 "2009-07-04T23:29:50Z")
> [@ashman165](#): > > Please, if you can, explain an aromatherapy antidote. The science community has stopped all work pending resolution of this breakthrough. OHGODOHGODOHGODOHGOD The thing is, the organisation I work for is contracted to the Auckland District Health Board, so we are required to have a flu pandemic plan in place. This is being taken extremely seriously, since they’ve given up trying to isolate it, and instead are working on controlling the spread as much as possible so that resources aren’t overwhelmed. We have had numerous meetings, been given numerous directives, and I’d have to say are we are now pretty clued up on how it can be contracted from clients, how clients can contract it from us, the various prophylactic measures we should be taking, how to recognise the onset and how long to isolate ourselves for, and then this woman, this sweet lady whom I actually quite like, pipes up and announces that none of this actually applies to her because she sniffs shitweed oil diluted to two parts per million and that we all ought to be doing the same. It was because of her that a mandate was issued that the only advice that was to be heeded was the official one, and that talking ill-informed crap was now a disciplinary offence. ---
**Author:** ![ashman165](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@ashman165](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashman165)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/84 "2009-07-05T00:04:21Z")
> [@Scissorjack](#): > > OHGODOHGODOHGODOHGOD Sorry, my chemistry is rusty. But since I’m sure this is a chemical formula, I’ll be brushing up, post haste. > [@](#): > > The thing is, the organisation I work for is contracted to the Auckland District Health Board, so we are required to have a flu pandemic plan in place. This is being taken extremely seriously, since they’ve given up trying to isolate it, and instead are working on controlling the spread as much as possible so that resources aren’t overwhelmed. We have had numerous meetings, been given numerous directives, and I’d have to say are we are now pretty clued up on how it can be contracted from clients, how clients can contract it from us, the various prophylactic measures we should be taking, how to recognise the onset and how long to isolate ourselves for, and then this woman, this sweet lady whom I actually quite like, pipes up and announces that none of this actually applies to her because she sniffs shitweed oil diluted to two parts per million and that we all ought to be doing the same. It was because of her that a mandate was issued that the only advice that was to be heeded was the official one, and that talking ill-informed crap was now a disciplinary offence. It should be a firing offense, no questions asked. Such bullshit is dangerous as well as stupid. Expounding that kind of shit should get one tarred and feathered, bar none. “I can’t get HIV; I only take it up the butt.” seems like a similar, good\* idea. \*where good = the new bad. ---
**Author:** ![Other\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Other\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Other_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/85 "2009-07-05T00:35:55Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Who was it who wanted you to cheat on his or her behalf? This guy pretending to be my friend. He massaged my shoulder and smiled up at me playfully…as if the fluttering of my hormones would shake my morals. Psh. Is it bad that I am looking forward to the next stupid thing someone says to me, since I now have a place for it? ~S.P.I.~ ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/86 "2009-07-05T01:29:15Z")
> [@Alex\_Dubinsky](#): > > Ok, he’s obviously not “funded by the Saudis” (now _Bush_ is another story… ;)), but his middle name IS muslim No, his middle name is **Arabic**. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/87 "2009-07-05T10:24:35Z")
> [@](#): > > **Captain Carrot** : However, PA abolished slavery (kind of) before the Union even existed, and New York abolished it in 1827. The only reason they had it for longer is that they were founded much earlier. If we’re going by founding dates, then Tennessee had slavery for only 69 years and the percentage of slave owners was much lower than what Philadelphia had. My point is not that what the South did wasn’t evil. My point is that I have known about it and lived with it all of my life. And in my own way I tried to do more than just apologize. But Chris Matthews – who is usually a very intelligent person and is in a very responsible position for educating people – has once again perpetuated the myth that only Southern states had slaves when actually most Northern states had slaves much longer than most Southern states. Why haven’t these states educated their citizens about their slave histories? ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/88 "2009-07-05T18:18:13Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > No, his middle name is **Arabic**. While true, his father was not Arabic, but was (at one time prior to his son’s birth) Muslim in that for a period of time converted to Islam and in doing so adopted the name “Hussein” to demonstrate his new faith. To be fair, I don’t it’s much different than saying Isaiah is a Christian name, though. But this line of argument obviously ignores the fact that President Obama is so-named in the widespread tradition of naming the son the name of his father (i.e., he’s a junior–shocking, I know!). That tradition knows no religious or regional bounds. However, you missed this part: > [@Alex\_Dubinsky](#): > > **snip** > …but his middle name IS muslim, **he does feel some personal ties to the region** and religion owing to his father… Bolding mine. His father was Kenyan. Last time I checked Kenya was in the African region, not the Middle Eastern region. There is a vast Muslim population outside of the Middle East whose only ties to the Middle East are to a religion that was born in that region. Would you say that all Christians and Jews have some personal ties to the region as well? ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/89 "2009-07-05T20:13:12Z")
“You know, there’s a natural history museum - I forget where - that has the skeleton of Goliath in it.” From the guy who cuts my grass. Same guy who recently told me about someone’s 155-lb. Bassett hound. Eventually, I’ll learn to just leave a jug of cold water outside and disappear, instead of feeling obligated to let him come indoors to cool off… ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/90 "2009-07-05T22:25:01Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > …But this line of argument obviously ignores the fact that President Obama is so-named in the widespread tradition of naming the son the name of his father (i.e., he’s a junior–shocking, I know!). That tradition knows no religious or regional bounds. > … > Bolding mine. His father was Kenyan. Last time I checked Kenya was in the African region, not the Middle Eastern region. There is a vast Muslim population outside of the Middle East whose only ties to the Middle East are to a religion that was born in that region. Would you say that all Christians and Jews have some personal ties to the region as well? Naming the son after his father does, too, know religious and regional bounds. Naming a baby after a relative who is still living is not part of Muslim tradition; in fact, that’s one of the good arguments _against_ Obama’s being Muslim. FYI, Kenya is about 80% Christian and only 10% Muslim. I just read that naming a baby after a living relative is also against Ashkenazic Jewish tradition. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/91 "2009-07-05T22:48:21Z")
> [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](#): > > Naming the son after his father does, too, know religious and regional bounds. Naming a baby after a relative who is still living is not part of Muslim tradition; in fact, that’s one of the good arguments _against_ Obama’s being Muslim. Well, sure. I’ve read that Obama, Sr. was atheist by the time he came to the U.S. Could be revisionist history, though, who knows. My point is that just because one is given a Muslim name doesn’t make them Muslim whether they’re father is or not. Both my kids have biblical names; not because I read/believe/like the bible, but because they are nice sounding names. IMHO, fathers passing on their full names is an ego thing (which is not necessarily a bad thing, of course). > [@](#): > > FYI, Kenya is about 80% Christian and only 10% Muslim. Ok. I guess I’m just saying that the Middle East isn’t the only region you find Muslims in and there is no tie to the ME through Obama’s father. > [@](#): > > I just read that naming a baby after a living relative is also against Ashkenazic Jewish tradition. Yes, but it happens. I would have like to have given my son my living Jewish father’s name, but was advised against it. Alternatively, we paid tribute to my father’s deceased father (whom I’d never met). His first middle name is tribute to his deceased paternal grandfather and his second middle name is a Hawai’ian name given to him by a Hawai’ian friend of ours. FWIW, neither of us is Hawai’ian. You can’t really fairly assume anything based on a given name, can you? ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/92 "2009-07-06T00:04:41Z")
I heard some young Americans talking to a group of young Austrians on a flight from Washington to Dayton. They were discussing all manner of cultural differences. I learned two things I was not previously aware of: \*No one considers Ohio to be in the Midwest. It’s East Coast for _sure_. An inch is about 10 centimeters.\* I’m encouraged for the future knowing that this sort of cultural exchange is going on. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/93 "2009-07-06T01:57:59Z")
Well, this is just a misspoken thought, but… I was at the dog park the other day and a woman and I were discussing dog breeds. She said something about a “chocolate-covered Lab” and I couldn’t help but laugh. 😉 She didn’t “hear” herself until I repeated it it twice. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/94 "2009-07-06T02:56:14Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > For my dumb thing of the week, I gotta go to the tape of Rush Limbaugh asserting that the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision overturning Sotomayor’s panel’s decision was actually 9-0, because, um, well they didn’t vote that way but they all thought that way so there. And Sotomayor’s a racist so there. That isn’t even the dumbest thing RUSH LIMBAUGH has said this week. He claimed the governor of South Carolina’s erratic behaviour was the fault of Barack Obama, because the stimulus package overstressed him. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/95 "2009-07-06T02:57:54Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > Well, sure. I’ve read that Obama, Sr. was atheist by the time he came to the U.S. Could be revisionist history, though, who knows. My point is that just because one is given a Muslim name doesn’t make them Muslim whether they’re father is or not. An in the case of Obama, it’s **entirely** irrelevant, because his name never was Muslim to begin with. Arabic and Muslim are not synonymous. And Isaiah, for what it’s worth, if attached to any religion, would be a Jewish name, not a Christian one. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/96 "2009-07-06T03:25:40Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > An in the case of Obama, it’s **entirely** irrelevant, because his name never was Muslim to begin with. Arabic and Muslim are not synonymous. Alright. Sheesh. It seems fair to assume that the name was adopted to demonstrate the family’s Islamic faith. [QUOTE=Wikipedia on Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.] Before working as a cook for missionaries in Nairobi, Onyango [President Obama’s paternal grandfather] had travelled widely, enlisting in the British colonial forces and visiting Europe, India, and Zanzibar, **where he converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam and took the name Hussein Onyango Obama.** Hussein Onyango was jailed by the British for two years in 1949 due to his involvement in the Kenyan independence movement. According to Sarah Onyango Obama, Onyango was subjected to brutal torture.[11] Although Obama Sr. was born into a Muslim family, he was an atheist before he came to the United States.[4] [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Wikipedia on the name ‘Husayn’] Husein, Hussein, Hossein, Hossain, Hussain, Husain, Hosein, Haussein, Husayn (Arabic: حسین Ḥussayn), is an Arabic name which is the diminutive of Hassan, meaning “good” or “handsome” or “beautiful”. **It is commonly given as a male given name among Muslims, in honor of Husayn ibn Ali (626-680 AD), although the name is so common it is also given to persons of secular backgrounds.** In some Persian sources the forms Ḥosayn, Hosayn, or Hossein is used [1]. the Turkish form is Hüseyin. [/QUOTE] I don’t see why people feel the need to go to polar opposite direction in disavowing all connection to Islamic faith of a middle name. It’s clear that there is a history of Islamic faith in President Obama’s family. It doesn’t mean that President Obama himself is Muslim and using his name as a slur against him is Islamophobic and connecting him to the ME due to his name is xenophobic. But, cripes, let’s not deny his family history lest his opponents use it against him. There’s nothing there for him, or any of his supporters, to be ashamed of. So what, his father was born into a Muslim family. So what, his grandfather converted to Islam. Woowoo. Big freakin’ deal. > [@](#): > > And Isaiah, for what it’s worth, if attached to any religion, would be a Jewish name, not a Christian one. What do I know? I’m agnostic. I thought Isaiah was a book of the new testament. I can see now I was incorrect. I stand corrected. Isaiah is a Jewish name. And a lovely one at that. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/97 "2009-07-06T05:23:27Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > 😕 Why is this dumb? Are you under the mistaken impression that New York City is a cesspool of crime with rapes, murders & robberies being committed on every street corner? This is 2009, not the 1980s. New York City is [the safest large city in the United States](http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aHWGwSJjpbOU&refer=us). Sure, if you are the wrong person in a bad street at the wrong time, of course a crime could happen to you, but like your ex-girlfriend said, that is the same for anywhere. > > I guess if she said that during the heyday of the city’s crime, then OK I can see your point, but crime _can_ happen anywhere. (And I am curious, even when NYC had a lot of crime, were people who did not hang out in the bad areas \*actually \*at much of a risk?) New York’s particular crime rate doesn’t address the stupidity of the ex-girlfriend’s statement. She said that New York was “no more or less dangerous than anywhere else,” seeming to deny that there was a statistical difference in crime rate between different places, which of course isn’t true. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/98 "2009-07-06T15:02:21Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > What do I know? I’m agnostic. I thought Isaiah was a book of the new testament. I can see now I was incorrect. I stand corrected. Isaiah is a Jewish name. And a lovely one at that. Old Testament. But what of it? Plenty of good Christian boys are called Daniel, also the name of an Old Testament prophet, and no-one thinks anything of it. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/99 "2009-07-06T15:29:33Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > What do I know? I’m agnostic. I thought Isaiah was a book of the new testament. I can see now I was incorrect. I stand corrected. Isaiah is a Jewish name. And a lovely one at that. If you name your kid after one of the Apostles you’re still giving him a name that’s Jewish in _origin_, you know. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630/100 "2009-07-06T15:34:08Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > If you name your kid after one of the Apostles you’re still giving him a name that’s Jewish in _origin_, you know. I believe the name _Peter_ actually comes from the Greek _petros_, and that _Paul_ comes from the Latin. That’s your two main apostles right there, neither with a Hebrew name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dumbest-thing-youve-heard-anyone-say-this-week-is/501630.md?page=6)