Not recent, but worth telling:
My ex-girlfriend once claimed that New York City was no more or less dangerous than anywhere else because “crime can happen anywhere”.
What made this worse was than she is an actuary! As I wanted to get some that night, Ii neglected to point out that by her logic, she shouldn’t have a job because everybody dies, so everyone should pay the same insurance rate.
Come on what?
Is the gotcha that they’re not real people, or that you’re too subsumed soaking in memes and external opinions to agree with something you rationally recognize as true?
“Come on” because I can’t get behind providing jobs in India at the cost of laying off people in San Diego.
My co-worker thought it was a good thing–I thought what he said was dumb.
You know, the woman may have been pretty dim, but it is not impossible that one bank would accept a deposit for another. About 30 years ago, as I was leaving Switzerland after having spent a year there, I had some Swiss cash in my pocket and, seeing the office of one bank in the airport, just enquired if it was possible to deposit that cash in my account in a completely different back. The reply was, “of course.” So I did it.
Getting back to the OP, why do you expect a minister, who already believes impossible things on the basis of no evidence (okay, the flimsiest of evidence) to think he requires facts to make a judgment?
I must move in the wrong circles, but I have not had a dumb conversation all week.
More than a week ago, but I’ll tell this one. A co-worker once, during an anti-Catholic screed directed at myself and my (non-Catholic) co-workers, once claimed that the Catholics basically controlled the world because all the major world leaders are Catholic.
Seriously. All of them. That’s not the dumbest statement of the conversation, either.
We stared dumbly at him for a moment- our “strong, silent” type welder, our fed-up-with-this shit carpenter who had to live with this moron*, and myself. I finally bit the bullet and asked “Such as?”
He named the presidents of Italy, France, and Spain.** Not by name, but merely assumed that as Frenchmen, Italians, and Spaniards, they must be Catholics, and therefore controlled by the Pope. I didn’t know for certain the religious leanings of these unnamed leaders, so I challenged that as being “control of the world.”
He then told us that George W. Bush was a Catholic.
All the rolleyes in the world weren’t enough to express my feelings at that moment.
*Summer job that provided housing. Not a bad deal, really, for a college student.
**I realize that all these countries may in fact not have presidents, or at least that their presidents may not be the heads of state. I merely repeat the inanities that I heard in this conversation.
FYI, presidents are always heads of state, but they’re not always heads of government.
Actually, I can do my banking at a credit union that I don’t have an account with. I can deposit and withdraw money at the credit union that’s right across the street from me, which is affiliated (but is not part of) the credit union where I have my accounts. The credit union where I have my accounts is 10 or 15 miles from where I live, and downtown, and the one where I do a lot of the banking stuff is less than a block away from my house. Guess which one is more convenient for me?
I agree with your coworker.
I could excuse her if that was the only pea-brained thing she did. Really, if she had limited her self to one, at most two, simpleminded shenanigans I could have laughed it off and it would have been nothing memorable. But she really iced that cake.
Also, with banking regulations they way they are in this nation today (yes, there are regulations on banking, believe it or not, but that’s a topic for Great Debates or The Pit, not here), short of wiring funds from one bank to another (which requires an account at least at the originating bank), or an EFT (electronic funds transfer, like direct deposit payroll), you can’t just leave cash at one bank and have us deposit it into a totally different bank. If you stop at a branch of the same bank (not the one you usually deal with, but still part of the same bank), we can take care of that. But you can’t drop money at ABC bank and expect it to be deposited to XYZ bank with out some paperwork… which especially wouldn’t happen through the drive through.
Quick smartass answer: “Can’t it be both?”
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.
Haven’t come across any gems this week… but here’s a recent(ish) one.
We had guests over for lunch, and they started talking about politics, and from there they went on to how much they hated Barack Obama. Fine. Perfectly legitimate opinion. Not everyone has to like the president.
Then they got started on the “Obama’s a secret Muslim”-type conspiracy theories. I tried to tell them about how Obama’s actually a Christian, to which the husband said, “So why does he have a Muslim name, then?” :smack:
That wasn’t the worst bit. “I wouldn’t be suprised if it turned out the Obama presidency was funded by the Saudis.” :smack::smack::smack:
I had to leave the table, lest the stupid was catching.
Not to get into a discussion about economics, but the dollars that get sent to India have to come back and be spent/invested/etc in the United States (it’s the law of currency exchange).
Even if that weren’t true, I don’t think being selfless should be “the dumbest thing you’ve heard this week.”
In Europe they’re much more advanced about their wire transfers. It’s quick, easy, and cheap (maybe free?). In America it’s a big pain in the ass and costs way too much. (And I’d guess it’s because European regulators don’t sit on their ass.)
Ok, he’s obviously not “funded by the Saudis” (now Bush is another story… ;)), but his middle name IS muslim, he does feel some personal ties to the region and religion owing to his father, and his recent speech, in which he was sympathetic to the middle east, had straight words for Israel, and even pointed out some of the atrocious anti-democratic crap that the West had pulled in Iran in the last century, is testament to that. Not that there is anything wrong with that. (Only incredible, delightful irony.)
So then why does it type in English, Mr. Smarty Pants?
¿Que?
I just had a broker call me about someone’s insurance. I asked if they were a regular member or a COBRA member and their response was, “Oh, they’re not COBRA. They’re a real person.”:smack:
Just today, my colleague and I went to lunch and came across a funny-looking bus (windows and seating in front half and no windows in rear half). I noticed the plates were from Alaska, so assumed it must have special bedding in the rear. We were in New York, so it was obviously a long drive.
Him: “Alaska? It floats too?”, followed by me explaining how it’s possible to drive here from Alaska. His excuse later was that he confused Alaska with Hawaii.
One more…on my commuter train earlier in the week:
18-19 year old on her cellphone recalling her recent break-up, in the typical dramatic fashion (I swear, I think kids these days just assume that some reality show is recording them):
“I cried hysterically. You don’t understand. I hysterically cried!”
I might not be so dumb, but I thought it was since she didn’t recognize the oxymoron.
Hmmm…ignorance fought. I never knew Bombay changed its name to Mumbai. However, even the Associated Press kept referring to it as “Bombay” until 2006, only adopting the name “Mumbai” then.
Perhaps I’m dumb. Where’s the oxymoron?
Common usage allows “hysterical” to imply a loss of control over one’s emotional responses.