Our government is insane

[dwar0123]

“All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, the Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell,” U.S Rep. Paul Broun said in an address last month at a banquet organized by Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell, Georgia. “And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.”

“I don’t believe that the Earth’s but about 9,000 years old,”

Source

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/10/congressman-draws-fire-for-calling-evolution-big-bang-lies-from-the-pit-of-hell/?hpt=hp_t2

 

Reminded me of this

 

http://xkcd.com/154/

 

But it's worse

 

Broun, a medical doctor by training, serves on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

[CarlRitner]

“I don’t believe that the Earth’s but about 9,000 years old,”

“I believe that the Earth’s but about 9,000 years old,”

 

I can't tell the difference between those two statements.

[mike777]

1)If only we had elections and a free press

 

 

2) another argument to keep economic power out of the same hands as political power.

[dwar0123]

I dont believe that the Earths but about 9,000 years old,

I believe that the Earths but about 9,000 years old,

 

I can't tell the difference between those two statements.

 

The 'but' is being used as a negation, but in the 2nd one it is so nonsensical that it loses the negation meaning. So it becomes a semantically null word that you just ignore, hence the overall meaning becomes the same. :)

[heyrocky]

A posting from Roger Ebert with a video of the comments in question:

 

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/evolution-is-lies-straight-fro.html

 

This gentleman represented the district where I live, unfortunately, but redistricting foisted him on another populace, thankfully. His new constituents apparently are okay with that, since he is running unopposed this election cycle...

[mike777]

A posting from Roger Ebert with a video of the comments in question:

 

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/evolution-is-lies-straight-fro.html

 

This gentleman represented the district where I live, unfortunately, but redistricting foisted him on another populace, thankfully. His new constituents apparently are okay with that, since he is running unopposed this election cycle...

 

 

one quote from your link and there are many similiar:

 

 

Ben Kirby | October 6, 2012 3:27 PM | Reply

 

 

I'm from the UK, and it's things like this that remind me how lucky I am to live in a country of moderates. I find US news and politics far more compelling for its drama and extremes, but it's people like this guy that stop me from wanting those extremes in Britain. Moderation can be boring, but it means you don't have to fight such extraordinarily depressing ignorance as this nearly so often

--

 

 

My reaction was just the opposite, what a great country that allows such a free press and free elections.

 

what a real wonder...

 

It always come across funny when other countries talk about free speech here in the USA.

[dwar0123]

This isn't a free speech issue, no one is questioning the senators right to say such things. Free speech doesn't grant him immunuty from ridicule and scorn from the press or others. It grants him immunity from imprisonment, loss of property or other government penalties.

 

There isn't anything stopping a politician from saying such thing in any country, the only difference between here and, as an example, England, is that it would be political suicide for a politician to say such things. Not because he would be violating some speech law, but because the population is educated enough to realize that is utterly stupid and thus decide to vote for someone else.

 

Really the only thing you are being proud of is how ignorant our population is.

[Fluffy]

Our government is insane

 

 

You might want to exchange with ours?

[mike777]

if i follow the threads posts logic

 

usa voters ignorant compared to UK.

 

may or may not be compared to spain.b :)

[dwar0123]

The issues aren't the same but certanly a bit of greener grass perspective influencing our point of views.

[Bbradley62]

This isn't a free speech issue, no one is questioning the senators right to say such things.

Broun isn't a senator, he's a congressman. The difference is that he isn't answerable to the broad range of citizens who might live in a state; he's only answerable to the mostly-monolithic constituents in his district. The House of Representatives includes (proportionately) many more nutjobs on both extremes of the political spectrum than the Senate does.

[blackshoe]

He can say what he likes. He's still a nutjob. And the fact that any jurisdiction would elect a nutjob to represent them certainly reflects poorly on the people of his district.

[mike777]

He can say what he likes. He's still a nutjob. And the fact that any jurisdiction would elect a nutjob to represent them certainly reflects poorly on the people of his district.

 

but fwiw i think it reflects well on the system as a whole.....

 

I understand many ...most posters think this means the system stinks...horrible

 

 

 

 

fwiw I think this means the system is cool.....decent..... working

 

I dont get the upvotes for other.

[the hog]

"fwiw I think this means the system is cool.....decent..... working"

 

You mean that knuckleheads can get elected?

Well, we have knuckleheads in Australia as well. It amazes me that there are people stupid enough to vote for these.

[mike777]

"fwiw I think this means the system is cool.....decent..... working"

 

You mean that knuckleheads can get elected?

Well, we have knuckleheads in Australia as well. It amazes me that there are people stupid enough to vote for these.

 

 

hOG i DONT REALLY THINK you are amazed but ok if you want to say that...:)

[Codo]

You really belive that it would be political suicide in Europe if you make so stupid comments?

 

You have never heard about Berlusconi have you? Did you see the pictues of Prince Harry ina Nazi-uniform? (I could name less famous german politicians with examples too, but you won't know them for sure.)

 

In the more or less democratic states, we have the governements we deserve.

 

Maybe you personaly would deserve something much better, but your society does not. The majority did vote for their leaders.

 

And besides this: Don't argue with these guys, it would be fruitless- and it is quite hard to destroy their inner logic. They simply belive in their belives.

And unluckily for most of us the big bang theory is not more then that: We belive in this theory (or we don't). We cannot be certain that this is the real answer. It is like the search for the smallest parts of substance. For several centuries the world belived the smallest parts are atoms, latter we got to know that there are neutrons, then quarks, etc. Did we reach the end of the line in todays sciences? Maybe but hardly. Same could be true about the Big Bang Theory- I would not be surprised, if even better modells will be found in the future.

 

So, don't fight with pigs. They are used to it and you just get dirty.

[phil_20686]

So in the UK, our politics is much more local, due to the concept of an MP's surgery. I am not sure that anything similar exists in the US, although its common in almost all UK-based parlimentary systems, like Ireland, and australia. Most MP's are expected to be available to help their locals with their problems several days a week. Ministers will generally staff them with a senior aide. People will ask them to intervene in everything from problems with government departments to consumer complaints to school board elections. Being good at this stuff can get you a local reputation that will protect you against national swings against your party. Anyway, the fear that you might have to interact with your local representative tends to mitigate against the election of idiots. :)

 

Also, MP's in the UK are basically selected by the party office. There is no primary voting. Since it is clearly in the parties interest to have a talented pool of MP's, they will tend to give their safe seats to talented people. In the US you seem to need to impress your local vote a lot more.

 

 

 

[jdeegan]

:P Every ten years our congressional districts are redrawn. Gerrymandering assures that almost 90% of the seats are stacked about 60-40 or more in favor of one party or the other. A few of these districts are inhabited by persons with odd beliefs. These have to be catered to in order to win.

 

A young man was being interviewed for a position teaching high school biology in a southern country town.

"Son, how do you feel about this newfangled evolution business?"

"Sir, I can teach it either way."

[Gerben42]

@Fluffy: I have an insane government to donate also! (I live in Germany)

 

Also, someone who has some weird ideas may still be a good leader, I am sure you can find examples of that in history (no, not Dubya). The main reason that the world religions are in fact world religions is mostly because of the successful leaders who believed them. Faith is somehow most efficiently spread with the sword.

 

Maybe you personaly would deserve something much better, but your society does not. The majority did vote for their leaders.

 

So true...

[WellSpyder]

@Fluffy: I have an insane government to donate also! (I live in Germany)

The main reason I looked at this thread was to see what country the OP was from - it feels like it could have been anywhere!

[Trinidad]

Maybe this puts the views of some Middle East leaders in perspective.

 

Simply put: Not only the Taliban have weird believes that are influencing politics.

 

Rik

[Phil]

I have to admit when I first read this headline, I thought of this story:

 

Meshweaver

[Cyberyeti]

Did you see the pictues of Prince Harry ina Nazi-uniform?

Prince Harry has never been elected to anything. He's just done a load of things many none too bright kids of his age would do if they had the cash (the Vegas photos for example).

[billw55]

Well, he is a politician after all, and they almost universally tailor their comments to be well received by their audience at the moment. He was speaking to a church congregation, possibly a fundamentalist one, so of course his remarks come out like this. If he was addressing a gathering of scientists, I'm sure he would sound very different. What he actually thinks is hard to tell; and what he actually does on that committee probably has more to do with gains and losses for himself and his district than his personal beliefs.

[PassedOut]

Of course it's disheartening when politicians willing to place superstition and science on equal footing get elected. But, in time, the wonderful advances in science will push all that nonsense aside: The Neanderthal in My Family Tree

 

Major breakthroughs in the past five years in the way scientists extract and analyze ancient DNA have given researchers a whole new way to look back in time. They are using DNA to trace the evolution of modern humans and archaic species. One thing has become perfectly clear: Our ancestors were seldom, if ever, alone on Earth. New fossils and genetic studies show that our direct ancestors shared the planet with at least one other type of hominin from shortly after the time our taxa split from the chimpanzee and bonobo lineage roughly 6 million years ago until a Hobbit-size human called Homo floresiensis went extinct on the island of Flores in Indonesia just 17,000 years ago or so. And it’s clear that they knew about each other, because we carry traces of some of those other kinds of humans in our DNA today.

 

The most stunning revelation has been in how we view our relationship with our close cousins, the Neanderthals. Ever since the discovery of the skull of an archaic human in 1856 in a cave in Germany’s Neander Valley, researchers have wondered how Neanderthals were related to us. For most of the 20th century, most scientists thought Neanderthals were our direct ancestors, one step ahead of us on what was often seen as a single, ladder-like line leading from primates to modern humans. But when researchers re-dated key fossil sites in the Qafzeh and Skhul caves in Israel in the 1980s and 1990s, they found that fossils of early Homo sapiens were 80,000 to 120,000 years old—older than the 40,000-to-60,000-year-old Neanderthal fossils in the same caves or nearby. This made it pretty clear that Neanderthals didn’t give rise to modern humans and showed they probably were contemporaries of our ancestors. We also know from fossils that modern humans arose in Africa 200,000 years ago or so and that Neanderthals lived in Europe starting at least 300,000 to 600,000 years ago and went extinct about 30,000 years ago.

We all come from a long, long line of ancestors to share the adventure of life today. How that progressed is one of the most interesting searches today.