I founded this blog basically as an act of depression after the majority of the American people let their will be known and elected George W. Bush to the Presidency in 2004. Not desperation. Depression. The stupidity of the American people seemed bottomless. The sad thing is that this blog is still relevant five years (and a few months) and 4,000 posts (and a few more) on. Even though the resident President has changed, the American people haven't -- they're still the same ignorant self-centered want-something-for-nothing cretins that they were five years ago. As I'm fond of pointing out, 50% of the American public is below average -- and average ain't so smart nowadays.
So what does the future hold? How the fuck do I know. You can always count on cat pictures and music videos if I run out of things to talk about. Thus far, however, running out of things to talk about doesn't seem in the cards. There is no shortage of stupidity to poke fun at, or self-entitled cretins like those morons at the Republican National Committee using donor money for booze to shine a light on, and given the statistic I mentioned above, I doubt that'll cease happening anytime soon.
-- Badtux the Anniversary Penguin (somewhat belated).
Stupid is the new normal (or average, if you prefer.)
ReplyDeleteI despair for our country.
To quote a famous Moron"stupid is as stupid does"
ReplyDeleteWere in shit deep I'm afraid......
I like to look at the root cause of things because of my background.
In my opinion our schools are to blame. Yeah I know kids are supposed to get their education and morals from home. Well let's be real, that taint gonna happen. It's been 40 years that I noticed how the kids are being funneled through a system that is there just for the numbers. Somebody has to teach our children well. That's what their afraid of and that's why they want to change books and ideas and truth from being taught.
Later
What a coincidence! My wife and I started planning our escape from America at the same time, and for the same reason, that you started your blog.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how you feel that your decision worked out for you, but I'm satisfied with how ours went. I've gotten to experience life in two new countries (loved Australia and wish I was still there; Canada is a sack of cold, wet noodles to me). By cashing out everything we owned, we've gotten as much financial security as a pair of middle-class people can hope to attain in these uncertain days.
While it was hard to part with our house up near the hideous red-and-white TV transmission tower in that Babylon north of where you are -- best house we will ever live in -- at least we got away clean. And by buggering off, my conscience also feels cleaner, for not paying any more taxes to fund atrocities like the videotaped machine-gunning of those Reuters photographers and everyone else in their general facility.
It hasn't all been magic Sparkle Ponies shitting Skittles out their asses, but overall it's been a grand adventure so far. Thank you, George Bush! But may you rot in hell anyway.
Well done too and congrats on this as your numbers are huge Tux!!
ReplyDeleteThe samo gets so old and once again as happened years ago am beginning to pay less attention. There's not much satisfaction in calling out the same dumb fucks for the same thing over and over and not seeing much change.
It's the pictures for me anymore it seems.
Keep it coming and what about Fang?
Congratulations on five years of the not-stupid. If only our leaders could claim the same!
ReplyDeleteI've had friends say to me, "Well, you have to keep hoping and working to wake America up."
ReplyDeleteSadly, the bulk of America is as awake as it ever will get. I have come to the sad conclusion that nothing short of painfully going over the falls in a nail-lined barrel is going to teach the dead-from-the-neck-up sorts ANYthing.
Yeah, I'm depressed, too. And schools ARE part of the problem; the local junior college where my ex-military son is picking up the last requirements for his two year degree is so dumbed down he despairs.
A prof assigned them to pick ANY book and read a single chapter to write a single page of assignment. She was stunned when my son asked if he could summarize the gist of the entire book, since one page did not do justice to any chapter's rich detail. She apparently could not believe he could have read the entire book.
The USA has always had a disdain for "egg-headed intellectuals". The theoretical foundation for the atom bomb was created by foreign physicists who had fled the Nazis, not by Americans. But traditionally, Americans were at least a practical hands-on pragmatic people who valued education at least to the extent that it allowed them to create practical stuff. It was American physicists who took the German physics and turned it into a practical bomb. But even that amount of respect for education no longer exists. Now it's all about bullshit financial games and ideological nonsense and if you try to teach any real math and science to students, it's like trying to teach a stone wall -- their attitude is, "why should I learn any of this? I'm going to become a banker / real estate salesman / stockbroker and make a million dollars". Or, "that science disagrees with my holy book so I'm going to report you to the School Board and they'll fire you if you try to make me learn it for the test."
ReplyDeleteIn short, what's happening in the schools is a symptom, not a cause. We have local control of schools here in America. Schools by and large reflect what their local communities want. 'Nuff said on that.
Regarding going overseas, I considered it, but I am owned by two cats, and they veto'ed that idea. Besides there's really only one place on the planet where my skills are actually valuable, and I'm living in that one place (the Silicon Valley). I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I am going to be a latter-day Roman, watching the empire that he is a citizen of wind down into stupidity and insanity. I'm just hoping it lasts long enough that I get good and buried before the whole ball of wax collapses, but I'm not too hopeful about that, even.
Labrys, I am not into all that hopey-changey stuff. Liberals whine about how Obama has "betrayed" them. No. Obama is not a dictator, and he has the citizenry he has, not the citizenry he wishes he might have. When you're the elected leader of a nation of idiots, there are things you might wish you could do in some perfect world, but then reality comes into play. An example is that whole health reform kabuki. The reality is that Romneycare is the best that Jesus Himself could ever get through Congress given the Republican obstructionism and the fact that probably a third of the Democrats in Congress are actually Republicans who switched their party affiliation to Democrat because the GOP has gone completely batshit insane and they want nothing to do with that kinda nuttiness. (Cue Jim Webb here). And the people who are in Congress are there because the people in their districts voted for them -- not because some dictator selected them and imposed them upon America. We have the government we want, by and large -- and deserve. Alas. So I'll just sit here on the sidelines munching popcorn and throwing out occasional observations about the madness, thank you very much.
- Badtux the Realist Penguin
Badtux,
ReplyDeletePrecisely. We get what we deserve (if not actually demand), and we aren't leaving either. I have that Labyrinth to tend, after all.
I get rather fed up with the hope and change contingent because it seems they all want a man on a white horse---not a participatory representational democracy. Obama didn't betray anything, that "finish line" was crossed before he got there. I'm going to sit on my porch with a wrist rocket and age disgracefully.