OK, so 49 percent of Republicans believe that a non-existent organization heisted the 2012 election for the Kenyan Barack Obama, and 44 percent are loosely pondering a vote for Mississippi's Jefferson Davis in the next one. OK. But the Ignorance Index gets a bipartisan boost from PPP's latest finding that nearly 4 in 10 Americans draw an unopinionated blank on 'Simpson-Bowles'--perhaps the most talked-about and hotly debated fiscal proposal since Alexander Hamilton's 'First Report on Public Credit'--while an astounding 25 percent of Americans lean favorably or unfavorably toward 'Panetta-Burns,' which doesn't exist any more than the election-heisting ACORN, and, in fact, never did.
We used to say, "You just can't make this stuff up." We were wrong.
Brings to mind one of my favorite sayings from the ancient Greeks (first encountered in an Asimov foreword):
The gods themselves contend in vain against stupidity.
Posted by: Janicket | December 05, 2012 at 09:19 AM
Unfortunately, this stuff wasn't made up. It's real.
Posted by: dr.e | December 05, 2012 at 09:27 AM
How about if we adopt the defining phrase of the 1980 presidential election: "There you go again."
Posted by: dr.e | December 05, 2012 at 09:34 AM
Scene: A split scree, the Capitol, Washington DC and the Oval Office
Terrorist (GOP): Give us what we want or we kill all the hostages!
Negotiator (Obama): What do you want?
Terrorists (GOP): We don't know.
Fade to black.
Posted by: Robert Lipscomb | December 05, 2012 at 10:07 AM
I read at least a hundred and fifty of Asimov's works Janicket and I remember the quote but not the book from which it came. As far as favorite quotes or aphorisms go, mine is "to never attribute to malice what can be fully explained by stupidity." It has served me well to explain the otherwise inexplicable.
Posted by: Peter G | December 05, 2012 at 11:48 AM
Peter G: "The Gods Themselves." Ike's last novel, I think.
Posted by: Botelho | December 05, 2012 at 12:54 PM
Why are people defined as stupid when they ignore yet another report by yet another ineffectual Washington committee predestined to fail? Seems to me that the disdain is better directed towards people like Andrew Sullivan. And as long as we're re-purposing quotes here's one that has come to my mind:
"How many divisions do Mr. Simpson and Mr. Bowles have?"
Posted by: Bruce Adams | December 05, 2012 at 01:32 PM