Today’s post is an obvious play on the comic strip “There Oughta Be a Law,” which ran for almost four decades in every major newspaper in the United States. Its targets were the “minor absurdities, frustrations, hypocrisies, ironies and misfortunes of everyday life.” (Source: Wikipedia)
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representations, by a vote of 407-23, passed a resolution condemning “hateful expressions of intolerance.” For the record, all 23 nay votes were Republicans and Congressman Steve King (R-IA), who was stripped of his committee assignments by his own party for making multiple white supremacy remarks, voted “present.” So, if there WAS a resolution, why would we need another one?
Because yesterday’s House vote shifted the focus from the root cause of the problem. I do not know whether Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) use of a Jewish trope about money and questioning the patriotism of Americans who support Israel makes her anti-Semitic. Just as I do not know for a fact Steve King’s questioning why some people find the term “white supremacist” offensive makes him a racist. What I do know is it makes them STUPID.
Therefore, what would have been more meaningful would have been a resolution condemning stupidity of all kinds by elected and appointed officials. To make the point, in addition to the offenses by Representatives Omar and King, the resolution should contain the following recent examples.
- Denying a five-sided enclosure (four walls and a ceiling) made of chain link fence is a cage.
- Claiming a seismic air gun used to locate off-shore oil reserves, which has a decibel level 16,000 higher than an air horn would have no effect on animals which depend on echolocation.
- Promoting trade wars as “good for America” while paying farmers in breadbasket states $12 billion in taxpayer money to make up for lost revenue.
- Suggesting the tax breaks offered to Amazon in New York could now be used for other priorities. You cannot finance schools and roads with rescinded tax breaks.
- Suggesting that a convicted felon who spent the last ten years of his life engaged in bank fraud, money laundering and tax evasion has, up until now, lived an “otherwise blameless life.”
Comedian Bill Engvall suggests people who do and say inane things should be required to wear a warning sign which simply says, “I’m Stupid.” Unfortunately, the wood pulp needed to produce these badges of reproach would make the deforestation of the Amazon jungle look like child’s play.
For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP