Stupidity is as easy to find on the internet as shady home loans or male enhancement nostrums, as in this example, posted on the Paradise Post website by a guy who hides his identity behind the sobriquet of "Patriot." If I were this "patriot," I'd want to hide my identity, too.

"Who cares if the Earth gets warmer?" he writes. "I don't. If the polar bears go away like the dinosaurs, then that's just the way it is. If mankind goes away like the dinosaurs, then that's just the way it is. Something else will take our place as Mother Earth repairs herself, like it always has. Just drive your SUV and enjoy it. Burn your wood burning stoves; mankind has burned wood since fire was discovered. Eat your beef, even if cow flatulence is detrimental to our atmosphere. If liberals had their way, we'd all live in a bubble breathing filtered air. You libbys should spend more of your energy worrying about people that take advantage of free government handouts, ripping off the working class, while they sit on their dead butts pissing their money away."

Ol' Patriot doesn't have much use for the Christian idea that human beings should be good stewards of God's creation, it seems. He'd rather we all just acted like swine, gobbling up all we can without regard for the mess we leave for our children. In his view, WE are the children, heedlessly doing as we please without concern for the consequences.

But he does want us all to worry about "people that (sic) take advantage of free government handouts."

On this we agree, though I get the distinct impression he isn't worried about the same people I'm worried about.

Rather than worrying about those welfare recipients who might be fattening their bulging pocketbooks with taxpayer cash, I'm a little more concerned about the two-fisted thievery of fat cats who are getting bailed out by the taxpayers, all those gazillionaire CEOs whose wise financial judgment has given us the subprime mortgage meltdown, all those beneficiaries of taxpayer largesse like the managers of Bear Stearns whose irresponsible and unregulated lending practices have put us all in a deep hole, but who will, thanks to the government, suffer no injury to their personal fortunes.

Instead of welfare queens trading food stamps for cigarettes, I'm concerned about all those billions stolen by Halliburton, or all those big subsidies paid to corporate farms. I'm concerned about the billions in bribes handed out to various Iraqis in exchange for their promise not to shoot at our guys so much. I'm concerned about the no-bid contracts like the one paid to former Attorney General John Ashcroft, some $52 million to his consulting firm for who-knows-what essential government service. I'm concerned about the millions wasted to mail us all a note informing us that our benevolent government would soon be sending us all a little check as part of their "stimulus package" which our wise pols hope will revive an expiring economy.

But ol' Patriot knows better. Concerns about the future of the planet, like mine (and maybe yours) are just beside the point because Mother Earth will fix herself up after we're extinct, though our species won't be here to see this new Garden of Eden Mother Earth will fashion out of old tires and aluminum cans. The good news is that, though we'll all be gone, that mass die-off will include the hated "libbys"

But "Patriot" isn't the only idiot who wants to share his thoughts. Here's another sub-par intelligence who signs in as "john," sharing his insight:

"i.am happy dick cheney don.t care what you libs think. you libs are bad for america. do you know the meaning of bad . b. stands for blacks a. stands for aliens and d. stands for democraps. all you libs have is negativisam for the president of the u.s.a." john

And, if that's not dumb enough for you, here's ol' "Patriot" again, clarifying matters. "If you don't like capitolism, (sic) which by the way, this great country of ours was founded on, then move the hell out and find some socialist country where you'll be happy, like the surrender **** of France. Who are you to dictate what YOU think is too much profit on oil, or anything else for that matter? Remember, it's a PRIVILAGE (sic) to drive a fossil fuel burning car, NOT a right, so quit complaining about oil, and move on. Get a horse and sell your car, then you can bellyache all you want about the price of alfalfa and nobody will give a rat's rearend. God bless this country."

It seems logical that guys like "Patriot" and "john" would be fans of our current president. File them all under "like minds," all showcasing complex and sophisticated thinking about the state of the world, three exemplars of a certain kind of stupidity that has been the hallmark of the 21st century thus far.

Maybe it's time we tried intelligence for a change. The stupidity option doesn't seem to have worked too well thus far. After nearly eight years of choosing stupidity as our guide, we're utterly lost. Our economy is in ruins, our foreign policy makes no sense to us, or to anyone else, our infrastructure and our institutions are breaking down, we're deeply in debt, our currency is losing value, our news outlets tell us less and less of what we need to know, our commentators babble on about things that really don't matter, our schools turn out students who know little about the world, either now or in the past. Meanwhile, the crooks are robbing us blind and we are losing touch with what once made us the envy of the world.

Stupidity might have seemed like an easy and attractive choice, but it's proving far too expensive.

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