Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Stupid Things People Say

I've been sitting on a comment made back in July for a while. Here it is, from an anonymous poster:

I am in the process of looking for a house, and most of the subdivisions in my area do not allow vegatable gardens. Can you believe it!? It is acceptable for the white house lawn to contain vegatables but not in your precious subdivision. People need to open their eyes and see the bigger picture!

Unfortunately, I can totally believe it, Oh Anonymous One. I can. It never ceases to amaze me how shortsighted we all can be. My advice? Skip the HOA. Buy where you actually aren't going to be policed by neighbors without enough to do.

But this is not, by far, the most unbelievable thing I've heard in the last few years. As a matter of fact, it's pretty low on the list. Here's a bunch of things that might make even Anonymous think she or he has fallen down the rabbit hole. Well, okay, it's my top 5 for tonight Even more unbelievably, Sarah Palin didn't say most of them. Hey, there are other dumb people too.

(I'm in a mood today. Can you tell?)

5. "Throw the bums out" of Washington.
Originally a comment by Lee Iacocca many many moons before the great recession, this statement has been latched onto by Tea Partiers and the media alike.
While turnover in Congress is good, note that approximately 11,000ish congressional and other government staffers would not join the elected representatives in the exodus. And honestly, who do you think gets more done, the freshman congressman, or his staffer with the rolodex? Yeppers. So while I'm all for a little congressional turnover - I'm a very democratic-leaning independent, but can we start with Chris Dodd? He's just an asshole - I don't think this is going to solve the problems.

4. "Although macroeconomic forecasting is fraught with hazards, I would not interpret the currently very flat yield curve as indicating a significant economic slowdown to come"
The worst part of this quote is that it's by someone whose intellect and Great Depression research I greatly admire, but whose judgement I've come to question. Yeah, I'm talking to you, Ben Bernanke, quoting your comment of March 2006. Sigh.

3. "If anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."
That gem is from the absolute prince of a Senator, Jon Kyl, of Arizona. Personally, I think we should vote Jonny out of office, and send him to stand in line at the unemployment office.

2. "We're all Arizonans now."
Well you knew on a stupid things people say list Ms. Palin was going to end up on there somewhere, right? This is in response to Arizona's new exercise in legal bigotry that the lovely and ever-open minded Jan Brewer signed back in April. I don't know which one of those two is worse, to be honest, but Sarah does win on stupid thing-saying.

1. "I'm doing God's work."
Taking the top spot in my list of stupid things people say is Lloyd Blankfein, who has earned a special place of scorn in my heart. Lloyd, if you don't know the name, is in charge of Goldman Sachs. Apparently God's work means helping screw 8.5 million people out of jobs and countless numbers out of their homes by bilking the market, then paying oneself uncountable sums of money, and buying your way through Congress.

Huh. I don't remember that one from Sunday School. Something about camels and needles, but not that one. Unfortunately, I think we're all just going to have to wait for the Karma Bus to come get ol' Lloyd. Let's just hope it hurries up.


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