A confederacy of dunces

By Mustang Bobby

Sometimes I think I should do just a collection of links to the latest outbursts of stupid without comment, much in the same way I do the Short Takes every morning. That way you could see what the far side is up to in a short burst and then get on with your day. Trust me, there’s no shortage of material.

For instance:

BOISE – Coeur d’Alene Sen. John Goedde, chairman of the Idaho Senate’s Education Committee, introduced legislation Tuesday to require every Idaho high school student to read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” and pass a test on it to graduate from high school. 

When Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, asked Goedde why he chose that particular book, Goedde said to laughter, “That book made my son a Republican.”

Teaching high school kids to be greedy bastards? Isn’t that redundant?

Or this genius:

In a recent interview, [Alabama State] Senator Shadrack McGill, said he wants to introduce a personhood bill that will define life as beginning at conception. This is nothing new — fifteen states introduced personhood bills in the 2012 legislative session alone –but McGill’s interview is instructive because it illustrates just how dangerous and unhinged Forced Birth ideology has become. 

First, McGill compares unfertilized eggs to eagle eggs — yes – eagle eggs:

“Did you know you can be charged up to $250,000 for destroying an eagle egg, but you can destroy babies in the womb?” 

Um… bald eagles are a protected species because they are on the endangered species list. Humans are not.

He later went on to inform us that there is Hell to pay for abortion:

“Just based on the Scripture alone, the Psalm that talks about God knowing us before he placed us in our mother’s womb, is enough for me to know that that is a life inside of a mother,” said McGill, R-Macedonia. 

“So my question concerning aborted babies is, where do they go, heaven or hell? I just want to know what [people’s] perspective is.”

Moving right along….

It’s not that there aren’t enough of these interesting characters out there; the street corners and blog comment threads are full of these whackadoodles. What I find most disturbing is that these people decided to run for elected office in their state, got people to campaign for them, and actually won. What does that tell you?

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)