Idiot of the Day

[TranceHime]

Magic: Thanks for finding the article. Although, reading it, it seems to me that the objections of the boo-birds were not to the suggestion that the moon did not emit its own light, but what they perceived (rightly or wrongly) as an attack on their religion. Which is not neary as IotD-worthy, especially depending on the specific wording Nye used, which is unreported.

Hard to really say for sure, actually. One could perceive said thinking that the statement was an attack on their religion as the disbelief of the scientific fact in question.

That's another matter for another time, though.

[NotMiki]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/klu-klux-klan-protests-westboro-baptist-church-video/2011/05/31/AGgoiPFH_blog.html?fb_ref=NetworkNews

Do you enjoy debating who was a worse guy, Hitler or Stalin?  Then do I have a link for you...

[metroid composite]

I'm rooting for the KKK.

(Though, really, when the KKK protests a church comprised of 100% white people, none of whom have been in an interracial or gay marriage, you can probably take them seriously).

[superaielman]

Phelps has long been an enemy of the KKK; he was a lawyer for black clients in the 60's and helped oppose Jim Crow.  That said, I vote fora meteor to land on both sides.

[Lady Door]

... the hell is this thread doing on page 2? You people are slacking! Honestly.

--

http://biggovernment.com/bmccarty/2011/08/11/anonymous-call-to-new-animal-abuse-hotline-leads-to-raid-on-colorado-womans-rabbit-farm/

The policemen take on the BIG BAD animal horders and their deplorable conditions to SAVE THE BUNNIES.

... except, oh wait. The bunnies are part of a 25-year-old breeding program for show rabbits. And the 4-H club. And some of the bunnies are also meat animals. And they donate deceased rabbits to the zoo to feed their raptors. And all this takes place on an ag-approved parcel of land.

To see just how horribly mistreated these poor animals are, take a look at the news report:

http://denver.cbslocal.com/top-video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6077385

Goddamned good thing that we have dedicated law enforcement officials ready to tramp all over inconvenient laws and procedures in the name of the bunnies.

[superaielman]

This type of stupid is how anti government types get started. That link is stupid on so many levels.

[metroid composite]

And Today's idiot is...Richard Dawkins!

(1:26:20 PM) Mumei: Okay, in this scenario, a young woman has gone to an atheists / skeptics conference in Dublin
(1:26:32 PM) Mumei: She's an American and a single woman.
(1:27:01 PM) Mumei: She was a panel member, and she talked some about some of the sexism she'd experienced both in and out of the community.
(1:27:21 PM) mc: The aethiest communit?
(1:27:24 PM) Mumei: After the conference, she was at the hotel bar with other people, and she talked until about 4 in the morning
(1:27:24 PM) Mumei: Yes.
(1:28:01 PM) Mumei: While they were talking, there was another man at a different table who was not a part of the discussion, but had been watching her for some time.
(1:28:15 PM) Mumei: At 4, she said to the group that it was really late, she was tired, and she was going to bed.
(1:28:26 PM) Mumei: She went to the elevator and the man followed her
(1:28:37 PM) mc: Ok, this is getting frightening.
(1:28:55 PM) Mumei: And when they were on the elevator, the man said, "Now don't take this the wrong way, but I find you pretty interesting. Would you like to come to my room for coffee."
(1:29:11 PM) Mumei: Now this is four in the morning, after she had just expressed an interest in going to bed.
(1:29:18 PM) Mumei: She said no and got off on the next floor
(1:29:36 PM) Mumei: And after describing the scenario, she said this:
(1:29:45 PM) Mumei: Just a word to the wise here, guys. Don't do that. I don't know how else to explain how this makes me very uncomfortable, but I'll just sort of lay it out: I was a single women in foreign country in a hotel elevator with you, just you, and I—don't invite me back to your hotel room right after I finish talking about how it creeps me out and makes me uncomfortable when men sexualize me in that manner.
(1:30:04 PM) Mumei: Which is perfectly reasonable, of course.
(1:30:11 PM) mc: Yeah.
(1:30:14 PM) Mumei: From a woman's perspective, that encounter had the potential to be dangerous.
(1:30:25 PM) mc: Alarm bells were going off in my head as you were telling that story.
(1:30:30 PM) mc: I was scared she was going to get raped.
(1:30:33 PM) Mumei: And even if he was a perfectly nice, if socially inept, guy, she has no way of knowing that
(1:31:08 PM) Mumei: Because the fact is that one in six women is sexually assaulted in their life time.
(1:31:33 PM) Mumei: And therefore that means that women have good reason to be cautious around just about every man that they are with.
(1:31:50 PM) Mumei: And that you, a complete stranger, should keep that in mind and not corner her alone in that manner
(1:31:56 PM) Mumei: There was a bit of an uproar.
(1:32:20 PM) mc: http://kateharding.net/2009/10/08/guest-blogger-starling-schrodinger%E2%80%99s-rapist-or-a-guy%E2%80%99s-guide-to-approaching-strange-women-without-being-maced/
(1:32:27 PM) Mumei: She was getting messages calling her a cunt, telling her she deserved to get raped, commentary generally about how feminists were ruining atheism.
(1:32:29 PM) Mumei: I have indeed read that!
(1:32:40 PM) Mumei: I actually linked to it during my discussion, since it is quite handy.
(1:32:42 PM) mc: Wait, what the fuck?
(1:32:51 PM) mc: Comments on her blog?
(1:33:02 PM) Mumei: E-mail, Youtube comments
(1:33:34 PM) Mumei: She also gets them from men's rights people about issues on male vs female circumcision, because she aptly notes that female circumcision is worse.
(1:33:55 PM) mc: Oh my god.
(1:34:23 PM) mc: Remind me never to go anywhere near the active aethiest movements; I do way more feminist stuff than what you're describing.
(1:34:54 PM) Mumei: Now I was following this on the Pharyngula blog
(1:35:02 PM) Mumei: and Richard Dawkins commented in the comments section
(1:35:10 PM) Mumei: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/files/2011/07/dawkins_watson1.gif
(1:35:25 PM) Mumei: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/files/2011/07/dawkins_watson2.gif
(1:35:31 PM) Mumei: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/files/2011/07/dawkins_watson3.gif
(1:35:42 PM) Mumei: Just read those three; it's an exercise in staggering male privilege.
(1:35:48 PM) mc: This is the real Richard Dawkins?  Seriously?
(1:35:54 PM) Mumei: Yes.
(1:35:55 PM) mc: Not like...an internet imp?
(1:36:02 PM) Mumei: It was confirmed by the guy running Pharyngula
(1:36:23 PM) Mumei: And Pharyngula is run by a college professor who has been on a panel / discussion thing with Dawkins before
(1:36:39 PM) Mumei: And who invited Dawkins as his guest to go see Expelled, etc.
(1:36:42 PM) Mumei: It's him
(1:37:19 PM) Mumei: There were many people - perhaps most - who were defending Dawkins' comments.
(1:37:53 PM) mc: Wow, what the hell.  Comparing the woman to the Catholic Church?
(1:37:58 PM) Mumei: I think it is a problem of perspective.
(1:38:05 PM) Mumei: He has never in his life had to worry about being raped.
(1:38:13 PM) Mumei: And has never seriously considered how that issue might affect someone else.
(1:38:29 PM) Mumei: So for him, this scenario is just some guy getting on the elevator and asking her to coffee and a conversation.
(1:38:32 PM) Mumei: And nothing more.
(1:38:48 PM) Mumei: He fails to see that for a woman the scenario necessarily means something different.

[NotMiki]

So Dawkins is an insensitive tool.  Is this news?  The guy's made a career out of telling atheists not only that they're right, but that they don't have to respect people who disagree with them.  Maybe someone should impress on Dawkins the evolutionary importance of empathy.

[Grefter]

He might get it if he lived in a society where abject sociopathy was not the path to success.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

So Dawkins is an insensitive tool.  Is this news?  The guy's made a career out of telling atheists not only that they're right, but that they don't have to respect people who disagree with them.  Maybe someone should impress on Dawkins the evolutionary importance of empathy.

Famous person expects people to have sex with him by default. Oh my what a surprise. Dawkins considers himself the leader of the Atheist movement, so he thinks anyone involved will give him whatever he wants in the same way musicians see their fans.

[metroid composite]

So Dawkins is an insensitive tool.  Is this news?  The guy's made a career out of telling atheists not only that they're right, but that they don't have to respect people who disagree with them.  Maybe someone should impress on Dawkins the evolutionary importance of empathy.

Famous person expects people to have sex with him by default. Oh my what a surprise. Dawkins considers himself the leader of the Atheist movement, so he thinks anyone involved will give him whatever he wants in the same way musicians see their fans.

It wasn't Dawkins who asked the woman for sex.  It was some random person this woman didn't know, who had never talked to her, but had been watching her for hours from the corner of a room.

So Dawkins is an insensitive tool.  Is this news?  The guy's made a career out of telling atheists not only that they're right, but that they don't have to respect people who disagree with them.  Maybe someone should impress on Dawkins the evolutionary importance of empathy.

Well, right, Dawkins plays off of basic social identity theory:

http://www.psychologyofgames.com/2010/01/11/how-social-identity-theory-predicted-the-console-wars-of-07/

"Our tribe is awesome.  Their tribe is less than human, and clearly inferior."  Easy way to make a living by preying off of well known psychological traps.  He seems to be smart enough in the books of his I've read, and knows his evolutionary psychology; he probably knows exactly what he's doing.

But now he's attacking and alienating people within his own tribe.  Which is just...stupid.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Nah, I don't think it's stupid. He's trying to frame everything in his "us vs. them" paradigm. To him, women's rights itself is a great springboard for his belief that atheism rules and religions drool; after all, mistreatment of women is intertwined with religious orthodoxy in some cases (which he draws attention to).

I actually don't think "idiot" really applies here (and I have no love for him); the guy is just insensitive AND bent on pushing his own agenda. Won't be the first, won't be the last.

Now, of course, these folks as in ("She was getting messages calling her a cunt, telling her she deserved to get raped, commentary generally about how feminists were ruining atheism.") get some IotD hellfire from me. "You were scared, possibly more than I think you should have been... THEREFORE YOU DESERVE RAPE" and "feminism ruins atheism!" just get "....... what" reactions from me, combined with contemplating how best to dunk these people in acid.

[metroid composite]

Hmm...yeah, I think I see now.  Basically you're saying that his approach is:

"You want sexism?  Look at the horrible things that happen to women in muslim countries, those uncivilized religious savages!  This thing that an atheist did?  Don't be absurd--that wasn't sexist or disrespectful in the slightest."

[Dark Holy Elf]

Bingo. The more ills he can claim are derived entirely from religion, the stronger his thesis appears.

[superaielman]

In short, Dawkins is still an asshole.

Now let's move on from militant athiest assholes to my personal favorite idiot: School systems run by the terminally  inept.

http://www.kens5.com/news/Blanco-ISD-boy-faces-ISS-for-wearing-hair-too-long-128430243.html

ISS for long hair!

[Yakumo]

This just makes me furious.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/members-congress-paid-enough-165641960.html

[Xeroma]

Congress: The idiotic gift that keeps on giving. Seriously, WTF.

[NotMiki]

Hm.  There's 1 reason I'm never upset to see congresspeople suggest they're not paid enough: New Jersey.  You might recall that mass arrest of 40+ NJ politicians for corruption a couple years ago.  That didn't come out of the blue.  There's a culture of petty corruption in NJ, "you pay me $10k and you'll get that building permit" kinds of stuff.  One big reason why is that NJ pays its politicians a pittance, as low as $15k for some mayors of small towns if I recall correctly.  NJ treats politicians as part-timers, and it gets what it pays for.  It's been suggested that significantly higher base salaries for congresspeople could reduce the influence of lobbyists in Washington.  I don't know if I buy that, but it's worth considering.

[Lady Door]

Politics as a profession disturbs me.

Saying "I don't make enough" when practically guaranteed six figures and excellent benefits as a contractor for a job you ran for that is public service strikes me as being so very out of touch. Nevermind, too, that salary is public knowledge, so they damn well knew what they were signing up for.

[superaielman]

Agree pretty strongly there. At worst, you're willing to give up income for influence and power.

[Sierra]

They'd complain even if we gave them more money. Just give 'em a little time to spend whatever extra they have on more expensive cars/houses and get right back in the woeful "paycheck to paycheck" dilemma they're in now.

[metroid composite]

Yeah, honestly, even NFL stars often end up going bankrupt, because they have no financial skills.  And those people make even more money than congress.  If you give lots of money to people without a lot of education or financial skills, they're not going to manage it well.

The solution is to get smart people with passable financial management skills in congress.

And the fact that this isn't the case already is honestly kind-of frightening. >_>

[Cotigo]

Before leaving the US I made 27K a year.  I made steady payments off of my loans, drank a ludicrous amount of alcohol, and STILL managed to save up a fair deal of money on that salary.

Those congressmen (read: assholes) can go fuck themselves (read: chop off their cocks and stick them in their own assholes).  We'd be better off if they weren't in charge anyway.  And while I did not have to support a family, well, I know people.

I know people supporting families.

I know people supporting families and paying off mortgages.

These people make 60-70K a year, and in one case that's with the parents' combined incomes.  Yeah, these assholes get no sympathy from me.

EDIT: Drunk, rage.

Especially when these FUCKING SHITHEADS are the kinds of people WHO ARE WILLING TO NEGOTIATE THE MINIMUM WAGE to bring back jobs to the US. ($7.50 in New Mexico *40 = $300/wk = ~$1200/mo = ~$14400/yr.  NM is a in a state with a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum.)

This article makes me want to fly back to Washington DC and go Oldboy style on some motherfuckers.

[Otter]

http://www.avclub.com/chicago/articles/billy-corgan-gets-in-a-nasty-internet-fight-with-a,60967/

Smashing Pumpkins frontman lets all his old fans know he's actually a hateful bigot.

From there Billy sent out a series of now-deleted tweets about Ever’s “piece of shit” pedals, her business ethics, and her character. As if the childish fight-picking wasn’t enough, Corgan continually referred to Ever as him/her and he/she for being a transgender woman, and he commented on her appearance—as if calling someone an “ugly pig” is ever a relevant retort.

Found via this response at BvB.

[NotMiki]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/primeministerfail-berlusconi-calls-italy-a-shty-country-he-plans-to-leave.php?ref=fpb

IotD: Italian Edition.