U. S. Constitution is 400 years old, and Neil Armstrong visited Mars in 1969.

[Roger Sterling]

Anyone else catch this ? No wonder we can't balance our budget or pass good laws... some representatives cannot read or write.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) claimed Wednesday that the United States Constitution is 400 years old.

Sheila Jackson Lee says there are two Vietnams: North and South.

In July 2010 Jackson Lee said: "Today, we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace. I would look for a better human rights record for North Vietnam, but they are living side by side." It was noted that Vietnam had not been split for four decades.

Sheila Jackson Lee's (D-Houston) district neighbors the Johnson Space Center, is a member of the House Committee on Science, and so it was that she spent part of her summer recess visiting the Mars Pathfinder Operations Center in Pasadena, California. While there, according to an article by Sandy Hume in The Hill , a weekly newspaper that covers Congress, Jackson Lee asked if the Pathfinder succeeded in taking pictures of the American flag planted on Mars by Neil Armstrong in 1969. Of course, Armstrong planted the flag on the Moon, as any high schooler should be able to tell you, let alone a 47-year-old Yale graduate.


Who keeps voting this person into office?

[Maneesh Godbole]

If the two Vietnams were indeed side by side, wouldn't they be West and East instead of North and South?

[Winston Gutkowski]

Roger Sterling wrote:Anyone else catch this ? No wonder we can't balance our budget or pass good laws... some representatives cannot read or write.

I'm actually surprised that you find this astonishing - especially since you must have already heard of the famous "potatoe blight" (not to mention that it would appear his family didn't know how to spell "Quail").

Personally, after "meter" and "center", I'm just waiting for "circel".

Winston

[Robert D. Smith]

Winston Gutkowski wrote:

Roger Sterling wrote:Anyone else catch this ? No wonder we can't balance our budget or pass good laws... some representatives cannot read or write.

I'm actually surprised that you find this astonishing - especially since you must have already heard of the famous "potatoe blight" (not to mention that it would appear his family didn't know how to spell "Quail").

Personally, after "meter" and "center", I'm just waiting for "circel".

Winston

And all this time I thought it was just me. I understand that language changes, but not all change is for the better. Oh, and I have to admit that I would have missed the landed on mars bit until I started reading the rest of the posts. I was 9 years old when Mr. Armstrong to his first steps. My dad let me stay up to watch (on the telly), but I fell asleep about an hour before he exited the vehicle. *sigh* My first case of hero worship.

[Bear Bibeault]

When you have legislators that claim that the Earth is 6000 years old, and that cave men lived along with the dinosaurs, and that evolution is a bunch of hooey, all bets are off...

[Winston Gutkowski]

Bear Bibeault wrote:When you have legislators that claim that the Earth is 6000 years old, and that cave men lived along with the dinosaurs, and that evolution is a bunch of hooey, all bets are off...

Now THAT gets a cow.

Winston

[Stephan van Hulst]

Over here we just get a kick out of US politics.

[J. Kevin Robbins]

Bear Bibeault wrote:When you have legislators that claim that the Earth is 6000 years old, and that cave men lived along with the dinosaurs, and that evolution is a bunch of hooey, all bets are off...

What frightens me even more than the ignorant politicians are the ignorant voters who put them in office. I seriously think there should be an intelligence test before you can get a permit to vote.

[Winston Gutkowski]

J. Kevin Robbins wrote:What frightens me even more than the ignorant politicians are the ignorant voters who put them in office. I seriously think there should be an intelligence test before you can get a permit to vote.

What? And destroy a "democratic" system that gets 40% of the electorate out to vote? Say it ain't so.

Other than the Communist system, I can't think of too many that require less of a voter than choosing between two candidates. Think of those poor Europeans or Israelis who may have a dozen, any one of which might actually end up in parliament because people voted for them.

And furthermore, ONE party might not have a majority, giving it the power to do whatever it likes for the next 4 or 5 years. Awful.

My advice: Blame it on us Brits, because we gave you the system - and still practise it ourselves (albeit with a monarch instead of a President). And it's just as bad here as it is where you are.

Winston

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

This is too meaningful for Meaningless Drivel. I'm going to move it to the Rattlesnake Pit where politics is appropriate. Everyone in this thread (unfortunately except for the original poster) has enough cows to post in there.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Agreement often has two main factors - sharing facts and sharing values. We don't appear to be working with the same set of facts.

[Stephan van Hulst]

I don't think there should be an intelligence test for voters, because intelligence may correlate with important groups of society that also need representation.

There should be an intelligence/knowledge test for politicians though.

[Bear Bibeault]

Stephan van Hulst wrote:There should be an intelligence/knowledge test for politicians though.

I'd settle for a "not crazy" test.

[Campbell Ritchie]

They start out normal, possibly very ambitious and extravert, but normal. It is politics that makes them like politicians

[Robert D. Smith]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:They start out normal, possibly very ambitious and extravert, but normal. It is politics that makes them like politicians

It's been a while since I have watched it, but I think Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington would resonant with this. A young person, full of hope and excitement, often with great ideals and good ideas, comes to the arena and is ground down, chewed up and broken by an establishment that can't or won't be changed. It, unfortunately, applies to more than just politics. Maybe it's just the lure of power; being fawned over can be intoxicating.

I agree with the crazy test, though. As a retired pastor, I have certain attitudes regarding the existence of a Divine Creator. But those people that deny the evidence of science, the process of evolution, holding to a young earth belief -- I'm sorry, but these people are a detriment to society. I don't know, maybe I should renew my membership to the Flat Earth Society

Regards,
Robert

[Jelle Klap]

J. Kevin Robbins wrote:

Bear Bibeault wrote:When you have legislators that claim that the Earth is 6000 years old, and that cave men lived along with the dinosaurs, and that evolution is a bunch of hooey, all bets are off...

What frightens me even more than the ignorant politicians are the ignorant voters who put them in office. I seriously think there should be an intelligence test before you can get a permit to vote.

That's right, don't blame the politicians, blame the people!

[J. Kevin Robbins]

Jelle Klap wrote:That's right, don't blame the politicians, blame the people!

I can't watch that from work, I'll do it from home later, but make no mistake I blame both. The politicians are corrupt and care for nothing except lining their pockets and getting re-elected. The voters have become "low information" voters. They vote based on characteristics that have nothing to do with the political issues. The vote for the taller candidate, or the one with the best haircut, or the one that has a more "American" sounding name, or the one that promises them more free stuff. The don't know anything about the candidates views or voting record or links to big businesses and PACs.

I've pretty much lost all hope. Our system is broken and I don't think it can be fixed at the voting booth. Even if you get past the corrupt politicians, you still have entrenched bureaucracies that control more of the government than the politicians do. It's going to take more than another election cycle to fix this country.

Where is John Galt when we so desperately need him?

[chris webster]

Jelle Klap wrote:That's right, don't blame the politicians, blame the people!

Brecht's solution (in Die Loesung):

Bertolt Brecht wrote:
The Solution
After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers' Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Of course, George Carlin's rant is funnier...

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

No one should be surprised by the ignorance of U. S. Politicians. It's not even a secret that the GOP deliberately stacks the House science committee with brain-damaged crackweasels. Being a climate-change denier or evolution refusenik is a plus in that organization.

[Pat Farrell]

Robert D. Smith wrote:I think Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington would resonant with this.

Two more realistic movies about politics are:
The Seduction of Joe Tynan:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079875/

and

The Candidate
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068334/

[chris webster]

Don't forget Bob Roberts either.

[Winston Gutkowski]

Ernest Friedman-Hill wrote:No one should be surprised by the ignorance of U. S. Politicians. It's not even a secret that the GOP deliberately stacks the House science committee with brain-damaged crackweasels. Being a climate-change denier or evolution refusenik is a plus in that organization.

And don't you find that surprising? Not the refuseniks or the crackweasels - those exist everywhere - but the change.

Everything that I've read about American history suggests to me that the Republicans were the reformers of the 19th century (and I'd probably have voted for them), and the Dems - particularly Jacksonian - the "rednecks". Yet by 1920, The GOP was the "party of business" and, arguably, the architect of the Wall Street Crash.

I'm still not sure when the change took place, but you could definitely count me as "ABR" now (Anything But Republican).

Winston