Republican Senator, Sylvia Allen, of Arizona believes (there’s that word again) that the earth is 6,000 years old. She felt that she needed to state that as fact during a diatribe of hers on uranium mining. This little “shout out” of hers to creationists everywhere (or at least to those listening to her) earned her Keith Olbermann’s title of “Worst Person in the World” last night.
Following are two videos. The first is of her saying the earth is 6,000 years old. The second is Keith Olbermann’s take on it (she was number 1, so you’ll have to listen to number 3 and 2 first).
Question: Should you have to pass an intelligence test and/or a “basic knowledge” test to run for office?
“Question: Should you have to pass an intelligence test and/or a “basic knowledge” test to run for office?”
Yes. I also think that a minimum of a high school diploma/GED and an IQ of at least 100 should be required to vote.
That wouldn’t be a wise idea at all, but even doing so would not do much to solve the problem. A GED can be obtained by just about any literate human, and the IQ test is not the best measuring stick for reasons touched on before.
Many morons like Sylvia Allen, Bachman, and Palin likely have IQs over 100- that’s an extremely low bar for people with such power. If these people can be so dumb, there are bound to be plenty of above average IQs that have been brainwashed.
Ok then, a college degree and an IQ of 115 in order to vote. Perhaps a quiz on current events could be thrown in too. Whatever it takes to prevent another bush or, shudder, a palin presidency.
Godless sodomite,
You didn’t think this out to its logical conclusion.
The consequences of you plan, let me show you them.
1. mandating a college degree (BA/BS – I assume)as a prerequisite for voting. Most college grads are 22-23 years old. This chops out the youth vote 18-21 that would overwhelmingly go to the Democrats…
2. …and eliminates poor people that can’t afford to go to college…
3. …and also eliminates a large percentage of hispanics and blacks…
4. Mandating an 115 IQ prerequisite for voting also eliminates another large percentage of hispanics and blacks.
Your plan would doom the Democratic Party.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
As Mr. Gump would say “Stupid is as stupid does.”. Anyone that voted for BushCo once let alone twice should be disqualified from voting again or ever holding public office.
what,
You should write a manifesto there comrade.
Come to think of it most are being disqualified from holding public office.
Suuuuuweeet!
what,
True. In nine states we can’t hold various public office, and in Arkansas we can’t even take the witness stand.
Oh, and you can forget about being the King of Norway, or the King of Thailand. Or the Pope.
Huh? BushCo supporters can’t vote in nine states? I think you got some wires crossed there.
Infidels can’t be trusted in 9 states that is. And AR is right, voting requirements to vote would spiral first into a rich Republican’s dream and eventually into a monarchy- it’d be a reversal of the past 250 years.
First they limit it to smart (and wealthier) people, who use their vote to create more sanctions which benefit the wealthy and it just keeps going.
Unfortunately Americans have the right to be dumb, including elected officials, but there really isn’t a way to stop it.
I was being sarcastic in my modest proposal for voter requierments.
Who is left in the GOP besides religious zealots. I would bet that the average GOP IQ is hovering around 87 right now.
Arizona is a wooful state. Even the University of Arizona has it’s problems, tho there is also some very good scientific work being done there.
(And they better keep that up. They’ve got my DNA locked up in a freezer there.)
What’s “wooful”? Assuming you meant woeful, that’s an awfully broad brush your painting with.
I meant “wooful”. But of course, since it is, it’s woeful too.
If Sylvia Allen should somehow fall from the public eye we’ll still will have Michele Bachmann from Minnesota, that lady has got an IQ in the negative trillion range.
She’s got so much Jeebus it’s scary.
Well – don’t the ignorant deserve representation too? Start drawing the line at a certain IQ or educational level, and where does it stop?
Although, the intent of the Founding Fathers was that only males with certain property qualifications should vote or hold office. Regardless of intelligence.
Why start now? Barry claimed that there were 57 states and I didn’t hear one peep from the left. Just one more glaring example of hypocrisy…
There is a HUGE differnece between misspeaking and claiming, as fact, that the earth is 6,000 years old. One is a slip-up that harms no one, the other shows complete ignorance of the natural world. I’d trust her to write environmental policy only as far as I could throw her… not far. Pick your battles
You didn’t hear a peep from the left? You weren’t listening. Or you’ve confused our President for a leftist. He’s a moderate. Get a clue.
BushCo’s famous sixteen words that launched the ill-fated invasion of Iraq was just a misspeak to Phreeky. And all the anguish that BushCo has caused is just misanguish.
Didnt the National Park Service place some signs around the rim of the Grand Canyon with bible verses and creationist drivel about the origins of the canyon? and stock the gift shops with creationist books? Was that ever challeneged and done away with? it couldnt possibly be constitutional for a governmental agency such as the NPS to promote a xian worldview.
Yes they did. The book is called “The Grand Canyon: A different View, by Tom Vail.
Here a link. Scroll down to next story.
http://www.freeinquiry.com/skeptic/badgeology/grandcanyon/controversy.htm
One of you Jesus boys want to explain how a canyon is testament to mercy and/or judgement?
A logic test should be required to vote, as that is what matters most. Sure atheists tend to have higher IQs, as intelligence and atheism are clearly related, but it is also possible to be psychopathic or crazy and still have a high IQ.
It’s entirely possible to be a complete sociopath and pass a logic test.
I’m not a proponent for requiring any kind of cognitive test for voting, mind you, but any given test can be passed by all kinds of socially diseased people so saying one is better than the other for fending off the mentally unstable isn’t really accurate.
voting should be raised to 21 yrs.the voting rights acts should be reappealed.felons should never be allowed to vote.
Reason I missed this before- what’s wrong with voting at 18? Are there dumb 18-20 year olds? of course, but there are plenty of dumb 21+ year olds too. Most of my friends (myself included) started paying attention to politics much more at 18 because it now mattered to us- Making the age 21 would delay this interest for many people, and wouldn’t do much to increase the average knowledge of voters.
Plus it would destroy my case to lower the drinking age to 18.
Christ, there’s a ton of ultra-elitist crap on this thread. Makes me a bit sick to my stomach.
I don’t think anyone wants those elitists statements taken literally.
In addition to the creationist stupidity, how about this logic:
-The earth was not destroyed before environmental laws existed
therefore:
-environmental laws are not needed.
Hey, 6000 years ago they didn’t have speeding tickets, and no one died in car accidents. I shouldn’t have had to pay my speeding tickets now, then since, obviously, there were fewer accidents without traffic regulations.
I found that humorous as well. Unfortunately the stupidity with that statement resonates with the stupidity in most fundies’ brains.
What is entirely ridiculous, and I expected Phreedumbfuck to pick up on this is that the idea that the earth is six thousand years old is not contained in the old testiment. Genesis says: In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. (http://bible.cc/genesis/1-1.htm) It gives no time line for the beginning of the heavens nor the earth. The earliest time reference ever given in the bible is the age of Adam when Eve gave birth. The idiots who buy into that shit, place the creation of Adam at approximately six thousand years ago. It’s all documented, generation after generation, to Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob (Israel).
The joke here is that the bible thumpers don’t even know what their holy bullshit book says. There is nothing in the bible that says that earth isn’t millions of years old, which leaves me wondering, where are the JaCCoffs and Phreedumbshits??? Maybe they’re trying to figure out why god didn’t tell Moses about the dinosaurs. Or that the earth revolved around the sun. Or that the sun is one of billions of stars in this galaxy, which is one of billions or trillions of galaxies.
Now if god would have told that to Moses, we would all be believers wouldn’t we? But, being an asshole bent on mass murder, he hides in the shadows and keeps his prophets ignorant. Now that’s a father figure you have to love, NOTTTTTTT!!!!! Fuck Jehovah!!!!
NeoWolfe
I’m sorry, but seven days is perfectly clear: 168 hours. In other words, don’t hold your breath to see Virgo tonight; we still have another 1,000,000+ years for its light to reach us. Even IF we could agree that Genesis ignores non-human entities, it cannot even start to explain human settlements from before 10,000 years. You can’t make peace between reality and fantasy.
OMD, augustine2 is providing evidence that the bible is wrong. All christians must now put their fingers in their ears and start singing the sacred song “LA LA LA LA”. I believe that is one of the ten commandments, right?
THE EARTH IS, INDEED, 6,000 YEARS OLD; AND THE SPEED OF LIGHT IS “BR549″.
How can you not love the OT God he is so human 1min.loving the next a crazed killer.tell me Neo don’t you feel connected to this deity.
I’ll admit it. I also think the OT god is kewl. The NT god is kinda boring. Someone should make a movie of the week about the OT god, rated R for all the juicy violence.
So what happened to the OT god? did the birth of jeebus chill him out?
reason,
Obviously you speak Englishitfaced. Translate it for me, please to intelligable.
NeoWolfe
Reason,
The OT God was a crazed killer from chapter one. He murdered all of human kind with a piece of fruit. Then he cut short their abbreviated lives by killing every man woman and child on the planet in the flood. And that just the first few pages. As far as a connection, I see a clearer one between his personality and that of bigots and conspiracy theorists. So sad that many of them are atheists pretending to be enlightened.
NeoWolfe
Make that only WHITE males… While the founding fathers (where were the mothers? Shhh! There couldn’t have been any) where ahead of their time, they were still products of their time.
I disagree. Not all felons are created equal. For example, when my husband was a young man he got into a fight. When the cops tried to break it up, they did not identify themselves, and my hubby hit one, only once. When he realized who they were he stopped, and they subsequently beat the crap out of him. He was charged, but didn’t do time because the cop he hit shot his girlfriend a week later, and couldn’t testify against my hubby.
But he still has a felon on his record. He’s a different man now, and hasn’t fought in decades. Should he not be allowed to vote 24 years later?
Interesting point- I’ve always been against the rights of felons- kind of a ‘you violate the rights of others, you forfeit your own’ sort of thing, but this is an example of a situation in which it seems ridiculous. I’m sure your husband would be making better decisions than many, and is more deserving than many.
Perhaps the best system would be one in which felons lose the right for a period of time proportional to their time in jail or overall sentence- 2 years in prison= 8 years without voting rights, a year of probation= 2 years, etc. Something along those lines seems more fair.
you make a good case and i like the point by show me of using a proportional system.
btw sounds like your hubby picked a good woman to marry.
I’m pretty sure there’s a class-felon system. I’m not a lawyer so I may be wrong. I’m just thinking that certain classes of felons could have a review system where records could be expunged if foolish young perpetrators clean up their lives. Felonies exempt from the statute of limitations could be exempt from an expunge review.
That way a guy who accidently hit a cop when he was 20 could own and use a hunting rifle when he’s 44.
Cry4turtles,
You mentioned in your above post that your husband was charged with a felony and then mentioned he didn’t serve time because the officer that was to testify against him shot his girlfriend and wasn’t available to testify.
Is it possible the reason your husband can still vote, for example, and didn’t serve time, was because he wasn’t convicted of the felony he was charged with?
A person can be charged with a felony, but unless they are convicted of committing one, they are considered innocent of the crime and lose no rights.
I’m sure you’re aware of this, but from your posts, I couldn’t tell if this was the case with your husband.
Also, I think it may be possible that because the officer who was supposed to testify against your husband didn’t, the charges against your husband could have been reduced to misdemeanors?
The judicial system is a joke. A pot smoker gets thrown into a world of the “law of the jungle” with rapists, carjackers, armed robbers, and murderers, and is forced to become as sadistic as they are in order to survive. And no matter how hard he tries to conform to the system, when he gets out, he can never get a security clearance, never get a good job, never get bonded as a business owner. And the idiots in the system wonder why prisons have a revolving door. Could it be that crime is the only viable job opportunity available?
But, personally, I couldn’t care less about voting. Unless you live in a swing state, your vote is meaningless anyway.
NeoWolfe
neowolfe,
That is because our justice system has went full Kafka. Never go full Kafka.
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