Intelligence

"As a people, we admire physical superiority, and nobody expects star athletes to scale down their performances to the common public level; but in feats of mental or cultural superiority, we tend to resent the level of achievement and condemn as "highbrow" the same proficiency we applaud on the playing field as "awesome." ~ Sidney J. Harris

I began reading Sidney J. Harris over thirty-five years ago. His thrice-weekly (as I recall) column, Strictly Personal, ran in our local paper and somehow I got hooked. Although he died twenty-some years ago, I still read his essays. He still makes sense. He still seems prescient.

While I've not really been all that active politically, I've always kept a pretty close eye on what was going on. As someone who believes that government can ~ and should be ~ a positive force in the lives of people, I've always felt capable of cutting through the bullshit (or rubbish, if you prefer) that politicians have spewed forth.

My heart aches with the thought that this country ~ and the world ~ will be subjected to another four years of right-wing political manure from politicians who offer nothing but more cultural division and hard-headed sabre rattling. It truly is beyond me how four years ago, people were bamboozled into giving George W. Failure a second term in office, yet they did. That the opinion polls are even close here now is proof that we are no smarter as a nation than we were in 2004.

I have no doubt that when Republicans say they care about education, they are lying through their stinking teeth. They want the voting public to be as stupid as possible ~ from the cradle to the grave.