At least we understand the irony
20 June 2007 by Naomi
States Face Decisions on Who is Mentally Fit to Vote.
You know what my first thought was? That they were confirming the obvious, as reported late last year.
However, it’s much more serious than my tingling funny bone was telling me. Which is not to say that there wasn’t someone following Satan’s order to “Kill!” It’s just that he may get to vote every two years, as opposed to someone who robbed a liquor store while compos mentis…
(Happy whatever, ChuckA!)
20 June 2007, on 8:37 am
What scares me about this, is that being that the right wing fundie nuts are the ones currently in control of the government, and being that they don’t realize the extent of their own mental illnesses, and being that they tend to think that people without jeebus are the ones who are crazy… Well you can see how that could possibley be bad for freethinkers everywhere.
Is that too conspiracy theoryish???
20 June 2007, on 9:21 am
This is bordering far too close to Thought Police for my taste.
Best watch our respective balances: I detect a slippery slope en route.
20 June 2007, on 10:35 am
Hmmm…Just looking at that DeLorenzo photo raises my suspicion concerning HIS state of mind.
RE his comment: ““Some people are taking these two clowns and calling them disabled persons.”…
What’s that old saying: “It takes one to know one!”…?
Couple that saying with:
“The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.”…and…
“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says.
Somehow that answers MY question of: How could enough of the American public be so stupid to elect Bush…
TWICE!
That great pic of “Moe Bush” makes me think: “There’s been a whole lot of eye poking…and so much worse…goin’ on, since he’s been in charge of the asylum.”
[Is it possible, with that pic, to insult the memory of the, dear, Three Stooges?]
As I think we atheists rightly suspect (know?)…irrational Religion is a major root cause of the world’s insanity.
Yeah, KA…a slippery slope, indeed!
“Why, we oughta!…woo-woo-woo-wooh…nyuk, nyuk!”
20 June 2007, on 11:36 am
It is a slippery slope only to the extent we allow it to be defined by extremists. It seems eminently reasonable to me that anyone diagnosably insane should be barred from voting. I’m not sure what seems so bizarre or in-your-face about that.
Unfortunately one of the yahoos leading the charge might well be diagnosable himself. That does not, however, invalidate the premise.
20 June 2007, on 2:36 pm
KA, I’m with you 100% there.
Warren, there are millions of mental diseases that could be used to classify people as “diagnosably insane.”
People who shop too much or have trouble with math could be barred from voting.
I don’t think we should bar anyone from voting. Isn’t this country a one person = one vote country? It’s not democracy if you find reasons to keep people from using their freedom to vote.
This sounds all too much like the early 1900s America for me. We’ve come too far as a country to start cutting voting rights now.
20 June 2007, on 2:38 pm
Oh, and who WOULDN’T vote for Moe from the Three Stooges for President? Vote Larry for VP and make Curly Speaker, and I’d watch C-SPAN 24/7.
Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk, whoop, whoop, whoop.
20 June 2007, on 4:07 pm
All that I really want to know about this post and the comment thread is:
What is it about the Three Stooges men love so much?
I mean, I realize there are women who love them too (right?), but practically every man and no woman that I’ve met thinks they’re great. It’s a mystery to me!
OK, highjack over; back to the serious stuff…
20 June 2007, on 4:08 pm
Attorney General Shemp, yeah, that’s got a nice ring to it.
20 June 2007, on 5:40 pm
Eve, I don’t understand it either! But there is a very real divide between men and women: estrogen v testosterone; duct tape v WD40; loud fireworks v beautiful fireworks; visual porn v written porn; action v emotion; act first v discuss first –
and the Three Stooges v the JonStewartCrush…
If he wasn’t such a hack, the Mars/Venus debate would be valid.
20 June 2007, on 5:48 pm
I wonder how many women look at the Moe Bush and are thinking ‘that’s exactly right: icky’ and how many men look at it and think ‘oh, what have you done to our Moe?
(Many men I know would like Mo’ Bush, fer shur)
20 June 2007, on 8:13 pm
Allowing the certifiably insane to vote? This is a joke, right?
20 June 2007, on 9:45 pm
Mentally ill people who havent harmed anyone should get to vote.
20 June 2007, on 11:33 pm
Someone’s gotta market that picture on a t-shirt. Or put it on an Eleven Dollar Bill or something weird like that.
21 June 2007, on 7:19 am
Most of us males of a certain age have recieved a pinkie up the nose, a bop, a poke in the eye a la the three stooges. Ah, the good old days. The Simpsons episode where they show a hospital ward for Three Stooges injuries which is too terrible for the layman to behold probably had some truth to it.
I actually got to eat breakfast with two of the stooges (Moe and Larry) when I was a kid. Sat right next to Larry. Me and about five hundred other kids. Thing is, they were intelligent, decent, talented (OK, not for girls, but pre-adolescent boys found/find them so)who gave people a lot of enjoyment and harmed no one…well, directly.
Larry Niven in one of his novels has a charactor explain that sanity is always dictated by the majority.
21 June 2007, on 8:23 am
Will the government start requiring everyone to take an exam before voting to see if they actually know who the candidates are and where they stand on the issues? How many people out there vote the “eenie-meenie-minee-MOE” method? (Pardon the pun.) I know several people personally who merely go punch the ballot willy-nilly and have no clue of who or what they are voting for and they are perfectly sane. Will they next want to start banning the “certifiably stupid”?
21 June 2007, on 12:40 pm
‘Will they next want to start banning the “certifiably stupid”?’
We can always dream, can’t we? :p
But I have to disagree with some and say that I don’t think the insane should vote. When I was in 7th grade we did some project with making our own government, and I already knew that there had to be plenty of people voting as Stardust said (basically, just guessing, or voting without knowing the issues.) I decided that in order to vote under my government, you first have to prove that you understand the issues and where the candidates stand. I knew from the start that this idea had the ability to be abused, but if we keep government opinions out of it, it still has merit.
I’m only worried that such a thing could turn into how the votes were in Florida back in 2000. Except with that, many people were prohibited for voting because of petty offenses from many years before, like stealing a candy bar when they were 10. I would never want that kind of crap to happen again.
21 June 2007, on 12:53 pm
All you have to do is ask someone if they voted for Shrubby in either election. If they say yes, then they’re not mentally fit to vote. Simeple.
And I’m one of those guys who likes the 3 Stooges. Maybe it’s because we love stupid humor.
21 June 2007, on 8:05 pm
I’m speaking only for myself of course, but I think guys like the Three Stooges for the same reason a lot of us like sports – because it satisfies our craving for violence without there actually being any, you know, violence. Watching guys slap the crap out of each other and still being in good spirits and health is hilarious to watch. It’s the reason I still can’t watch women basketball – not because it’s not fundamentally sound (it is, perhaps moreso than the men’s college/NBA game) but because there are no in-your-face, you-just-got-posterized slam dunks happening.
And to be fair, it’s not just physical sports. If you play chess, that can be quite an aggressive, in-your-face pasttime, particularly when both parties know which one has the upper hand and is just prolonging the match to let the humiliation seep in further. I’d rather see people get their primal urges for violence out via sports, goofy television like the Stooges, or even chess! than by actual violence.
21 June 2007, on 11:02 pm
Naomi:
To which I reply:
Pull my finger.
Hehehehe.
21 June 2007, on 11:33 pm
A famous comedian once said:
“I don’t like political jokes–I’ve seen too many of them get elected.”
27 June 2007, on 6:32 pm
Thanks for the weigh-ins, everyone! Naomi, I do get what you’re saying about basic differences between us and Sobex, your stab from the male point of view makes sense. I wonder how much of it could be socialization (you know, little girls aren’t generally encouraged to be physically aggressive, or revel in dominance)?
I do kinda get into the Marx Brothers, though, and I love classic Martin/Lewis, both of which can get quite physical; hmmm…
Dammit! Still highjacking the thread…