Thank you, Nice Rollin, and thank you, Newsweek. I could not agree with the following more strongly: "We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated."
There are plenty of educated smart people of faith........in fact several are on here....Max and rhester come to mind. And I am NO fan of religion, but I am a fan of personal faith. DD
Well, let's continue that train of thoughts. We don't vote for CEO's to run cooperations. We don't vote for astrounauts to fly spaceships. We don't vote for athletes to represent our country. These people are chosen for us. We have no complaints about lack of freedom because we believe those chosen elites really know the best what they are doing. Yet, when it comes to the world of politics, the most complex of all, everybody is believed to be equally competent and has an equal say.
So Do you do NOT beleive everyone should have equal say in who runs the country? Rocket River I just need clarification
mispronouncing a word common to the job one holds is willful ignorance. Saying 'uh' is merely a speech pattern or speaking habit.
I don't believe everyone should have equal say in who runs the country. Luckily, everyone doesn't have equal say in the US. Democracies are mob rule.... Quoting the sagelike Agent K, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."
You do know that 2 of the Democrat's strongest voting demographics attend church at higher rates than white Republicans. One of these demographics is a near monolithic voting block. I can only assume by your reasoning, that they are the most stupid of the bunch then?
Matt Taibbi's OpEd from Rolling Stone seems appropriate right here... 22 September 2008 Taibbi says Palin a symbol of everything wrong with modern US In the latest (Oct. 2) issue of Rolling Stone, on sale now but not yet available online, writer Matt Taibbi calls out the American electorate in a major new piece called 'The Lies of Sarah Palin.' A snippet: "Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore. "And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she's a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed Middle American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant sized bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the sizzlin' picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else's, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because that image on TV reminds him of the mean brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning. "Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power. Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV – and this country is going to eat her up, cheering every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation." http://jazz-from-hell.blogspot.com/2008/09/taibbi-says-palin-symbol-of-everything.html
A moronic piece of political drivel. Good grief people, Sarah Palin is not the Anti-Christ. Take Bill Clinton's advice, disagree with your opponent's ideas, don't demonize them personally.
She is not the anti-Christ, but if she is in charge of the country then people would wish they had Bush Jr in office for another 20 years in a row! I want Elite(smart) people in charge of this country, I don't need a buddy running this country, I want competent people who knows what they are doing running this country.
My answer to that is squarely: NO. Not any more. I believe that the one man one vote democracy is a means, but it is not the goal. Our goal is to find the most competent leader(s) that can lead us to prosperity. Mob rules is nothing new. It is one of the most primitive election, decision mechanisms used by mankind when they were still in tribes. But it doesn't always lead to the best result. The Microsoft's, the ExxonMobile's don't do one man one vote because they know mob rule doesn't work for them. Can you imagine what their stocks would be like if they did try it? I do believe our system is the best system in the world at this point in time. It's just that this system is far from being perfect, not even close. You can argue that no system is perfect, but that shouldn't stop us from persueing one.
Palin Bans Reporters from Meeting http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080923/ap_on_el_pr/palin_leaders NEW YORK - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has not held a press conference in nearly four weeks of campaigning, on Tuesday banned reporters from her first meetings with world leaders, allowing access only to photographers and a television crew. CNN, which was providing the television coverage for news organizations, decided to pull its TV crew, effectively denying Palin the high visibility she had sought. Palin planned to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in New York on Tuesday as the United Nations General Assembly convenes this week. She also was expected to meet with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Those sessions and meetings scheduled for Wednesday are part of the Republican campaign's effort to give Palin experience in foreign affairs. She has never met a foreign head of state and first traveled outside North America just last year. The campaign told the TV producer, print and wire reporters in the press pool that follows the Alaska governor that they would not be admitted with the photographers and camera crew taken in to photograph the meetings. At least two news organizations, including The Associated Press, objected and were told that the decision was not subject to discussion. Palin has been criticized for avoiding taking questions from reporters or submitting to one-on-one interviews. She has had just two major interviews since Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose her as his running mate on Aug. 29. On Wednesday, McCain and Palin were expected to meet jointly with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko. Palin was then to meet separately with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
