Can They Really Be This dumb?

A Nation of Fools by Peary Perry

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Can They Really Be This dumb?


Yesterday, I had to drive 400 miles to get back home. I started off listening to Glenn Beck, then went to Rush at 11am. Before I got home, I had to turn the radio off, roll down the windows, stop at a service station and get one of those ‘energy’ drinks. Then when I got home, I went straight to the shower, soaked my tired old body and if I could, I would have opened up the top of my brain and washed it out as well.

Both Beck and Rush were talking about the proposed 29 billion dollar ‘stimulus’ bill which was being hawked and was designed to ‘create more jobs’ as per our President. These were jobs which could potentially be lost by firemen, policemen and teachers throughout the country. In the words of our President, this amount of money must be approved in order to stimulate these jobs. No matter that the money was being printed by the 24/7/365 Treasury Dept. I’d bet those guys have been racking up the overtime these past 19 months, don’t you?

No, these jobs were vital to the economy and we needed to spend the money to save them.

Obviously Beck and Rush jumped on this concept with both feet. Like I said by the time I had listened to over 5 hours of ignorant people calling in to defend the Presidents spending policies, I was ready to set my hair on fire.

Now, you know when you are listening to people if they are uneducated or just plain stupid, but the callers for both of these shows sounded intelligent, even if they weren’t. They sounded like normal rational people when they started off, but it didn’t take too long to find out that they were a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal.

I had to stop along the highway and jot down a few notes so I could expound on this at a later time, once I had cooled off and got my blood pressure under control.

The first guy I want to discuss was in the military. Rush thanked him for his service, as do we all, and the guy went on to say that he took exception to what Rush was saying about government workers not being productive. In his opinion he was productive. Rush asked him … “What do you make?” and the guy said… “About $45,000 a year.”

Rush explained that his salary was not the question. He wanted to know what kind of a product did he make, sell, or whatever that generated a profit…..They guy stopped and told Rush again, that he was in the military and they didn’t make or manufacture anything. Rush tried his best to explain that this was his point. They guy comes back and say… “but I pay taxes…..” Dear God, I thought my head was going to blow off. The guy sounded intelligent, but he could not get it into his head that government employees, whether they be military, firemen, police, EMT or public school teachers do not contribute to the GDP of this country.

We need them to be sure…no denying that but they do not work for any company or entity that produces a profit and which contributes to the tax base needed to run the government. Your local pizza parlor contributes more to the national GDP than an a division of Marines.

The next person was a lady who said … ‘my husband works hard….he hires military contractors…’ Here again Rush tried to explain that this did not generate any revenue for the economy. This lady got all hot and bothered and said that those companies were private companies and that they certainly did pay taxes and made profits. I could tell Rush was about at the end of his rope as well as I was. He tried to tell her that these companies may well be private companies but the payments for their services come from the government who gets its money from taxpayers….She finally hung up.

The last one I’d like to discuss was another woman who called in and said she knew of a government company that actually made a product. Rush asked her what it was and she said in all sincerity….. ‘General Motors makes the Chevy Volt.’

I nearly gagged…she is talking about a company that has accepted how much in bail out funds and is still losing money and these cars are going to be sold with a $7000 or $8000 discount or rebate…..so in essence we, the taxpayers, are subsiding a corporation in order for them to sell their product. Rush pointed out that the makers of the IPOD or IPAD or whatever didn’t need any government subsidies to sell their products…folks were lined up in front of the stores to buy them when they first came out.

These folks did not sound like they had just fallen off the turnip truck, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how come they are this dense. If your job depends on the taxpayers to fund all of the revenue necessary for your operation to continue…you are not contributing to the economy of this country. If we continue to expand government and decrease private enterprise, we will surely destroy this country.

Which may very well be the objective in the first place.

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