Monday, March 24, 2008

Do Republicans Need a Course in History & Politics 101?

When i started this blog I promised myself that it wouldn't become an avenue for me to consistently bash Republicans - primarily because most of my family impenitently consider themselves Republican and i don't want to be disowned ;) But sometimes, i really just can't resist.
Two fun and disturbing (but oh-so-unfunny) stories from last week:

1. Bush administration spokesperson, Dana Perino, doesn't know the difference between missiles because she's just a perty lady - and, duh, men know about missiles through osmosis...


Some of the terms I just don’t know, I haven’t grown up knowing. The type of missiles that are out there: patriots and scuds and cruise missiles and tomahawk missiles. And I think that men just by osmosis understand all of these things, and they’re things that I really have to work at — to know the difference between a carrier and a destroyer, and what it means when one of those is being launched to a certain area.

Jezebel covered this well, even included a lesson for Ms. Perino to better understand missiles. With a shopper's guide soon to come (hopefully in pink, with feathers and lace maybe?)

We laugh (and it is certainly more than a bit ridiculous that the Administration's spokesperson is confused about her weapons of mass destruction) but I do get what she's talking about. She probably grew up playing with dolls and make-up while her male peers played "launch the missile." Although i realize this is an exaggeration, i think it definitely speaks to socialization and the damage caused by engendering our children from such a young age.




Apparently she also doesn't know what the Cuban Missile Crisis is?



2. Although i'm a bit late on this, it's rather important to include... McCain confuses Shiites (Iran) and Sunnis (al-Qaeda)





I would hope that the Republican presidential nominee (who is currently a senator and as such, has some legislative power), would know the difference between the two. Not to mention that McCain has made his knowledge and experience of the Iraq war a vital part of his campaign.

I can't decide whether this demonstrates lack of knowledge on his part (probably) or even worse, the attitude that "a terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist," resulting in only one answer to terrorism: War. (Remember McCain's musical number "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran"?)

Jed asks, "when John McCain goes to war, would he do it against the right people?"

...Or maybe that's how we ended up fighting a war with Iraq in the first place?

But really though? REALLY?! These people are our elected officials. One is a spokesperson for the current administration and one may be our future president... People, we need to do better than this... we simply NEED TO.

7 comments:

Karma said...

I don't know what scares me more about the second video... the fact that the old man is potentially senile and unclear as to these differences or the fact that it was our pal Joe Lieberman that had to correct him.

Oh how I long for the Ned we never had.

Radical Reminders said...

Karma - so glad you commented because i TOTALLY forgot to mention Lieberman!!! I had this whole witty sentence in my head about him helping out McCain but was so eager to get the post up that i forgot haha - but yea, Lieberman actually went to my high school and i used to be so proud of that.........lol

Karma said...

I was just looking at that first video and realized how phallic missiles really are. I think the osmosis argument carries some weight. I could see Dick Cheney pressing one of those against his forehead in an attempt to get information out of it. Of course I also wonder what would happen if that failed and he tried to waterboard the missile. No such luck eh?

Smirking Cat said...

I'm still making a disgusted face about the missile comment and men picking up info by "osmosis". Oh, the mysterious and inexplicable world outside of baking and shopping! (Sarcasm, yes.) I think this is a dangerously common way of thinking though, that women "naturally" don't know certain things and men "naturally" do.

Anonymous said...

THE DENVER DEATH MATCH !!!

Not since the 1924 Madison Square Gardens
Free-For-ALL thas there been such a
Spectacular Battle Royal!!!

Two Candidates

2047 Delegates

One Nomination

Maximum of One Survivor!

August 24-28*

* Barring Floor Fights, Delegate Fights, Fist Fights, Dog Fights, Cat Fights, and other assorted Fracases. The 1924 Rumble took Two Weeks and 103 Ballots, and who knows how long this one will take. One thing for sure, it will not be like the Liston-Clay Quickie of 1965.

BE THERE !!!

Anonymous said...

I voted for Hillary before i voted against her.

John F. Kerry

Radical Reminders said...

Hi John, Mr. Bundy, Baba Yaga's Husband... nice of you to join us. Hope you enjoy your stay!

(For those of you new to this blog, Mr. Anonymous from Brownsville, TX has been posting ridiculous comments for a few months now... it's quite fun really to see how many times a day he visits my blog...stalker much?)