This is a test, but oh it is such an important one

This is a test, but oh it is such an important one:

 

It matters . . . a great deal, a very great deal, that you scroll over the comments made by U.S. Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, to highlight them, then hit the Ctrl-C on your keyboard, to paste them into a document that can be easily and immediately referenced. The love object of the Tea Party has gotten considerable press as a potential, even likely entrant into the GOP's presidential race to be that party's candidate in 2012.              

 

In January of this year, Minnesota's U.S. Representative spoke to a Republican tax group in Iowa. Among her extraordinarily remarkable remarks were the following: "We also know that the very founders who wrote those documents [the U.S. Constitution] worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States." She added that, "I think it is high time that we recognize the contribution of our forebearers who worked tirelessly -- men like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country." And, not to permit herself to be outdone even by herself, she also said, "It didn't matter the color of their skin [immigrants to the U.S.], it didn't matter their language, it didn't matter their economic status . . .. Once you got here, we were all the same."

 

Last summer I met a fellow who said to me, "I think Sarah Palin is neat."

 

I could only suppose he felt that way because he had been reading the same newspapers and magazines, to, as Katie Couric inquired of Ms. Palin, "stay informed and to understand the world." Which, of course, is to say -- none; which tragically was the only informed reply the Alaskan governor at the time was able to provide the CBS anchor.

 

Insofar as the 2012 contest is concerned, Ms. Palin is out, and has never been in, regardless how the nincompoops in the national media lavish attention on her, regardless how they continue to miss, or dismiss, every important clue that she is out, that she has never, ever been in. The nincompoops in the national media are nincompoops because they are neither serious nor much able concerning their craft, the primary purpose of which ought to be the providing to Americans information that will enable them to make informed citizenship decisions.

 

It ought not to matter excessively how deficient in their jobs may be the cable guys (and gals) who sit behind the national and local news desks. Their amalgamated shortcomings do not let the rest of us off the hook. There are other resources available. There are also a few basic fundamentals of American governance that every American adult should be able to rattle off, and any inability to do so would paint that adult as not at all serious.

 

For example, and perhaps this would prove a good test to employ amongst all our acquaintances: Anyone who can more readily name any three judges who sit on any of the current so-called reality programs -- "Dancing With the Stars," "American Idol," "The Voice," etc. -- than he or she can any three sitting United States Supreme Court justices, seriously has no serious ability to offer a serious opinion on anything in the world that has the least serious import.

 

Such are among us everywhere, as was proven manifest to me last summer. What we need to be able to do, should the name Bachmann arise in a conversation by one who would support her, is to haul out the remarks she made about U.S. history. Once those quotes have been brought forward, we can then inquire of the dolt before us, "Do you really -- like, you know, truly seriously -- want someone that incredibly stupid in charge of the country's nuclear arsenal?"