Land of the free, home of the brave, sanctuary of the stupid.

There is a commonly quoted corporate aphorism -- and by the way, I hate corporate aphorisms -- that goes to the tune of something like this:

"Always aspire to be the dumbest person in the room."

It's meant to encourage listening. It's a way of promoting humility. It's a subtle way of suggesting that you surround yourself with people smarter than yourself. I don't want to sound immodest, but that is becoming increasingly difficult.

Now, I try not to let mass media and social media shape my perceptions of this world. That's an uphill battle to be sure. But it's also hard to look the other way when man (or woman) on the street interviews go like this...


INTERVIEWER: Who won the Civil War?

MAN #1: We did.

WOMAN #1: The British.

MAN #2: The Nazis?

WOMAN #2: The Civil War? Is that the one with George Washington?


Who are these people?

Did they go to the same schools I did?

Are they topping off their coffee with turpentine and RoundUp?

And by the way, this stupefaction cuts across both sides of the aisle. I've seen conservatives who couldn't locate North Korea on a map. And liberals who couldn't locate South Korea even after spotting them the whereabouts of North Korea.

Moreover, this appalling lack of education has little to do with...wait for it...education.

Not long ago, I saw a student on the street interviewing session conducted at UCLA. Full disclosure, neither of my daughters were accepted at the UC schools which would have saved me considerable money. Presumably, my kids didn't meet the high scholastic standards upheld by the great state of California.


INTERVIEWER: How many Muslim countries are there in the Middle East?

STUDENT #1: Three.

STUDENT #2: Twenty seven.

STUDENT #3: Fifty Five.

INTERVIEWER: And how many Jewish countries are there in the Middle East?

STUDENT #4: Six.

STUDENT #2: Eight.

STUDENT #3: Twenty Two?


I've made no secret of my loathing and lava-hot disdain for Precedent Shitgibbon, a twatwaffle who doesn't read books, who has no sense of history, and all the intellectual curiosity of a driving range golfball.

He is monumentally unfit to be our president.

But considering our collective laziness, our apathy, our proven stupidity and our one dimensional jingoism, maybe he is the president we deserve.