If you are looking for profound, soul-crushing stupidity, you need look no further than elected officials. Take, for example Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tx) asked in 1997 if the Mars pathfinder would photograph the flag planted by Neil Armstrong (guess what… she was on the House Science Committee at the time). Or take Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who in 2008 suggested that adding 8,000 US Navy sailors to Guam would cause the island to capsize and sink. Add to this list on monumental stupidity one Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), who suggested, in all apparent seriousness, that the biggest problem in Brooklyn of 1898 was all the Dutch people owning slaves. This was on the Colbert Report last night; while I was working on Dyna Soar models at the time, I caught that little news snippet in the background and was rather dumbfounded. Even Colbert seemed astonished, and gave her an opportunity to revise her remarks… and she just dug right on in.
These are the idiots who want to control the economy and healthcare system.