I am still wiping the tears from my eyes ten minutes after reading the Ballad of Dumb George... thank you for the link!

In response to the following preface and the article “The Ballad of Dumb George” which echoes the same sentiment.

“I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Stupid collapsed on itself so far that even the neutrons have collapsed. Stupid gotten so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid. Blazing hot mid-day sun on Mercury stupid. You emit more stupid in one second than our entire galaxy emits in a year. Quasar stupid.”

Norm, this post of yours bothers me. Not because it highlights some of George’s more bumbling and inarticulate moments as commander in chief. From six years of his presidency, I’ve gathered that his performance at the podium is less than eloquent and can be downright laughable. Fine. Every President has fumbled with their choice of words at one time and this president may have more than his fair share of oratorical gaffs. This does not however make him stupid. Based on the footage available to the public, George’s behavior at the G8 is embarrassing to me personally. He was certainly undignified at moments. But I find this business of labeling him stupid disturbing. It is an easy way out of an argument. An argument easily won by exposing the harmful and unlawful nature of many of Bush’s policies. Calling him stupid and various derivations of stupid is a cop out. This whole article reeks of the faulty logic: “Bush is so stupid because he is stupid”. Make an argument without resorting to ad hominum attacks. Doing the latter only gives credence to the phrase, “Mindless Liberal.”

re: Tesla Roadster Wow, That's very cool. Looks like a Ferrari or something. $80K is out of most folks price range however. I figure you save about $10,000 on fuel over 100,0000 miles. I wonder what it costs to replace all your batteries at that point (that's the lifetime someone quoted in comments). My guess is 2 or 3 times the $10k you saved. That will surely come down with time. EVs are getting more & more practical!

You're right bumbling words does not make one stupid, a facility with the language is not the only measure of intelligence, but it is one. In George's case I think there are probably some neurological reasons he so often mis-speaks. Certainly he may be thinking clearly and the words just get tangled up which is not the same as a lack of understanding. The thoughts may be articulate while the speech is not. But that is not what the article does it points not only to his lack of verbal skills but to his lack of social skills. Should a world leader treat other world leaders as if they're inferior when it is obvious their mental equipment is if not superior clearly equal to his. It is said that George is a nice fellow, a people person, but then why would he commit such a social gaffe as rubbing Angela Merkel's shoulders. He also demonstrates a lack of knowledge of geography as well as other obvious shortcomings. These are not the traits one associates with a world leader. The ad hominem argument is an interesting one, ad hominem, attack against the person, to be distinguished from the ad hominem fallacy. There is nothing wrong with attacking the person, that is it is not fallacious reasoning unless you're saying don't listen to what he says because he's stupid. If you present evidence that he is stupid it is okay to also call him stupid, though you might not want to because someone will accuse you of just name calling when what you've done is present evidence that confirms that he is indeed too stupid to be president. If this were the only criticism of Bush on this site. If indeed I had not presented extensive evidence of his stupidity on numerous occasions , I might agree, but I have.

Just got back from the future, the outlook isn't good. Here's a quote to sum it up:

"What happened between 1980 and 2010? While pacifists sat back and did nothing, fascists took over the world."

-- Z. Rem, 7/22/06

That cars looks pretty nice.

But here's something you should know: electric cars pollute almost as much as gasoline cars. That's because the electricity on power grids these days comes mostly from gasoline and coal. So it's the same, only there is an intermediary between the burning of the fuel and the use of the power.

Biodiesel, vegetable oil and hydrogen are all much better bets.

That link by the way is to a site that teaches you how to save money on gas if you have a diesel car, by using vegetable oil instead! If you're more of an entrepeneur, it also teaches how to make biodiesel at home!