It was with considerable amusement that I read today a report from the Boston Globe that John Kerry (yes that one) is in fact really, really stupid
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Just thought I'd point out that grades do not necessarily correlate with intelligence or brilliance.
Not that I'm a big fan of Kerry in any case (I wasn't, and I'm not).
On a different tangent, what're your thoughts on the marijuana ruling? I'm a bit confused by it. How can the state law legalizing medical marijuana still stand while still allowing federal prosecution for cases? I'm not even sure where the fed. get's its "right" from anyway (I guess some convolution of its ability to control interstate commerce - but the case in question was about home-grown marijuana plants). It seems like a legally confused ruling.
Well my understanding of the federal ruling was that they claimed it affected interstate commerce given that marijuana has a major albeit illegal trade
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1) I just wanted to put that out there, and I wanted to gloat. 2) For the reasons stated above and numerous other times, and other reasons, I do not think that Bush is at all dumb in respect to the kind of intelligence I want my leaders to have. In fact, I think he actually has a high degree of intelligence in those areas. I only wanted to point out that the claim that John Kerry is a pure intellectual is obviously flawed and ridiculous.
According to the AP, Kerry maintained a higher scholastic average overall at Yale. Not that it matters that much.
Now you may object saying Bush got in with connections only, but besides for the obvious absurdity of this argument given Bush came from a conservative family at a time of extraordinary hatred of conservatives by academia
Academia is seperate from admissions departments. They are more concerned with who can give money to the school down the road. If the grades are adequate, politics don't factor in.
George W. Bush displays far greater wisdom by being able to condense difficult topics into simple, readily comprehensible statements rather than idiotic and lengthy ramblings.No. You need sound bytes to be effective in the world, and Bush can't even pull that off with his rambling, stupid justifications at press conferences. Nuance and interconnectedness is how the world works and at least Kerry acknoledged that. I think Bush is smarter than he comes off (or he at least has the brains to listen to people like Karl
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OK, well first off, the official record states that Kerry's average was a 76 and Bush's was a 77. That gives Bush a higher number. Now, granted, in Bush's final year, they did not use the percentage grading system so it isn't a pure equivalency, but given that Bush did not get any D's in that time frame, it is unlikely that he actually did get much of a lower grade in that final year. The Boston Globe and the official record plain and simple go along with what I have
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More Americans have died fighting in the Iraqi war than on September 11th. Several times over. Tell the mother of the kid who signed up for the military because he didn't have any other options that he died for a just cause. Furthermore, tell that to the mother of a solider killed by friendly fire. Americans are dying in Iraq that don't have to be, and if the President so concerned with American life and well being, as he has made clear on numerous occasions, than that should be his first prioroty.
Furthermore, even more Iraqi civilians than Americans have died in the war, incinerated by bombs, caught in crossfire.
And tell the prisoners abused by American soliders, who tortured them naked, and now it has come out, misued the Koran, that America has their well-being at heart. In order to match the "with-us-or-against us/kill the terrorist" rhetoric with the ideals of liberty and compassion that the US stands for there needs to be nuance. This absence of nuance opens the door for gross indecencies like the prisoner abuse.
First of all, you might want to check where you get your facts from because a simple Google search for me found that September 11th deaths were 2792 whereas American deaths in Iraq are 1848. So actually, September 11th resulted in 1.5 times as many fatalities, so you aren't even close unless an additional 900 deaths occurred since May 31, which have not
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I am not going to comment on the Bush vs. Kerry thing except to say the article gave me a good laugh. As far as the medical marijuana thing, do you know where one could find the actual decisions? My first guess when I read the article about it was that they used interstate travel, as you mentioned but I agree it is definetly a state's right or at worst a legislative branch issue.
I imagine that you can find the full opinion at the Supreme Court website. If not, just search it, but I'm pretty sure that it was interstate commerce on the grounds that there is an interstate net of regulations, which seems pretty dubious to me.
I never really thought either candidate as particularly smart, at least academically. And, honestly, I really didn't care. I know people that could run rings around both of them, combined, when it comes to foreign policy, science, or math. The idea is to put them in the cabinet.
What we need(ed) in a leader was the ability to carefully weigh options from experts and to exhibit good leadership.
For my money, Kerry had a more nuanced view of the effects of policy decisions (particularly foreign policy), so he would have been better at that, but I'm sure you'll disagree in that regard.
For the sake of brevity, see above response to the nuanced point. Also, I tend to agree that neither (in fact most presidents) were super smart. I think that Bush had the right kind of "intelligence" for the job, and I think that the greatest strength a president can have is knowing good, smart people to pursue a relatively simple and coherent agenda.
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Just thought I'd point out that grades do not necessarily correlate with intelligence or brilliance.
Not that I'm a big fan of Kerry in any case (I wasn't, and I'm not).
On a different tangent, what're your thoughts on the marijuana ruling? I'm a bit confused by it. How can the state law legalizing medical marijuana still stand while still allowing federal prosecution for cases? I'm not even sure where the fed. get's its "right" from anyway (I guess some convolution of its ability to control interstate commerce - but the case in question was about home-grown marijuana plants). It seems like a legally confused ruling.
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2) wow, our country is really dumb if neither of our main presidential candidates was smarter than Bush (on your analysis of it)
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2) For the reasons stated above and numerous other times, and other reasons, I do not think that Bush is at all dumb in respect to the kind of intelligence I want my leaders to have. In fact, I think he actually has a high degree of intelligence in those areas. I only wanted to point out that the claim that John Kerry is a pure intellectual is obviously flawed and ridiculous.
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Now you may object saying Bush got in with connections only, but besides for the obvious absurdity of this argument given Bush came from a conservative family at a time of extraordinary hatred of conservatives by academia
Academia is seperate from admissions departments. They are more concerned with who can give money to the school down the road. If the grades are adequate, politics don't factor in.
George W. Bush displays far greater wisdom by being able to condense difficult topics into simple, readily comprehensible statements rather than idiotic and lengthy ramblings.No. You need sound bytes to be effective in the world, and Bush can't even pull that off with his rambling, stupid justifications at press conferences. Nuance and interconnectedness is how the world works and at least Kerry acknoledged that. I think Bush is smarter than he comes off (or he at least has the brains to listen to people like Karl ( ... )
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Furthermore, even more Iraqi civilians than Americans have died in the war, incinerated by bombs, caught in crossfire.
And tell the prisoners abused by American soliders, who tortured them naked, and now it has come out, misued the Koran, that America has their well-being at heart. In order to match the "with-us-or-against us/kill the terrorist" rhetoric with the ideals of liberty and compassion that the US stands for there needs to be nuance. This absence of nuance opens the door for gross indecencies like the prisoner abuse.
Reply
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I never really thought either candidate as particularly smart, at least academically. And, honestly, I really didn't care. I know people that could run rings around both of them, combined, when it comes to foreign policy, science, or math. The idea is to put them in the cabinet.
What we need(ed) in a leader was the ability to carefully weigh options from experts and to exhibit good leadership.
For my money, Kerry had a more nuanced view of the effects of policy decisions (particularly foreign policy), so he would have been better at that, but I'm sure you'll disagree in that regard.
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