Brains Are Back!

It is probably not self-deluded drivel to suggest that President Bush is less than a stellar intellect, and there is in my view an apparent bias in Conservative thought towards tribal uniformity and the pre-eminence of symbol over substance; creating the environment where waiving a flag becomes a substitute for any depth of understanding of what the symbolism of flag represents. This is why individuals such a Governor Palin can be taken seriously as national leaders even thought they believe in witches and think dinosaurs and humans co-existed. The reference to the Twin Towers is quite instructive, since there were probably not many Creationists involved in the Manhattan Project. Knowledge is power; power is survival, and ignorance is the end of American civilization. Let the Renaissance begin.

Pragmatism has it's limits in the short term, but ultimately it always wins out. For instance, in the not so distant future when Global Warming reaches such huge dimensions that starvation looms throughout the world, America could sell it's "stupids," as food for a hungry China. Anyway, it's just a thought. Peace. God Bless.

Excellent article Michael! One exception is that comment about Barack making a lot of inexperienced mistakes trying to not be "Ignoramous" Bush. He will not make hasty decisions and will not talk with Ahmadinejad hastily without proper preparation. I too am so happy that intellectuals are back and the fools of faith are once again in their proper place, in the gutter. I can't wait to see real science come back to the White House instead of the faith based industry propaganda that has wrecked our country over the past 8 years.

The first thing we need to do is ban creepy creationism from being taught in science classes. No wonder our kids are so poor at science when this kind of garbage is masqueraded around as if it's science. It's nothing but faith based garbage and deserves to be put into history's garbage bin!

Thank the Good Lord that brains are back!

I am so elated that Brains are back too. The Republicans have always run on fear to get in the White House but I am so glad that the American people finally woke up after 8 years of President Bush. I can honestly say that whenever America has a Republican President; they always trying to continue to uplift the wealthy Americans at the expense of the working class people. I am so glad that we have taken back the White House and looking forward to the leadership of President Obama to do great things for our great nation that we live in.

I would also like to offer one additonal thought of caution for this author and all who feel as he does. You should carefully consider what gave rise, or at least significant ammunition, to the Bush/Neo-con power surge.

The Conservatives expertly played on poor white working class, white middle class and religious people who quietly felt that the Politically Correct (PC) movement went too far in blaming them for all of histories ill's. The Right correctly suggested that the liberal and left-wing intelligencia inappropriately pushed certain values down these peoples throats, fanning the flames of resentment that became solid building blocks for Gingrich era conservatives and the "Republican Revolution".

Obama appears unique, in that he does not condescend the way many traditional liberal intellectuals and Democrat pseudo-intellectuals did during the Clinton Administrations. In my opinion, this author is already dangerously close to steering down that path.

He and you may be well advised to patiently "appreciate" values that you may not prefer, to entertain discussions without condescension, to remember that most people are not intellectuals and that you dont always know what is correct either.

I should check facts before I write anything. It's Richard Hofstadter: Anti-intellectualism In American Life if anyone wants to check it out. Refer to my comment about Nixon. Susan

For what its worth ....the IMF stated that out of all the G7 nations, France , England , Germany , Italy , Canada,
USA and Spain ....the only one out of this bunch that will barely avoid recession is Canada. The IMF forecasts Canada will enjoy just under 1% GDP growth in 2009 and there was a modest job growth last month in this country of 9,500 jobs.
There is no multi-billion dollar bailout required for any private corporation or financial institution up here in Canada , taxes are holding steady , nobody is losing their home , mortgage payments are being met...this place must be doing something right. Hey there " Joe The Plumber " , if you feel like moving to Canada you're more than welcome.

WOW. I almost believe that I wrote this article. I have been saying such for a long time now. I am glad that stupidity is not a virtue any more in this administration.

We can only hope that that the days of reactionary ???gut driven fist swinging
quasi-colloquial tainted political figures are over! RIP to these anti-intellectual
religious dogma fanatics!

No matter what nation that extols extremism the results are the same???
war, anarchy, intolerance- the quality of life is lost!
We as a nation have 8 years of scares to prove it!

Thank you Bill. A bit of a senior moment for the details. Wrote the comment without fact checking. Do remember the feeling I had of disgust for Hruska and Nixon.

Besides the TransCanada pipeline project refeered to by another blogger, there is so much more that Canada has contributed, and can still contribute, to Obama's new vision for cooperative (coopetitive?) trade, finance, industrial development, and foreign relations policies. When I was a student in Canada in the 1970's, Canada had contributed the all-important robotic arm part of the spatial vehicle that first landed on the moon; many of America's finest intellectuals and Nobel prize winners are born-Canadians; Canada's highly-enlightened muticulturalism could offer a lot to refine America's own quite inclusive but recently-badly-battered multiculturalism, and Canada's highly-respected 'soft-power' approach to international relations could be the perfect template on which to model America's new foreign realtions policy, albeit with a significantly heavier dose of muscular potential -- a muscular potential that, in typical Canadian refinement, is not showy.

Hurray for the return of brain in replacement of brawn.