Bobby Jindal thinks you're an idiot!

I can think of no other rational explanation for his Kenneth the Page-esque performance [this is where I admit to only seeing "highlights" and not the whole, excruciating affair] in his absolutely bizarre tele-prompter-reading "performance" the other night.

Or, more to the point, The Republicans think we're all idiots...

"Golly gee, $140 million for something called 'volcano monitoring.' Who ever heard of such a thing."

Okay, I was a geology/geophysics major in college, I gave a talk on volcanic hazards once. Did you know Timberline ski area on Mt Hood is built on pyroclastic flow deposits? And that pointy thing at the top is a lava plug that let loose once and laid down said deposit? In fact, Portland is built upon an old volcanic field Did you know that a lahar off Mt Rainier could wipe out not just Orting and Enumclaw but Puyallup, Tacoma, Kent, aubrun, et. al. And it wouldn't take an explosive eruption to trigger such an event? Do you know what a pyroclastic flow and lahar even are? Oh, yeah, and, you know, that thing called Mt. St. Helens? did you know the CVO even existed? How about the AVO? Did you know that volcanic ash clouds present a severe hazard to aviation? You know, you can go to Hawaii (the big Island) and see an ACTUAL VOLCANO which has been spewing lava for over 20 years, and there are people that monitor it? WOW! I wonder where they get their money?!

Bobby Jindal doesn't know this. And who knows if the people who wrote the words on Bobby Jindal's TelePrompTer do or not, but that's not the point. They figure you don't, and it sounds kooky, so they run with it.

Then there's 8 billion for MagLev trains. Places like Germany and Japan and China have these things called high-speed trains to help people get around between major urban centers along heavily traveled corridors. MagLev is a technology that is currently being developed to run these trains, with projects being developed around the world. It also so happens that Los Angeles and Las Vegas is the type of corridor that a MagLev, high-speed train would be perfect for.

Bobby Jindal doesn't know this. And who knows if the people who wrote the words on Bobby Jindal's TelePrompTer do or not, but that's not the point. They figure you don't, and it sounds kooky, so they run with it.

When I think about the amount of the US treasury squandered on a quixotic quest in Iraq, and then ponder that people like Bobby Jindal think its stupid to spend money domestically, it makes me want to throw things and curse loudly. Bobby Jindal and friends want to appeal to a lower common denominator, because it works. they think we're stupid because we ARE stupid!

The de-valuation of intellect in this country is reaching appalling levels. I thought it apexed with the Sarah Palin experiment, and the resulting election was largely a referendum on that, but as we can all see, it ain't going away anytime soon.

PS: I read in Sci-Am recently, on the subject of storing and delivering "renewable" power:
"Intermittent sources are less troublesome if they feed a bigger grid; a region with 100 scattered installations of wind and solar could count on some average level of input. But the existing grid cannot handle build power transfers over huge distances. a solution could be a new high-voltage "backbone," akin to an interstate highway system for the grid, according to the DoE last year. It would comprise about 19,000 miles of transmission, with 130-foot towers, at $2.6 million a mile. Voltage would be pushed up to 765,000 volts to educe line losses. no new technology is involved, but the system requires two things that the U.S. does not now have: a national commitment to integrating the electricity system on a continental scale and about $60 billion to pay for it."

I'm not saying $60 billion isn't a lot of money -- it certainly is, but CitiGroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo each received $25 billion in TARP money so far....