Obama's Ignorance Is Showing (Once Again)

Obama Demonstrates History Impairment with 'Flat Earth' Remark

March 15, 2012
COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama, speaking to an audience at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Md., compared Republicans who look askance at his alternative energy schemes to people who believe that Earth is flat, according to Politico.

In so doing, Obama demonstrated a certain ignorance of history.

"If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the Flat Earth Society," he said. "They would not have believed that the world was round."

Actually, in 1492, the round Earth was an accepted fact and had been since the time of Aristotle,according to an education page maintained by NASA. People who opposed Columbus did so because they thought he had underestimated the size of the Earth, meaning that his fleet would not have reached Asia before running out of provisions. It turned out, those people were right. However, the Americas happened to be in the way between Europe and Asia.

One has to wonder at the value of the education Obama got at Columbia if he adheres to that common misconception. Or perhaps one should not be surprised since, according to a story in the New York Sun, a study conducted by Intercollegiate Studies Institute found that students at Ivy League institutions of learning score low on exams testing history knowledge.

One also wonders what other things the president knows that aren't so.

Obama also mischaracterized the nature of the opposition to his green-energy schemes. Most Republicans do not object to alternate-energy research. They do object to the president's war on fossil fuels that provide the bulk of America's energy needs in the year 2012.

Newt Gingrich, for example, suggests opening up land and offshore leases for oil and gas development and using the royalties paid to the government to finance alternate energy research.

The "they laughed at Columbus" is an interesting gambit. However all has to do is to respond, "They laughed at Donald Duck as well."

Obama demonstrated an off putting quality of intellectual arrogance that is not backed up by an intellect. Before he makes another faulty historical analogy, he would be advised to take a remedial course in history.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-demonstrates-history-impairment-flat-earth-remark-234300115.html

 

Santorum is trying to out do Palin in the ignorance department.

Really Ricky? Which federal law would that be anyway?

(CNN) -- Rick Santorum's contention that in order for Puerto Rico to become a state English must be its principal language drew criticism Thursday from the U.S. territory's sole representative in Congress.
"Santorum's view is narrow and a limiting view of what America is all about," said Pedro Pierluisi, a Democrat, on CNN's "Starting Point." "English is the predominant language in the U.S. and will continue to be so, whether Puerto Rico becomes a state or not."
Puerto Rico will vote in November on a referendum regarding possible statehood.
While campaigning Wednesday ahead of the island's primary on Sunday, Santorum told a newspaper that for Puerto Rico to become "a state of the United States, English must be the principal language."
There is currently no law declaring an official language of the United States, though several attempts have been made to give English that designation. Thirty-one states have passed laws mandating English as their official language. The Constitution also makes no mention of a language test for territories or properties that wish to become states.

Santorum was spending a second day in Puerto Rico on Thursday, courting voters ahead of the primary.
Asked about his comments on Thursday, Santorum told CNN, "English has to be learned as a language. It has to be a country where English is widely spoken and used. Yes."
Asked if it should be a requirement for the territory to become a state, Santorum said, "I think English and Spanish. Obviously Spanish will be spoken here on the island. But this needs to be a bilingual country, not just a Spanish-speaking country. Right now it is overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking but it needs to have, in order for it to integrate into American society, English has to be a language that is spoken here also and spoken universally."
Mitt Romney is expected to win Puerto Rico's primary. He is scheduled to campaign on the island starting Friday. Republican Gov. Luis Fortuno endorsed Romney in January.
Romney's campaign issued a statement on Thursday contrasting his position on the issue with Santorum's.
"Puerto Rico currently recognizes both English and Spanish as the official languages of the commonwealth," said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul. "Governor Romney believes that English is the language of opportunity and supports efforts to expand English proficiency in Puerto Rico and across America. However, he would not, as a prerequisite for statehood, require that the people of Puerto Rico cease using Spanish."
The primary in Puerto Rico comes two days before a showdown in Illinois, where polls show a tight race between Romney and Santorum.
One of Santorum's delegates withdrew his support for the former Pennsylvania senator over the language matter, according to a local report. The Vocero newspaper reported that Hector Perez said he is no longer committed to Santorum. The party chair told the paper that one of the alternate delegates submitted by Santorum's campaign would fill the spot.
Santorum's campaign was re-energized after key primary victories in the South that raised questions about conservative rival Newt Gingrich's viability as a candidate and portended a long battle with frontrunner Romney.
Romney, rejected again by Southern conservatives in the Tuesday primaries in Mississippi and Alabama, won caucuses in Hawaii and American Samoa to claim about a third of the total delegates available and maintain his delegate lead.
However, Santorum's twin primary triumphs -- while narrow -- reframed the GOP race as a one-on-one battle between the socially conservative former Pennsylvania senator and the more moderate Romney, with Gingrich's chances fading fast.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian champion, continued to trail well behind the other three candidates in the campaign to face President Barack Obama in November.
"There is no end in sight," noted Ari Fleischer, a CNN contributor who was White House press secretary under President George W. Bush. "... For Republicans who thought that maybe Mitt Romney could come South and make this race look like it was coming to an end, this race is going on and on and on."
Delegate tracker: Who's got what
The Alabama and Mississippi victories give Santorum wins in 10 states so far to Romney's 18, and he poked at the frontrunner on Wednesday as he reiterated his stance that he is the viable conservative alternative to the former Massachusetts governor.
"It's pretty sad when all you have is to do math instead of trying to go out there and win it on substance and win it on what Americans want to hear about," Santorum told CNN in reference to Romney's claim of an insurmountable lead in delegates. "We're a long, long way from over."
Romney, meanwhile, seemed to get the message from frustrated supporters who asked him to turn away from delegate math, stop arguing about electability and stop attacking Santorum and instead focus on making a stronger case on why he deserves to be president.
"Look, I'm perfectly pleased with the process we have," Romney said Thursday on Fox News, acknowledging that his competitors are "tough" and "capable."
Illinois and its 66 delegates once looked safe for Romney, but recent polls show it could go either way.
After a stop in Missouri, Santorum has two events planned Friday in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He's also getting help in the form of a $310,000 purchase in Illinois from the Red, White and Blue Fund -- a super PAC that has been supportive of his candidacy.
Romney is bringing in New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to campaign for him in the state on Friday.
Christie, who's popular with Republicans across the country for his tough talk and tough actions in taking on Democrats in New Jersey, disappointed many in his party last October when he announced he would not launch his own presidential bid. Instead he endorsed Romney and has traveled to a number of primary and caucus states to stump for him, including Iowa.
Gingrich, who based his campaign on a Southern strategy after winning South Carolina and Georgia, appeared to be in major trouble after losing both Dixie primaries Tuesday. And he'll be in the South again Friday, as he's scheduled to make several stops in Louisiana.
"The fact is that in both states, the conservative candidates got nearly 70% of the vote, and if you're the front-runner and you keep coming in third, you're not much of a frontrunner," Gingrich said of Romney's performance in Mississippi and Alabama.
Citing what he called Romney's vulnerabilities on health care reform, Gingrich said he doesn't "believe that a Massachusetts moderate who created Romneycare as the forerunner of Obamneycare is going to be in a position to win any debates this fall," and that is part of the reason he's "insisted in staying in this race."
Calls for Gingrich to drop out and unite conservative support for Santorum have gotten louder since Tuesday, but Gingrich argues that none of the candidates are likely to reach the 1,144 delegates necessary to clinch the nomination before May or June at the earliest, and probably not until the August convention.
Santorum and Romney are expected to split the next few contests on the calendar. After Puerto Rico and Illinois, Santorum is expected to win in Louisiana a week from Saturday.
Then the race turns north and eastward -- the District of Columbia, Maryland and Wisconsin vote on April 3 and Romney is the early favorite. But that's three weeks away and much has changed in such a span in the most volatile Republican race in generations.

 

Obama cares not for the truth nor does he care about what is best for this nation. He insults a large percentage of the citizens of this nation on a constant basis as he destorys our economy and appologizes or offers billion dollar assistance formats to any mulsim nation that pops up as a topic of discussion for that day.

 

Funny, our economy is recovering from the ravages of the Bush Administration under Obama and yet you see Obama as destroying it somehow. I have an idea, vote for the wealthy guy paying less that 15% taxes with the off-shore money accounts and the record of destroying companies for profit.
Why do you hate Muslims Andy?

 

Not only that but why is he seemingly so supportive of the idea of nuking them out of existence? I despise Islam only marginally more than I despise Christianity, but I don't feel the need to kill Muslims or Christians. They don't need much help in that regard anyway. All I'd like is for them to do is mind their own business. Barring that I'll just try to stay out of the crossfire.

 

You both should be more concerned then I for one of the things an islamic nation does is kill off the liberals, put women as property of men-hey rape her then have her marry you-allah be praised, and independents should worry for there is no freedom of thought only what you told to think and the conservatives who love religion will just adapt to a new one, no big deal after a few generations.

and you think it can not happen here. In England you can wear islamic garb but you can be fired if you wear a cross at a job that has islamic majority share holders.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/rel...ht-to-wear-cross-at-work-says-Government.html

 

Obama shows his ignorance once again. Perhaps it's best if he just shuts up if he can't get his facts straight:

Obama Crack About Former President May Not Line Up With the Facts

As a sitting president, you better make sure you have the facts straight before taking a jab at one of your predecessors. During the same speech on energy policy where the president speculated that his political opponents would have been "founding members of the Flat Earth Society" during the time of Columbus, Barack Obama made a comment about the 19th president that doesn't ring true when run through the fact checker:

"There always have been folks who are the naysayers and don't believe in the future, and don't believe in trying to do things differently. One of my predecessors, Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone, 'It's a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?' That's why he's not on Mount Rushmore -- because he's looking backwards. He's not looking forwards. He's explaining why we can't do something, instead of why we can do something."​

While the quote President Obama used does exist on the Internet, historians say the notion is inaccurate and would equate the White House's research to citing Wikipedia.

Ari Hoogenboom, who wrote the definite biography, “Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President,” told The Washington Post that Hayes entertained Thomas A. Edison at the White House and "was hardly hostile to new inventions." The Post notes that the gaffe was not even ad-libbed but in the president's prepared text.

Stephen A. Hayes, a great-great-grandson of the former president and chairman of the board of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio, tells The Toledo Blade that Hayes was such a technology buff that he had the White House's first telephone installed.

"A misconception has persisted for many years concerning President Rutherford B. Hayes and the introduction of the technology of the telephone. The source of this false impression is unknown," Mr. Hayes said.

The Blade reports that Hayes's phone number, as listed in the National Telephonic Exchange, was a single digit: 1.
When asked by the Post, White House spokesman Jay Carney pointed to “multiple media references,” as well as an Encyclopaedia Britannica reference and even a previous comment by President Ronald Reagan to defend his boss's flub.

“I’m not arguing that this is not in dispute, but the quote is widely cited,” Carney said.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-crack-former-president-may-not-line-facts-030101157.html

 

We already have Republicans doing those things. Your paranoia seems to be fixated on Muslims. Have you been listening to Glenn Beck again?

 

What does Glenn Beck have against Muslims?

 

Wouldn't it be sweet to put both groups in a large walled in arena and toss in a couple of weapons. The IQ of the entire planet would suddenly skyrocket.

 

I'll let Mr. Caliphate speak for himself. Remember to show the proper amount of fear...

 

Why if someone is just saying what is happening they are the bad guy.

 

Don't turn a blind eye to what is happening in the Middle East. That still doesn't explain why you think Glenn Beck has something against Muslims.

 

So, is it that either you and/or Glenn Beck is "just saying what is happening"? Why should anyone believe either of you when you guys offer no proof, Beck fear mongers constantly, and you have nothing but a weird conspiracy theory supporting your nonsense?

Do you believe those nuts that say the world is coming to an end too? For some strange reason, the world always seems to go on and they always seem to get wealthy. Beck is getting wealthy saying the same type of things. You haven't figured out that the game yet Andy?

Andy, you're probably a nice guy to sit down and have a beer with but I doubt anyone would profit from the experience of sitting down and discussing a wide range of intellectual topics with you. I don't know how to be more honest or say that any nicer.

 

Yeah, I am sure you could have a more intelligent conversation with the people responsibile for the actions listed below that is if they drank beer. You can discuss the Koran with them.
Sura (8:12) - I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them
Sura (8:55) - Surely the vilest of animals in Allah's sight are those who disbelieve

2012.03.04 Nigeria Benue 21 dead 13 wounded - Women and children comprise the bulk of twenty-one members of a Christian farming community slaughtered by Fulani 'mercenaries' wielding machetes and burning homes.

2012.03.06 Iraq Baghdad 56 dead - A Shiite militia executes at least fifty-six suspected homosexuals over a 30 day period, some by stoning.

The two listed above were from a very long list of acts of terrorism during the month of March. Just took two that caught my eye.
The verses are just two lines from an entire book filled with hatred. It is safe to keep ones head in the sand and feel morally superior to those who see the pools of blood spilled upon the soil by the jihaid sword of islam which is in the saudi flag by the way.

 

Honestly Andy, why should I care what one group of religious extremists, halfway around the world, in war torn countries, do to each other? If I had my way, nobody would kill anyone for religiously motivated reasons. Unfortunately, nobody asks me what I think before they kill each other in the name of God, Allah, etc.

So that leaves the religious extremists in my own backyard that I should be concerned about. And who might they be? But these are justified right Andy? Just like the murders halfway around the world, they are ALL justified somehow. At least you don't have to wonder why I respect atheists so much.

Murders

In the U.S., violence directed towards abortion providers has killed at least eight people, including four doctors, two clinic employees, a security guard, and a clinic escort.

• March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn of Pensacola, Florida was fatally shot during a protest. He had been the subject of wanted-style posters distributed by Operation Rescue in the summer of 1992. Michael F. Griffin was found guilty of Gunn's murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
• July 29, 1994: Dr. John Britton and James Barrett, a clinic escort, were both shot to death outside another facility, the Ladies Center, in Pensacola. Rev. Paul Jennings Hill was charged with the killings. Hill received a death sentence and was executed on September 3, 2003. The clinic in Pensacola had been bombed before and was also bombed subsequently, in 1984 and 2012.
• December 30, 1994: Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, were killed in two clinic attacks in Brookline, Massachusetts. John Salvi was arrested and confessed to the killings. He died in prison and guards found his body under his bed with a plastic garbage bag tied around his head. Salvi had also confessed to a non-lethal attack in Norfolk, Virginia days before the Brookline killings.
• January 29, 1998: Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, was killed when his workplace was bombed. Eric Robert Rudolph, who was also responsible for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, was charged with the crime and received two life sentences as a result.
• October 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot to death with a high-powered rifle at his home in Amherst, New York. His was the last in a series of similar shootings against providers in Canada and northern New York state which were all likely committed by James Kopp. Kopp was convicted of Slepian's murder after finally being apprehended in France in 2001.
• May 31, 2009: Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed by Scott Roeder as Tiller served as an usher at church in Wichita, Kansas.

 

Really, moen? Andy lists 77 killed in 3 days and you compare that to 6 killed in 20 years? That is almost as bad as comparing WWII to the Waco Massacre.

 

Only a RW'er would look at the numbers killed and find them acceptable. Unreal! As far as Waco goes, it was a siege not a massacre. Massacre implies that one side was just innocent victims. Four ATF agents died serving a warrant. 50 days later, after they were given countless chances to surrender, they chose to die instead. I can't think of too many massacres that were so entirely self-inflicted since Jones Town. You buy into the RW'er fantasy of the Branch Dividians as heroes but they were a cult and heavily armed. You don't get to own machine guns in this country even if God says it's OK. Sorry, that is just the law.

BTW I won't bother acknowledging anymore of your nonsense. You are just an angry that just likes making people as miserable as you are.

 

Wow, with personal attacks like this, I'm guessing the only reason you're allowed to stay on this forum is because you must donate some of your "hard earned" money to the site. The only reason you don't like what RLM has to say is due to the fact that the truth sometimes hurts and goes against what you want to believe. I know you're going to give some sort of snide, insipid retort to this comment, but I doubt I'll find time to read it. I have more important things to do than to deal with ignorant liberals.

 

So what do you propose to do about this? How do we defend America from these horrors? Sounds like we could be in trouble unless we act fast.