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Ignorance is not good enough . Its a poor excuse for being a couch potato with your brain. The brain is a pretty big chunk of muscle, and if not used tends to waste away. I bring this up because I've noticed a disturbing agenda creeping into the Republican manifesto of late.  Apparently, education, and basic research are not important components of our economy, but i guess they wouldn't be if one felt the only book that was necessary for us all is the bible?? This is so wrong and shortsided in so many ways, i can't cover them all here, so lets just take one example.      First, the candidate presenting this point of view has obviously never taken a basic economics class in school. One fundamental principle of economics is investing in human capitol to increase average labor productivity, which increases the GDP (Gross domestic product), which increases everyones standard of living. Education is a long term commitment, and produces results, as well as allowing people to live more fulfilling and enriched lives. It is vital that we give our children (our future) all the resources and tools necessary to be able to compete in a growing global environment.      The only way our economy will remain competitive in the coming years is by developing new ideas into new technologies which will increase productivity as well as help solve our planets climate crisis. Of course , new ideas come from encouraging people to use their imaginations, thinking openly and freely about things in a positive environment. This is how we've always moved forward, we dream, then we act on our dreams, and they become reality.  It doesn't take a great scholar, or genius to see how this ties together. Not only is it common sense, but is generally good for all of us. Education is the great equalizer, and sometimes the only valid path for improving ones life. A brilliant mind can appear anywhere, at any time, and one person's ideas can make a huge difference in billions of lives on our planet. This has been shown time and time again throughout history, with the most famous and arguably most recent being Einstein. Imagine if his parents locked him up in some fundamentalist church most of his life, where free thought is considered a sin, and obeying is a virtue.     Obeying what?? Are we all supposed to sit around and wait for the end of time? I've grown tired of being polite to these people. They are charlatans, frauds, and freaks , people who live miserable lives, and try to project it onto the rest of us. Is it acceptable that a modern church still believes in witches and witch hunts?? What good can possibly come from someone's mind who is living every day, waiting for the end of times, and if the opportunity arose, might the temptation to give it a little nudge be overwhelming for some? If that belief system was my entire life, I'd want to "git er done" myself. No wonder they want those end of times to get here so quickly. They are living in a stew of paranoia, suspicion, rules and regulations, traditions handed down from the middle ages, and to top it off, obedience to some entity they've never seen nor heard from, oh but he's there, and he's watching, and judging, and you might be next , so you better fear, and pray a little harder.     Ok, I went off there, my apologies. I'm trying to learn how to write effectively, and I've just broken a basic principle , the "Kiss" rule ( Keep it Simple Stupid).There has been some very constructive advice on this site, and i appreciate people taking the time to explain things, as well as pointers, and tips. I think writing is a fascinating  skill, and I love the thrill of discovering a new writer who nails it.  As in teaching, a good writer can take any subject and make it fascinating. Web sites like this one are very interesting to me, as it gives me a chance to experience many different styles of writing as well as opinions. I've had people write so well, thats its caused me to change my mind on a particular issue. It is a talent and art form that I would love to learn, but I am a baby yet, so please forgive some of these early efforts.      To conclude my meandering piece here, my point is that one of the basic tenets of our democracy is the atmosphere, environment, and encouragement of free thought it provides. From this freedom of thought comes ideas, and from these ideas come realities. The beauty of it is that ideas are self regulating in that only the good ones are filtered out eventually and move forward into practical use. One basic area of human study that is very conducive to this kind of thinking is Science. for any idea in Science to even come close to being considered even a theory, it must go through test after test , or shall i sat attack after attack of other scientiests trying to discredit or disprove the idea. This method of free thought, dreams, and imagination, developing into ideas, possibilites, and theories, finally taking the theories and turning them into realities is what has kept human beings and society moving forward and improving our standard of living for hundreds of years now. When humans set their collective minds to something, it has a way of becoming a reality, and there is no problem we cant face and solve today, as long as we are allowed to think freely and openly and take  the collective knowledge from our past and use this to jump into the future. It takes one step to reach the next, to reach the next and so on.     This ( and here folks is the point of my whole paper, he he he) is the reason people like Sarah Palin ( omg, from a side glance, I thought i had typed the name Stalin, instead of Palin,)  and so many of the right wing republican conservatives are so dangerous and so fundamentally wrong in how they think. In Palin;s case, I think its just a matter of her not thinking period. Shes just going with the flow, and loving every minute of it, as is evident. This is all about her , at this point what the hell difference does it make what she says?At least this is her attitude, and unfortunately some of us are listening. Maybe she is caught up in the moment, but behind her supposed ignorance on basic issues involving science, economics, geography, history, current events, there is a dangerous pattern that has evolved. This very subtle way of dumbing down the whole process and lowering peoples expectations to a wink and a gottcha. throw in some painfully stupid comments (like the one about the fruit flies) and of course evolution, and science in general, and you get people used to hearing this, and taking it as fact. It is a lot easier to push an agenda of anti-science, and go back to believing is some almightu entity whos going to wipe us all out anyway so whats the difference. The more unborn fetuses i can save, the more god will look down and make sure i'm going to heaven when i die. so shes already "better" than most of us in her eyes, except for those little pockets of real america scattered across the country. I wouldnt be surprised if the numbers match up perfectly. In other words, all of those tiny pockets of "real" americans are about the same amount of people that are going to be enraptured during end times. I'm sure her church has a rough calculation on that one.      In the meantime, the rest of the world goes on, dealing with reality, and children are getting educated, and trained for different skills, ideas are formed and turned into new technologies, and before you know it, whoops, looks like the USA has fallen out. What is so ironic is these right wing wackos who will stomp you and call you a terrorist at the drop of a hat, or a communist if you dont put your hand on your heart for the flag, are the very people that are causing American to fall behind the times, and believe me, the world is not going to stop and wait for us to catch up. We were lucky to have Einstein on our side, maybe next time, we won't be so lucky. No, Sarah Palin is not stupid, she knows exactly what she is doing, and what she is saying. As long as they is the impression that most of us are dumb, this will be a tactic. Thank god, the demographics have changed, and for a change , the old infamous "Silent Majority" of Nixon years, are now the very vocal but still ignorant minority.