On Mr. Newt Gingrich

I have a certain opinion of Newt. Newt is "truly" an idiot. See, I have never liked to use that word before. Being a believer in the philosophical ideals of Socratic debate, I honestly think that a person can become smarter just by asking himself or herself questions, attempting to answer these questions and seeking reference to answer these questions. (Note: this is something older than Socrates. This way of education was first preached by the Upanishads, a volume in the Vedas, that literally translates to "under the foot of," meaning knowledge comes from studying under a Guru or teacher.) But Newt's mind totally boggles me. How can you be so stupid? This man, a well-educated man with a Ph.D., how can he possibly stand up in the midst of the American eye and say: "'Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works,' he asserted in an ignorant barrage of stereotypes in Des Moines. 'So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday?'"

Underneath it all, underneath the maze of complications, is a paradox that is very well entrenched in our unfortunate system that is, unfortunately, not limited to Mr. Newt Gingrich's mind. This is American exceptionalism. Contrary to popular belief, this American exceptionalism is not just a foreign policy, but also a domestic one. It not only compels people (not naming names...ah, fuck, Herman Cain) to say unablingly stupid shit like, "When they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I'm going to say you know, I don't know." But at the same time, it operates in a very local way, as well. Consider what Newt said a few weeks ago about poor kids and their good-for-nothing parents. Its all one in the same.

“Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works,” he asserted in an ignorant barrage of stereotypes in Des Moines. “So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday.”Has he not heard of the working poor? The problem isn’t that these kids aren’t working; it’s that they don’t have time with their parents, who often toil day and night, at more than one job, and earn next to nothing.Newt’s the kind of person whom child labor laws were created to curb. He sounds like a benign despot with a colonial subtext: Until I bring you the benefits of civilization, we will regard you as savages.He’s Belgium. The poor are Congo." Read More>