Jeffrey Miron: Idiot of the Day

Anti-bribery laws hurt U.S. companies! Do away with the law then...boohoohoo

What a moron.

public and policymakers should also consider whether the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is good policy. And despite good intentions -- particularly, the goal of reducing corruption -- it is not.

The act is difficult to enforce on a consistent basis, since companies that wish to pay bribes can circumvent the law in numerous ways, mainly with minimal risk of exposure. So, most violations go undetected. The act therefore hurts companies that break the law clumsily and get caught, thereby creating a competitive advantage for companies that break the law cleverly and get away with it.

The most likely outcome is therefore that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has minimal impact on bribes but enriches the least honest companies. And if the act deters bribes by U.S. companies operating abroad, that is even worse.

Read more here.

Nina Easton: Idiot of the Day

Don't blame the 1% for America's pay gap

It's time to end the myth that the nation's wealthy are getting rich off the backs of the poor. Instead let's figure out what they're doing right.

It just gets worse after that...

Read more here.

Norwich City: A**holes of the Day

They're hiding their embarrassment and technical incompetence by going after this kid. What a bunch of assholes.

A 17-year-old Norwich City fan has angered the club by leaking pictures of its new kit 12 hours before the official launch.

Norfolk Police were called in after IT student Chris Brown published images of the 2012-13 strip on the internet.

Chris has apologised to the club, which said it would protect its intellectual property at all times.

Police have said all parties had agreed the matter could be resolved through a "face-to-face" meeting.

The teenager, from Norwich, managed to obtain the pictures from the club's kit launch website as it was being updated.

He said he then posted the images on Twitter.

Read more here.

Michael Baker: Idiot of the Day

Stunning stupidity

A Kentucky man is facing a misdemeanor rap after he siphoned gasoline from a police car, a theft that came to the attention of cops after the perp posted a Facebook photo memorializing the crime.

Read more here.

Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National Golf Club: Idiot of the Day

The chairman of the club that hosts America's most prestigious golf tournament skirted the prickly issue of women's membership Wednesday, saying it is a private matter.

During his annual media session, Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, did not comment specifically on Ginni Rometty, the top executive at IBM and, undoubtedly, one of the corporate world's most powerful women.

IBM's sponsorship of the Masters tournament guarantees club membership for its officers, but Rometty is a woman, and the club does not allow women to join.

"Well, as has been the case, whenever that question is asked, all issues of membership are now and have historically been subject to the private deliberation of members," Payne said. "That statement remains accurate; it remains my statement."

Read more here.

Bill Maher and Andrew Sullivan climb into bed together with Rush Limbaugh

Bill Maher✔
@billmaher

Hate to defend #RushLimbaugh but he apologized, liberals looking bad not accepting. Also hate intimidation by sponsor pullout

and Mr. Sullivan: "It's a free country, but I get queasy with boycotts to target disgusting but free speech."

Indiana Rep. Bob Morris: The world knows what an idiot I am? Boy, am I sorry

After reflecting on the letter I wrote on February 18, 2012 to my fellow Indiana Republican Representatives, I realize now that my words were emotional, reactionary, and inflammatory. For that I sincerely apologize. I apologize to the Girl Scouts of Indiana and all of the girls and parents of Indiana who are participating in and running their Girl Scout organizations in a way that promotes leadership, community involvement and family values. I certainly should not have painted the entire Girl Scouts organization with such a wide brush.

But now the world knows, oppsie!

As I have mentioned, the letter was intended for only my colleagues in the Statehouse. That is not an excuse for the breadth of my letter – rather, it is the reason for the lack of research and evidence it contained.

If you read his "apology", he's not really sorry, he just regrets the world now knows what a fool he is.

Read more here.

Stunningly ignorant teen age girls views on race

They've since been booted from their high school...

Indiana Rep. Bob Morris drags his family into his pit of idiocy

Undaunted by ridicule from the leader of his own party, an Indiana lawmaker is standing by his allegations that the Girl Scouts is a radical organization that promotes abortions and homosexuality.

The scouts and Planned Parenthood have dismissed Rep. Bob Morris' comments as absurd, as did Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma. But Morris, a Republican, told The Associated Press his critics need to do more research into the 100-year-old scouting organization.

"My family and I took a view and we're sticking by it," Morris said Tuesday, adding that his daughters were joining an alternative group for young girls run by conservative Christians. "My girls are no longer Girl Scouts. They're now going to join American Heritage Girls."

Fuckwit. I wonder if he's even dimly aware he's the laughing stock of the Internet.

...probably not.

Read more here.

Indiana Rep. Bob Morris: Idiot of the Day

Another metal giant speaks up.

A lawmaker has sent a letter to fellow Republican members of the Indiana House saying he will not support a resolution celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts because he believes it is a “radicalized organization” that supports abortion and promotes homosexuality.

In a letter obtained by The Journal-Gazette of Fort Wayne on Monday, Rep. Bob Morris of Fort Wayne said he did some research on the Internet and found allegations that the Girl Scouts are a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood, allow transgender females to join and encourage sex.

“After talking to some well-informed constituents, I did a small amount of web-based research*, and what I found is disturbing,” Morris wrote in his letter, which also accused the group of promoting “homosexual lifestyles.”

*Conservapedia...

Read more here.

Politico's Donovan Slack: Idiot of the Day

It's very clear what side President Obama is on here in Wisconsin.

Behind the stage where he will speak today are two flags: an American one, as usual, and right alongside it -- and a flag for the local union, Wisconsin 1848.

Except the flag was the flag of Wisconsin.

Politico pulled the story, but thru the magic of web cache: voila!

Read more here.

Business Insider's Matt Rosoff: Idiot of the Day

Via Boing Boing:

If you want to understand why Silicon Valley startups keep tripping into privacy-related PR disasters, you could not do better than reading this attack on online privacy from Silicon Alley Insider editor Matt Rosoff.

"Each time [a data breach] happens, bloggers and privacy zealots scream and yell and pull their hair out. In some cases, the companies are forced to apologize and cancel the offending feature. Sometimes, a few politicians grandstand so they can look like they're solving real problems and maybe the government gets involved and forces the companies to change a little bit.

But these flaps had exactly zero effect on Facebook's and Google's business. No effect. None. Nada. User growth, engagement, revenue -- all kept going up without a blip. Normal people don't care."

By "normal" people, Rosoff means people like him, who must endure rather than hope for obscurity. But the assumptions clouding his rather privileged viewpoint expose themselves at once, as he embarks upon a classical dialogue between himself and a straw-man interlocutor angry at a hypothetical data breach.

Read more here.

Pete Hoekstra love you long time

No racism here...

The Australian transport minister Anthony Albanese: Idiot of the Day

'In Australia we have serious challenges to solve and we need serious people to solve them,' he said. 'Unfortunately, Tony Abbott is not the least bit interested in fixing anything. He's only interested in two things - making Australians afraid of it and telling them who's to blame for it.'

If you think that sounds a tad familiar, you'd be right.

In the 1995 movie The American President, President Andrew Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas, tore into his rival Bob Rumson.

Read more here.

Rob Ford: Idiot of the Day

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford compared his political opponents at city hall to despot Joseph Stalin on Tuesday, the same day that one of those councillors had praised the mayor for a new attitude.

Speaking on Toronto radio station AM 640, Ford was asked a question about Coun. Josh Matlow — a first-term politician usually described as centrist, who has said he will oppose the mayor's planned abolishment of the land transfer tax.

After calling Matlow a "left-wing NDPer," Ford compared him to left-leaning councillors Adam Vaughan, Gord Perks, Janet Davis and Paula Fletcher.

"These people are all two steps left of Joe Stalin," he said. "So I'm not discouraged by that and I don't expect it. They don't care about the taxpayers. But I know one person that does, and that's me."

Stalin? Really Robbie, Stalin?

Read more here.

Idiot movie goers in Liverpool complain that The Artist is a silent movie

The Artist has been praised for being a charming delight and condemned for being a charming trifle. But there’s one thing everyone can agree on: It’s a silent movie. Like, the kind without dialogue. Apparently, that information escaped a few moviegoers in Liverpool. As reported by The Telegraph, the Odeon Liverpool One theater received several complaints from people who saw the movie without realizing it would not have any diegetic sound.

Read more here.

Pushy Christians: Missouri wants to introduce beads and rattles into the classroom

Six Missouri republicans -- "the stupefy me six," let's call them -- are hard at work trying to make Missouri kids stupid. House Bill 1227, introduced in the Missouri House of Representatives on January 10, will, if enacted, require "the equal treatment of science instruction regarding evolution and intelligent design," according to the bill's language.

In other words, the bill will require the equal treatment of religious opinion and science, depriving Missouri kids of the knowledge they need to compete in the knowledge economy, and robbing them of a clear understanding of how to tell the difference between real knowledge and someone's truthy opinion.

Read more here.

WTF Montreal

A Montreal restaurant devolved into chaos early New Year’s Day after a fight between two patrons turned into an eatery-wide brawl, with evidence of the action now making the rounds on YouTube...

..The introduction to the video is titled “Chinese vs Blacks.” But police have no idea whether the fight sparked from a racial comment —in fact, they know little, if anything, about what spurred the brawl.

Lo Green: Idiot of the Day

May the spirit of John Lennon rise up and smite you, you moron.

New Year’s Eve is usually truce time in the culture wars — a moment to reflect and hope and forget your troubles (and the world’s). Not so on Saturday night, when Cee Lo Green changed the lyrics to John Lennon’s “Imagine” while performing the song on live television in New York’s Time Square.

Instead of “Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too,” Green sang, “Nothing to kill or die for, and all religion’s true.”

Read more here.

Pushy Atheists: Don't they know it's Christmas?

We can't blame God for making these people idiots..

Every Christmas for the past 60 years, Nativity scenes have dominated two blocks of a park on bluffs overlooking the ocean in Santa Monica, California.

The 14 scenes depicting Jesus Christ's birth have long been a popular attraction among area residents and tourists to the southern California city.

This year, however, atheists have taken over most of the two-block stretch, nearly shutting out and angering a group of churches who contend the atheists have organized against the Christians and gamed a city lottery process allocating the holiday exhibit space.

In response, a leader of the atheist group says he's just looking for evenhanded treatment to present his beliefs in a public space -- and goes so far as to say that the city shouldn't even be allowing any religious or even atheist expression in the park.

Read more here.