Outright Stupidity II
July 10th, 2008 - 12:34 pm
I knew if I looked long enough, I’d find the TV news video of the exchange between county commissioners and a judge over the use of the term “black hole” and whether or not it is a racially charged term (No! Previous post here for more.). Well, I found it, and now I am even more convince of the utter and complete outright stupidity of both Commissioner John Wiley Price and Judge Thomas Jones. You have to watch it. You really do. It’s priceless.
Here’s a quote to whet your appetite:
“Could I get an apology from the commissioner, in this day and time, you don’t sit around a table where you have diversity and refer to a black hole.”
–Judge Thomas Jones
Jones seems to get in trouble a lot for the way he runs his court. I’d have thought, what with all the current and obvious evidence against him, he was under-educated, but no. At the bottom of this story about the troubles he has had in the past (which have continued past the publishing of that story into the present time), they list his education and work experience.
•Born: Nov. 10, 1943, Decatur
•Education: Bachelor’s degree, Dallas Baptist University, 1970; master’s degree, University of Texas at Arlington, 1974
•Career: Air Force, 1965-66; U.S. Department of Education, investigator in civil rights division, 1974-84; real estate investor; Dallas Independent School District board member, 1987-92; justice of the peace, 1990-present
I would think someone with a college education, including a master’s degree, would know, unequivocally, that describing an office as a “black hole” isn’t racist. I guess just because someone goes to school it doesn’t mean they bother learning anything while they are there. Still, I’d think sometime during his 64+ years of life, he’d have encountered information about black holes and maybe even heard someone refer to something as a black hole. I mean, my mom is older than that and far, far less educated, and even she can tell you exactly what a black hole is and what it does … and that it isn’t at all a racial dig.
UPDATE: There’s another video about it here. Some of it is just the same footage from the meeting itself, but there is a bit with Commissioner Price being disgruntled about Angel’s Food Cake and Devil’s Food Cake, and he is seemingly still offended by the usage of black hole. What an idiot. He and the judge should be forced to go back to school. Not that it would help. Closed minds don’t absorb information differing from their current programming.
3 Responses to “Outright Stupidity II”
I’m getting virus warnings from your site.
I’m also reminded of the Neil Gaiman story about how the word Change becomes offensive and people start using words like coinage and shifting. Are we going to see the extremes of light and dark referred to simply as that, lightest and darkest?
All I know is that if everyone had their way, and every word that was offensive to someone (even if it’s because they don’t know what it means) was removed from usage, we’d all be sitting around not saying anything.
And who the hell doesn’t know what a black hole is or why someone might refer to an office as a black hole?! Let alone a judge!!! My gods, that’s so stupid, stupid doesn’t even seem like a good enough word to describe it.
Virus warnings? That’s weird. I was about to email my host about the continual minutes of downtime I have been having the last two days. I’ll mention that to them as well. Maybe there’s a connection. I checked my stuff last night and everything seemed to be in order, but it is a shared server, so who knows what’s going on.
but there is a bit with Commissioner Price being disgruntled about Angel’s Food Cake and Devil’s Food Cake…
I was disgusted, though not particularly surprised, that some higher ups can be quite stupid, but that right there that I italicized, just made me laugh out loud. Thanks!