Palin for President!

I thought Hillary Clinton would be a good choice to be the first female President, but I’ve changed my mind!  Vote Palin in 2012!  Hell, I hope it’s Clinton vs. Palin, just so we’re assured of making history!  Or better yet, maybe they can team up and be on the same ticket!

I only hope someone out there took the title seriously.  Welcome to the second edition of Taken out of Context (of course, Thursdays 8-10 pm on wtburadio.org).

God help us all.
God help us all.

One of my favorite quotes from any movie comes from Training Day.  Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) is reading a newspaper and Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) is constantly interrupting Harris with questions about the day.  Of course, Harris will be “training” Hoyt to be a member of LAPD’s narcotics division.

Harris finally puts his paper down and asks Hoyt to tell him a story.  When Hoyt fails to, Harris responds: “You don’t know any stories?  Okay, I’ll tell you a story.  This is a newspaper.  It’s 90 per cent bullsh!t, but it’s entertaining.  That’s why I read it, because it entertains me.  You won’t let me read it, so you entertain me with your bullshit.  Tell me a story, right now.”

I’ll slightly alter the quote: When I’m outside, I listen to my iPod.  I usually listen to Metallica.  If I’m interrupted, it better be something worthwhile.  It better entertain me.  If I can’t listen to my music, entertain me with your bullsh!t.

I wasn’t sure what I’d write about for my next column when I found my inspiration while waiting for an Amtrak train last Wednesday.  I’m listening to my music when all of the sudden, I hear a laugh that sounds like an dying hyena mixed with Miley Cyrus.  It continues so loud that it manages to drown out Enter Sandman.  This annoys me mildly to say the least.

I look up and see two girls who have interrupted one of the few things that keeps me sane.  Here is the conversation that follows:

“Omigosh like the worst moment of my life was when I missed my train.  I had to wait like three hours.”

“It’s like my biggest fear to miss the train, that’s why I come so early.”

“Omigod like that’s a good idea.”

Wow.  I don’t know about you, but I felt a few of my brain cells die as I was listening to this.  Then on the train, I have the pleasure of sitting next to quite possibly the loudest mother and daughter I’ve ever encountered.  For some reason, everytime the daughter, who in fairness was under 10, found a word in the crossword puzzle, there was a need for both parties to loudly scream, laugh, and scream again.  That was funny the first time; by the fourth hour, it was obviously quite the irritant.

When I got off the train ride from hell, I instantly thought of my friend Greg’s Facebook status update from the other day: “Why are some people so f*cking stupid?” If someone has the answer to that, I’m all ears.

I stumbled across a quote online but could not find the author: “The problem with America is stupidity.  I’m not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don’t we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?”

There is hope for this country though: if in fact Sarah Palin runs in 2012 against Barack Obama, we’ll have an election with educated voters on each side who are voting based on good, concrete opinions and knowledge of policies … ehh, not so much …

About Josh Friedman

Josh Friedman (CAS/COM '10) writes Taken Out of Context, a no-holds barred opinion column for the Quad. He also hosts Taken Out of Context, Thursdays from 8-10 pm on wtburadio.org.

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One Comment on “Palin for President!”

  1. I personal favorite of mine:

    “Just think about how stupid the average person and then realize half of them are stupider than that.”
    – George Carlin

    Great article Josh. Keep em coming.

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