This Week In Stupid

There's a lot going on in the news right now. President Shithead has declared, "I'm not a racist !" after saying overtly racist things, to which the response has been "he's not racist" from the Republicans and everything short of actually doing anything useful from the Democrats.

I'm not going to comment on that one any further. If you can't understand why telling citizens to "go back" to their "home" countries is racist, then you're too stupid to bother arguing with.

On the other hand the Republicans aren't all stupid. For example, there's this report on how everyone is worried about Facebook starting their own currency, which contains the very nice quote :

“Just because we may not fully understand a technology proposal,” remarked Republican Patrick McHenry, “does not mean we should immediately call for its prohibition. But let’s face it. Let’s be honest… it’s Facebook.”

I could not have put it better myself.

What else ? Jeremy Corbyn has been up to his old tricks again, showing himself wholly unable to withstand criticism by firing someone who doesn't like him. I mean, sure, there are definitely times when you have to fire people who don't play ball. But when you used to be one of the most rebellious MPs ever, that looks a bit rich. And firing people because they accuse you of anti-semitism doesn't strike me as a sensible way to persuade people that the allegations you're not listening aren't true. The horrible bit about contemporary politics is just how obviously shite everything is.

EDIT : A close runner-up in this week's contest goes to the ever-ludicrous Nigel Farage, who claimed that Ursula von der Leyen's election is illegitimate because she won just 52% of the vote. Thanks for being such a staunch defender of irony, Nigel.

EDIT 2 : Displaying a similar lack of comprehension of irony, Sajid Javid calls to fight extremism by moderating their language - which is fine until you realise that supporting the actions of the xenophobic sorts of Brexiteers is apparently, for him, not much of a problem. Yay.

But the winner of this week's "stupidest thing" report goes to the story below.

A Christian family who refused to pay income tax because it went "against God's will" have been ordered to pay more than A$2m (£1.1m $1.4m) to Australia's tax office. Rembertus Cornelis Beerepoot and Fanny Alida Beerepoot, of Tasmania, had not paid income tax since 2011.

Just take a moment to let the name "Rembertus Cornelis Beerepoot" sink in, because it's really quite spectacular when you think about it. With luck it'll be taken by the next Bond villain.

Mr Beerepoot had argued that the law of God is the "supreme law of this land" and making people pay tax was weakening their dependency on God, an act which was leading to "curses... in the form of droughts and infertility".

Right then. So why bother eating anything ? Shouldn't God provide you nourishment directly ? Why bother breathing when God should take care of that ? How about blood circulation, is that His job too ? By this "logic", there is literally no task that doesn't reduce God's workload, which for some unfathomable reason is a sin. A bit odd that an omnipotent deity should care if his workload is reduced. And call me crazy, but I think if God didn't want you to pay taxes or breathe or digest food, He'd surely be able to stop you with a less blunt instrument than a drought. Or conversely, if God provides nourishment by working through the earthly means of food and oxygen, then why can't he be said to be providing aid through taxation ? Why, FFS, would it be a sin to redistribute wealth such the wealthiest help the poorest ?

Whether these people really believe that taxes are against God's will or not (and I doubt that they do), it's clear that there are, very sadly, plenty of people in the world too stupid to be left alone.

Australia family argued taxes 'against God's will'

A Christian family who refused to pay income tax because it went "against God's will" have been ordered to pay more than A$2m (£1.1m $1.4m) to Australia's tax office. Rembertus Cornelis Beerepoot and Fanny Alida Beerepoot, of Tasmania, had not paid income tax since 2011.