Judge Smails
01-05-2008, 03:07 PM
I don't want to toot my own horn but I consider myself a pretty smart cookie. I realize that not everyone has had the same educational opportunities and advantages that I have had so I try not to judge people too harshly. However, when I encounter a professional person who has achieved a certain status and success in life I have very little patience with stupidity. I think you should strive to be a well rounded person and not just limit yourself to be knowledgeable in only your own field. Does that make me a bad person?
Here's what I'm talking about: We went to a party at my wife's manager's house (they're both physical therapists). So, he and I are talking and the topic gets around to the big blackout and how we were both in NYC at the time and our various adventures in trying to get out. So, he mentions how it was all due to global warming. Now, the global warming comment was dubious to begin with and I know a little about the cause of the blackout to know it had to do with an antiquated and overworked powergrid and a cascade effect that was caused by a failure at one plant.
So I ask him what he means and he says that due to global warming there is an increase in the jellyfish population due to the warmer waters and because "all the power lines run under the sea" the jellyfish are shorting out the power apparently through their electric discharges. That is so stupid on so many different levels that I didn't know where to begin. Ordinarily I'd be up for a battle, but this guy is essentially my wife's boss, so I asked him where he heard that. He says that he read it on the internet. I tell him that you can't always believe what you read on the internet and how I was recently surfing a site that claimed that there was no plane that went into the Pentagon on 9/11 and that it was really a missile. So, he says: "Oh yeah, that's true!"
I look him in the eye and say "Huh, yeah maybe that's so." Then I nonchalantly change the subject to the Giants-Bucs game. It was probably for the best that I stood down, though it's killing me now. I feel stupider for having heard that.
Here's what I'm talking about: We went to a party at my wife's manager's house (they're both physical therapists). So, he and I are talking and the topic gets around to the big blackout and how we were both in NYC at the time and our various adventures in trying to get out. So, he mentions how it was all due to global warming. Now, the global warming comment was dubious to begin with and I know a little about the cause of the blackout to know it had to do with an antiquated and overworked powergrid and a cascade effect that was caused by a failure at one plant.
So I ask him what he means and he says that due to global warming there is an increase in the jellyfish population due to the warmer waters and because "all the power lines run under the sea" the jellyfish are shorting out the power apparently through their electric discharges. That is so stupid on so many different levels that I didn't know where to begin. Ordinarily I'd be up for a battle, but this guy is essentially my wife's boss, so I asked him where he heard that. He says that he read it on the internet. I tell him that you can't always believe what you read on the internet and how I was recently surfing a site that claimed that there was no plane that went into the Pentagon on 9/11 and that it was really a missile. So, he says: "Oh yeah, that's true!"
I look him in the eye and say "Huh, yeah maybe that's so." Then I nonchalantly change the subject to the Giants-Bucs game. It was probably for the best that I stood down, though it's killing me now. I feel stupider for having heard that.