For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.
— 2 Corinthians 11:19 (KJV)
That phrase from The Bible came to my mind after reading comments here the past few days from people who claim great expertise, but can’t reason themselves out of a paper bag. St. Paul was writing about some “professional evangelizers” that had set up shop in the church at Corinth and were bilking the congregation. I love Andy Gaus’ The Unvarnished New Testament translation. Here’s how he puts it:
After all, you in your wisdom are very good at putting up with fools: you put up with people who enslave you, who eat you out of house and home, who take money from you, who condescend to you, who slap you in the face. I’m ashamed to speak of it; it makes us look anemic.
St. Paul is being sarcastic in calling the Corinthian Christians “wise.”
In modern times Orly Taitz asked supporters to pay her $20,000 court sanction that resulted from her own misconduct. She asks her supporters to pay travel expenses to Hawaii to support frivolous lawsuits with no chance whatever of success. Jerome Corsi inserted him into the Maricopa County Tea Party and incited it to make a nutty presentation to Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Terry Lakin begs for money to make up for his transgressions. Birther web sites are replete with PayPal donate buttons, but offer no accounting for what is done with the money.
The birthers suffer fools gladly and think themselves wise. I think it’s pathetic. I suffer fools here, but not gladly; and I do not think myself wise but rather just barely hanging on, and thankful for that.
Bravo and kudos for this article Doc!
OK so suffering fools is bad….
What about enjoying fools as entertainment?
My popcorn budget increased 1200% last year.
To be a birther in the first place means you’re a fool The only difference between the ones with PayPal buttons is that the ones pushing the PayPal button are bigger fools.
Well said! I agree.
“In modern times Orly Taitz asked supporters to pay her $20,000 court sanction that resulted from her own misconduct. She asks her supporters to pay travel expenses to Hawaii to support frivolous lawsuits with no chance whatever of success.”
While she drives around in a Tesla, a $100K toy.
Hear! Hear!
I don’t recall who said that you’re entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts (and I’m too lazy to google it), but that is what I find the most frustrating with birthers and the American right-wing puppets in general.
There’s plenty of reasons to oppose Obama without making up crazy sh*t, ignore or distort history, economics, etc. For example, one may legitimately campaign against the so-called “Obamacare” (from the right OR the left) without somehow connecting it to Stalin and Pol Pot. It is ignorant, ridiculous and, yes, offensive. It also pollutes, divert and ultimate kills intelligent debate in American politics.
This cartoon sums up birther obstinacy nicely:
http://i.imgur.com/1CUd2.jpg
‘Intelligent’ and ‘debate’ are mutually exclusive in the States.
Just look at Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann.
Well, here’s a great short Obama impersonation comedy bit that appropriately fits the blog topic of “Suffereing fools gladly”. He takes on all his critics, including the Birthers, by hiring on an “angry black translator”… LMAO!
Must see comedy:
http://ohforgoodnesssake.com/?p=20550
Another one I’m going to have to share. Outstanding!!!
Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key (President Obama and Translator), are remarkably talented comedians who worked together on the sketch-comedy show, MADtv. Here’s more of their work, in a MAD parody of the tv show Deal or No Deal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol2DedEhOGI&feature=fvwrel
I used to love MadTV — Nicole Sullivan as Diana Lawyer-Trabajo and the “he looked like… a man” witness. We met Phil LaMarr a few times (at Comicon of all places) and he was delightful.
It’s generally attributed to Moynihan now, but it’s been around in variations since the mid-20th century at least. Such an awesome, useful quote, I’ve had to look it up many, many times!
Wow, O better hope his translator stays on his side! I’d be tempted to vote for the translator. Thanks for the reference, G.