Quote of the day--self-selective bias edition
The American people don’t want to raise the debt ceiling, [Michele] Bachmann said repeatedly. How does she know? The Minnesota congresswoman reminded the audience that she had recently spent several days on her tour bus, careening across the country and conversing in backyards and town halls.-Elizabeth Weingarten, "Michele Bachmann Explains What
the American People Really Think About the Debt Ceiling";
Slate, July 28th, 2011.
Of course, very nearly all of the people who show up to listen to Michele Bachmann are people who don't think Michele Bachmann's a batshit crazy lady who ought to be ignored. Well, and news reporters who have been assigned to cover her campaign. So, you know, might be a little bit of a sampling problem there, just sayin'.
Comments
And, incidentally, a Google search for Michelle Bachmann batshit crazy turns up over 88,000 hits.
1) Claims global warming is a hoax;
2) Has implied that then-Senator Obama was part of some sort of anti-American conspiracy in Congress;
3) Introduced a Congressional resolution on March 26, 2009 calling for a Constitutional amendment setting the dollar as American currency after China made some noises about replacing the dollar as a global reserve currency, something that has nothing to do with domestic exchanges; when confronted by the fact that there is no effort afoot to replace the dollar as domestic currency, that replacing the dollar as domestic currency would violate Federal law, and that China's noise was merely foreign posturing unlikely to change the way global reserves are handled, Bachmann tried to claim that the President might try to replace the dollar by fiat using his power to enforce treaties (there is no such treaty that would impact the use of dollars in domestic transactions);
4) Advocated that Americans boycott the 2010 census and that they aren't required to participate, when in fact (a) participation in the census is mandatory under the Constitution and (b) a boycott by her supporters would actually undercut the strength of her own constituents in House and Presidential elections and (c) why?;
5) Made what could be construed as an incitement to violent mob uprising when she advocated that Minnesotans be "armed and dangerous" over emissions cap-and-trade regulations;
6) Equated a proposal to investigate and make a recommendation regarding expanding AmeriCorps to a governmental threat to send Americans to "re-education camps for young people";
7) Claimed that a Presidential trip to India would cost $200,000,000 a day, apparently citing a farcically inaccurate foreign press report that claimed 34 warships were traveling with the President (while exact figures don't appear to be available, the President's India trip's costs were in line with costs of trips made by G.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, which averaged around $5,000,000/day);
8) Supports the teaching of creationism (in the guise of "intelligent design") in American schools in spite of First Amendment restrictions on teaching of religion and overwhelming evidence for the 150-year-plus scientific consensus favoring evolution by natural selection;
9) Claimed that Federal educational reforms sought by then-President G.W. Bush and passed by Congress were part of some kind of socialist program;
10) Claimed that Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty's economic incentives for the state of Minnesota--including tax-free zones--were part of a Marxist agenda and accused Pawlenty of trying to install some kind of socialist central planning regime;
11) Is apparently willing to nuke Iran;
12) Spent the entirety of a pro-gay-rights rally spying on it from the bushes (and failing her Hide skill checks rather badly); shortly thereafter, she tried to claim a pair of middle-aged women (one of them a former nun) tried to assault her in a bathroom after two of her constituents attempted to discuss gay marriage with her in a public space;
13) Has made exaggerated claims of being a foster mother to 23 children (possibly has hosted that many kids, but not all at once and not to the extent that she's raised that many) and that she and her husband are dairy farmers milking their own cows (in all fairness, it's possible that these are things she's just said, not that she actually believes them--i.e. these may be examples of dishonesty, not nuttiness).
I think that will do for now.
Sources: Wikipedia
The Daily Beast
Minneapolis CityPages
14) Signed off on a defense-of-marriage pledge that claimed African-American families were stronger under slavery (when African-American families were commonly broken up as a standard operating procedure, with children removed from mothers, fathers and mothers separated, and slave marriages were generally denied legal recognition); when confronted by the historical inaccuracy of the claim, Bachmann's campaign claimed that she hadn't actually read it, which is either a lie and Bachmann (crazily) believes or believed that statement, or that Bachmann (crazily) signs things like campaign pledges without actually looking at them. You can take your pick.
Hey, kids, if you want, join in like Phiala already has! If you have yet another example of Michele Bachmann's batshit craziness, add it to the list!
And really, how can you beat Rolling Stone:
'Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government. She kicked off her unofficial presidential campaign in New Hampshire, by mistakenly declaring it the birthplace of the American Revolution. "It's your state that fired the shot that was heard around the world!" she gushed. "You are the state of Lexington and Concord, you started the battle for liberty right here in your backyard."'
We don't need to demonstrate her batshitcraziness; she does that for us every time she opens her mouth.
(by the way, I'm a Romney guy)
For instance, "Awesome! Bachmann said something else crazy!"
If you put that in quotes to ensure you get that actual phrase, you get 1,170 hits.
The batshit crazy search was not in quotes, but seemed to have a much larger proportion agreeing with the sentiment than the awesome search. But to be fair, if you put that one in quotes as well you get 8,010 hits.
The truly frightening thing about Ms. Bachmann is that there's anyone who needs it explained to them why she's batshit crazy. And that's not merely hyperbole. The fact that she has a following amazes me.