Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Experts say: George Washington's honesty a sign of stupidity
American Thinker ^ | 05/27/2010 | Peter Wilson

Posted on 05/27/2010 9:45:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

It is no secret that many of us who reject Obama's neo-communist agenda have turned to the Founding Fathers for guidance; when you think your country's founding principles are under attack, it's natural to re-acquaint yourself with the writings of the extraordinary group of men who wrote our founding documents.  

When we examine this genius cluster, George Washington is perhaps the best loved.  Last week Glenn Beck recommended the four-year old, 1208-page tome, George Washington's Sacred Fire, which discusses pop culture fave topics like the religious beliefs of our first President.  The book shot to number one on Amazon's bestseller list.  It has recently been bumped to #2 by an R-rated Swedish detective series.

It was therefore understandable that a Boston Globe editorial felt the need to compare Washington and Jefferson unfavorably to...Bill Clinton.

George Washington's parents no doubt took pride in his childhood honesty, but therein may lie the reason he was among the least intellectual of the Founding Fathers. A Canadian study last week declared that children who lie are actually showing their mental acuity and creativity. "Parents should not be alarmed if their child tells a fib,'' Kang Lee, director of the Institute of Child Study at the University of Toronto, told the Telegraph of London. In fact, children who are making things up at age 2 have fast-developing brains, which portend greater intellectual achievements. Thomas Jefferson, whose genius sometimes led him down a twisty path around the truth, may have been an example. So might his mentally agile successor, William Jefferson Clinton. As for Washington - perhaps there's a new explanation for why he confessed, in the great Parson Weems legend, to chopping down the cherry tree: Maybe young George just couldn't come up with a good enough cover story.

It's amazing how many wrong ideas can be crammed into one short piece of writing: The "I cannot tell a lie" fable about the cherry tree proves that 10-year old George Washington was a bit of a dim bulb, while Bill Clinton's lies offer evidence that he is "mentally agile"?   I didn't realize that Clinton was President at age 2.

As for the second most loved Founding Father, did you know that Thomas Jefferson was a liar who sometimes followed "twisty paths around the truth"?  Apparently it's such common knowledge that no further explanation is required. 



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bostonglobe; georgewashington; godsgravesglyphs; honesty; leftuniverse; liberalfascism; stupidity; thegeneral; therevolution
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-43 next last

1 posted on 05/27/2010 9:45:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Yeah, every time I tried to show my imagination and mental acuity, my parents whooped me.

I was very stupid after a while.


2 posted on 05/27/2010 9:46:47 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (This nation, of the people, by the people, and for the people has perished from the land.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

In children, the ability to lie may show mental acuity.
In adults, it simply shows their character.


3 posted on 05/27/2010 9:49:32 AM PDT by astyanax (Liberalism: Logic's retarded cousin.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
I've never understood why so many Leftists think that Obama is brilliant -- but perhaps this explains the situation. Obama is a conniving, dishonest, corrupt SOB. To a Leftist, that means he's really, really smart.

Working hard and being productive is for suckas!

4 posted on 05/27/2010 9:49:54 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Honesty = Stupidity.

#####

In other liberal, counterculture news:

The sky is green.

Up is down.

Black is white.

And the perennial favorite: Bad is good, while good is bad.


5 posted on 05/27/2010 9:50:33 AM PDT by EyeGuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

So liars are the most intelligent people now. It never ends with these libs. They are just trying to make themselves look intelligent because that’s all they do... lie.


6 posted on 05/27/2010 9:52:11 AM PDT by mtg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Who but a fool would cross the Delaware in a snowstorm? Somebody with a boatload of guts, for starters. Who would leave people tending the campfires to convince the enemy that he was still a sitting duck, with an ice floe choked river preventing his retreat? Someone with a boatload of brains.

Someone remind me...who won the Revolutionary War?

7 posted on 05/27/2010 9:53:06 AM PDT by gundog (Outrage is anger taken by surprise. Nothing these people do surprises me anymore.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vermont Lt

People of good moral standing have no reason to lie.


8 posted on 05/27/2010 9:53:41 AM PDT by derllak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: mtg

If there is any consistent belief between all the liberals, it is that they consider themselves to be the smarter people.


9 posted on 05/27/2010 9:53:56 AM PDT by Loud Mime (Racial Profiling: Anti-Caucasian Racism hidden under a politically correct term)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The Editor of the Boston Globe needs a “blanket party” thrown is his honor. What a incorrigible cadre of jackasses these “experts” truly are. If this is not Orwellian, then nothing is.


10 posted on 05/27/2010 9:54:13 AM PDT by TCH (DON'T BE AN "O-HOLE"! ... DEMAND YOUR STATE ENACT ITS SOVEREIGNTY !When a majority of the American)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EyeGuy
Honesty = Stupidity.

When I look at my paystub and add things up, they may have a point. Maybe not stupid, exactly, but certainly a chump.

11 posted on 05/27/2010 9:54:13 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (Live jubtabulously!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Funny how such a “stupid” guy was able to pull together a bunch of farmers and defeat the mighty British army.


12 posted on 05/27/2010 9:55:33 AM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Actually telling the truth is easy.

You don’t have to remember the last lie you told.


13 posted on 05/27/2010 9:57:29 AM PDT by Fred Hayek (From this point forward the Democrat Party will be referred to as the Communist Party)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
I've never understood why so many Leftists think that Obama is brilliant...

All of these radical left, self-described "intellectuals" think they're 'mentally superior' to the rest of the population...

The Center for Public Intellectuals & The University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC)
April 19th-20th, 2002, Conference

[Participants include: William/Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Sen Barack Obama]

April 19th-20th, 2002
Chicago Illini Union
828 S. Wolcott

This conference is part of the Center's mission of helping to create a more engaged civil society, working towards social change, fostering coalitions between theorists and activists, and combating anti-intellectualism in contemporary culture. It will be both a celebration of ideas and a rigorous examination of the roles and responsibilities that intellectuals play in society.

I. Why Do Ideas Matter? (a keynote panel)

We introduce the “meta” theme of the conference by hearing “success stories” from diverse voices discussing their experiences intervening intellectually.

Timuel Black, Chicago activist; Prof. Emeritus, City Colleges of Chicago
Lonnie Bunch, President, Chicago Historical Society
Bernardine Dohrn, Northwestern University Law School, Children and Family Justice Center
Gerald Graff, UIC, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Richard Rorty, Stanford University, Philosophy

III. Lunch and Public Encounters

Alternative breakout tours led by Chicago activists. Tours of Bronzeville and other communities, and visits to organizations that are working on partnering theorists with activists.

IV. Intellectuals in Times of Crisis
Experiences and applications of intellectual work in urgent situations.

William Ayers, UIC, College of Education; author of Fugitive Days
Douglass Cassel, Northwestern University, Center for International Human Rights
Cathy Cohen, University of Chicago, Political Science
Salim Muwakkil, Chicago Tribune; In These Times
Barack Obama, Illinois State Senator
Barbara Ransby, UIC, African-American Studies (moderator)

The Center for Public Intellectuals
University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC):
http://www.uic.edu/classes/las/las400/conferencealt.htm
_____________________________________________________

"Dig It. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!"
-Weather Underground leader and wife of Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn ("intellectual"), referring to the Manson murders

Article: Allies in War -by David Horowitz
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, September 17, 2001
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=63512670-BF7C-42A0-B41D-5D0FB9E09C09
_____________________________________________________

"Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at"
--Bill Ayers ("intellectual") (1970), quoted in New York Times, September 11, 2001:

Article: "No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
_____________________________________________________

"It was at the Chicago home of [Bill] Ayers and [Bernardine] Dohrn that ["intellectual"] Obama, then an up-and-coming 'community organizer,' had his political coming out party in 1995. Not content with this rite of passage in Lefty World — where unrepentant terrorists are regarded as progressive luminaries, still working 'only to educate' — both Obamas tended to the relationship with the Ayers."
Article: The Company He Keeps:
Meet Obama’s circle: The same old America-hating Left
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YThjYTU1ZDBjNmQ2YzcwNzU1MmYwN2JiMWY0ZGI0NDA=&w=MA==

14 posted on 05/27/2010 9:59:08 AM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
How perverted it this ... to tell lies is a sign of intelligence???????

How wrong can anyone be? What about character? It was plain to see Bill Clinton had no true character; truth, loyalty, honesty, steadfastness, bravery,love of God, right and wrong, morals, ... He demonstrated daily all is fair in love and war, if you can get away with it.

God help America, cast out the ones that desire to bring America down to a third world nation and make themselves rich, and supreme over the people, in the name of Jesus I pray, amen.

15 posted on 05/27/2010 10:00:00 AM PDT by geologist (The only answer to the troubles of this life is Jesus. A decision we all must make.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Experts' opinion is not a sign of intelligence, IMO.

Maybe the cherry tree legend was a stretch, but honesty had great value back 200 years ago. It was a small world so everyone knew your reputation. You could be challenged to a duel over a false word.

George Washington didn't have a friendly media running interference for him and making up excuses. The truth is easier to to recall than lies delivered on a teleprompter.

16 posted on 05/27/2010 10:01:28 AM PDT by oyez (The difference in genius and stupidity is that genius has it limits.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

“I didn’t realize that Clinton was President at age 2.”

Turn it around. I believe the author (albeit not intentionally) is implying that Clinton behaved like a 2 year old in office. Given that the “terrible twos” often entail narcissism, impatience and little regard for the needs/feelings of others, I would say that’s not far from the mark.


17 posted on 05/27/2010 10:02:48 AM PDT by DrC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

>> A Canadian study last week declared that children who lie are actually showing their mental acuity and creativity.

Do studies lie?

How intelligent must a liar be to avoid being caught in a lie?


18 posted on 05/27/2010 10:03:01 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your Change.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I guess being a liar makes Obama a genius?


19 posted on 05/27/2010 10:04:50 AM PDT by CodeToad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I think it is very fitting to compare a 2 year old to bill clinton to show how much MORE mature and responsible the 2 year old was.

That aside, the idea that lying shows intelligence and that honesty is for saps is right out of the Nietzche playbook and subsequently the hitler playbook as he admired Nietzche so much and thought such things as honesty, integrity, compassion, forgiveness, and love were for weaklings. This is why Hitler hated Christ.

We are truly seeing aa resurgence of Nazi thinking these days.


20 posted on 05/27/2010 10:05:01 AM PDT by HerrBlucher (END THE WAR ON LIBERTY!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-43 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson