Beauty Pageant, Political idiocy, &c.

During a recent trip to Central Florida, my father unearthed a treasure trove of "Thomas Family" photographs. It is my intention to withhold most of these photographs until they can be used for maximum effect, but one such photograph is useful now.

Up until now, due primarily to a 20+ year age differential, it has been exceedingly difficult to compare my good looks, with those of my Dad on an age adjusted basis. In an Adam's Razor exclusive, you will now be able to decide once and for all which Thomas man was the most handsome.


Age before beauty so Dad goes first:



Based not only on the volume of hair, but also on his attire, I am able to estimate that this picture was taken sometime in the late 1970's. Surprisingly, his mustache looks largely the same and is not helpful in dating this picture. Based on the above evidence, we'll assume that he is in his mid-20's (DOB: 1955).


It was exceedingly hard for me to find a picture of myself from my mid-20's where I was more than partially clothed. As a result, female Slicers are welcome to "right click" on this picture and the click "set as background".

Slicers are invited to participate in the poll below.

If I had a time machine, I would prefer to go out on a date with:



Dumb and Dumber

Since there has not been a good political sex scandal for the past month or so, I'm going to continue with the theme of amazingly dumb things said by politicians [which (un)fortunately there is no shortage of].

With 535 (435 in the house, 100 in the senate) members of Congress each taking advantage of their 1st amendment rights, it can often be difficult to select who said the stupidest thing on any given day. I would like to thank Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) for making today's selection a no-brainer.

Here is a video of Ms. Jackson Lee (re)educating us on the geopolitical situation in South East Asia:



This phrase in particular might strike you as odd, "Today, we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace. I would look for a better human rights record for North Vietnam, but they are living side by side."

Lest any of you Slicers are confused by Ms. Lee's incoherence. We have one Vietnam. It lives side by side,not with itself, but with Laos, Cambodia, and China. In case you are wondering, Ms. Lee sits on the Committee on Foreign (!!!)Affairs. She earned a B.A. in political science from Yale University in 1972. Can you think of anything that might have been going on in 1972 that may have clued an Ivy League political science major into the idea that there might be one Vietnam? Me either...

If I were to ever find myself saying something insanely idiotic on national television (which if I'm ever on national television, is likely to happen), I would probably sulk back home and lay low for a couple days.

Not Ms. Lee.

She then heads over to the NAACP and (during a speech about the upcoming election and the "Tea Party") says this: "All those who wore sheets a long time ago have now lifted them off and started wearing, uh, clothing, uh, with a name, say, I am part of the tea party."

I'm sure that in context (and insane asylums) her comment makes a little sense, but this is an example of the dangers that can occur when your mouth runs faster than your brain. In today's political environment it is common to call members of the "Tea Party" racist, but to accuse them of taking off their sheets, and putting on, uh, clothes?

Making a fool of herself is nothing new to Congresswoman Lee. In 2005 she visited NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories to observe the successes of the Mars Pathfinder mission. Mars Pathfinder, besides being the first of a series of missions to Mars that included rovers (robotic exploration vehicles), was the most important since the Vikings landed on the red planet in 1976, and also was the first successful mission to send a rover to a planet.

During her visit, Ms. Lee asked the facility why the Pathfinder didn’t take a photo of the American flag that Neil Armstrong planted on Mars in 1969. She was no doubt astounded to learn that Mr. Armstong (or anyone else) has never been to Mars. The Apollo missions were successful, it's just their intended target was a tad closer, and made out of cheese. Not since Jim Carey's brilliant portrayal of Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber, has anyone been so shocked to learn that man has indeed landed on the moon.

Reductio ad absurdum