Obama’s Brain and Occam’s Razor

 

                                Occam’s Razor

     In Latin..............Entia non sunt multiplicana praeter necessitate
     In English...........Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity
     In Lay Terms.....Don’t resort to complicated explanations, supernatural
                                 causes, modish excuses, or mob-think when the answer
                                 is staring you in the face

    One of the most profound thoughts ever expressed (and one of the most commonly ignored) is known as the Principle of Parsimony or, more familiarly, Occam’s Razor. It is attributed to William of Occam, a 14th century English friar, ascetic and philosopher. It is one of the foundation stones of scientific inquiry and, indeed, of rational thought.
    Here’s a little quiz to show how The Razor can be used in common everyday scenarios (answers at bottom of page):

1. Your teenage son shows up at two in the morning passed out drunk behind the wheel of the car you lent him. The vehicle has a smashed front end and has been towed up your driveway. What is the likely explanation for this event? 
a) An immense pothole opened up on Hunterbrook Road with Satan standing irresistibly in its midst, pitchfork and pint of Jack Daniels in hand
b) The car was hijacked by a mob of cheerleaders who forced your son to drink a quart of Kahlua before gang-raping him and wrecking the car
c) In a desperate attempt to rescue a neighbor’s cat stranded in a tree, your son slammed the car into the tree trunk. As a reward for saving the cat, the neighbor ─ a Mrs. Nancy Pelosi ─ treated the boy to a sip of rum
d) He got stinking drunk at an underage drinking party

2. Your 15-year-old daughter tearfully confesses to her mother that she is pregnant. What could have caused this unfortunate situation?

a) The Holy Spirit in the person of Christopher Walken as the Angel Gabriel flew into your daughter’s bedroom disguised as a large male swan and had his way with her
b) A mixed gang of Hell’s Angels, High School Computer Club nerds, and AARP members swarmed out of the bushes behind the football stands after class and had their way with her
c) After listening to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC your daughter fell into a trance featuring vampires, werewolves, and George Bush all of whom had their way with her
d) She got knocked up by her boyfriend  

3. You discover a half-eaten $25 sirloin steak that you had been planning to use for a cookout lying in a dusty corner of the kitchen. The family cat is in the living room purring and licking its ass, a tinge of red around its chops. How could this disaster have befallen your steak?

a) A reincarnation of the Biblical Patriarch Abraham had been ordered by Jehovah to rip off an expensive cut of meat and sacrifice it on a neighbor’s outdoor cooker
b) A sirloin-addicted poltergeist that Stephen King warned of in his 75th blockbuster horror novel had materialized in the crawlspace beneath the kitchen and despoiled the steak
c) A localized earthquake struck the countertop where the meat was resting causing it to fall to the floor where a passing hobo spotted it and gnawed off a section
d) The cat ate it

4. You  arrive home to your bachelor digs on the Lower East Side after a hard day goofing off at Reader’s Digest to find your bathtub overflowing and your apartment and several apartments below flooded. How could this have happened?

a) Ectoplasm from the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come oozed into your apartment through a keyhole and turned on the water as punishment for you not contributing to the Salvation Army
b) A Mafia hitman named Salvatore "The Beagle" Constipigleore broke in and opened the tap as a warning not to turn state’s evidence against Eliot Spitzer
c) The volcano goddess Pelé once again wreaked vengeance upon your plumbing because of the lava stones you brought back from Hawaii
d) You were drunk and left the water running

    While you are chewing these multiple choices over, let’s move on to another, more portentous matter: How does one account for the behavior of the strange creature currently occupying the White House who insults America’s allies, betrays America’s friends, bows to America’s adversaries, apologizes to America's enemies, relies on a teleprompter to read speeches that other people prepare for him, is unaware of how many states are in the Union, doesn’t know how to pronounce the word "corps," and thinks "twitters" is the name of a social network and that Europe is a country?
    Here are some of the excuses floating around the media and cyberspace.
    •His critics are racists
    •It's all Bush-Hitler's fault
    •He’s getting bad advice
    His brilliance makes him arrogant
    •He’s new to the job, give him time to settle in
    •The press is against him
    •He's having a run of bad luck
    •He's the victim of
 a vast right-wing conspiracy
    •Rush Limbaugh
    Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to Razor Barack, not to praise him.
    The problem with President Barack H. Obama is not bad luck or George Bush, or racial prejudice or youthful inexperience or even personality defects.
    There is a simple, straightforward Occam’s Razor explanation for the phenomenon that currently inhabits the Oval Office and the golf course: Barack Obama is STUPID ─ totally, flat-out, congenitally STUPID. And by stupid, I do not mean ignorant or ill-educated or inexperienced. I mean DUMB...as in thick, slow, simple-minded. I mean someone with a weak intellect. I mean a classic out-and-out All-American dope. (For more details on Obama's intelligence or lack of same, click on Is Obama Stupid and Lazy?)
    Some believe Barack Obama is the Second Coming of Jimmy Carter. Not true. L’il Jimmah was a bright enough fellow before senility took its toll (demonstrating that intelligence is no barrier to incompetence). Barack, however, is the genuine box-full-of-rocks, one-can-short-of-a-six-pack article. And, as with all dimwits, he accuses his critics of being ignorant, mendacious, or prejudiced when they fail to appreciate the profundity of his trivial insights, the nobility of his nonexistent motives, and the overwhelming rightness of all Rahm Emanuel and David Axlerod tell him to espouse.
    Every asinine thing this man does, every jerkwater statement out of his mouth, every bad decision he makes, every faux pas he perpetrates, every diplomatic blunder he commits, every campaign promise he forgets can be explained. Just follow William of Occam's dictum.
    When a man acts stupidly, says stupid things, and looks stupid, there’s a simple explanation: He is stupid.
    But let’s be fair.
        •On the basis of observation, I have concluded that the President is a nitwit.
        •
On the basis of thrills rippling up his leg toward his genitals, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews
          has concluded that the President is a genius.
    
Mr. Obama, how about settling this honest disagreement?
    Release your SAT scores, Release your IQ scores, release your grade-school, high-school, college, and law-school records, release your Grad Record Exam score, release your Armed Forces Qualification Test score.
    
What the hell is the big secret, man? Concerned that folks will think you’re a snob because you’re so brilliant?
    Or, just maybe, are you afraid that people will discover what an utter affirmative-action ass you are?
    Go ahead Rahm and David and Valerie ─ prove Chris and Marcos and Arianna and Keith right.
    Go ahead Barack ─ prove the doubters wrong.
    I’ll be the happiest man in the country to learn that my President is a man of superior intellect...and I will gladly, if not enthusiastically, consume a platter of sautéed crow if Michelle will whip one up for me.

Norm Mack, Peterborough, dog@myfairpoint.net

Answers to Quiz:
    
If you answered (d), (d), (d), and (d) you are an aficionado of Occam’s Razor
    
If you answered (a), (a), (a), and (a), you’re a religious fanatic and I wish you the best
    
If you answered anything else, you’re a raving lunatic or Keith Olbermann ─ oh, wait a minute,
     that’s redundant.

 

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