Smart Places, Dumb Places, and Potential Damage

This past Tuesday I published a post titled "Stupid Is As Stupid Does," which dealt with the abysmally stupid people of which we seem to have an excess lately. Then yesterday, Mike came up with his lists of the ten "brainiest" and the ten "least brainy," states in the United States, and the top ten "most literate" cities. Oddly enough, Washington DC (not exactly a state, really) showed up on both the "brainiest" list (at number 1, no less), and on the "most literate" list at number 3.

I find this puzzling.

It's not that there aren't a lot of smart people in Washington...it's just that, for some reason, their brains seem to switch off when they go to work. A casual look at Congress and the DC city government provides ample proof. And it's not that they're not literate - ride the metro trains or buses into the city every morning and everyone is reading something, even if it's Dan Brown's new potboiler.

Why do I bring all this up? Simply so I could use this great quote from economist and commentator Thomas Sowell that the Eminence Griese passed to me the other day:

"There is only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs."

I am sorry to be able to thus validate Mike's list.

At least we can be sure we have the best government money can buy. And most of our Congressmen (and women) are ethical - once bought, they stay bought. Usually.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo