Time to Dust Off the DUMBCON Structure

You're all familiar with my DUMBCON system - my measure of the national stupidity index. If you are new to my blog, or need a refresher, just look over at the left side of the screen and you can see the DUMBCON chart. Take a minute and look it over ... I'll wait.

That ought to tell you something about my view of the world, eh?

When I first set up the DUMBCON structure, there were five levels, designed to parallel the military's Defense Condition (or DEFCON) structure ... DUMBCON 5 was the lowest level of day-to-day stupidity, while DUMBCON 1 was the highest, generally equivalent to 24-hour political campaigning ...

That arrangement worked well enough until the level of stupidity started climbing at an unprecedented rate, and so in January of 2013 I was forced to add a new level beyond DUMBCON 1 - DUMBCON 0 - to account for things like the "truther" movement whose adherents believed that the US government had masterminded the massacre of elementary school children in Connecticut ...

But even DUMBCON ZERO wasn't enough to keep pace with the ever-accelerating level of stupidity, and in October of 2013, in response to things like Congress actually toying with the idea of shutting the government down and defaulting on its debts out of sheer spite and malice, I added yet another level to the chart - DUMBCON -1 (MINUS ONE), where we have been ever since.

Unfortunately, even the addition of a seventh level of stupidity measurement isn't enough any more. I have actually been considering adding an eighth level - DUMBCON -2 (MINUS TWO) - to account for things like the GOP fixation on Benghazi and all-consuming hatred of the President, climate change deniers, and the passage in Georgia last month of the "Safe Carry Protection Act," better known as the "Guns Everywhere Law" which allows the open carry of loaded guns virtually everywhere in the state ... except for the state capitol building, go figure.

I'm reluctant to add yet another DUMBCON level to the chart because I'm afraid it would just encourage brainless dumbasses everywhere to strive for ever-higher levels of ass clownery, driving us into a never-ending inflationary spiral of stupidity.

Oh.

But we're already there.

Never mind.

Dear Readers, for the time being, we'll stick with DUMBCON -1. But I'm sorely tempted ...

Have a good day. Try not to add to the historic levels of stupidity - Congress is already doing a good enough job, and I have better things to do than generate a new change to the DUMBCON index.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo