You know... morons

Clause 3, Article 6 of the United States Constitution:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the
several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the
United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation,
to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required
as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

I added the emphasis.

During the work week, I watch Morning Joe on MSNBC while I eat breakfast. This morning some poll numbers were quoted - 12% believe that Barak Obama is a Muslim and 32% believe that he attended a madrassa. How much effort does it take to remain willfully ignorant?

I posted the quote above to remind people what our constitution says. Obama, a Muslim? No, but it does not matter. ...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

When Mitt Romney came to the Bush Library to speak, he should have quoted Clause 3, Article 6 and left. He should have kept repeating, "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States", until it penetrated the thick skulls of people trying to impose such a test.

Back to the poll numbers quoted on MSNBC. In a perfect world, when news people quote a poll showing a percentage of people believing something proven untrue the phrase, "you know... morons" should accompany the quote.

An example:
According to a 1999 Gallup poll, 6% of Americans believe that the Apollo moon landings were faked. You know... morons.*

It would ease my pain.

*You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons. - From Blazing Saddles

...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Abbey and MSNBC

Abbey is not house broken. Oh joy. It has been a long time since I've trained a dog not to go in the house. I don't know how a dog manages to live five years without knowing where to go. I can guess one of the reasons she was surrendered by her owner.

I don't know when Abbey sleeps because she would not stop whining last night. There were brief interludes of silence but I'd think she would figure out that whining is not going to get her the attention she wants. The neighbors will think we are torturing a dog.

Then the damn dog looks at me with her brown eyes and sad face. I pet her and she is happy. She just wants to be close to people and petted but I wish she would learn not to make a mess on my carpets and sleep quietly in her kennel.

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I watched a bit of Joe Scarborough on MSNBC this morning. He trivialized the death toll in Iraq. He jokingly complained that it was a poor segue into the important story about Paris Hilton. Made a cartoonish "wa-wa-wa" sound after his comment about the Iraq death toll. I no longer have the energy to be outraged by these idiots.

Last night was semi-literate, equipment hog night at the gym.

How hard is it to match the numbers on the dumbbells to the numbers on the rack?

In an environment in which equipment is shared you cannot do immediate transitions to different exercises. Sorry. Yeah, I'm talking about you Ms. hoard the 12.5 pound dumbbells while doing your step ups! I could have done my 12 reps and two other people could have done 12 reps each by the time you switched to the exercise that required the 12.5 pound dumbbells. The most time that you would have to wait between exercises is 30 seconds except when there are dumbbell hogging idiots around. Get a home gym if you want to immediately switch exercises or do body weight calisthenics instead.

Today's comics:

Comics page editors have so much great material to choose from but yet Cathy and Drabble are still in the papers. I want blinky lights on my shoes.

Another cartoonist breaks the fourth wall. The girl's brother is grappling with the implications of what his sister just did.

Get out of my head! Who has been sending this cartoonist my fantasies?

Vera run! A nicer apartment is not worth your soul! You can hang pictures, paint or even wall paper a bit. A few plants can help make your present dwelling habitable. My god, Mary Worth already has her soul sucking face on. Vera, that finger of death can poke straight through your sternum.

Today's funnies were uninspiring. I did wonder about the competence of Dr. Cory's son, the doctor. I'm learning to ignore the folding of space in Mary Worth, the comic strip not the character.

This morning the fog was dense and 39 people did not know how to turn on their fog lights or headlights. 39 stupid people wondering why life treats them so badly.

Local idiot.

Bryan man nabbed in false report case

By MATTHEW WATKINS
Eagle Staff Writer

A Bryan man has been arrested after he reportedly made false police and insurance reports claiming that $25,000 worth of electronics and jewelry had been stolen from his apartment.

Jorge Martinez, 30, faces charges of making a false police report to an officer conducting a criminal investigation.

According to police reports, Martinez listed several large televisions, jewelry, a computer, 340 DVDs, 80 X-box video games, DVD players, a VCR and several other items as stolen.

The report was filed to Bryan police last March and investigators said that they were suspicious from the start. He was taken into custody Saturday.

"I was very alarmed at the exorbitant amount of monetary items listed as stolen in the report," said Detective Jon Agnew, who specializes property and juvenile crime, in a signed affidavit. "I had not investigated any other burglary of a habitation in this high of a price range."

Two days after Martinez filed his original report, police said he called them again, explaining he found more items missing such as a surround sound system and $2,800 worth of sports jerseys. When he arrived at the police station the following day to pick up the police report, he added a 46-inch television worth $2,200 to the list, reports said.

Agnew said that the large amount of money reported stolen from the residence, which is located in an area with mostly low-income housing, was a red flag that the report was fake.

The quantity of valuables taken was another red flag, he said.

"With the amount of items that the defendant stated was stolen, the alleged suspect would have to have a moving truck and several people to help him," Agnew wrote in the affidavit. He added that he interviewed Martinez's neighbors and that no one recalled seeing any suspicious activity.

Agnew reported that he asked Martinez to show receipts for the items, and Martinez told him that he forgot to report that a briefcase that had all of his receipts in it also had been stolen.

According to the reports, Martinez also filed a claim with his renter's insurance. An investigator from the insurance company who shared his findings with police reported that he visited Martinez's house and one of his teenage sons told the investigator that he was unaware of a burglary.

After Agnew requested receipts he began to have trouble contacting Martinez, he said. A warrant was signed for his arrest but he was not located until a traffic stop ten months after the report was originally made.

He was released Saturday on $2,000 bail for the Class A misdemeanor.

• Matthew Watkins' e-mail address is matthew.watkins@theeagle.com.