Cross-posted at Newport 9.
The December 14 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an editorial titled "Not-so-curious George" on the subject of Chimpy's "listening tour". There's a lot of good stuff there on how pathetic it is that Bush has to crank up a major publicity campaign just to let us know he's actually listening to other people, but here's the money quote:
The impetus for the listening tour was the release last week of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's 79 recommendations for policy and goal changes, which coincided with a CBS poll that said only 21% of the public shares the president's "stay the course" policies in Iraq. This is roughly the same percentage of the public that, in another poll, said it believes crop circles are caused by UFOs.
Serious analysis below the fold.
The Post-Dispatch's editorial raises an interesting question: just how much overlap is there between the people who support the Iraq War and the people who believe that UFOs made the crop circles? I have to believe that the two groups include a lot of the same people. After all, both groups have to believe in a phenomenon for which there is no actual proof (the existence of UFOs, and a successful prosecution of the Iraq War), and both have to ignore important facts that contradict their beliefs (crop circles were actually made by humans, and Iraq has fallen into a state of civil war).
I propose that a study be conducted on the overlap between credulous UFO enthusiasts and credulous war enthusiasts. (And since the Iraq Study Group seems to be done studying Iraq, we might as well give them the job.) If I'm right, and the two groups are largely the same, then this could be a breakthrough for the cause of world peace: simply find out which people believe in UFOs, and make sure that they are never put in charge of any military forces.
You can send me my Nobel Peace Prize in the mail.