Today I read something so stupid it made me dizzy and I had to put my head down on my desk until the dizziness passed. From Shakesville:
“If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations,” Palin told host Chris Plante, “then I don’t know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media.”
I have nothing to say about this, because I keep having to put my head down when I read it. But I am reminded of Digby’s post today:
This is why I say that they have retired the concept of hypocrisy. It goes far beyond double standards or duplicity or bad faith. There’s an aggression to it, a boldness, that dares people to bring up the bald and obvious fact that the person making the charge is herself a far worse perpetrator of the thing she is decrying. There’s an intellectual violence in it.
And I guess that is how I experience things like Palin’s quote–as intellectual violence. The idea that you would run for vice-president of a country governed by a constitution with which you are so poorly acquainted just hurts my head.
I mean, seriously.
We used to have brilliant statesmen–like Jefferson–who were morally repugnant and now the Republican party is tossing up moral statesmen–like Palin–who are intellectually repugnant.
Tiny Cat Pants 
Second delurking post just to say that “intellectual violence” is probably a phrase I will need to use often, for a very long time.
Hear, hear, Observer.
B., we are seeing the results of decades of poor citizenship here, among other things. That the McCain/Palin ticket was even presented to the public– much less that it has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning– is a sure sign that at least a huge plurality of our nation’s population has chosen to embrace intellectual dishonesty.
I like that you draw the distinction between moral and intellectual dishonesty. It is one thing for you to either artfully obfuscate the truth or for you to tell me a straight-up lie; if I don’t know the truth, at least the deception is grounded in my ignorance. It is a far more sinister thing to stand in my face and present to me a statement that you and I both know is false, and for you to dare me to either accept the statement or contradict you. The latter tactic (along with a massive voter suppression campaign) is what the GOP is using to try and take hold of the highest office in the land. God help us all if it works.
I saw a car on I-40 this morning with a Palin sticker. Not McCain-Palin, must Palin. It was very disturbing.