Worst Idea Ever!

There have been a lot of famous bad decisions over the years.

There have been New Coke, the Edsel, and endergoing fertility therapy to have octuplets, despite the fact that you have no job, and Jar Jar Binks, just to name a few.

But every once in awhile, there is an idea so foolish, and so misguided that no amount of head-scratching can contemplate what someone might have been thinking.

I was in New York City last weekend, and, although I did not see the plane at the time, your government thought it would be a fine idea to fly a VC-25, otherwise known as "Air Force One," while the president is on board, over Manhattan so that the plane could be photographed in front of famous New York landmarks.

I'll say again, your government thought it would be a fine idea to fly a plane, very low, over Manhattan, in order to take pictures of it with landmarks. They thought it was a good idea to remind people of this:

so they could have this:

The idea was so that the White House could give such pictures to give people as gifts and keepsakes. The cost of such an effort has so far been estimated at nearly $329,000. While that amount of money seems like pocket change nowadays, perhaps the worst part about it is that the White House Military Office instructed the FAA not to inform the public about "what it thought would be a higher-flyover by two F-16s, and an Air Force VC-25 aircraft. At one point, the planes were within 1,000 feet of the ground, and 400 feet of the Statue of Liberty.

Quite obviously, a great number of New Yorkers were alarmed. How in the world, did anyone think this was a good idea?

For the record, your president obama was "furious" about the incident and "the confusion it caused." Hey, smartest guy alive: scaring the shit out of thousands of people, does not qualify as "confusion." WH press smart-guy Gibbs told reporters that the White House review of the "incident" wouldn't take more than a couple of weeks, and the president will look at that review and take any appropriate steps after that."

Some idiots even went so far as to say there needs to be some protocol for such "incidents" in the future. So, the next time we decide to do something so stupid as to terrorize our own people, we need to have protocols in place to make sure everyone knows when we are going to do something really stupid. It boggles the mind that such protocols would be needed, much less comtemplated.

My first reaction to this story was to ask why they didn't just Photoshop the plane into whatever scene they wanted to. The New York Daily News is hosting a contest. Some of their entries can be seen here:

The latest, and most fanciest version of Photoshop, costs $699.00. One would think that the way they are throwing money around at the White House, they could easily afford such software.

We are left with only two conclusions: the first is that such a giant screw-up requires doing it on purpose, and if that's the case, why do it? What else is going on, that they have to distract us from? And what will be the next "crying wolf" they will try? Swine Flu perhaps?

New Coke, JarJarBinks, the Edsel, and the octomom were all acts of sheer will. While famously stupid ideas, they were all done on purpose. All of them sounded like good ideas at the time, and later became famously stupid.

Flying a plane, low over Manhattan, just so you could take pictures of it with landmarks, was never even a good idea at the time. It was an idea so stupid that it had to be done on purpose. What's more, your genius president pretended like he didn't know about it. Even if you believe his story, what's worse? The Air Force can conduct such an operation without the President's knowledge, or that the president actually didn't know about it?

When I saw "Star Wars: The Fantom Menace," back in 1999, on its opening night, on my way out of the theater, a reporter with a notebook approached me, and asked me my thoughts about the movie. I told the reporter, "When I am 88 years-old and lying on my death bed, I will pray that God lets me live an additional two hours and thirteen minutes."

I can only hope that there are not a bunch more reasons for me to pray that God lets me live an additional four years.