This Noem ain't no Chomsky

Michael Sanborn at Decorum Forum is usually a decorous fellow, but he said something that set my WTF alarm off and caused the neighbors to call 911 and report that someone had crashed some kind of craft into Newquist Towers.  In comparing candidates Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and Kristi Noem, he said,  "I think Noem is the superior thinker and would be a superior representative."

I know that Noem has received 26 citations for her driving, but that is the first time I heard anyone accuse her of thinking.  Thinking is a serious  violation of South Dakota values.  What was Herseth Sandlin thinking when she won a scholarship to Georgetown U. and went off and did well
 and accrued some accomplishments?  You want to be a superior representative for South Dakota, you don't do that kind of thing.  Ask Tom Daschle.

Nim Chimpsky, named for Noam, debates.  

Kristi (Snooki Scofflaw) Noem ain't no Chomsky.  And she'd be real torqued off if anyone said she was.  If she knows who Noam Chomsky is.  

I have seen Noem debate, once in person, and thought is not something she indulges in.  She is of the Sarah Palin school of cognition.  If you aren't informed about anything, you don't have to or can't think about it much. So rather than answer questions, she slides off into one of those set speeches against big government and spending money we don't have and warning good South Dakotans that Nancy Pelosi is lurking under their beds waiting to take their guns, suffocate their children, and put the hands of snoring sleepers in bowls of warm water to strain their biblical marriages.  At the State Fair debate between Noem and Herseth Sandlin, Corey Heidelberger in Madville Times adjudicated the debate performances as a debate judge would.    He assessed how each candidate answered each specific question, and he reported that time and again Nome slipped into one of those scripts she shares with John Thune.  If one thought about it, one would say that Noem was unprepared.  One could also call it dissembling.  But that just shows the danger of having information at hand:  if you know something, you might be tempted to think about it.  And that would be to fall into that old D.C. elitism, where you marry beauty queens and buy houses with swimming pools.  Political disasters in South Dakota.  Noem nee Arnold was a Snow Queen, you say?  Don't think about it.

When Noem was asked why she voted to accept stimulus money for South Dakota when she so staunchly opposes it, she said she voted to accept it because the feds provided no way to reject it to pay down the federal debt.  Following that line of reasoning can sure kink up a train of thought, so give it no thought.  She is staunchly against all federal spending but the ranch in which she shares a sizable interest took $2,765,175 in farm welfare payments over 20 years.  Almost $3 million in farm subsidies and 26 traffic citations is pretty hefty accomplishment in 20 years, if you think about it.  But if you don't, it won't bother you.   Not thinking is superior thinking.

 One thing that I think about (sorry, it's hard to stop) is if Noem would have a driver's license if she lived in another state.  Many states have point systems for traffic violations, and when you get 10 or 12 points against you within a certain period of time, your license is suspended.  In Nevada, where Harry Reid spends his off time taking away guns, suffocating children, and putting snoring sleepers' hands in bowls of warm water, the points one can earn toward license suspension are:


Speeding     
    1 - 10 mph over posted limit     1 point
    11 - 20 mph over posted limit     2 points
    21 - 30 mph over posted limit     3 points
    31 - 40 mph over posted limit     4 points
    41 mph or more over posted limit     5  points

Disobeying a traffic signal or stop sign      4 points

Failure to answer citation, pay fines, etc.,   6 points   This alone can cause suspension or revocation of  a license.

One might wonder how many points Noem would have earned in her career if she lived in Reidland.

For the sake of South Dakota values, it is better not to think about it.  Or much else.