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Dumb Human Behavior to Avoid

Nothing bucks up our spirits more than knowing there are people dumber than we are. Except maybe knowing there are lots of them.

from Reader's Digest Magazine | June/July 2011

DUMB IN GOVERNMENT
If You Disagree, Hiss

The city of Wheeling, Illinois, plans to build a $1.2 million paved bike-and-pedestrian path. People who use the path will most likely spend much of their time jogging, as it happens to run adjacent to the habitat of the highly poisonous Eastern massasauga rattlesnake. Source: St. Louis Today

Fuzzy Wuzzy Wuzn’t Marxist, Wuz He?
The Texas Board of Education banned the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? because the  author, Bill Martin Jr., has the same name as a Marxist  theorist. No one bothered to check whether they were indeed one and the same person. Source: Huffington Post

Let’s Just Call It Lake C

The Webster, Massachusetts, Chamber of Commerce has discovered that the name of the town lake has been misspelled on signs for years. The lake they incorrectly spelled Chargoggagoggmanchaoggagoggchaubunaguhgamaugg is actually spelled Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.Source: Worcester (Massachusetts)
Telegram & Gazette

Vice Minister
Russia’s finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, knows a way to generate taxes and goose his country’s sluggish economy: Everyone should drink and smoke more. “If you smoke a pack of cigarettes, that means you are giving more to help solve social problems,” he said. Source: CBS News

Next: DUMB LOVE

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Your Comments

  • Raks

    (:
     

  • Orlinsky

    Locating a bike/walking path in massasauga rattlesnake habitat is not as dumb as you make it sound. The  Eastern massasauga rattlesnake is on the state endangered list According to the U.S.Fish & wildlife service, “The
    massasauga is a secretive, docile snake that strikes humans only when
    it feels threatened or cornered. A massasauga will rely on its camouflage
    coloration to hide or will try to escape rather than strike a person.
    Many people who visit parks with massasaugas never see these shy creatures
    and may have walked by one with out noticing it.” Refer tohttp://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/reptiles/conserve.html

  • Orlinsky

    Locating a bike/walking path in massasauga rattlesnake habitat is not as dumb as you make it sound. The  Eastern massasauga rattlesnake is on the state endangered list According to the U.S.Fish & wildlife service, “The
    massasauga is a secretive, docile snake that strikes humans only when
    it feels threatened or cornered. A massasauga will rely on its camouflage
    coloration to hide or will try to escape rather than strike a person.
    Many people who visit parks with massasaugas never see these shy creatures
    and may have walked by one with out noticing it.” Refer tohttp://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/reptiles/conserve.html

  • Alan

    no, fuzzy-wuzzy wasn’t marxist, but this gets my vote for the dumbest government stunt. only in texas, friends, only in texas.

  • Alan

    no, fuzzy-wuzzy wasn’t marxist, but this gets my vote for the dumbest government stunt. only in texas, friends, only in texas.

  • MyComment

    There may be reasons to forego building a $1.2 million dollar trail in tough economic times.The presence of a potentially dangerous snake is not one of them. If that were the case, we wouldn’t have very many hiking trails in the US. Most of the 48 contiguous states are home to at least one species of venomous snake. Many have several. Even places without the snakes may have other dangerous creatures present.
    Are we all supposed to just sit at home and watch TV all day long?Oh, and as rattlesnakes go, the massasauga isn’t among the more dangerous species. They are smaller than most, and have a lower venom yield. 

    You’d be in much more danger hiking trails where timber, prairie, diamondback or sidewinder rattlesnakes live. But people do it all the time.

    • Anonymous

      STOP BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE

    • Anonymous

      STOP BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE

  • Fred

    I loved the one about the theives who confused robbing a bank with ordering a pizza.  You don’t get faster service by calling in your order ahead.  That is really dumb. 

    • Ralphy77

       What is even dumber is that you can spell “thieves.”

  • Scott Long

    you can’t fix stupid

  • DJMarkski

    You forgot reading Reader’s Digest.