flipper:

Interesting. What office did he hold prior?

Elected as senator (no big deal, we have 315 of them), he was nominated
sub-secretary (don't laugh as I'm doing while writing it, it's the position
of the 2-4 people directly reporting to the minister) of, guess what,
Finance.

They'll ignore it, of course, but the sentiment is there.

Not here. I just reported to the judiciary the head of the local ACI (it's
a weird cross between AAA and DMV, private, but with public powers and
capital, one of the *******s that are plaguing this country, those
"privatized" agencies, I mean) for a rather severe offence. I know it will
cost me a few hundred of bucks and lead to nowhere, but I'm trying to do
something.

That's the problem with government being operated by people: some of
them are bound to be jerks.

That one particularly. I won't disclose her weight or color.

Even worse ****er if the jerk is 'king'.

Have you ever heard of the "meter attendant syndrome"?
The less power you have, the more you tend to abuse it.

That's funny. In another thread I am accused of being the ultimate
political pessimist.

I think I understand their point (excuse those "I"s. In most Latin
languages "I" is never uttered, the conjugation of the verb implies it).

Yes, if you have a liberal-Jeffersonian (as opposed to liberal-socialist)
point of view, today's occidental world is gone awry. On the other hand, so
far, it's still standing. How this happens is a mistery, for me, and
probably for you too.

I just love 'experts'.

The "social sciences" ones are invariably a crack.

I skimmed it and already have some issues. Like, if the 'dumb folk'
don't think it's funny then maybe it ain't funny despite the 'expert'
analysis. It is, after all, a matter of opinion.

By all means. I was of your same advice, and puzzled about the reason why
they included such a test. But I realized that the point is that dumb
people is often violent and (or because?) they don't have any sense of
humour.

My colloquial experience finds a similar 'miscalibration' among the
'knowledgeable' as well.

Just take a close look at figure 2. That is the real point.
But also fig. 3 (same questions, but after having graded other
participant's tests) is rather interesting.

I didn't find the last sentence of the summary 'paradoxical' at all.
As the saying goes "the more one knows the more they know they don't
know." Or the more common "ignorance is bliss'."

Socrates' most important quotation is "I only know that I know nothing".
It made me laugh, at school. Kruger proved just that he was a Philosopher.

deleted a law about private company financial reports.

I'm not informed enough to follow what you're saying here, though.

No big deal. The "felony" deleted was just a proxy to be used by lazy or
biased judges to draw a sentence without proving the real crime. But this
allowed Berlusconi to be acquitted one more time.

The point is that the trial was about something the previous socialistoid
government had done, but not in an unlisted company, but in Government
accounts, and a million times bigger.

I believe that you make politicians smarter and meaner than they are.

Perhaps meaner but I can't figure out where I implied 'smart'.

LOL.
Well, if somebody achieves his goal he must be either lucky or smart.
Or he's just doing what people wants him to.

Senator Harry Reid went on national television and actually argued
with the commentator that the Federal Income Tax is voluntary. And
that idiot is not 'just' a Senator, he's the blooming Senate Majority
Leader.

Gosh.

Well, our socialistoid former minister of Finances famously said that payng
taxes is wonderful. But I must admit Sen. Reid beats him.

Maybe not a 'grand plot' by all but it doesn't take a genius to figure
out that bribing the constituency with 'free things' might make you
popular and it's only a small step from there to delude yourself it's
'for their own good'.

Right. But the constituency must be willing to be taken for a ride.