Sunday, November 18, 2007

Patrick Byrne: Utahns Crazy, not Stupid

In the movie Speed, the bad guy keeps telling Keanu Reeves that he (that bad guy) is crazy, not stupid.

It's a term I have adopted. Sometimes, I use the Spainish "loco, no soy tonto."

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has decided that he misspoke when he said that we had failed a statewide IQ test.

What he meant to say was that Utahns had failed a sanity test. He makes that clear in an op-ed in today's Salt Lake Tribune.

He uses the bad state of Utah's public school system and the fact that out education costs will "double in the next 10 years" as evidence that Utahns were crazy (but not stupid) for voting against referendum 1 and "accepting the status quo."

I'd be willing to bet that most Utahns believe that Utah's public schools are bad at best. However, 62% of voters decided that a plan that increased taxes and put 100% of that tax increase into the private sector with minimal regulation, while giving public schools no incentive to improve (in fact, giving schools incentive to do even worse, a point Patrick Byrne conceded to me at Piper Down) made absolutely no sense.

And, let's be real. Does sinking $2.6 million of your personal fortune into a losing cause, blasting a Governor with an 80% approval rating, saying you'll help fund an opponent for said Governor even if that candidate is a "communist," and calling the residents of the state you call home (including many of your employees) either stupid, crazy, or uncaring REALLY sound like the makings of a sane man?

Pot. Kettle. Black.

-Bob

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think youve jumped of the looney train.

Vouchers are good 4 ut and well even convince the communist union monopoly

Sam Antar said...

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Panders to Campaign Contributor Overstock.com and Defames CEO Patrick Byrne Critic

Link here:
http://whitecollarfraud.blogspot.com/2007/11/utah-attorney-general-mark-shurtleff.html

Respectfully,

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO & convicted felon)

rmwarnick said...

Somebody needs to tell Mr. Byrne that the election is over, he can stop lying now. As private school voucher advocates did in the campaign, he cites a predicted increase in the number of public school students without mentioning that their parents will be taxpayers-- unless he expects 160,000 orphans to arrive in Utah in the next decade.

But it's OK with me if he keeps dissing Governor Huntsman and insulting the common sense of Utahns in general. He's the perfect spokesman for vouchers.