The Enlightened Despot

The vast majority of U.S. Senators are fairly skilled at passing themselves of as more or less sane and capable of semi-rational thought. Every now and then a Ted Stevens comes along, but it’s rare. The same, however, cannot be said for the House of Representatives, which is always populated with the overtly crazy, the profoundly ignorant, the utterly inarticulate, and the good old fashioned dumb. Maxine Waters, whom you would not leave alone with your children in a million years, has been in the House for almost two decades, and that’s pretty much par for the course. But no matter how often I remind myself of this fact, these legislators still have the power to astonish me:

(h/t Chris Orr)

UPDATE: Note that this video was posted by (someone claiming to be) Representative Barton himself. As you can see from the title, and from his comments on Twitter posted by Orr, Barton is actually pleased with his performance here, and thinks he showed Chu up. This man should not be allowed to wield sharp objects without supervision. Democracy is an ugly business.