Does Stupidity Hurt?

The genius in question - Dayana Mendoza, Miss Universe 2008

It hurts me. Other people's stupidity really pains me. In this instance it also shocks me. In case the Q&A portion of the Miss Universe pageant did not already clearly illustrate the lacking intelligence of most contestants, Miss Universe 2008, Dayana Mendoza has firmly put any last vestiges of doubt to rest. In describing her recent United Service Organizations (USO) trip to the prison in Guantanomo, Cuba, she said that she had a "loooot of fun" and that she "didn't want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful." Really?!

Image from Michael Winterbottom's "The Road to Guantanomo"

According to reports, she was met by US military personnel and was taken on a tour of the prison, the jails, the showers, the barbed wire fence... and the bar and beaches!? It was all so "interesting" and the beaches were "unbelievable," she wrote in her blog. I wonder when the prisoners were being waterboarded, did they enjoy the unbelievable beaches? Did they feel like they were partaking in games and rides at a water park? Does she think she is visiting Club Med Guantanomo?

Comm'on! With the global outcry against Guantanomo, how sheltered or ignorant do you have to be to say that you did not want to leave Guantanomo? Well guess what? There is a long list of very innocent people who did not have that choice. There is a reason the Obama administration is committed to closing down this prison in a year; that guards at Guantanomo are reported to suffer from suicidal depression and alcoholism; and that Britain is investigating whether members of their own secret service were complicit in the torture of a British resident while at Guantanomo; or that Spanish prosecutors are considering what the Obama administration will not do but should do - start a criminal investigation on 6 former George W. Bush officials in their connection to creating a framework where torture was allowed.

It is interesting however, how her post on Guantanamo that has the world scratching their heads in puzzlement and horror is suddenly no longer on her blog. I guess that might hamper Ms. Mendoza and Dick Cheney's public relations effort to promote Guantanamo as a beach resort where only the occasional war crime and human rights violations were committed. Oops. Minor inconvenience. Did I tell you the beaches are incredible?

Huh, where's my extra extra strength Tylenol?