If there is indeed one born every minute, the French have used up about five months of the global quota of suckers.

Per my calculations, that's about how many Frenchman have forked over seventeen bucks for a bestselling book advancing the ridiculous notion that the 9/11 attacks were the fruit of an internal right-wing conspiracy in the US government. I'm not going to mention the title or the author, as I don't wish to give this crackpot any more publicity than he's already been handed for this load of balderdash, or even to dignify his arguments by rebutting them.

If anyone ever wonders why I hold the belief that universal suffrage is not an altogether undiluted Good Thing, this example of human gullibility, along with other classic examples - the popularity of sleazy tabloid papers, the Art Bell radio show, astrology, creationism, and lotteries, should prove my point beyond all reasonable refutation.

Some people are simply too stupid to have a vote.

This book will serve a useful purpose, however. It is soon to be published in more languages and in other countries. This will furnish pyschologists a very accurate tool for estimating the average national IQ's, or at least allow us to locate the largest concentrations of morons.

Perhaps we can offer cash bonuses to them for voluntary sterilization. We'd be doing the human race a favor.