My father was a tax accountant who never had the opportunity to garner a CPA designation and become a Certified Public Accountant. He was never 'certified' in the dictionary sense that "he had passed a test or achieved a certain standard," nor did he meet the second definition of being declared "officially or legally to have a psychiatric disorder and require confinement in a mental health facility."
The latter definition comes with the word "dated," and although it may apply to some, it's more apropos to use a third definition when describing individuals like Donald Trump and his fellow birthers as certified idiots. With President Obama's official long-form birth certificate as firm evidence to the contrary, they still knowingly deny the truth and continue, "to state or confirm something is certifiable true and correct," when it is not.
Once the official certificate was produced, Donald Trump with his penchant for being in the spotlight, saw it as an opportunity to elevate his status, and loudly proclaimed that he was responsible for forcing the White House to release the birth certificate. "Today, I am proud of myself because I've accomplished something that no one else has been able to accomplish," he said in his usual braggadocio manner. " He then added, "I want to look at it, but I hope it's true."
Donald claims to hold the trump card as the potential future leader of the free world, and too many Republicans have had a severe case of "timidititus maximus," and cower in his towering presence. This is especially true of those GOP leaders who have presidential ambitions and are afraid to speak against Trump for fear of alienating their newly expanded base of Tea Party members.
These people exert undue influence on Tea Party-supported legislators who in 15 states supported "birther bills." Such a bill was passed by wide margins in both of Arizona's Houses. However, on April 18, conservative Republican Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a measure that would have required presidential candidates to furnish a birth certificate. She sanely noted "I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for President of the greatest and most powerful nation on earth to submit their 'early baptismal or circumcision certificates.'"
Her mention of "circumcision certificates" sadly ties into a demented precedent for such idiocy regarding the demand of certificates; only this regarded the other end of life -- death certificates. During World War Two millions had been deliberately and heinously murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators in death camps. After the war, families of victims tried to collect on policies that had been paid for before the war and issued by European insurance companies.
Companies such as Assicurazioni Generali of Italy and German-based Allianz AG, who had regularly collected policy payments before the war, refused to pay what was due because the families could not produce the policies that had been destroyed nor could they produce death certificates to prove that the insured had died. It was apparent that the uber-efficient Nazis had not taken the time, nor had the inclination to issue death certificates after they had extracted the victims gold teeth, gassed them, and then burned their bodies in the crematoriums in Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.
Now that Osama bin Laden has been killed, there is sure to be 'doubting Donalds' who see it as a sinister ploy by Obama to boost his ratings and increase his chances for re-election in 2012. They may demand to see a properly signed, official death certificate.
If Donald can find time away from important upcoming sessions with his hairdresser, he will probably make another decisive presidential-like move, and do so on national television, emphasizing that he alone was responsible for whatever action is taken.