The video below shows University of Nevada at Reno student Ivy Ziedrich ranting at Jeb Bush over the Iraq war. The confrontation has received notice from the New York Times (nytimes . com/politics/first-draft/2015/05/13/college-student-to-jeb-bush-your-brother-created-isis/), CNN, and others despite (or perhaps because of) it solving little or nothing.

Those who opposed the Bushes over Iraq will continue to do so, and those who supported them will continue to do so. All she did was accuse Jeb of things, without forcing him to admit anything. There might be some who haven't heard her argument, and some of them might instantly believe her and agree with her, but not many will do that. It isn't enough to just get ideas out there, you have to engage the other side and show them wrong. On the sleazy side of things, I'm sure MSNBC and others will find a creative way to spin the exchange into the general War On Women (or the War On Young College Women), but that's only going to push us even further down the road to idiocracy.

The alternative to things like this is the Question Authority plan. It's almost exactly like what Ziedrich did, except the goal is to ask tough questions. Actual questions, not rants. Nothing she said was an actual question. There might have been a question mark in there somewhere, but launching a series of allegations followed by a question mark isn't an actual question.

It's important to note that Question Authority is ideology-neutral. It can be used to argue for the Iraq War, against the Iraq War, or for or against anything else. As long as you can develop a valid argument for your position, you can use the Question Authority plan.

In this case, using the Question Authority plan could have forced Jeb Bush into making an admission that he wouldn't want to make. That admission could be used against him as long as he's still running for office. And, repeatedly doing that about the Iraq War or other topics would lead to a very long overdue open debate about important issues.

See many more Bad Questions on that page, and please resolve to ask actual questions that will have a real impact.