This video and transcript of The View co-host Sherri Shepherd saying she doesn't know if the world is round or flat are making the rounds in the blogosphere.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Is the world flat?

SHERRI SHEPHERD: Is the world flat? (laughter)

GOLDBERG: Yes.

SHEPHERD: …I Don’t know.

GOLDBERG: What do you think?

SHEPHERD: I… I never thought about it, Whoopi. Is the world flat? I never thought about it.

BARBARA WALTERS: You’ve never thought about whether the world was round or flat?

SHEPHERD: I tell you what I’ve thought about. How I’m going to feed my child–

WALTERS: Well you can do both.

SHEPERD: …how I’m going to take care of my family. The world, is the world flat has never entered into, like that has not been an important thing to me.

ELIZABETH HASSELBECK: You’ll teach your son, Jeffery, right?

SHEPHERD: If my son, Jeffery, asks me ‘is the world flat,’ I guess I would go…

JOY BEHAR: You know, didn’t some person already work this question out? I mean, why are we doing this again? (laughter, applause)

I'm not sure which disturbs me more, Shepherd's idiocy or the fact that Whoopi Goldberg is the calm voice of reason. Actually, that's not true, I do.

See folks, this is why I despise what should henceforth be known as The Sherri Shepherd Award:

Honorary distinction for blatant and willful ignorance, denying the importance of, or refusing to speak about a particular topic using the justification that there are better things to worry about.

It's a pretty convenient rhetorical device, even if it does make you look like a raging moron.

Q: Where do babies come from?
A: I don't know and I don't care. I've already got three and I need to figure out how to clothe and feed them!

Implied in such a stance is that your brain is just too damned small and crowded to do what Barbara Walters suggests above: Think about the world outside of just the physical needs of you and your family.

This came up a number of times in the Newdow case, the atheist who was trying to ensure sure his daughter didn't have to mention god in school. Don't we have more important things to worry about?! What about cancer and terrorism and potholes?

It's a lame device, so please, people, don't use it. Or you may just end up receiving the Sherri Shepherd Award.