"Watching" Jay Leno doing street interviews. He's talkeds to a couple of 20-somethings who have offered (not ironically) such gems as: the Pilgrims came to America for food; they landed in Virginia; there were no countries at the time; the Pilgrims walked here; and others.

As I pointed out to my 19 yo in a fit of middle-aged crankiness, these pieces of shit have the right to vote; they are entitled to a say in how WE are governed. That is woefully fucked up. More evidence that we should return to means, property, and/or literacy testing as a condition of suffrage.

I've come to the conclusion that JayWalking absolutely MUST be staged, ala Pro Wrestling...

It's hard to believe that there are enough STUPID IDOITS in the USA to keep it going, and that they are all randomly encountered...

Come on, guys.  You know better than that.

Just visit Democratic Underground for a bit, and you will realize that these stupids are REAL and they are PLENTIFUL.

I'd have no objections if the rules were changed and required a person to pass an intelligence test before voting.  The world would change rapidly, and for the better.

CJ

Pass an IQ test??? Hell, I'd settle just for requiring the person show ID and be able to read English. [brick]


In an ideal world though, only citizens who are property-owners should be able to vote.

Unfortunately, I know a couple of people that dumb.  I don't think he just happens to pick all dumb people, but the people with the correct answers are edited out.  As for history, there was a report a few years ago about college students not knowing answers to basic history questions.  So that does not come as a surprise to me, that 20 somethings would come up with such stupid answers.

Hell, this came up last week at work.  One person thought Thanksgiving happened a hundred years ago.  I think Jaywalking represents a rather large segment of our population.

[>Q]

[url]http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11/20/geography.quiz/[/url]

Global goofs: U.S. youth can't find Iraq

Friday, November 22, 2002 Posted: 11:13 AM EST (1613 GMT)

WHERE IN THE WORLD
Among 18- to 24-year-old Americans given maps:

87 percent cannot find Iraq

83 percent cannot find Afghanistan

76 percent cannot find Saudi Arabia

70 percent cannot find New Jersey

49 percent cannot find New York

11 percent cannot find the United States


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Young Americans may soon have to fight a war in Iraq, but most of them can't even find that country on a map, the National Geographic Society said Wednesday.

The society survey found that only about one in seven -- 13 percent -- of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military warriors, could find Iraq. The score was the same for Iran, an Iraqi neighbor.

Although the majority, 58 percent, of the young Americans surveyed knew that the Taliban and al Qaeda were based in Afghanistan, only 17 percent could find that country on a world map.

A U.S.-led force attacked the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan in October 2001, and President Bush has said he is prepared to use force to rid Iraq of any chemical, nuclear or biological weapons programs.

The survey asked 56 geographic and current events questions of young people in nine countries and scored the results with traditional grades.

The surveyed Americans got a "D," with an average of 23 correct answers. Mexico ranked last with an average score of 21, just three points from a failing grade.

Topping the scoring was Sweden, with an average of 40, followed by Germany and Italy, each with 38. None of the countries got an "A," which required average scores of 42 correct answers or better on the 56 questions.

"Someone once said that war is God's way of teaching geography, but today, apparently war or even the threat of war cannot adequately teach geography," said John Fahey, president of the National Geographic Society.

"More American young people can tell you where an island that the 'Survivor' TV series came from is located than can identify Afghanistan or Iraq. Ironically a TV show seems more real or at least more meaningful interesting or relevant than reality."

National Geographic is convening an international panel of policy makers and business and media leaders to find ways to improve geographic education and to encourage interest in world affairs, the society said.
Other findings from the survey

• Thirty-four percent of the young Americans knew that the island used on last season's "Survivor" show was located in the South Pacific, but only 30 percent could locate the state of New Jersey on a map. The "Survivor" show's location was the Marquesas Islands in the eastern South Pacific.

• When asked to find 10 specific states on a map of the United States, only California and Texas could be located by a large majority of those surveyed. Both states were correctly located by 89 percent of the participants. Only 51 percent could find New York, the nation's third most populous state.

• On a world map, Americans could find on average only seven of 16 countries in the quiz. Only 89 percent of the Americans surveyed could find their own country on the map.

• In the world map test, Swedes could find an average of 13 of the 16 countries. Germans and Italians were next, with an average of 12 each.

• Only 71 percent of the surveyed Americans could locate on the map the Pacific Ocean, the world's largest body of water. Worldwide, three in 10 of those surveyed could not correctly locate the Pacific Ocean.

• Although 81 percent of the surveyed Americans knew that the Middle East is the Earth's largest oil exporter, only 24 percent could find Saudi Arabia on the map.

The international survey was conducted for the National Geographic by RoperASW. The results were based on face-to-face interviews with at least 300 men and women aged 18 to 24 in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Britain and the United States.

The questionnaires were in the local language, but the content was universally the same.

WHo would want too?

Sgtar15

...more...

[url]http://www.wethepeople.gov/news/amnesia.html[/url]

A nationwide survey commissioned by Columbia Law School in May 2002 revealed that an alarming number of voting age Americans have serious misconceptions about the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Almost a third of all Americans think that the President may suspend the Bill of Rights in wartime.

Question: In time of war or other declared national emergency, the President may suspend the Constitution's Bill of Rights.
Answer
True: 32%
False: 60%
Don't Know 5%

Almost two-thirds think Karl Marx's dogma, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" either was, or may have been, included in the Constitution.

Question: Does the Constitution include the following statement about the proper role of government: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"?
Answer:
Yes: 35%
No: 31%
Don't Know: 34%

For additional information, check: www.law.columbia.edu/news/surveys


The 2001 U.S. History National Assessment of Education Progress results for 12th graders found that 57% scored "below basic" levels. From the 2001 U.S. History National Assessment of Education Progress results for 12th graders:

More than half of high school seniors thought that Italy, Germany, or Japan was a U.S. ally in World War II.

Question: When the United States entered the Second World War, one of its allies was:
Answer:
A) Germany 18%
B) Japan 9%
C) the Soviet Union 48%
D) Italy 24%

Only 29% could connect the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to the Vietnam War.

Question: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) was significant because it:
Answer:
A) ended the war in Korea 43%
B) gave President Johnson the authority to expand the scope of the Vietnam War 29%
C) was an attempt to take foreign policy power away from the President 15%
D) allowed China to become a member of the United Nations 13%

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the Motor-Voter laws, is it?

Ya they can always just follow the smell [:D]

Whose intelligence, yours or mine? You [b]know[/b] I'm much more intelligent than you! [lol]




[devil]

Which exit?

[LOL]I shouldn't laugh, because this is bad, but the Constitution predates Marx's birth by 27 years, and the Commie Manifesto by 57 years.
The fact that people don't know enough about either approach to government and individual rights, or that Marx is Mister Communism, to know what is what is frightening.

Karl was the one between Harpo and Groucho....right?...................Just kidding folks!!

This was actually proposed by Thomas Jefferson.  His theory was that only a person that actually pays taxes should be able to vote to raise taxes.

Imagine how such a system would change our society.  90% of the Democrat's core would disappear.

One of my professors last semester thought that WW1 happened during the 20's.

I corrected her in class, but she was adament and had verified with a colleauge, etc.We went back and forth for a couple minutes.The whole damn class, comprised of 22 women, myself and another guy, mostly sat there with a confused expression.

The following class, she wrote me a little note that I was correct and to NEVER correct her in class again.[}:D]

edit to correct SOME spelling.Cut me some slack.I smashed my index finger with a hammer yesterday.[}:D]

If you have a teacher who's so blatantly wrong about something as non-trivial as a WORLD WAR, you have a DUTY to correct her BS whenever she spouts it, and to hell with the consequences.

Our education system appears to be the biggest single waste of taxpayer's money of all time, judging by the results.   Never before has so much money been spent on so many people with so little reward.

I've never had any interest in being a teacher, but if I were to go into that field,  I'd fail anyone in an instant without even blinking if they don't know the material.   I would truly not care if you don't show up for classes and wouldn't take attendance,  but when it's test day, it's your ass and my lawnmower.   And I wouldn't teach at the level of your average undereducated moron.  I'd be many times tougher than that.    I'd be the teacher with the rep for being very easygoing but also a total hardass when it comes to knowing your shit.

Of course, I'd get a lot of complaints from the parents of the marching morons who keep getting flunked out.

Maybe it's better that I'm not a teacher.

CJ

That's because everyone now goes to "college" and there are so many collections of idiots that pass for a "college" these days. College used to be reserved for truly intelligent and motivated people. Now it is the norm, and you have umpteen thousand colleges, only a small proportion of which are any good.

I too am consistently shocked at the stupidity that I encounter. Even amongst people who went to big name schools.

Besides that, they can memorize all the words to rap "music" (there must be a small chunk of brain in there somewhere) but can't pull up their pants or wear a hat straight...that will get them real far in life.

You go to college to learn a trade, not become a well rounded person.

I took engineering, not history.  I better know calculus, but who gives a rat's butt in the job world if I know Chaucer?

You only have 4 years, and I could have used an extra semester of material science instead of that damned Film History class they made me take.

I've always found the "Jay Walking" segment as more disturbing than funny. Lots of stupid people out there. Sad.

Speak for yourself. This may be true in engineering, it's not true in most cases.

I went to college (a true college, one without grad schools) and took a wide variety of classes in economics (my major), history, politics, classics, calculus, physics, religion, and psychology. It was there that I learned how to manage my time, write and speak well, etc. I also learned other important skills like how to get laid and how to drink.

I went to what was, at the time, one of the top public high schools in the country, yet I came out of college with a far better understanding of many things, academic and non-academic. So I would say college is more than just trade school for most people. Most folks aren't going to sit down and read Plato, Nietzche, Homer, Freud, and have proper instruction on them in their spare time.

I then went to law school to learn a trade. Other people get hired out of college in areas that have little to do with their major, and learn a profession or trade on the job. Most of the engineers with whom I went to college ended up as bond traders, consultants, and financial planners.

Not only that, but they also consider themselves all to be Mensa candidates.

[LOLabove]
Holy shit that was funny!!

Some of the most vapid, inarticulate and unintelligent people I've met are MENSA members. I qualify for MENSA based on my LSAT score alone, and have no desire to be associated with them. Bunch of self-congratulatory schmucks.

I also know people with resumes that would make anyone's eyes light up. Ivy league law school grads, people with PhDs from elite schools, yet they come up with the most asinine and contradictory ideas about government, policy, and "social justice" (whatever THAT is).

Idiots, all of them.

I'd have taken that note to:

1. The dean
2. The college newspaper

The remaining 13% and 17%, respectively,  are serving in the armed forces, right? [:)]

Well, I'm not sure if property ownership should be the criteria, but I know what you're getting at and I agree with you 110%.