Who's going to win.....

[westcoast]

Everywhere, such as, and .....

americans aren't smart enough to invade Canada, you don't even know where we are. US students can hardly name 20 states let alone figure out where other countries are located .....

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Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question

[mtmynd]

wow, westie! you picked a great example of U.S. youth brain power. aren't you a bit envious of our education system?

our system doesn't teach geography any more... not in many, many years and you can see how well that has worked out, eh? i've seen example after example of geo-ignorance amongst our citizens. they simply do not care, plain and simple. they just want a big mac or a pizza... those two items they can locate nearly blindfolded.

[westcoast]

lol.... i am teasing as all my american friends are bright, intelligent, delightful people and i love them. but there is a problem when a powerful member of the global community doesn't properly educate citizenry. my country isn't perfect either, however, we do place a high value on education. according to the U.N., education and health care are the two key criteria to a successful nation's quality of life and ability to remain competitive.

here's hoping for an Obama win!!

God help us all

~westie

[bennie2]

doreen, if you ever visit europe just pretend to be a canadian. it works!

you could try and win people over by showing them that liberal, free thinking (or simply just "thinking") US citizens actually do exist.

but I'd go with the "canadian" thing.

the US elections have been getting more coverage over here than a UK election would. Our news has covered it since early this year.

I couldn't give a fuck to be honest. I don't like that I'm a cynic, but I am and I genuinely believe that all politicians are liars, they have to be to progress. I'm a firm believer that power poisons the powerful.

[bennie2]

haha... westie

"I'm teasing...some of my friends are american."

[Doreen Peri]

Bennie...

Jesus. If I move to Europe, you advise me to pretend to be Canadian so they think I am a thinking person?

OMG, the whole world thinks Americans are stupid!

Your post is so fricking sad!

.....

An westie.... I'm just shaking my head here.... Americans value education! It's one of our top priorities!
.....

I'm just amazed at how the world sees our country.

Sure, I can understand hating us for being imperialists with a flag-waving nationalist mentality because the government has been imperialistic for many years (I hate it) and because there ARE a lot of Americans with that flag-waving nationalistic attitude (not me, but I see it all the time and hate it, too).

But to think that we're all stupid?

OMG!

[Dave The Dov]

Come on people let's take it back from the brink of that Son Of a Bush's stupidity!!!! VOTE WITH YOUR INTELLIGENTS AND SEND THEM A MESSAGE!!!!
_________________
Slovenian Forum

[westcoast]

unfortunately, a lot of damage has been done to america's reputation abroad. yes, many people do believe that Doreen. and it is sad.

~westie


PS - I'd loan you my passport but the pic is pretty scary!!!

[Doreen Peri]

I could get my own passport. LOL!... you don't need to loan me yours. too funny

As I said, I can see people hating the US for being imperialist bullies. I hate my own country for it.

But to call us stupid and say we don't care about education?

Why?

That's ridiculous!

[westcoast]

America continues to drop down the list in rankings of industrialized nations on several key factors measured by the U.N. and the OECD.

here is a link to a 2008/09 Human Index study conducted by americans on americans that reports out findings based on measures not related to the GDP, the stock market or "hard" quantitive measures. it examined: educational attainment, access to health care, and other "human development" indicators. the executive summary:
http://www.measureofamerica.org/file/FA ... MERICA.pdf

page 2 begins the "ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE" segment.

the report is endorsed by the U.N. and based upon its modeling of populations.

again, everywhere i go in america i meet exceptional, curious, questioning people. take back the night Amercia! what is going on down there?

[mnaz]

Well, we care about education, but not enough, it seems to me. Sometimes we even refuse to fund our public schools properly, and there's no excuse for that. If the fascists currently running our country had their way, public education might be jettisoned entirely, or the schools turned into state propaganda centers. The last thing the Darth Cheneys of the world want is a well-educated electorate.

And I hate to say it, but re-electing the Bush crime family was a stupid thing to do, so I'm not inclined to cut American voters much slack, at least over the last few years. As Forrest said, stupid is as stupid does. About all the US can do at this point is try to redeem itself by reforming its own corrupted election process somewhat, and by participating more fully and in a more informed way in that process. No more blind, uneducated acceptance of blatantly false campaign rhetoric and knuckling under to fear politics.

[westcoast]

doreen, i jokingly suggested you could use my Canadian passport. i imagine you've had a US passport for years - if you've travelled abroad or required it for other purposes. unfortunately, the photo in my current passport is REALLY bad. after 9/11 canadians weren't allowed to smile in a passport picture, and no color photos were allowed. i had my photo taken in a rush one day and the result is - well - SCARY. LOL

~westie

[Doreen Peri]

I knew you were joking about the passport. (would like to see that picture... heh)

But no, Janet, I've never had a passport. I'm a working class American. I don't have money to travel overseas. One day I'll be able to, I hope. This year, I don't even have enough money to drive myself 3 hours to the ocean.

I went to California last year for the first time. All the way across the country! Wow! It was wonderful. My mom bought me the ticket.

I've had conversations with people on the internet who have said that Americans don't travel overseas because they don't want to. Because of their nationalistic mentality. That's just ridiculous.

I know some well-traveled Americans but they are wealthy. For the most part, Americans are not wealthy, contrary to the popular belief that America is a rich nation.

Most working class Americans don't travel overseas because we don't have the money or the time. We work all the time. Sometimes 2 jobs just to make ends meet.

....

In my community, the only programs which have been cut in the schools are the arts programs. It's very unfortunate as arts are important for the enrichment of life.

I know the school system in my county is one of the best in the country. (Loudoun County Virginia... you can look it up if you want). But I truly thought the academic achievements of all American schools ranked pretty high.

I would agree with mnaz that electing George Bush was stupid. That said, I don't know if the election was real. I think it may have been rigged. Both times. Scary, I know. By definition, one of the first signs of fascism. Rigged elections.

I sure hope we can get our country back.

[mtmynd]

Thx for that link, westie. amazing how we americans are so assured of ourselves accepting "we're the richest people on the face of the earth" but totally uninformed about the truth of it all. in our current times, if we speak out, like these stats do, the people will look at you and curtly say "if you don't like it why don't you move!" as if that was the answer to the countries problems. we embrace 'dumbness' more and more. look at our tv ads - the man is plainly stupid in most cases... the kids are smart asses.. and the woman is disillusioned with life because it's not what is portrayed in sit-coms and dramas. sure, there are examples of success. no doubt about it. but overall, the general public is quite satisfied living in ignorance. (your clip last night on Miss South Carolina is really not that uncommon)

[enough]

[Doreen Peri]

PS - I appreciate the link, too, but I'm not at all certain of the credibility of the report. But I'm smart. So I'm going to do some research about that organization and find out what I can.