DUMB AND DUMBER

Do you think that above is somehow due to that is discussed below?

Michael


from "Notes from a Big Country" by Bill Bryson

There are idiots in every country, Michael, obviously. In my son's elementary
class, there are 22 kids; fifteen of them were tested for the GATE program and
of 22 'average American kids' (five immigres from Eritrea, one from Iraq, four
from Mexico, two from Somalia + six caucasian children and four latinos that
were born in the USA), three qualified for Gifted and Talented programs - none
of these were from overseas. So when you look at Russian schools, where NO
ONE immigrates, and US Schools stuffed to the gills with immigrants, you would
expect the results you get. That said, of course there are dumbass American
kids. I feel better knowing that there are dumb****s in every nation - you do
your best to prove that for us, daily.

"Krztalizer" wrote in message
...

Do you think that above is somehow due to that is discussed below?

Michael


from "Notes from a Big Country" by Bill Bryson

There are idiots in every country, Michael, obviously. In my son's
elementary
class, there are 22 kids; fifteen of them were tested for the GATE program
and
of 22 'average American kids' (five immigres from Eritrea, one from Iraq,
four
from Mexico, two from Somalia + six caucasian children and four latinos
that
were born in the USA), three qualified for Gifted and Talented programs -
none
of these were from overseas.

Three of 22 is a pretty high yield of 5%'ers.

If, say, the New York Times
were to report on a British general election, it would dateline the
story 'London, England', so that no reader anywhere would have to
think: 'London? Now let's see, is that in Nebraska?'

Hey genius, this could very well be true. We have Moscow, Pennsylvania, Cairo,
Georgia, Berlin, Wisconsin, I could go on....


BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"

"BUFDRVR" wrote in message
...
If, say, the New York Times
were to report on a British general election, it would dateline the
story 'London, England', so that no reader anywhere would have to
think: 'London? Now let's see, is that in Nebraska?'

Hey genius, this could very well be true. We have Moscow, Pennsylvania,
Cairo,
Georgia, Berlin, Wisconsin, I could go on....

Or London, OH.
or London, KY
or London CA
or London, AR
or London, TX
or London, IN

or various other 'Londons'...

Pete

"BUFDRVR" a écrit dans le message de
...
If, say, the New York Times
were to report on a British general election, it would dateline the
story 'London, England', so that no reader anywhere would have to
think: 'London? Now let's see, is that in Nebraska?'

Hey genius, this could very well be true. We have Moscow, Pennsylvania,
Cairo,
Georgia, Berlin, Wisconsin, I could go on....



Don't forget the "city of lights" : Paris, Texas. That is, if it has not
been renamed Freedom City yet... :-)


Happy new year, to you and all on RAM.

Arva
Paris, FR

nt (Krztalizer) wrote in message ...

Do you think that above is somehow due to that is discussed below?

Michael


from "Notes from a Big Country" by Bill Bryson

There are idiots in every country, Michael, obviously.

It is always my pleasure to talk with you, Gordon.
To that your point I can say: definetly yes.

In my son's elementary
class, there are 22 kids; fifteen of them were tested for the GATE program and
of 22 'average American kids' (five immigres from Eritrea, one from Iraq, four
from Mexico, two from Somalia + six caucasian children and four latinos that
were born in the USA), three qualified for Gifted and Talented programs - none
of these were from overseas.

So what? If you suggest that local amerians are smarter? Well you are
very wrong as usual. My daughter enter 1-st grade in Germany having no
abilities to speak German since we just came. What do you think would
be result of her test in that year. Zero. In two years she became first
in all tests including German free writing. Also even for natives
elementary school is not very indicative of natural smartness due too
big influence of the family invironment etc which decreases with time.
Last years in a high school show true personal results and often
firsts in elementary school become last or moderate in last years
of high school. The same is applicable to universities.

So when you look at Russian schools, where NO
ONE immigrates,

Oops. Who told you that bull ****. To your knowledge, Gordon
According to UN last year report Russia is #3 country
in terms of immigrates (after USA and Germany). The only
difference is qualities of immigrates. Unlike US and
Germany our immigrates are mostly from FSU states, speak perfect
russian as native second language and have no problems
for quick absorbtion by russian society. It is advantage
not a drawback compare to USA and Germany. During 90s
we have absorbted 10 mil immigrates. In fact we
have more georgians living in russia than Georgia itself
has. The same goes for many others like Kazahs, armianes,
azeries, moldovanes etc. In my department we have people
of all kind. Recently I have been discussing on ongoing
project with two outside collaborators. one is azer
and another is armian. They said Russia is the only
place in the world where this still can happend.

and US Schools stuffed to the gills with immigrants, you would
expect the results you get.

Much more than that. With such kind of culture diversity
of influx immigrants (ritrea, Iraq, Mexico, Somalia, caucasian etc),
I would expect that in 10-20 years there would be very big problems
in US to mantain its working democratic political model and based
on high business ethics economical model. Would it be even existing?


That said, of course there are dumbass American kids.

Sorry Gordon the point of the article was not that there are
dumbass American kids. This fact does not need any proves.
Education and more improtantly environment (TV, media etc)
make dumbass of them. That's was the point, in my view.

I feel better knowing that there are dumb****s in every nation - you do
your best to prove that for us, daily.

This is only due to fact Gordon, that you are perfect product of
that system. and certainly you feel like a dumbass. you just have to,
Gordon.

Michael

nt (Krztalizer) wrote in message ...

Do you think that above is somehow due to that is discussed below?

Michael


from "Notes from a Big Country" by Bill Bryson

There are idiots in every country, Michael, obviously. In my son's elementary
class, there are 22 kids; fifteen of them were tested for the GATE program and
of 22 'average American kids' (five immigres from Eritrea, one from Iraq, four
from Mexico, two from Somalia + six caucasian children and four latinos that
were born in the USA), three qualified for Gifted and Talented programs - none
of these were from overseas. So when you look at Russian schools, where NO
ONE immigrates, and US Schools stuffed to the gills with immigrants, you would
expect the results you get. That said, of course there are dumbass American
kids. I feel better knowing that there are dumb****s in every nation - you do
your best to prove that for us, daily.

Second attempt to illustrate typical dumb US media:

http://www.thepowerhour.com/postings/transcripts.htm

AMERICAN MORNING WITH PAULA ZAHN
'Washington Post' Editor Discusses French Book That Implicates
Government in 9/11
Aired April 24, 2002 - 08:23 ET
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND
MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you want your outrage for the day?
We've got it for you. It's about a book that certainly would not make
Oprah's most must read list. The Pentagon calls it a real offense to
the American people, but it has become a runaway best seller in
France. It makes the unbelievable claim that the September 11 attacks
were staged by the American government and says the Pentagon was
attacked using a truck bomb.

The author of "The Appalling Deception," Thierry Meyssan, has
suggested on French talk shows and his Web site that the CIA and rogue
U.S. military officers were behind the attacks in both Washington and
New York.

Max Berley is the assistant foreign editor of the "Washington Post"
and has just written about the book in the "New Republic" magazine. He
joins us now from Washington.

Good to see you, Max.

MAX BERLEY, "WASHINGTON POST," ASSISTANT FOREIGN EDITOR: Good morning.

ZAHN: Who is the man who wrote this book, Thierry Meyssan?

BERLEY: Well, he's a leftist activist. He didn't have a reputation as
a kook until this book came out. He had done some fairly worthy work
on the National Front, the extreme rightist group, and on the Free
Masons and Opus Day. He's -- and some of his work had been picked up
by mainstream newspapers and media.

ZAHN: Let's share with our audience for a moment some of the theories
he advances in this best selling book in France. He writes -- and
we've shortened this quite a bit because otherwise we'd be here for
about four hours -- but he, among other things, he writes,
"Professional pilots interviewed definitely rule out the possibility
this operation could have been carried out by amateur pilots. However,
there is a way to achieve this goal that cannot go wrong, using
beacons. A signal sent from the target attracts the plane and guides
it automatically."

And then he goes on to say, "The terrorists had logistical support
from on the ground teams. They activated one of two beacons, warned
the towers' occupants in order to limit the number of human casualties
and blew up three buildings, all under the eyes of intelligence
services."

So he is essentially saying the U.S. government was behind these
attacks, Max?

BERLEY: That's right. That's his, he never actually comes out and says
that directly. What he does is he strings together a bunch of
truncated quotes and bits of misinformation and leads you to the
assumption that that's what he's saying. For example, he dug up some
document from the Bay of Pigs era and says look, they had a blueprint
for committing acts of terror on their own soil and that's exactly
what they're doing now so that they can hijack the government.

ZAHN: All right, our own Barbara Starr was on the ground shortly after
the attack on the Pentagon. She saw pieces of the fuselage. In this
book he also argues that the reason, part of the reason for his
theory, was that they never found pieces of the plane.

BERLEY: Well, that's just nonsense.

ZAHN: So he's lying here, isn't he?

BERLEY: He's out and out lying. It's just nonsense. This is a, what
the French would call a Google Yahoo! investigation. It's entirely
based on what he saw in photographs that came out in the, say, 12
hours after the crash.

ZAHN: So can you explain to me why this book is selling so well in
France? It's number four on the Amazon list in that country at the
moment.

BERLEY: Well, it did very well. It was number one on the list for a
while. It sold more than 100,000 copies. I think the reason is that
France is at a very fragile time right now as we saw in the first
round of the presidential election when the far right candidate, Jean-
Marie Le Pen, took first place. I think there's a feeling of
insecurity and there's a feeling of almost irrelevance. So they're
willing to believe the worst about us, about the United States.

ZAHN: They really believe this stuff? They really believe what they're
reading in this book?

BERLEY: That's hard to tell. But I think they do believe that the most
powerful nation on Earth would not have been caught unaware like that
or that the most powerful nation on earth would have some control over
all events.

ZAHN: Have you read the book in its entirety, Max?

BERLEY: I have, yes.

ZAHN: As an American, what did you think when you put it down?

BERLEY: I was revolted, frankly. I was amused and I was disappointed
because if the French have one thing going for them it's their
Cartesian minds, their rational mind. And this is just so shoddily put
together that I can't believe anyone would take it seriously.

ZAHN: All right, well...

BERLEY: It's a cut-and-paste job of the, you know, of the lowest
standard. Even by the standards of conspiracy theories it's pretty
poor stuff.

ZAHN: Well, Max Berley, we appreciate your shedding some light on this
this morning.

Thank you very much for dropping by A.M.

BERLEY: Thank you.

ZAHN: Take care.

But unfortunately it's not just France. Particularly over the past few
weeks, as seen in demonstrations against U.S. Mideast policy, against
-- all across Europe, it is clear that the U.S. has some P.R. problems
all over Western Europe. They are our allies and supposed to be our
friends. But why do they love to hate us so much?

Well, joining us right now is CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield --
good morning.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

ZAHN: So you just heard Max Berley talk about this outrageous new book
that's out. He's talked about the success of Jean-Marie Le Pen coming
in second in the runoff elections in France. This is a guy who, what,
preaches anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism. He's just about against
everything, right?

GREENFIELD: He is...

ZAHN: Why does a candidate -- why are these candidates and an author
like this flourishing in France?

GREENFIELD: Let's first put something in perspective. Jean- Marie Le
Pen got very, he got almost the same percentage of the vote that he's
gotten the last times. The reason he made the runoff was because a lot
of people moved to the extremes. That is, the normal liberal left
alliance that would go for the socialists, who were supposed to come
in first or second, they went to the Trotskyite left and gave them 10
percent of the vote and Jean-Marie Le Pen squeezed in.

Nonetheless, it is an alarm bell because this guy, this guy has to be
thought of not as a kind of traditional conservative, but as a kind of
populist rightist, a man whose fundamental appeal is to resentment and
suspicion. The same kind of appeal that made this lunatic book a best
seller in France, also helped Jean-Marie Le Pen get, I think it was 16
percent of the vote. It's resentment against them.

ZAHN: And we happen to be part of them? GREENFIELD: The United States
is definitely part of that. The European Alliance is them. The
immigrants in France, who Jean-Marie Le Pen says are getting the crime
rate up, is them. You know, we've seen it in America. I mean the
George Wallace appeal in 1968, he got 13 percent of the vote, was
based on a kind of resentment against everybody from big fat cat
foundations to the blacks in the cities and what they were up to, to
outsiders. Anti-Semitism is often a component of this. To some extent
Pat Buchanan in 2000 had this appeal. Nativist, anti-immigration,
don't trust the World Trade Organization. And parts of this come to
appeal to the left, as well, you know, the anti-globalization
movement. So it's around.

ZAHN: And then add into that mix all of the demonstrations that have
been spawned by U.S. policy in the Middle East.

GREENFIELD: That's right. And that, to me that has a lot of different
components. One, sadly, but you have to put this on the table, there
has been a dishonorable tradition of anti-Semitism. France has had it.
You go back to the Dreyfus affair.

ZAHN: Oh, sure.

GREENFIELD: You go back to the fact that despite the fact that the
French now tell us that in WWII they were all behind DeGaulle's
resistance...

ZAHN: Yes, right.

GREENFIELD: ... a lot of the French lined up behind the Vichy
government that was pro-Nazi. Israel has been seen in a lot of
European intellectual circles as a colonial outpost in the Middle East
and there's a kind of reflexive anti-Israeli belief that spills over
anti-Semitism.

And then there's the United States, the lone superpower. I mean how
many times has the United States gone over to Europe and bailed their
chestnuts to of the fire and...

ZAHN: Well, sure, and then get slapped, you know, two weeks later.

GREENFIELD: So you have all of those things in this mix and it's
produced a pretty combustible element, I think.

ZAHN: And what can the United States do about any of this?

GREENFIELD: Well, we can just...

ZAHN: We're not going to change our policy in the Middle East.

GREENFIELD: No. We're not going to pull out of NATO and we're not
going to boycott...

ZAHN: We're not going to take away our McDonald's and our Disneys
and...

GREENFIELD: We just have to make a better point of selling the, of
saying fellahs, let's look at this in a broader context.

ZAHN: All right, thanks for the voice of reason this morning. We give
the French credit for liberty, equality and fraternity.

GREENFIELD: Yes.

ZAHN: I'm going to credit Jeff Greenfield with that this morning.

GREENFIELD: And good red wine. So we've got to be careful.

ZAHN: All right.

Surely people have to think many Americans are stupid, just because of
the internet & newsgroups & the like. There are many, many adults, older
like me, in their 40s, but even in their 20s & 30s & on who write like
5th graders.Their spelling & grammar SUCK & they're proud of it
apparently, because they get offended if you mention it or it's 'PC' to
not mention it. I'm not talking about this stupid 'internet email
jargon', like 'ur' (your/you're), but basic spelling & grammar. For
various reasons the public education system has had to lower their
standards to keep everyone equal. 'Johnny can't be smarter than Billy,
'cause that gives Billy a complex. Since we can't make Billy smarter,
let's make Johnny dumber." The power that TV & movies have further adds
to the ruin, IMO. Writers don't know how to use proper grammar &/or the
actors don't know how to use it. I realise there are times when a
character should use slang or street language, but not all of the time.
And advertisers & sign painters. Whew! They should be required to know
proper use of grammar too. Yes, American stuff is popular all over, but
I have to wonder how, sometimes. I mean, when a 35 year old technician,
mechanic, etc., writes at a 5th grade level, I assume they read at a 5th
grade level. Do they comprehend at a 5th grade level too? So how are
they supposed to read & comprehend instructios or manuals written at a
lowly 12th grade level? A while back I watched a program on the Moon
landing. Actor Scott Glenn narrated it. Did you know that the Moon has
become a planet? The whole program, Glenn was talking about a spacecraft
landing on another planet. Like Forrest Gump's momma said, "Stupid is as
stupid does." No kiddin'.

In article ,
"ArVa" writes:

"BUFDRVR" a écrit dans le message de
...
If, say, the New York Times
were to report on a British general election, it would dateline the
story 'London, England', so that no reader anywhere would have to
think: 'London? Now let's see, is that in Nebraska?'

Hey genius, this could very well be true. We have Moscow, Pennsylvania,
Cairo,
Georgia, Berlin, Wisconsin, I could go on....



Don't forget the "city of lights" : Paris, Texas. That is, if it has not
been renamed Freedom City yet... :-)


Happy new year, to you and all on RAM.

And to you, as well.
Just got back from Paris, Maine, myself.
And passed throug Norway adn Poland to get there, with a side trip to
Moscow.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

From: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

snip

I do think it was wrong of us to steal all of the oil from Kosovo.



Both quarts?

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired