loughing my a** off

[f1.redbaron]

It was just a joke...intended to poke fun of the guy who had "found" Iran!

[Ciro Pabón]

Not knowing does not equate to stupidity.

No, you're right, it is called "ignorance", but it's close enough... To be stupid you have to move further in the "scale" and become aware of your ignorance. That's what the world complains about: they seem not to be aware!

However, these anchors at CNNNN are great, they're my kind of guys. I guess that's why they didn't last (that, and because it is too easy to make jokes on american foreign policies, if they weren't that somber).

For those of you that want to check the CNNNN archives, here they are:

http://www.abc.net.au/cnnnn/


For the admirers of Mr. Bush, there you have the most famous of his phrases:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/geor ... shisms.htm



For example:

"The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany." --George W. Bush, D.C., May 5, 2006

Then, you have my favorite quote:

"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" —Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

[Ray]

But for every ten people they have on that show that don't know, there are a thousand more that do know. Show that and I won't think that the humor on here is midly funny, not really funny. They are funny, I like their humor, but some of it is so far biased it's not.

[f1.redbaron]

Then, you have my favorite quote:

"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" —Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

I'm happy that he believes that children is our future.

Going back to subject, I believe that this is more than ignorance. I've even seen an ad on TV where they're talking about how the Americans lack the general knowledge on the subject of Geography. Anybody who watches Jay Leno will know what I'm talking about (that is, if he is still doing his segment called "Jay-walking").

It doesn't stop at Geography. I remember MSNBC going around the streets of NYC (probably right after their and CNN's little boo-boo) asking people what they though of Barack Hussein Obama? The response - some people said that he is a big threat to their nation...

What pissed me the most was that you just know that those idiots will go out and vote.

[West]

It's quite sad actually... I think over half the people in this country couldn't find the United States on a map. I took a geography class in my final quarter at uni just to check out some girls (as we all know there aren't any cute ones in engineering), and some facts are quite startling about our geographical knowledge.

Edit: it was 50% of Americans couldn't find Britain or France on a map of Europe. One in 10 Americans ages 18 to 24 can't locate the United States on a world map. And only 71 percent of young Americans can locate the largest body of water in the world, the Pacific Ocean.

More: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/ma ... 506map.htm

Finally, those videos remind me of this South Park quote:

Hey, hey, what you call white American person with P.H.D. in Physics and
math? Stupid American! (Conjoined Fetus Lady episode)

[mcdenife]

West Wrote:

It's quite sad actually... I think over half the people in this country couldn't find the United States on a map. I took a geography class in my final quarter at uni just to check out some girls (as we all know there aren't any cute ones in engineering), and some facts are quite startling about our geographical knowledge.

Edit: it was 50% of Americans couldn't find Britain or France on a map of Europe. One in 10 Americans ages 18 to 24 can't locate the United States on a world map. And only 71 percent of young Americans can locate the largest body of water in the world, the Pacific Ocean.

This was kinda what I was meant (trying to imply) when I disagreed with Ray when he said

Most people are the world are exactly the same way.

I was just trying to avoid anyone taking offence.

[Carlos]

Ray - In reference to your post of Jan 23rd which commented that much of the world considers North Americans as "fat and stupid" - Ciro's comments may suggest that stupidity is a welcome, superior mode of consciousness than ignorance. Concerning the trait of obesity - NPR - did a piece today on the French nation's progression towards the girth reputed to be a characteristic of North Americans - and of course - France is a nation often thought of as rather chic - the land of the slimly tailored pant and the pencil skirt - now a misconception - 40% - of the French population is now oversized. Does this suggest a certain = world envy- of "fat and stupid" North America?

I will speculate that many nations are pursuing the French imitation - of their perception - of North America. Is this a good or bad thing - or neutral?

What is the value of humour and irony? Perhaps a humourous contest and rivalry is rather enjoyable among the many cultures our forum embraces - why I have been blessed with the embrace of many nationalities - some were bony - some were plush - some were massively intelligent and some saddled by ignorance - I never allowed this to interfere with my ride through life.

[Tom]

Those videos are brilliant, its worth watching 3 times, twice to get all the jokes and once to read the scrolling bar at the bottom.

Of course they represent less than 1% of Americans and, in all honesty, a couple of those questions would have stumped me, but not knowing how many world wars there have been is just ridiculous. How can you live to his age and never know that.

That map would have confused people a little with mixed up names, but there is no excuse for confusing Australia with Iran.

N.B. West, I've no doubt the Geography chicks were pretty hot, but its no fun if they don't get your jokes. At least an engineering student knows when your coming onto her.

[Ray]

It was all very funny. I liked the videos alot. But I guess my feelings of shame for my fellow countrymen turned into a little anger. While I still do think that the US has been under WAY too much fire lately, and that Americans are 90% of the time portrayed as stupid and fat, it was funny to see that guy label Australia Iran. Poor Aussies! What an idiot!

[West]

N.B. West, I've no doubt the Geography chicks were pretty hot, but its no fun if they don't get your jokes. At least an engineering student knows when your coming onto her.

That's true... some of the geographical problems (like finding out what time it is where, latitude and longitude, etc) presented in class were a piece of cake, and the students were confused and complaining, etc. It happened that the professor had a scientific background, so he was approaching problems in a way probably a technical student would only understand.

But then again there really wasn't an engineering girl I'd want to go out with. On a scale of one to 10, 10 being highest, on average the girls looked like 4. All the good looking ones were on the other side of campus... arts, social science, etc. See, geography can be useful.

[manchild]

I just noticed that Reca has gone from the forum to run for cover thanks to that guy who said that he think US should attack Italy

[dumrick]

My perception is that the big problems happen when a nation doesn't have or loses his ability of laughing at itself.
Germans were never that good at laughing at themselves and we had last century two world wars with them involved...

[Tp]

Also remember we saved alot of people asses quite a few times....

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007060133,00.html

Like that?

[DaveKillens]

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiap ... an.canada/

or this?


The point is, almost all nations and armies have made mistakes and done unconscionable acts. But once the transgression has been learned, hiding or disguising the truth is the real sin. And sadly, the US media has done this much too often, and the average US citizen, while he may be aware of many wonderful things done by the military, knows very little about the mistakes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6205324.stm
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/do ... 304182.htm
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... _104098930
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/18/soldiers.court/

[Giancarlo]

And sadly, the US media has done this much too often, and the average US citizen, while he may be aware of many wonderful things done by the military, knows very little about the mistakes.

You're joking right? The American news media, as a whole, is very-very anti war & military. An NBC spokesman recently called the US military 'mercenaries', every day we hear about car bombs/IEDs in Iraq, the news is quick with giving death counts and showing anti-war protests, and the bleeding heart lefties get plenty of air-time showing how much they despise the war and that we are oppressors.

I watch the news daily and I cannot remember the last time I saw an entire segment dedicated to the progress and positive aspects of the war in Iraq. For that, I have to turn on the history channel and watch stories that occurred a few years ago.

Bad news is good news.

A perfect example would be the be-headings. That story ran for 3 days and then faded away. The Guantanamo Bay 'lets put underwear on their heads' story ran for over a month and still surfaces. Why would a few savages getting punished cause more of a stir than innocent contractors getting their heads cut off b/c they're not muslim? It's b/c the American media has their own political agendas, the majority is both anti-war anti-American, and when they find something bad about our great nation - they pat themselves on the back all the way to the bank.

It makes me ill.

I know many that have served and are currently in the middle east. Unfortunately, we'll never hear their stories. Stories of staged anti-American protests, stories of the Iraqis and Kurds welcoming them, and stories about the amount of good that is being done to a nation that lived in fear and terror under the rule of Saddam.

To say that '...the average US citizen, while he may be aware of many wonderful things done by the military, knows very little about the mistakes' is bullshit. It's the complete opposite. We hear all the mistakes, even if their not true...