medicare, health care, obama, stupid,
That's it. I used to think the US could be saved from itself, but a new Public Policy Polling poll has put an end to that:
One poll question indicative of how difficult it is to gain public understanding on a complicated issue asked if respondents thought the government should ‘stay out of Medicare,’ something inherently impossible. 39% said yes. that would be fucking impossible, because Medicare is a government run program. we may as well ask baseball players to stay out of MLB.
The poll also shows that an additional 15% of respondents were “not sure” if the government should be involved in Medicare. Only 46% of respondents disagreed with the proposition that the government should stay out of the government-run program. so, less than half of the population has the basic knowledge required for democracy to survive.
we're doomed.
The poll also finds that only 62 percent of respondents believe that President Obama was born in America. Of the 38 percent who either don't believe or are unsure, some think he was born in Indonesia, Kenya, the Philippines, or France. Six percent of the total poll respondents also don't think Hawaii is a U.S. state.
doomed, doomed, doomed. that sound you hear? the doom, come for us.
*multiple facepalm*
ReplyDeleteMove to Canada?
ReplyDeletebetcha canadians know that Hawaii is a state.
ReplyDeletein fact, i'm going over to livemocha to informally poll middle easterners to see how of them can correctly identify hawaii.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, many Americans think CANADA is part of the United States.
ReplyDeleteHere is a short list of personal experiences with Americans:
1)Flying from Mexico City to LA, making my way to Vancouver from a business trip, I mentioned to my seatmate, an American woman that I was Canadian.
"Really? No wonder your AMERICAN is so good."
2) Arriving to Greece on our honeymoon, the small hotel owner picks us up at the Santorini Airport accompanied by his favourite American guest.
Even though we were wearing our Canadian flag pins, the American asks,
"So where in the States are you folks from?"
3)On another business trip flight, an American asked if I had change for a 10-dollar bill. "Sorry," I responded. "I only have Canadian dollars."
"You mean you guys have your own money?
OW! OW! OW!
ReplyDeleteDamn! I wish the Civil War hadn't worked. Then we would have a nation where these morons could move to and feel right at home!
ReplyDelete. . . or Texas.
ReplyDeleteThat's gotta hurt.
ReplyDeleteThe late Jade Goody (of Big Brother 'fame') is fairly typical of a dumb Brit. Here's some of her best geography fails;
"Do they speak Portuganese [sic] in Portugal? I thought Portugal was in Spain".
"Has Greece got its own moon?".
"Where is East Angular, is it abroad?".
(East Anglia is a region on the East coast of England)
"Rio de Janeiro - that's a person".
Just thought you should know that stupidity and ignorance is not an exclusively American trait!
Why would greece have . . . oh, never mind.
ReplyDeleteEven more frightening, according to the poll, 35% of respondents have a post-graduate degree, 21% bachelors, and 28% some college.
ReplyDelete84% of the people taking this poll have been to college. That's pretty disturbing, given the results.
"Rio de Janeiro - that's a person".
ReplyDeleteI hear she dances on the sand...
One word ...
ReplyDeleteJay Leno's "Jaywalking".
(Well, technically, that was two – but I'm referring to the latter one.)
These people will make you smash your palm to your head so often you'll give yourself brain aneurysms.
One word ...
ReplyDeleteJay Leno's "Jaywalking".
(Well, technically, that was two – but I'm referring to the latter one.)
Well technically it was 3...
Dammit – counted "Jay Leno" more as an "item" than a word.
ReplyDeleteYou see, this is why I flunked Math. Thrice.
*Oh, the shame*
No worries, it just made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine thought that Iceland was somewhere in the Mediterrean Sea...
ReplyDelete(Well that could be explained by the fact that the German word for Iceland is "Island" and that friend might have seen some English maps of the Mediterrean Sea.)
Once I heard some 10th grade school kids complain about a teacher who expected them to know all (sixteen) states of Germany including capitals. How unfair...
Once I heard some 10th grade school kids complain about a teacher who expected them to know all (sixteen) states of Germany including capitals. How unfair...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNUDDaEOvuY
I wonder what percentage of the American people are unaware that...
ReplyDeleteA. The Obamas did not reside at the address listed on the birth announcement in local newspapers.
B. That Stanley Ann Dunham was in Seattle registering for classes 15 days after the birth of the Mau Mau Messiah. The article states that airlines prohibited air travel by infants of less than 6 weeks old until 1972.
C. That firms tied to our Kenyan-American president and his top two aides are profiting handsomely from the hard push to cram socialized medicine down the throats of the American people.
A.) i wonder how people everywhere are going to take the fact that my "Permenant Mailing Address" is NOT, in fact, the place that i reside - it is my parent's house, because they have lived in that house for a decade, and are planning to live in that house until they die.
ReplyDeletedoes it make me a terrorist, that i list a mailing address that is different from my residental address? what shall all those ServiceMembers who are *forced* to have seperate mailing address do!?
B.) i wonder why will happen to all those women who, in the course of the last 50 or 60 years, had a child and then left the child with her parents so she could continue college? i mean, my boyfriend's mother did this! is she a terrorist! and she also listed HER parents address on Pete's birth certificate - and SHE lived in Georgia (and Pete was *born* in Georgia) but the address is in Ohio!
should we exhume her and try her for terrorism?
B.a.) contrawise, do you *FIND* a PLANE ticket? as opposed to a SHIP ticket? a ship would normally make the run from Hawai'i to Seattle in 5 or so days, back them (it's about 56-60 hours, nowadays) and there are no restrictions on bringing a baby on a ship
hell, i know for a fact that the "no flight for under 6 weeks" was observed more in the breach than in the enforcement - i was born in 77, so this didnt apply to *me* but i have cousins born in the late 60s/early70s, and at least 5 were under 6 weeks, when a huge family gathering happened and babies as old as one week went on the plain
C.) gosh, i wonder what will happen when the country realizes that Bush (both of them, actually) had incredibly personal ties in the oil industry - when are the American people going to notice that the two wars Bush II dragged us into provided the *HIGHEST* profits ever for both the Oil companies *and* companies like Blackwater - those two wars crammed down the throats of American people *SO* hard that any American Citizen who critisized anything related to the War or the President/Presidental Administration was *IMMEDIATELY* tar-feathered-and-painted, at best, as "UNAMERICAN" and at WORST as "THE WORST TRAITORS THIS COUNTRY HAS EVER SEEN" - traitors because we exercises out right to free speech, traitors because we worried about the loss-of-life in the ranks of our fellow citizens who would be sent to figh the wars, traitors because we kept stating that the wars were morally/ethically wrong, and that the people in Afghanistan and Iraq would hate us. Traitors for wanting Bush II to be held liable for all of the NOT JUST *illegal* things that he did, but the UNCONSTITUTIONAL things he did as well.
D.) oh, right - i remember now - "real americans" are those who don't have a higher education, except either as a "leegacy admittance" or in a 5th or 6th tier school, those who blindly follow what the closest, or loudest, conservative will tell them - and they are told that Bush II playing nepotism with his cronies for kick-backs and back-rubs was *just good capitalism*, but Obama finding people whom he trusts *AND* knows are good at what they do, whom he has seen are truley wanting to help all the *REST* of the UNITED STATES CITIZENS who aren't rejecting them out of some perverse fear that allowing poor people to be healthy will make not-poor-people-poor - DESPITE the fact that a *SINGLE PAYER* option would cost everyone less, and they would get more (less waste, you know - less red tape, less paper work, less filing the same thing eighty ties)
or E.) which is MY next, real guess:
ReplyDeletewhat i really think is that there is certain segent of the population (and most of the segment would tell yo, honestly, that they are't raceist - they don't know they are)
amd the looked at the guy who somehow got eleveted - and dude, first off, their dude is *SUPPOsED TO WIN!* am i right, or am i right? so first off, they don't have the guy that *they* want, because all those "UnAmerican American Citizens" voted for the other guy,
and then they look at that the guy - and the first thing that springs into their heads is something along the lines of "*HE* can't be president! look at him! he's *OBVIOUSLY* not American! he's from somewhere else, he *HAS* to be - only a DEEP ROOTED CONSPIRACY COULD CAUSE SUCH A THING!
only the works of all the Tibeaten monks and all the peoples of Indonesia and Kenya combined could have excerted enough effort or money to buy "NotRealAmerican American Citizens"! even MORE - you can CLEARLY TELL by looking at him, that he is *NOT* a RealAmericanCitizen - he's too dark, to charasmatic, too good to his wife, too liberal, too willing to not start MORE wars, too SMART!
because White European immigrate to the US, and they are OBVIOUSLY USian citizens - even when they don't obtain US naturalization - look at the Governator!?
no, it's when NON-white peoples, of ANY sort, are anywhere in the country - all non-white people are curretly presumed illigal immigrant and sucide bombing terrorists!
because only NON-WHITE WOULD EVER COMMIT ACTS OF TERRORIST!
*THIS* is why *everyone knows* that Obama *had* to be born somewhere else - look at him, he is *NOT* USian *by the standards of the wingnuts, who will claim the entirety of Creed but not accept a man born in Hawai'i after Hawai'i was part of the us - and if anyone lookds, the ways to be a "natural born citizen" are as follows, including but NOT limited to"
being born within the United States of America
being born within one of the territories of the United States if American
being born abroad, on a US or US-aligned military base, where one parent is active in the US military,
being born abroad, where (at the time of birth) one parent was a natural born citizen and had lived in the United States at least 5 years."
sp if Obama was born in Hawai'i, so long as it while Hawai'i was AT LEAST a "United States Territory", Obama is eligible for president.
if he was born ANYWHERE ELSE - his mother was a natural born citizen *AND SO IS HE*
if he is really "His Grandmother's Baby" - then there is negative reason to believe that Obama is *NOT* *QUALIFIED* to be a "natural born citizen"
i do wish they would stop with the bullshit, though - IT'S OLD!!!!!!!!!
I applaud Denelian.
ReplyDeleteI want to add:
Life expectancy at birth (years)
1. Japan — 82.6
38. USA — 78.2
World Health Organization’s ranking of the world’s health systems (2000)
1. France
37. USA
Total health expenditures per capita, 2003
United States $5711
Australia $2886
Austria $2958
Belgium $3044
Canada $2998
Denmark $2743
Finland $2104
France $3048
Germany $2983
Ireland $2466
Italy $2314
Japan $2249
Netherlands $2909
Norway $3769
Sweden $2745
United Kingdom $2317
Denelian, if I were a woman and had a bit less dignity, I'd ask you to father my babies.
ReplyDeleteJust another way of saying YOU WIN TEH INTERNETZ. =)
I wonder how many Americans don't know that George Washington, Jon Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, our FIRST THREE PRESIDENTS, weren't BORN IN THE UNITED STATES!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many Americans don't know that THOMAS JEFFERSON was a good friend with THE TOP POWDERED WIG PRODUCERS IN THE UNITED STATES. He called all the LEGISLATIVE SESSIONS to make sure there was a CONSTANT FLOW OF MONEY to his friends.
And I'll bet most Americans don't know that JAMES GARFIELD'S MIDDLE NAME WAS ABRAM, which is proof of the ZIONIST CONSPIRACY to take over the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
I know this is true because I got all my citations from the WORLDNETDAILY.
Watch out, people. THEY'RE COMING FOR US.
your impressive use of all caps has convinced me.
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! I was worried you wouldn't think I was correct due to my proper use of grammar and spelling. That's why I turned up the CAPS.
ReplyDeletewhen you shout at people, even in a language they don't understand, it's very persuasive.
ReplyDeleteNot that you always understand what they're saying or want, though.
ReplyDeleteOuch, my face! Even the comments make me facepalm.
ReplyDeleteJoe-
ReplyDelete*blush* if i were a man, and you made that offer, i might have accepted. that was an awesome compliment (can i compliment a person on the compliments they gave to me? PF? it's your Universe...)
BeamStalk -
WOW! i thought that we are ranked 42nd when it comes to the *outcome* of our healthcare. maybe it's a different measurment i am thinking of (India was 41st on the one i am thinking of - Cuba was in the late 20s). i didn't know that our life-expactancy was *THAT* bad! just... wow
and i knew *we* paid that much - i am kind of appalled at how it compares, though - those numbers are... they are not good.
We're number 1! (/snark)
Hey, no snark. We ARE number 1! *raises giant #1 foam finger*
ReplyDeleteI found the stats very discouraging BUT not surprising.
ReplyDeleteI used to think facts mattered.
Bruce
i wonder how people everywhere are going to take the fact that my "Permenant Mailing Address" is NOT, in fact, the place that i reside - it is my parent's house, because they have lived in that house for a decade, and are planning to live in that house until they die.
ReplyDeleteThis is what can be considered a "reasonable explanation" as to why you would use an address that you did not reside at. Obama's parents obviously did not reside at the aforementioned address so your comparison isnt the same. Furthermore, if you are (a Democrat) president and the address used is that of a Democrat party operative in Hawaii, then the plot thickens, of course.
does it make me a terrorist?
No D, and neither did I accuse Obama of terrorism. Again your FIRE, READY, AIM, method of argumentation doesnt help you.
contrawise, do you *FIND* a PLANE ticket? as opposed to a SHIP ticket? a ship would normally make the run from Hawai'i to Seattle in 5 or so days, back them
I just found it rather interesting that she (mamma O) went from delivery room in (supposedly) Hawaii to Seattle, registering for classes with baby in only 15 days. Not in and of itself impossible, just unlikely and quite interesting.
when are the American people going to notice that the two wars Bush II dragged us into provided the *HIGHEST* profits ever for both the Oil companies *and* companies like Blackwater
EARTH TO DELELIAN...THEY ALL DO IT! Quote: "The Clinton administration made the same calculation in its own dealings with Halliburton. The company had won the LOGCAP in 1992, then lost it in 1997. The Clinton administration nonetheless awarded a no-bid contract to Halliburton to continue its work in the Balkans supporting the U.S. peacekeeping mission there because it made little sense to change midstream. According to Byron York, Al Gore's reinventing-government panel even singled out Halliburton for praise for its military logistics work.
So, did Clinton and Gore involve the United States in the Balkans to benefit Halliburton? That charge makes as much sense as the one that Democrats are hurling at Bush now. Would that they directed more of their outrage at the people in Iraq who want to sabotage the country's oil infrastructure, rather than at the U.S. corporation charged with helping repair it." Link
any American Citizen who critisized anything related to the War or the President/Presidental Administration was *IMMEDIATELY* tar-feathered-and-painted, at best, as "UNAMERICAN" and at WORST as "THE WORST TRAITORS THIS COUNTRY HAS EVER SEEN" - traitors because we exercises out right to free speech
Denelian...Just so we understand one another....Which is worse in your mind, comparing US soldiers to Nazis, war criminals and Pol Pot while actively in a war zone where there is a real possibility of them getting shot at or voicing disapproval at a town hall meeting concerning Chairman Obama trying to nationalize 17% of the US economy in one fell swoop? Which is more "un-American"? Or are they equal in your eyes?
you can CLEARLY TELL by looking at him(Obama), that he is *NOT* a RealAmericanCitizen - he's too dark
At what point did I bring RACE into this discussion D ? Think long and hard about this one and please be prepared to explain why dissent expressed in the policies of the messiah from Mombassa automatically equates to racism.
He's (Obama) too good to his wife
Whoooa. Denelian? Are you really that naive? A free cookie to the first member of the ilk of FIH for whoever can answer the question "Who is Vera Baker?"
An impressive list BeamStalk. Now, given the efficiency of the US government, please help me understand how it will be run any better than Medicaid in NY.
ReplyDelete"New York State's Medicaid program has also become a $44.5 billion target for the unscrupulous and the opportunistic. It has drawn dentists like Dr. Dolly Rosen, who within 12 months somehow built the state's biggest Medicaid dental practice out of a Brooklyn storefront, where she claimed to have performed as many as 991 procedures a day in 2003.... School officials around the state have enrolled tens of thousands of low-income students in speech therapy without the required evaluation, garnering more than $1 billion in questionable Medicaid payments for their districts. One Buffalo school official sent 4,434 students into speech therapy in a single day without talking to them or reviewing their records, according to federal investigators." Ny Medicaid Fraud May Reach Into the Billions
he's (Obama)...too SMART!
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha ha! I almost forgot about this one. D? Please explain by what metric you are measuring Obama's intelligence. His ability to read off of a teleprompter? It certainly can't be by his college transcripts, SAT scores or thesis paper that he hasnt released despite repeated requests to do so.
I am currently researching a move to mainland China, call it a mid-life crisis at 44 combined with a loss of faith in this country and it's direction. I'm tired of the stupidity, and of the belief that utter ignorance is just fine because "God" is guiding us anyway...
ReplyDeleteI really have had it, and I really am leaving, before the end of the year I'll be posting from another continent. I see where this place is headed and I don't want to be here when we arrive. Never say I didn't warn you...
i don't even know how to answer. the point of most of what i was saying was to highlight the ridiculous "conspiracy" BS behind all of those points. my sister has listed our parents address as her permanent address since she got married and had a kid. she hasn't livd there, but that is her address - Obama's parents didn't live at that address, but HIS GRANDPARENTS DID.
ReplyDeletefor fucks sake, how the HELL can listing your parents address be fishy?
ask a "Birther"
how the FUCK can enrolling in college be "fishy"? ask a "Birther"
how can getting married to make sure your child is "legitimate" fishy? ask a "Birther"
of *COURSE* every president does something. my issue is that, OF COURSE, when Obama does something small, its the BIGGEST SIN EVER - but anything Hallowed Bush II did was PERFECT AND UNDERSTANDABLE AND IF YOU DON'T AGREE YOU'RE A TRAITOR *gasp!* it's fucking bullshit, and you people (being people like YOU) keep perpetraiting it. shut up. until you are willing to tar Bush (either) for their misdeeds, you have NO standing to tar Obama for lessor misdeeds.
you also MISUNDERSTAND (i believe deliberately) people who compare Bush's policies with those of Nazi-Germany policies, and say that we call *soldiers* names, when what we are doing is critisizing the policies. so fuck off and die, for all i care - a huge chunk of the reason all of us anti-war people are anti-war is because we don't want our parents, our siblings, our lovers and spouses and friends, killed in a pointless exercise of war-mongering based on lies
you are obviously incapable of understanding anything that doesn't have dog-whistles or some sort of baiting - the things i listed in my section "E"? are ALL taken STRAIGHT from insinuations and innuendos slanted against Obama.
and, appropros of nothing, if he wrote a Masters or Ph.D "thesis", those are *all* automatically "public record", available from the library of the college or university where it was submitted - and while Obama *may* have a copy still, very few people keep copies, and even if he *DID* have a copy, the UNIVERSITY or the COLLEGE would have to be one releasing it - because THE UNIVERSITY or COLLEGE is what OWNS THE RIGHTS TO THAT PAPER. its exactly the same as if he had *SOLD A STORY OR BOOK TO A PUBLISHER* - he CANNOT print it again with a different company (university, college, etc). only the originating university or college can.