“This result is not especially surprising nor, by itself, should it be alarming,” said Michael C. Dorf, one of the authors of the survey by FindLaw.com. “What is a source for concern are polls consistently showing that many Americans are unfamiliar with basic features of our constitutional system.”

Biden said he supports a “transparent and open” investigation that is led by the Israelis and has “international participation.”

SNL material right there. It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic and at the expense of millions of ruined lifes.

This article about the Supremes is interesting

Supreme Court Justice David Souter took direct aim at the conservatives’ favorite theory of judging.

Souter’s verdict: It “has only a tenuous connection to reality.”

If the right wing Supremers hold and promote phantasmagorical views on the Constitution it surely can be no surprise that the average American has no clue.

It has ever been so.

Ever since they started doing public-opinion polls, it has been noted that Americans neither know nor care much about politics and such. We are just not a very political country.

I realize this is not exactly bracing news. But it suggests we are not getting worse in this respect, and that Texas’ hi-jinks with their curriculum may not bring us to some unprecedented, new low. We’re already there. Most Americans simply don’t give a fling for politics, which is of course problematic for a would-be democracy. It helps explain why we have a flaming neolib in the White House, among other things.

The Color of Oil

Most Americans simply don’t give a fling for politics, which is of course problematic for a would-be democracy.

But not for the entrenched corporate power. This country has had chemicals added to food and water now for a couple of generations and that has shewn to be sufficient to stupefy the population. If, and when, the American people can get bak to eating non chemical foods and drinking “clean” water they will be a lot “smarter” and less like bloody sheep.

Most americans believe that you don’t have to bother with the article five requirements to amend the constitution just past a little ACT and bingo change-o. AUMF and FISA come to mind.

If people were educated in the limiting nature of the constitution rather than the rights delineation part, soldiers would refuse to MURDER others on the say so of some idiot. By fighting these unconstitutional wars them become traitors to the very principles they swore to defend.

But surely if the President says he wants war he can have one right? /s

The promotion of universal education was basic to the concept of democracy as promulgated by the constitution, and our founders did not see the two as separate. It was good, sound, reason – and not Xtianity – that the founders based their system of gov’t on.

Good morning, pups. It’s Collins and Kristof today. Ms. Collins addresses “Palmetto Political Passions,” and says South Carolina can’t seem to get enough of the political sex scandal spotlight. Take it from someone who lives just across the river from the state — those folks are nuts. Mr. Kristof, in “Saving Israel From Itself,” says President Obama needs to find his voice and push hard for an end to the Gaza blockade.

Here they are.

The coffee and tea are ready, and I’ve got toasted Thomas’ English muffins with your favorite jam. I don’t really have anything to add to the discussion. Bear in mind I live next door to South Carolina, and I’ve got all I can do to keep the stoopid from oozing down all over me… Have a great day.

I had occasion last week to try and state the names of the Supremes and hit the wall at eight. And I consider myself extremely well educated. I think recalling all of them basically means that you are a political/legal junky…or a college student taking a class on the US Government. Or simply have a freakish memory. Most people do have other lives to lead, and knowing the minutia of the Supreme Court isn’t all that important.

I AM surprised that people can’t recall one current SCOTUS Justice, though. Particularly when the political campaigns to kill nominations supposedly make these individuals household names. It suggests that such efforts have little real impact except to particular groups.

Good morning everyone. There was an athlete (I forget who) who was being benignly laughed at by his teammates in some little tv feature I saw. The teammate asked him who was the president, which he knew. Then they asked him who was the VP…..he didn’t know. He must be in the group that couldn’t name one SCJ.
And, I need to add a thank you to Attaturk and all the pups. This is my first stop every morning and I look forward to it.

BTW, I watched Anderson Cooper last night instead of MSNBC. He’s doing a wonderful job reporting on the oil leak. Sickening situation but wonderful reporting. Jindal was on, he’s furious at BP for not starting the cleanup. I’m furious at everyone. Seems everyone is standing around waiting for someone else to clean it up and nothing is being done. Where the fuck is Obama?

The prime function of universal public education is creating informed citizens who are capable of making decisions. American school system FAIL.

Thanks, Marion, good pt from Kristof too, it’s absolutely in Israel’s best interests that it get away from starving Palestinians.

Where the fuck is Obama?

Trying to get a bipartisan commission to study the matter.

There’s no question that Israel faces existential threats. That should make its leaders focused above all on two things: an Arab-Israeli treaty and pressure on Iran to drop its nuclear program.

Israel has absolutely no interest in peace…it doesn’t make money for the MIC…they want war so that they can continue to get billions of dollars from their client state, America and as for Iran with a nuclear weapon well let’s face it Iran has to defend itself against the aggression of Israel.

Dumbing down Merka is a major goal of the right – tho I’m not sure the Oxycontin ad is what you meant to link to?

Most people do have “other lives” and knowing much of anything about “our” legal system, or the Constitution, is simply more than they can be expected to have the remotest interest in, especially as it doesn’t apply to them. The political class will keep them safe AND do all their silly thinking for them.

Soon enough, however, “the law” will be affecting more and more people. It will even be discovered, by many, that a legal crisis can be almost as devastating as a medical crisis …

People are about to pay more attention to the law, even if tasings are required.

The law is now constituted to protect the “people” or “persons” that COUNT.

This does NOT include the general public, as they will surely come, after a time, to see.

It is imagined that people generally will come to consider that the law and justice have parted company.

Remember, you must politely ask to remain silent in pursuit of your Miranda “rights” or you will lose them.

A word to the wise.

The less wisdom-laden will have to be left to their own capacity to discover and LEARN.

If money is all that matters, and how you get it does not, then what IS the most important collection of things that people should seek to learn?

Is it better to ask questions or simply keep your mouth (and mind) shut?

What does “our” time really demand of our intellect? Clever astuteness, figuring all the angles, or, simply, appreciating life?

Whose world is this? Whose time?

DW

Holy cow, DW, ya got my mind reeling and it’s not even 5 am.

Jammin’ with Paul McCartney.

Good morning all.

When reality’s too much, there’s always Soma.

Ah.

Swim is in the water, above.

The most ignorant, naive and easily manipulated electorate of any advanced industrialized nation has been created over the last 40 years by Republican talking points, a corrupt and complicit corporate media and a corporatized Democratic Party and a “union” movement that’s been co-opted. The U.S. has become a banana republic but the ignorant masses wont be troubled because most know the U.S. is in fact a republic and everyone like bananas so it’s a perfect fit.

It is a bit later on my side of the country, Demi, but it has been on my mind, of late/s, to wonder at what sort of beings … what nature of “human” creatures are now “in charge”?

I confess, I awoke wrestling with that concern … and such answers as present themselves are not conducive to rest nor any satisfaction of the remotest or even the most pedestrian sort.

And, now, I hear further suggestions that there is belief in a “nuclear” “solution” (they deserve their unique and separate “embellishments”) to the “oil” … “problem”.

But “our” leaders, the political and corporate class “astutes”, empty of compassion, humanity, or empathy, are full of “passionate intensity” when everything may be twisted to their advantage.

McCartney reminds me of Elvis, sucking up to Nixon.

But, perhaps, in their own ways, Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon were better men and human beings than we can “make” today?

What will “they” do next?

Iran?

More drones, and subsequent bragging at killing women and children (not to mention, men …)?

Or some, further assault upon reason and humanity by SCOTUS?

So many possibilities, so little sanity.

Other than that, things are “fine”, hereabouts, … well, the thunderstorms could be a little less violent, locally, but, according to the best guesstimates, that is NOT in the cards.

How are you doing?

DW

I’m 50, this is my 3rd career. The first was a cook in Boston fine dining & dumps & Alaskan fishing boats outta Seattle. the 2nd was software serf, after my math degree, in Seattle during the great dot.bomb. I’ve been a member of the washington education association for 5 years —

we have pretty much the same kind of sell out / politically pathetic “leadership” of the Democratic Party. However, unlike clinton & barack, who’ll rake it in and who will rake it in for their duplicity, our union sell outs kow tow to the orhama crowd for a rubber chicken meeting and photo op.

oh well, I grew up on welfare – I know what it is like to be broke.

rmm.

I taught at the local community college a section of human sexuality each semester for seventeen years. I always spent an hour of lecture on basic deductive and inductive reasoning, because I found my students rarely had had instruction in basic logic. At the same time, my children have been in school in the local, mostly rural, school district, and being taught critical thinking skills is embedded in the curriculum beginning in first grade.

Texas having an inordinate influence on text books, even college texts, goes back at least 35 years.

After you’ve cried, you’ve got to laugh and get a better perspective as this stuff is designed to be crazy-making. OK– so I am on a Leonard Cohen kick but the man is so wickedly good at summing up the crux of the matter. So on this issue, this is what’s going on with Justice Horny et al: Leonard Cohen – Closing Time.

Your concerns regarding the lack of widespread ‘grounding’ of students in “basic logic” are shared, for such lack as that, precisely, leads older learners (or, not) to far too readily accept fallacious argument (of various stripes) as sound, and irrefutable, “reasoning”.

DW

I hear, appreciate, and share all these concerns, DW.

Fact is, I’m lately becoming more and more locally focused, and in some cases smaller-focused than that, for many of the reasons you so clearly define.

There is a great exchange between Benjamin Hoff and that Silly Ol’ Bear as Hoff narrates the writing of his classic, “The Tao of Pooh”:

“Say, Pooh, why aren’t you busy?” I said.

“Because it’s a nice day,” said Pooh.

“Yes, but. . .”

“Why ruin it?” he said.

“But you could be doing something Important,” I said.

“I am,” said Pooh.

“Oh? Doing what?”

“Listening,” he said.

“Listening to what?”

“To the birds. And that squirrel over there.”

“What are they saying?” I asked.

“That it’s a nice day,” said Pooh.

“But you know that already,” I said.

“Yes, but it’s always good to hear that somebody else thinks so, too,” he replied.

“Well, you could be spending your time getting Educated by listening to the Radio, instead,” I said.

“That thing?”

“Certainly. How else will you know what’s going on in the world?” I said.

“By going outside,” said Pooh.

“Er. . . well. . .” (Click.) “Now just listen to this, Pooh.”

“Thirty thousand people were killed today when five jumbo airliners collided over downtown Los Angeles. . .,” the Radio announced.

“What does that tell you about the world?” asked Pooh.

“Hmm. You’re right.” (Click.)

“What are the birds saying now?” I asked.

“That it’s a nice day,” said Pooh.

(The whole book is available here.)

None of which is to suggest we should stop caring about or begin turning a blind eye to the injustices occurring all around us. But at some point, paying too much attention begins to affect us profoundly enough that we forget about the good things going on around us, and our ability to impact things locally for the better.

If that approach is repeated often enough, the whole thing starts getting better. It’s the old “think globally act locally” thing, I know, but it’s more than that. It’s a tool for maintaining personal perspective and sanity when the broader world has gone quite mad.

Every time I visit Texas I feel like I’ve been thrust into a massive state-wide contest of people trying to be the dumbest, fattest, and proudest jackasses on Earth.

How much do you think we could get for Texas on the open market?

You describe what is basically the constant bane of my existence.

I have a fundamentally belief that all people are capable of reason, because if they weren’t intuitively capable they wouldn’t be able to understand that by putting one foot in front of the other the result will be forward motion.

That said, it often seems like the condition is worse than having no training or legitimate exposure to critical-thinking. The bulk of our socialization institutions trend toward actually promoting irrational thinking.

When reality’s too much, there’s always Soma

“We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons. Every one works for every one else.” — Aldous Huxley

Soon, we will ALL be Epsilons.

Wisdom.

Appreciated.

As, always, all ways, themalcontent.

;~DW

I don’t think naming Supreme Court justices is a reliable marker of intelligence. In fact, it’s trivia. Knowing about the Bill of Rights is more to the point.

The inferiority of the American education system is nothing new. For six decades it has been clear that my cousins in the United States had nowhere near the well rounded education that I had in Canada. In Addition, it was clear that I knew more about both Canada AND the United States than they knew about the United States alone, due to the Canadian education system (as well as Canadian health care) being far better than what Americans have .

You have to mention a Canadian to make your point. Apparently you can mention no American to do that. Leonard Cohen is a Canadian from Montreal, who has been given the Order of Canada and the Order of Quebec, which are the highest non-military honours in Canada and Quebec.

I did not receive a education in the US. My children did.

The biggest single weakness is the US’ education system is that it teaches ass-kissing, not critical thinking.

aka: An apple for teacher. Which is the US get you an A, and in other education systems yields no improvement in grade.

Grades, marks, should be a measure of a student’s achievements. Not a reward from the teacher.

Asskissing doesn’t work here, at least not in this school district. I’m very sorry if you found it to be the case. An apple for the teacher is a rather archaic tradition here, not taken seriously and not an assurance of a grade.

I spent a couple hours in an email flame war with a teacher in my school district yesterday; she gave an A on a project to an entire group of students whom she failed instruct how to collaborate effectively. No asskissing involved, just laziness, couldn’t be bothered to determine which kids made what contributions, and the NCLB doesn’t appear to require this to change provided the tests administered during the curriculum show improvement over the course of the year. This is in diametric opposition to my older kid’s experience where a national test will determine her grade, not the teacher (AP History, as an example). Again, asskissing won’t matter, only the performance on a single year-end test.

If anything, the U.S. school system has placed entirely too much focus on test performance and not on critical thinking skills. It used to be that foreign students were sent here because American schools encouraged critical, independent thought; if they’re only teaching to tests, particularly ones dumbed down and corrupted by idiots in Texas, there’s no reason to send students here. That’s a real loss for future foreign policy and diversity in our country.

If you’re gonna go with Pooh on the topic, you can do no better than this:

“Rabbit’s clever,” said Pooh thoughtfully.
“Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit’s clever.”
“And he has Brain.”
“Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit has Brain.”
There was a long silence.
“I suppose,” said Pooh, “that that’s why he never understands anything.”

I think Leonard Cohen is a very, very hard act to follow with the skillful, humorous commentaries on the human condition, and, which is not mainstream in the US if we consider just what English speakers seemed to be hearing/seeing despite the more egalitarian distribution medium of the Internet. I also wonder if Cohen now represents a previous generation’s era of social conscious-raising music (like Dylan in the US) as what I think that comes close now tends to be pretty hard-edged. For example, “Blue October” a former grunge band from Houston, Texas, comes to mind– complete with the heavy black zombie eye make-up (the 20s and 30s-somethings’ social statement). Check out “X Amount of Words” or a lighter, self-parodying treatment as “Into the Ocean.”