Not saying they're stupid, but...Follow

They were back to back! What the hell were we supposed to watch between the news and Jeopardy? This was back before Everybody Loves Raymond and Seinfeld were in 7pm rerun status. There wasn't anything else on then.

Nexa (who has Moe's back)

Yeah, I'm replying to my own post to point out that I used the word "back" four times just now and it no longer has any meaning.

Nexa

The Chief would be disappointed, and you'd be out a personal computer prize package.

With No Child Left Behind, expect it to get worse before it gets better. The federal educational standards* that students are tested on to keep school funding are based on math and literacy. Sciences and the humanities take a distant back seat in today's curriculum.As I remember from grade school, it was: French West Africa, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the Belgian Congo, Abyssinia, Bechuanaland...

* Technically federally mandated, state set standards as there is no national testing but each state is required by federal law to design a standard test for its own use

Edited, Tue May 2 17:24:46 2006 by Jophiel

OOOO you mean like the big tough Intelligent Design. Got ya!

The other thing is that the US is friggin huge. By the time I learned 50 states and their capitols and their motos and learned where all our major rivers, lakes, mountains, and national monuments and parks were...I had no more good brain room left for any other countries! People in the US tend to travel outside of the US alot less than people in other countries for the same reason...why bother? We have basically every climate and type of destination you could want without having to go through customs or apply for a passport. If you're from England or France or another small European country, chances are that you've probably had a school field trip that left the country for christ's sake. That doesn't happen here.

Nexa

Traitor! To the tower with you!


OK. You got it back.

Actually the fact that only a tiny proportion of Yanquis have passports explains a lot. If you're never going to get to see outside your own back yard, why worry about what your neighbours are really like.

Here in Europe we have ready opportunities to visit different cultures and appreciate that the rest of the world doesn't see everything as we do. Perhaps that's why we appear less eager to judge different cultures against our own standards.

(As opposed to wiping them out in recent centuries)

Part of the problem is that most foreigners don't really realize how big or diverse America actually is. 4000 miles from one end can keep your busy for a couple of lifetimes.

I can't imagine being from a nation the size of a state.

Although wehn I was little; the surrounding states seemed almost as foreign to me as other countries (of which I had no concept of). Once I started to travel around this country from state to state you will find that each one really does have their own flavour. I'm sure you Brits can relate, being that you blokes can tell waht part of town a person is from by their accents. We have that a bit, but I think on a less drastic scale, which may have to do with population density.

But any other country to me seemed sooooo far away.. I'm from the central East Coast.. so. there is Canada WAY up North and Mexico WAY far South.... and I always knew that Spain was somewhere out there across that ocean....

In England I'd imagine that ya'll become sort of desensitized to that kind of international diversity. You have all of the differnt countries and cultures of the Continent right across the water... and RICH history on the very ground that you walk on everyday, and you can see your entire country is a few days drive... And while we in America no doubt share our own version of equal cultural diversity.. we always know in our hearts that it is still all just the United States.

To me areas like the Great Plains of the Midwest and Yellowstone and The Rockies and even Appalachia seem exotic to me... but it does not contain the same deep histories from the days and lands of my ancestors.. it is still all very wild and new and takes on it's own flavour. The feeling that I would get from seeing the North American Wilderness is not the same that I would get from seeing European cave-paintings and Arabian Deserts.
I am part Native though.


so.. yeah.. we're dumb.

[southpark]Blame Britania! Blame Britania![/southpark]

All we really need to know about are Canadia (cleaner than the US) and Mexico (dirtier than the US) and (for the time being) we don't necessarily need a passport to visit either.

LOL

God I hate the Dutch. Bunch of genetic freaks. How they can smoke the weed legally and still speak that many languages. All I can say is it must have something to do with proximity to all those French, while still being so close to the Germans. That is bound to cause some strange voodoo.