George W Bush

[Guest American Woman]

I love it when they put Canadian flags on their luggage.

I love it when you think Americans put Canadian flags on their luggage.

[Higgly]

I also don't know what you are talking about in regards to news networks, I don't really mention them. But now that you bring it up, the US coverage of world events especially on CNN sucks. CNN International is pretty decent. I get CBC, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, BBC World, MSNBC and a host of other news networks. Liek I said before they might air in the states but we get them here as well. The American networks pretty much cover American news, not that suprising you might say but there is far more international content on CBC and BBC...period. ANd if it is an election year, forget about it.

You bet. We need Al Jazeeera! We also need a good Asian news channel. There is too much filtering of information by western news channels. If it isn't for political bias, it's for expediency. I'd like to see a Russian news channel too. We are too limited by our news sources.

[Higgly]

Done reading the survey results? You can apologize ANYTIME. I'll start, I'm sorry you were wrong in this particular case. The survey was legitimate and followed statistical protocols to ensure a low amount of error.

Wow, that felt great....

Heh heh. High five.

[Higgly]

I get to vote for US president...you don't.

That's why this thread solicits Canuck opinion

[Higgly]

I put a map up on my wall when the breakup of the Soviet Union began. I had never heard of a lot of those small countries. A gentleman visiting our house wanted to know if I was a communist.

That was no gentleman!

[jawapunk]

I totally agree about the news networks. It like listening to CBC radio late night as they have news shows from Amsterdam, Germany and other spots. If we could get a Russian news show that would be fantastic.

Currently I can get French and German.

[Guest American Woman]

American Woman, please read the findings of the survey. It doesn't even discuss how other nations fared. The only line you are using is that other countries did not fare well either. However even that articale states the US is geographically illiterate and fare far worse.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/roper200...ogLitsurvey.pdf

If you read the results and findings you'll see why I posted it. It is very telling. Or you can simply ignore it because I am Canadian.

I did read the findings of the survey, and yes it did discuss how other nations fared. I've posted quotes about it. Once again.

Top scorers were young adults in Sweden, Germany, and Italy.

Out of 56 questions that were asked across all countries surveyed, on average young Americans answered 23 questions correctly. Others outside the U.S., most notably young adults in Mexico, also struggled with basic geography facts. Young people in Canada and Great Britain fared almost as poorly as those in the U.S. Link

How do you get that the U.S. fared "far worse" than Canada out of that?? Sounds to me as if Canada did quite poorly too.

Edited November 28, 2007 by American Woman

[Higgly]

Somewhere in here somebody asked what I think of George W. Bush.

I think he is typical of a guy who has been put in power by a powerful political machine. I could be wrong, but before his election, I don't believe he had ever been out of the US, aside from a visit to Israel at the invitation of the Israeli government in the runup to his election.

This is a man who never showed the slightst interest in the world outside of the US and yet who launched a military campaign to reconfigure the middle east.

I think that Mr. Bush is like someone who decides to practise medicine without a license and who finds an HMO who can make a buck by giving him an office and a pushy nurse who tells him what to do.

[JerrySeinfeld]

In my opinion, George W Bush has presided over one of the most difficult periods in American history.

Personally I see Bush the greatest President since Ronald Reagan.

Again, during Reagans tenure the peaceniks marched through the streets convinced cruise missiles and the nuclear arms race was a massive waste of money and would ultimately lead to the destruction of the human race (gotta love those alarmist peacniks!). Sound familiar?

The decrepit, left wing ideolog acadmics dismissed Reagan as a reckless cowboy, a stupid actor with no moral or policy compass, when in the end it turned out he was the only one with a path, a compass and a roadmap to victory. And he turned out to be right - and won the cold war.

With success in Iraq now becoming more apparent as the surge is now working, again this is a great paralell to Reagan.

Bush: a man with long term vision, not short term attention deficit disorder when things get a little tough.

So when the surge starts to work will the dems and the new york times start to shift their position to "other factors" which are at play? Of course they will - they already are (NYTimes crediting the insurgents with "choosing not to take actions right now").

Just as they did when the Berlin wall fell - no it couldn't have been Reagan - it had to be "other factors" - it would have fell anyway.

God bless men like GW Bush and Ronald Reagan, men with courage to fight for what is right and win important wars on our behalf despite our own lack of will.

"Besides ending slavery, nazism, fascism, communism, war never solved anything"

Difficutl times call for wonderful leaders, which GW Bush has been one of the all time best - and as with eagan, history will be much kinder to him.

[jawapunk]

So people in 9 countries were interviewed and Canada and Great Britain fell somewhere from 4th to 7th. It doesn't go into detail concerning what Canadians did, probably because the article was written by Americans for Americans. It does how ever go into the failings of Americans and if you read the survey results link I posted, it goes into greater detail regarding this. It gives percentages of what people knew for a multitude of questions. Almost as poorly isn't AS poorly. So regardless of what you are trying to say, Americans are terrible at Geography, while Canadians fare better.

[Higgly]

With success in Iraq now becoming more apparent as the surge is now working...

And when do you feel the surge will end?

This sort of thinking amazes me. Look at the Yugoslav wars: these people were still talking about events that happened in the Middle Ages. Do you really think you can overcome that kind of thinking with a troop surge?

You cannot impose solutions on people. It doesn't matter how good the solutions are.

Edited November 28, 2007 by Higgly

[Guest American Woman]

So people in 9 countries were interviewed and Canada and Great Britain fell somewhere from 4th to 7th. It doesn't go into detail concerning what Canadians did, probably because the article was written by Americans for Americans. It does how ever go into the failings of Americans and if you read the survey results link I posted, it goes into greater detail regarding this. It gives percentages of what people knew for a multitude of questions. Almost as poorly isn't AS poorly. So regardless of what you are trying to say, Americans are terrible at Geography, while Canadians fare better.

"Almost as poorly as" isn't "faring much better" as you claimed. Furthermore, it's faring poorly. Don't tell me you're so focused on dissing the U.S. that you don't care that your country did poorly too-- you only care the we did slightly worse. Seems to me you should be concerned about your own nation's poor results.

Repeating:

Young adults worldwide are not markedly more literate about geography than the Americans

Edited November 28, 2007 by American Woman

[Guest American Woman]

In my opinion, George W Bush has presided over one of the most difficult periods in American history.

In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult periods in American history largely because of Bush.

[jawapunk]

Considering I don't know how poorly they did but know exactly how poorly the States did leaves me with no choice on who to focus on. Now if National Geographic had released these results for all countries participants than I would agree, but all I know is that out of 9 countries mine fell somewhere between 4th and 7th, which leaads me more to believe they were middle of the pack.

More over, there was no details on what questions Canadians did poorly on and what particular aspects of Geography were poorest, which as I have stated before the survey results link I posted has for the States and goes into great details. Also, the article you keep talking about doesn't say Canadians are "Geographically Illiterate", but it does say that about another participant nation. I'll leave that up to you to find out, but I won't use a map.

[Higgly]

In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult periods in American history largely because of Bush.

Me too!

[jawapunk]

Other than this survey agenda, I do agree with your sentiments regarding Bush, Amercian Woman.

[Guest American Woman]

Considering I don't know how poorly they did but know exactly how poorly the States did leaves me with no choice on who to focus on.

You know they didn't fare much better!--- That they aren't markedly more literate about geography than than the U.S.! So yeah, you know that they did poorly. You may not know exactly how poorly, but "poorly" is the operative word here. But keep obsessing about the U.S. while not caring that your country did poorly. I guess we must be more worthy of your concern.

[jawapunk]

I believe it is you who are obsessing over one word posted in an article and not the entire point of said article. It didn't suggest that people in industrialized western nations do poorly at geography it suggest the States do. And it merely said Canada and Great Britian did not fare much better. It didn't actually say they did poorly or go into details on what they didn't get right. It also didn't give statistical data about these questions. There is no way for me to say with certainty anything regarding Canadian test results as I don't have anything to back it up with.

[Guest American Woman]

I believe it is you who are obsessing over one word posted in an article and not the entire point of said article. It didn't suggest that people in industrialized western nations do poorly at geography it suggest the States do. And it merely said Canada and Great Britian did not fare much better.

omg. Do you truly not understand that if the article states that the U.S. did poorly, while stating that Canada and Great Britian "didn't fare much better" and that "young adults worldwide are not markedly more literate about geography than the Americans," the article most definitely IS suggesting that people in industrialized western nations do poorly at geograpy??

[JerrySeinfeld]

In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult periods in American history largely because of Bush.

That's just pure conjecture and direction of popular discontent.

Our society is over saturated with parochial images of war and conspiracy - largely culivated by the limited experiences of the baby boom generation.

So today - every war is Vietnam, every 9-11 is the kennedy assasination, every problem is the cause of some all powerful, right wing evil doing western superpower, and every solution is to have a sit in, sit back and be peaceful and all the worlds problems will magically float away.

Becasue bush has had the courage to face serious worldwide threats, he has been demonized by the ADD public with no stomach for battle. Hence - "it's all Bush's fault"

The Bali nightclub bombings? Bush

Madrid Subway Bombings? Bush

London Tube Bombings? Bush

9-11? Bush

There is a serious mass knee jerk Bush hatred that should mayeb be looked at by some kind of mass therapist.

[Higgly]

Our society is over saturated with parochial images of war ...

I guess you missed the embedded reporters part.

You want to know what the Middle East has really been like in the past 20 years or so? Read Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation". Now there's a tale.

[jawapunk]

Whatever, deflect deflect deflect. The article did not suggest what you are saying at all. Neither did the survey results, as far as we know, because we don;t have the complete results, only the results regarding Americans. Which is what the article focused on in entirely except one sentence that you are trying to use to deflect any further comment.

[jawapunk]

Anyways, obviously we are going to argue into eternity over semantics. Regardless of whether Canada or the States are morons at Geography, that argument has past. The only thing that matters for this thread is that Bush sucked as a president. I am pretty sure after reading your posts that we agree on that at least.

[JerrySeinfeld]

I guess you missed the embedded reporters part.

You want to know what the Middle East has really been like in the past 20 years or so? Read Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation". Now there's a tale.

I guess you missed...

platoon

full metal jacket

apocalypse now

farenheit 911

born on the fourth of july

forrest gump

jarhead

lions for lambs

syrianna

rendition

in the valley of elah

and on and on and on...............

show me one of these movies where hollywood makes USA the good guys and the midevil beheading mass murdering dictator the bad guys and tell me with a straight face you haven't been indoctrinated to actually believe the trash you'r being fed by the hardcore left wing hollywood

[Higgly]

I guess you missed...

platoon

full metal jacket

apocalypse now

farenheit 911

born on the fourth of july

forrest gump

jarhead

lions for lambs

syrianna

rendition

in the valley of elah

and on and on and on...............

show me one of these movies where hollywood makes USA the good guys and the midevil beheading mass murdering dictator the bad guys and tell me with a straight face you haven't been indoctrinated to actually believe the trash you'r being fed by the hardcore left wing hollywood

I understand rendition, but I'd be pretty careful about using a Hollywood movie to argue politics...