Number 1?

The Austin Chronicle ^ | Jan 21, 2005 | Michael Ventura

[RightWhale]

Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth

2% think earth is about 6000 years old.

[Lekker 1]

...and yet Ventura chooses to live here. WTF?

[dirtboy]

• The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

• The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

Of course, this liberal nitwit will turn around and say that the solution to this problem is pouring more money into the public education system that produced these results in the first place.

Which means he isn't worth taking seriously.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1"

. . . which is why American network journalists will wear ribbons for AIDS or just about any kind of awareness liberals can dream up - anything except an American flag lapel button.

That's just the first thing on the list! This entire jeremiad is best dismissed with, "If things are so great everywhere else, why ain't you moving there - and why are so many foreigners determined to get here?"

Every four years or so a passel of socialists like you "threaten" to leave - but (sigh) you never do . . .

[baseball_fan]

Can we add to the list that American is #1,2 and 3 in paying for and defending the world from enslavement and, along the way, promoting the other countries' recently won prosperity?

[Mi-kha-el]

"Twenty-five percent of Americans (liberals) think their lives revolve around the government every day (This Week, Mar. 4, 2005)."
And 100% of Holliwood think the world revolves aroubd them.
(I'M Weak Today, 2005)

[Lekker 1]

The earth does NOT orbit the sun. The moon does NOT orbit the earth. In both cases they orbit an imaginary point in space that represents their mutual center of gravity. It just so happens that the center of gravity of the Earth/moon pair is just below the Earth's surface. The moon orbits that point, and so does the Earth. Uh...this has nothing to do with anything, does it? Sorry

[Sloth]

• One-third of our science teachers and one-half of our math teachers did not major in those subjects.

I'd be shocked if it was that low. It's an excellent reason to break the teachers' unions.

[Mi-kha-el]

Dat was heel lekker.

[lOKKI]

I doubt (given his poor American education) that the writer is familiar with the concept of synergy:

"The result when the performance of a group goes beyond the capabilities of group members as individuals; communication among group members allows synergy to occur."
mcgraw-hill.com/sites/076742686x/student_view0/glossary.html

America is a classic example of synergy.

Oh, and a comment for the writer of the original article:

If there's a place where you feel you would be happier or better off, you're a damn fool if you don't move there. Why stay in a bad place when you know a better one exists? That's just stupid.

[Dead Corpse]

Yeah... that $15 billion in AIDS aid we were going to send to Africa? That is gonna go to pay the $2 billion we are supposedly borrowing....

Funny, I had an uber-lefty poster try and hit me with this exact same list a couple days ago on a Canadian forum. Do they all share the same brain?

[Cat loving Texan]

• The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

Yellow dog democrats

• The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

Take from the rich give to the poor - Democrat math

• One-third of our science teachers and one-half of our math teachers did not major in those subjects. (Quoted on The West Wing, but you can trust it – their researchers are legendary.)

The NEA (Democrat union)

• Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth. Seventeen percent believe the Earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

Clueless (i.e. Democrat)

• Our workers are so ignorant, and lack so many basic skills, that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

Union employees

With all these idiot Democrats we still have the best economy in the world!

[Lekker 1]

Baie dankie!

[MediaMole]

Most teachers -- math, science, english... -- majored in "education."

Anyway, the dimwit writer is quoting something he heard on "The West Wing."

[Hank Rearden]

What a bunch of BS.

Which part, specifically?

[HitmanLV]

Ultimately, the mindset of being a winner is more important than actually winning in any particular endeavor. I'd rather have a winner's mindset and come in 3rd at a competition, than a loser's mindset and come in 1st.

The winner will consistently handle their results better and seek to improve (if they judge that it is important), while the loser mindset will consistently undermine their top ranking and future performance.

I consider myself a winner, yet there are millions of areas that I am terribly deficient in. That's not problematic, not really, since I don't seek expertise and accomplishment in millions of areas.

I am very comfortable with the fact that many people are much better than I am at a wide variety of things.

I don't doubt that while I can't be meaningfully quantified as '#1' in anything, I do think that sentiment is just a mental shorthand of saying 'I'm the best.'

I think the sentiment shouldn't be taken literally.

The fact that I can't be quantified 'the best' in anything in particular doesn't undermine my ability to be confident, successful, comfortable with my abilities, and have the mindset of a winner.

I win some, I lose some. I can quantify - in a broad sense - that I have a better standard of living than most people I know, have a larger and much nicer home, several nice cars, I make much more money than most people I know, that I work much less than everyone I know because of the way I set up my business, enjoy much more leisure time than they do, I am flexible enough to cultivate more casual interests (golf, history, etc. ) than they do, and date a greater variety of younger & better looking women than they do (or ever have, for that matter, by their own admission).

Now the fact that others might enjoy greater benefits in the areas that I cite here doesn't undermine my mindset that I am a winner, and not a loser.

Also the fact that someone is deficient (when compared to me) in all those areas (compared to me) doesn't necessarily undermine their ability to be happy, successful, and enjoy the mindset of a winner.

We would both think we are the best and we would both be right. Neither of us, seriously, think we rank #1 in anything.

Against that backdrop, the idea of a numerical ranking is silly and immature: it's difficult enough to quantify a ranking in any one area, let alone averaging rankings in several areas.

So to say that Cuba ranks #1 in literacy, for example, is fine - that's not to say the USA is somehow 'illiterate,' and when Cuba's ranking is buttressed by the fact that they are not much of a free country (and there are plenty of books you can't read in Cuba, regardless of the ability of the population to read), when taken as a whole, I don't think a claim of #1 in literacy is particularly notable.

That many people have a sentiment that they are #1, their nation is #1, their sports team is #1, etc. has almost nothing to do with facts but rather in mindset & attitude. It's 'true' to them that they have pride in whatever group they are a part of.

If they dwell on their deficiencies, then they won't have as positive or productive a mindset as someone who focuses on their strengths.

The problem with the article is that it makes a mistake at the outset - the sentiment that 'We're #1' is to be taken as a somehow literal sentiment. The errors then cascade from that initial mistake - it's not a meaningful article in that the slogan is not intended to be taken literally, bur rather reflects a mindset that's productive.

Frankly, by that standard, the whole article is immature. I for one am glad that my mind doesn't focus on demonstrating how I am not colloquially "#1," but rather on my potential, my accomplishments, and my sense of what is possible.

[Chi-townChief]

There must be thousands of travel agents out there who would be more than happy to sell Mr. Ventura a one-way ticket to anywhere else in the world.

[lugsoul]

And most of them are FReepers.

[cyncooper]

• Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.

What does this moron want...people forced to vote at the point of a gun like the good old days in Iraq under Saddam?

I guess he hasn't heard President Bush say plainly that the U.S. is sadly lacking in academic rankings in the world, so the statement that "any office holder" saying blindly that we're number one is a flat out lie. Once again, it is President Bush leading the way with this fool either ignorant or deliberately ignoring it.

There's more to say about this dimwit's little offering, but that's all I'll say for now.

[SkyPilot]

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

It is a skewed statistic. If you separate illegal immigrants who cannot speak or write English (and should not be counted anyway), the stat is different. Further, if you were to separate the most trouble inner city schools where drug deals are more common than breathing, the stat for the US jumps to near the top.