[TWohlford]

Attention PajanaHadim! This if full of citations that are misquoted... need our tender loving attention to details!

[ClearCase_guy]

"I am not a number! I am a free man!"

[54-46 Was My Number]

This post was #2.

[jacob_wi]

we just need to keep saying it. america is #1. we know it's true. screw facts.

[G32]

They've used this same list for the past 30 years or so for showing how the USA sucks.

[ctdonath2]

"Survival of the fittest" - what constitutes "fit" rarely is what ivory-tower types think it is.

[fish hawk]

What a bunch of BS.

[PRND21]

[MacDorcha]

You mean aside from quoting only the leftist pollsters?

Why don't they ask about things like oh, I don't know, immigration?

Where are more jobs created each year?

Who patents more?

The poverty rates, are they of people living here legally?

Where does the US rank in bringing democracy to other countries?

Where does the US rank in it's overall power in the world?

How come the US is the ONLY superpower left?

How much debt have we forgiven in our history? How many lives were saved due to our involvement in warfare?

If the EU is so freakin' great at producing "quality" teachers, why do half of my teachers come here for their masters?

Why do we produce nearly a quarter (more?) of the worlds' food supply when China, Europe, and Africa have MUCH more farm space?

But that is all aside the point.

Point is, we're number 1. I dare anyone outside of the US to challenge that point.

[Teacher317]

All that, and yet we're still #1! We rock!!!!

[Monterrosa-24]

First of all I have not heard this constant mantra that America is #1. I usually hear something like America is Great or God Bless America.

Note that he keeps comparing America to Europe rather than a country in Europe. By "Europe" he is including more than the EU and is tossing the UK into the mix.

He cites America for the lack of medical care for all its people. No country serves so much medical care to so many as does America. In the progressive countries you get on the waiting list for free but often die on the waiting list.

Just what one country does he think provides a better life for its people than America? I wish he would move there.

[mikrofon]

• Twenty-five percent of Americans (liberals) think their lives revolve around the government every day (This Week, Mar. 4, 2005).

[rudypoot]

Of the 35 items listed, 14 have been cited form the NYT and 10 from The European dream. fifteen items listed are irrelevent to his main point. For example, what the hell does the number of unemployment insurance and healthcare insurance have to do with anything other than the amount of socialism?

I want my 5 minutes of life back from reading this crap and doing this post.

[groanup]

He quotes the NYT, The European Dream, the AP, USA Today. Has he every read anything informative?

[Billthedrill]

The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion. end story.

My gracious, somebody's grip of the facts seems to have slipped from precise citation to idiotic hyperbole throught the long and somnolent course of this little rant. It seems interesting that he commits the very sin in the last sentence of which he accuses others in the preceding.

It's the old straw man ploy - does anyone imagine when he says "The U.S. is number one" that it includes all of the categories mentioned? That the speaker is claiming total superiority in every respect measured by the depressing list enumerated above? Ridiculous.

And by the way, anyone quoting West Wing and Jeremy Rifkin as gospel is simply not to be taken seriously. On the whole, I'd give this one a two.

[Gumption]

• 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).

These numbers are MUCH better than I would have guessed.

[wallcrawlr]

This thread has been brought to you by:

[talleyman]

Gosh, with all those problems, I don't believe we'll be able to prop up the rest of the world like we always do - Attention, world: your check is NOT in the mail...

[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.