America has much, much bigger problems than international terrorism if this poll is valid:
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Some 30 percent of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper.
While the country is preparing to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and shocked the world, 95 percent of Americans questioned in the poll were able to remember the month and the day of the attacks, according to Wednesday’s edition of the newspaper.
Via Billmon.
To be fair, most of those who couldn’t remember were over 50. No excuse, though. I think honestly our worst problem is that a majority of young Americans cannot place Iraq on a map. Not a map of the world, mind you, a map of the Middle East.
What a stupid post.
How many Egyptians can’t spell their own freakin’ name????? GUARANTEE you it’s higher than 30%.
Don’t worry about America’s problems…worry about Egypt’s problems.
Well, Egypeter, since I’m not Egyptian (even though I spend a considerable amount of time worrying about Egypt’s problems) and I am American, I think I’ll keep worrying about America’s problems with your permission.
OK, my bad Issander. I thought you were an Egyptian living in Egypt.
To be honest, I’m surprised to hear that you are an American.
It makes it harder to understand why you would insult American’s intelligence. This poll just seemed biased to me. You can find idiots all over the world.
And I do know that you worry about Egypt’s problems, just like me. I think about it all of the time. And for your concerns about Egypt…I appreciate that man. We may disagree on things…but I still come back to your blog and read, can’t help it.
I always thought your accounts were from on the ground in Egypt….
ok darwin has just been proved wrong
At times I rather question reading comprehension: I always thought your accounts were from on the ground in Egypt
His accounts are, dimwit.
I myself used to live in Egypt, and shockingly used to write about the (unpleasant) experience.
“His accounts are, dimwit.”
OK. I got it. I don’t know who the hell Issander is. Excuse me Lousebury!
When he said he wasn’t Egyptian and is American I assumed he lived in the US…I think a fair assumption.
Apparantly, he’s not Egyptian but an American citizen living in Egypt…whatever.
No need to call me a “dimwit” JERK! As it’s pretty far from the truth!
Yes – a Moroccan-Belgian-American living in Egypt to make things clear.
Ya khouya, ca explique pas mal des choses!
And Egypeter – you would be suprised how many Americans bemoan the stupidity of their fellow citizens. And you would be also suprised to know just how many Americans hold a passport-that would be below 35%. One of the few advantages left to being an American is that those of us who are so inclined can criticize anything we want- from Bush on down- thanks to a little thing called the First Amendment- which, sadly, a number of Americans either don’t know or think is too liberal. On the other hand, we can also hear the jackboots- faint for the moment- but getting louder all the time- so we are trying to do as much work, thinking , essay writing, etc. as possible to present our view but to also encourage people to think for themselves. (It’s like being trapped in Monty Python’s The Life of Brian- I swear).
This is also why people like Issandr (and me when I am sufficienltly informed to say something intelligent about the matter) speak up for democratic rights and bloggers rights in places like Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, etc. because we believe that our government’s support of regimes that repress freedom of expression diminishes our own freedom, and actually puts it in danger for several reasons- a) it’s hypocritical, to say the least and b) practice makes perfect- you supress overseas and after awhile it gets really easy to do it at home- like a drug habit.
What I find sad is that Egypt seems to have taken the tag line in V for Vendetta to an extreme : the people should not fear their government, the government should fear its people; wherease the US government has gone the other way.
I’ll post what I posted at TAPPED:
Can’t you guys catch a hoax? Does anyone have any number sense at all???
From the article:
“This memory black hole is essentially the problem of the older crowd: 48 percent of those who did not know were between the ages of 55 and 64, and 47 percent were older than 65, according to the poll.”
Somehow, 55-64 year olds who can’t remember the year of 9/11 form a bigger percentage of the adult population than all 55-64 year olds do — as, needless to say, anyone with a vague sense of demography or the time to trek over to the relevant http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/files/NC_EST2005-ALLDATA-R-File16.txt“ rel=”nofollow”>Census file would have noticed. Magical.
Hate to be such a jerk about this, but I honestly can’t believe that no one caught it.
Matt Rognlie, you are dead wrong. The 48% is 30% of the 30% that didn’t know. In other words, a tad under 15% of the total population.
ok, looking at matt’s explanation on tapped, he is right, I am dead wrong, sorry.
what he means is that the 15% of the total population is larger then the number of people in that age bracket.