The motley groups of Occupy Wall Streeters that gather across the United States and elsewhere are composed largely of individuals who are insufficiently intelligent and/or insufficiently educated and/or insufficiently articulate to express coherent policy objectives. In such circumstances, one can draw inferences about political viewpoints only from private behavior that is revealed in the public square. And this is what we find:
“Mobs blocking the streets and interfering with commuters. Signs and banners emblazoned with obscenities. Signs suggesting violence against authorities and businessmen. Endorsements from both the Nazi Party and the Communist Party. Signs blaming ‘the Jews’ for all things bad. Reports of sexual assaults on teenage girls and, in the case of Occupy Glasgow, Scotland, a gang rape. Rock-throwing. ” Robert Knight, ‘Massaging the news for the masses’, The Washington Times, October 31, 2011
When Michael Moore appears on television to endorse a new political movement, one knows instinctively that that movement will be as incoherent as Moore’s troubled mind and as unattractive as Moore’s gluttony-bloated belly-fat. Occupy Wall Streeters far outstrip Michael Moore, however, as they strip off in the public square to engage in body- functions usually reserved for the privacy of bedrooms and bathrooms.
The political philosophy of the Occupiers is roughly equivalent to that of August 1969 Woodstock hippies. Fundamentally, it is anti-American and anti-Western civilization – well anti-civilization to be more accurate. Somehow, however, the Occupiers prefer to lie in their own filth in American public squares rather than to migrate to North Korea, Somalia, South Yemen, or Burma, where they would truly be able to live without any of the handicaps of a capitalist system.
I wonder why?
Tags: occupy wall street, political incoherence, public square abuses, Woodstock hippies
November 1, 2011 at 8:55 am |
Sir: you say the ocuppiers are insufficiently intelligent and/or insufficiently educated, both are more than likely correct.
I have enclosed an 8th grade exam from the following location.
Question: How many of your students could pass it??
Salina , KS , USA . It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , KS , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.
8th GRADE FINAL EXAM
Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no Modifications.
3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of lie, lay and run.
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?
8 Find bank discount on $300 for! 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.
U. S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U. S. History is divided.
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus .
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States .
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas .
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.
Orthography (Time, one hour)
1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, sub vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret ‘u’.
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final ‘e.’ Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd,cell,rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.
Geography (Time, one hour)
1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America .
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena , Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall &Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.
Also notice that the exam took five hours to complete.
Gives the saying “she/he only had an 8th grade education” a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?
What happened to us???? It is kind of humbling.
November 1, 2011 at 12:03 pm |
Fred:
Your point is well made. The examination took me back to my own schooling at King Edward VI Grammar School in Southampton, England. Although of course the questions related to Britain rather than to the United States, the similarity of style is amazing. What did it imply? It implied that the teachers taught in detail, with emphasis on precision of understanding. And the schoolchildren had better work with a similar respect for detail. All that is now absent in Britain. Grammar Schools virtually do not exist. Educators are more concerned to focus on fuzzy math and fuzzy English. Surely they do not want to attract hostility by stretching, or exposing, the poorer intellects.
US schooling also has gone downhill as the feds have increasingly intervened and as politically correct school boards have assumed control over the curricula. Note that none of the questions on your list take the form of multiple alternative answers. Such examinations encourage guessing and do not force students to show the working for their choices. Lazy questions feed lazy minds.