| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
21 Feb 2007 06:10:51 PM |
| Object: |
Welcome to backwoods America |
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-slater/are-we-becoming-a-backwoo_b_41765.html
2.21.2007
Are We Becoming a Backwoods Nation?
By Philip Slater
......................................................................................
We used to be number one in education, technology, and science.
But in just a few years, thanks to the xenophobia of the Bush
administration and its supporters, we've fallen behind much of Europe
and Asia.
Twenty years ago the U.S. ranked first in the world in percentage of
both college degrees and high school diplomas.
Today we've slipped to 7th and 9th respectively.
In 1970 more than half of the world's science and engineering
doctorates came from U.S. universities.
By 2001 the European Union granted 40% more than the United States.
China now has four times as many engineers as the United States--it
used to have one-sixth.
The United States is down to 14th in science graduates--partly because
fundamentalism has made the American South abysmally ignorant in
geology, biology, and astronomy.
Foreign student applications to study in the U.S. are half what they
were, with the UK and Germany picking up the slack.
We're far behind Asians in math literacy.
In 2000 we were number one in broadband Internet access.
Now we're 16th.
In 2000 we produced 40% of the world's telecom equipment, now only
21%.
We now rank 42nd in the percentage of the population with cell phones.
Once the world's technological and educational leader, we're becoming
an also-ran.
As Benjamin Barber once pointed out, no democratic legislature in the
civilized world has as many members without passports as ours, no
other democratic nation pays a smaller percentage of its GNP for
foreign aid, and no other democratic nation is so ignorant of other
cultures.
Republican leaders have opted out of almost every international effort
to make the world a safer and more civilized place, citing 'national'
(i.e., short-term Republican political) interests.
As a nation, we're cowering behind our borders--afraid to go out,
afraid to let anyone in.
Meanwhile the civilized world is moving on without us.
Xenophobia in America has reached such a peak that our nation is
investing billions of dollars keeping out or throwing out the millions
of illegal immigrants who do all the dirty and backbreaking work that
Americans are too lazy or privileged to do.
Yet who's making a bigger contribution to American society?
Hard-working, enterprising undocumented workers, or the "Minute (as in
tiny) Men'--gun-toting losers who have nothing better to do than
lounge around bars at the border and shoot at aliens who only want to
work?
_____________________________________________________
Welcome to Bushworld
Harry
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| User: "=?ISO-8859-1?Q?JimmyD=AE?=" |
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| Title: Re: Welcome to backwoods America |
21 Feb 2007 10:24:54 PM |
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Harry Hope wrote:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-slater/are-we-becoming-a-backwoo_b_41765.html
2.21.2007
Are We Becoming a Backwoods Nation?
By Philip Slater
.....................................................................................
We used to be number one in education, technology, and science.
But in just a few years, thanks to the xenophobia of the Bush
administration and its supporters, we've fallen behind much of Europe
and Asia.
Twenty years ago the U.S. ranked first in the world in percentage of
both college degrees and high school diplomas.
Today we've slipped to 7th and 9th respectively.
In 1970 more than half of the world's science and engineering
doctorates came from U.S. universities.
By 2001 the European Union granted 40% more than the United States.
China now has four times as many engineers as the United States--it
used to have one-sixth.
The United States is down to 14th in science graduates--partly because
fundamentalism has made the American South abysmally ignorant in
geology, biology, and astronomy.
Foreign student applications to study in the U.S. are half what they
were, with the UK and Germany picking up the slack.
We're far behind Asians in math literacy.
In 2000 we were number one in broadband Internet access.
Now we're 16th.
In 2000 we produced 40% of the world's telecom equipment, now only
21%.
We now rank 42nd in the percentage of the population with cell phones.
Once the world's technological and educational leader, we're becoming
an also-ran.
As Benjamin Barber once pointed out, no democratic legislature in the
civilized world has as many members without passports as ours, no
other democratic nation pays a smaller percentage of its GNP for
foreign aid, and no other democratic nation is so ignorant of other
cultures.
Republican leaders have opted out of almost every international effort
to make the world a safer and more civilized place, citing 'national'
(i.e., short-term Republican political) interests.
As a nation, we're cowering behind our borders--afraid to go out,
afraid to let anyone in.
Meanwhile the civilized world is moving on without us.
Xenophobia in America has reached such a peak that our nation is
investing billions of dollars keeping out or throwing out the millions
of illegal immigrants who do all the dirty and backbreaking work that
Americans are too lazy or privileged to do.
Yet who's making a bigger contribution to American society?
Hard-working, enterprising undocumented workers, or the "Minute (as in
tiny) Men'--gun-toting losers who have nothing better to do than
lounge around bars at the border and shoot at aliens who only want to
work?
_____________________________________________________
Welcome to Bushworld
Harry
Public education doesn't work. We need vouchers and school choice.
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| User: "Balanced View" |
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| Title: Re: Welcome to backwoods America |
22 Feb 2007 10:02:13 AM |
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JimmyDŽ wrote:
_____________________________________________________
Welcome to Bushworld
Harry
Public education doesn't work. We need vouchers and school choice.
It worked fine for over 100 years, try building schools with decent
libraries, provide enough text books for all the kids and quite screwing
around with funding.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Welcome to backwoods America |
21 Feb 2007 06:58:06 PM |
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On Feb 21, 4:10 pm, Harry Hope <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-slater/are-we-becoming-a-backwoo...
Are We Becoming a Backwoods Nation?
Jess! Eet eez true!
We used to be number one in education, technology, and science.
But in just a few years, thanks to the xenophobia of the Bush
administration and its supporters, we've fallen behind much of Europe
and Asia.
Twenty years ago the U.S. ranked first in the world in percentage of
both college degrees and high school diplomas.
Today we've slipped to 7th and 9th respectively.
And jus ho do you tink make dis?
Eez true! Socialistas. US socialiistas.
In 1970 more than half of the world's science and engineering
doctorates came from U.S. universities.
Jess! Most eez *come* from US universidad!
......
But by 2006 60% of all science and engineering doctorate seekers in
US universities are foreign nationals.
Repeat that:
"By 2006 60% of all science and engineering doctorate seekers in US
universities are FOREIGN NATIONALS".
......
Eez mucho problemo.. no?
No seeum problemo?
Hard-working, enterprising undocumented workers, or the "Minute (as in
tiny) Men'--gun-toting losers who have nothing better to do than
lounge around bars at the border and shoot at aliens who only want to
work?
Gah.. Eembecilo! Eez mucho loco socialiista gringo, eh?
I want hees job too.
I weel trash gringos for half price.
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| User: "Scotius" |
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| Title: Re: Welcome to backwoods America |
22 Feb 2007 03:21:09 AM |
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On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:10:51 GMT, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com>
wrote:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-slater/are-we-becoming-a-backwoo_b_41765.html
I'll just reply to this as though I'm speaking to the author
himself. Certainly, anyone on Usenet could have written such a
hole-filled screed, so why not treat him like the average Usenetter?
2.21.2007
Are We Becoming a Backwoods Nation?
By Philip Slater
.....................................................................................
We used to be number one in education, technology, and science.
But in just a few years, thanks to the xenophobia of the Bush
administration and its supporters, we've fallen behind much of Europe
and Asia.
Fallen behind in just a few years? Really? Have school
cirriculums changed much since Bush has been in the White House? Is
there a whole new crop of scientists in charge at the big US national
laboratories now? This is more radical lib BS. It seems to me that
each party advocates in their own ways for the dumbing down of the US
population, and pretends the opposite.
Twenty years ago the U.S. ranked first in the world in percentage of
both college degrees and high school diplomas.
Today we've slipped to 7th and 9th respectively.
20 years ago China had not nearly as much in the way of free
enterprise. India too. Duh! This isn't just a result of what's been
going on in the US. How could you think that the US' place in relation
to other nations could be a US-centric issue unless you're an idiot?
In 1970 more than half of the world's science and engineering
doctorates came from U.S. universities.
There are still students from China and India getting their
degrees in the US too, and in fact it's a huge percentage of THEIR
citizens who get degrees.
By 2001 the European Union granted 40% more than the United States.
China now has four times as many engineers as the United States--it
used to have one-sixth.
The United States is down to 14th in science graduates--partly because
fundamentalism has made the American South abysmally ignorant in
geology, biology, and astronomy.
Define fudamentalism... tee hee. But seriously, if someone can
tell from the first paragraph that you were pretending to do a
cultural critique that was really only going to be a political
diatribe, you have a problem of your own.
Foreign student applications to study in the U.S. are half what they
were, with the UK and Germany picking up the slack.
That's a bit oversimplified, I think. China and India are
graduating a lot of their own science and engineering students these
days you know.
We're far behind Asians in math literacy.
In 2000 we were number one in broadband Internet access.
Now we're 16th.
That's because China has more than four times the US
population and has pursued an aggressive development plan for
broadband. Once it was widely available, the only way the US can be
number one is to give every citizen 5 broadband connections idiot.
In 2000 we produced 40% of the world's telecom equipment, now only
21%.
We now rank 42nd in the percentage of the population with cell phones.
Once the world's technological and educational leader, we're becoming
an also-ran.
As Benjamin Barber once pointed out, no democratic legislature in the
civilized world has as many members without passports as ours, no
other democratic nation pays a smaller percentage of its GNP for
foreign aid, and no other democratic nation is so ignorant of other
cultures.
Foreign aid? You're citing that the Asians are catching up,
and then talking about the US not giving away enough foreign aid?
Further, you're also talking about a percentage, not a dollar sum
amount. The US gives away a smaller percentage of foreign aid because
the total is still astronomical. Is Slater so stupid he doesn't
realize this, or does he think his readers are so stupid they won't
notice?
Republican leaders have opted out of almost every international effort
to make the world a safer and more civilized place, citing 'national'
(i.e., short-term Republican political) interests.
As a nation, we're cowering behind our borders--afraid to go out,
afraid to let anyone in.
Meanwhile the civilized world is moving on without us.
Xenophobia in America has reached such a peak that our nation is
investing billions of dollars keeping out or throwing out the millions
of illegal immigrants who do all the dirty and backbreaking work that
Americans are too lazy or privileged to do.
Yet who's making a bigger contribution to American society?
Hard-working, enterprising undocumented workers, or the "Minute (as in
tiny) Men'--gun-toting losers who have nothing better to do than
lounge around bars at the border and shoot at aliens who only want to
work?
_____________________________________________________
Welcome to Bushworld
Harry
Ah, Harry. Hopeful Harry of the church of liberalism.
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