I dont know vor, I am beginning to think we are. Between jerry falwell, the last couple of elections, and the polls we read in the newspapers everyday my faith is shaken.
I always wonder who answers those polls or 'little quizes'. They never ask me to locate iraq or sweden on a map. I do quite a bit of statistics in my research, and unless they are really screwing the pooch on their randomizations, those terrible polls are probably rather accurate.
from nat. geo. ----
One in 10 young Americans could not locate his own country on a blank map of the world, a survey of geographic literacy shows. Only 13 percent could find Iraq.
"Someone once said that war is God's way of teaching geography, but apparently today neither war nor the threat of war can adequately teach geography," John Fahey, president of the National Geographic Society, said Wednesday.
The organization's survey found that about one in seven of Americans between age 18 and 24, the prime age for military service, could place Iraq.
The majority of young people surveyed knew that the Taliban and al-Qaida were based in Afghanistan, but only 17 percent could find that country on a world map, though American-led forces have waged war there.
-- 34 percent of the young Americans knew that the island used on last season's "Survivor" show was located in the South Pacific, but only 30 percent could locate the state of New Jersey on a map. The "Survivor" show's location was the Marquesas Islands in the eastern South Pacific.
Rankings:
Sweden, 40; Germany, 38; Italy, 38; France, 34; Japan, 31; Great Britain, 28; Canada, 27; United States, 23; Mexico, 21.
