In article ,
Frank wrote:

http://atroshenko.com/NSAlBuddha.html

So much for an honest intellectual discussion. Why let facts get in the
way, eh, Frank, when you can use ad hominem attacks? Visiting one's
wrath upon the messenger is soooo traditional, Frank.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2/15/AR2008021
502901.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR

washingtonpost.com Opinions Outlook
The Dumbing Of America
Call Me a Snob, but Really, We're a Nation of Dunces
By Susan Jacoby
Sunday, February 17, 2008; Page B01

"The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon
itself." Ralph Waldo Emerson offered that observation in 1837, but his
words echo with painful prescience in today's very different United
States. Americans are in serious intellectual trouble -- in danger of
losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of
anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.

. . . the third and final factor behind the new American dumbness: not
lack of knowledge per se but arrogance about that lack of knowledge. The
problem is not just the things we do not know (consider the one in five
American adults who, according to the National Science Foundation,
thinks the sun revolves around the Earth); it's the alarming number of
Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such
things in the first place. Call this anti-rationalism -- a syndrome that
is particularly dangerous to our public institutions and discourse. Not
knowing a foreign language or the location of an important country is a
manifestation of ignorance; denying that such knowledge matters is pure
anti-rationalism. The toxic brew of anti-rationalism and ignorance hurts
discussions of U.S. public policy on topics from health care to taxation.

There is no quick cure for this epidemic of arrogant anti-rationalism
and anti-intellectualism; rote efforts to raise standardized test scores
by stuffing students with specific answers to specific questions on
specific tests will not do the job. Moreover, the people who exemplify
the problem are usually oblivious to it. ("Hardly anyone believes
himself to be against thought and culture," Hofstadter noted.) It is
past time for a serious national discussion about whether, as a nation,
we truly value intellect and rationality. If this indeed turns out to be
a "change election," THE LOW LEVEL OF DISCOURSE IN A COUNTRY WITH A MIND
TAUGHT TO AIM AT LOW OBJECTS OUGHT TO BE THE FIRST ITEM ON THE CHANGE
AGENDA (capitals mine).
--
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100119/...ting_activists
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/19/headlines