[Misc.]

Maybe This Explains Fox News (or Vice Versa).

Let me describe something for you. Have a look and then think of college--ponder, if you will, whether what I describe seems like something students should have picked up there.

"Able to read lengthy, complex English texts and draw complicated inferences."

This contrasts with descriptions of lesser accomplishment, like only being "able to understand short, commonplace prose texts."

That first description, which to me reads like a description of something we learned in high school English classrooms, is known as "proficient" literacy. Care to guess how many college graduates have achieved it? I'll give you a hint: in 1992, only 40% had. Now? 31%. A full 16% were at or below the ability to barely read a cereal box. And we're talking college graduates (proof that the correlation between education and intelligence is a weak one).

It's no small wonder that Bush is our president or that Americans felt it was plausible that Saddam bombed the twin towers. If you can't read, you're so much more pliable (which may explain why Bush was selected by Cheney and Co. to be the Slacker in Chief). And if you're so pliable, you're not really a responsible steward of the country. And if you're not a responsible steward of the country, you get the leaders we now have.

I try not to succumb to the liberal Americans-is-bone-dumb argument, but then you read something like this, and...