Atheist Meditations: Love Her or Leave Her, a short quiz

Monday, May 29, 2006

Love Her or Leave Her, a short quiz

1. The My Lai massacre in Vietnam, in which a platoon leader in lead the killing of several hundred Vietnamese civilians, was originally reported by the Army as a successful battle against insurgents.

(T)rue , (F)alse , (D)on't know, (W)ho cares?

2. The public education system in America was purposefully designed to produce generations of workers who would lack the 'liberal education' of their betters. Elucidated in this statement by President Woodrow Wilson during a speech to 'business leaders' of the day: "We want one class to have a liberal education. We want another class, a very much larger class of necessity, to forego the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks."

(T)rue , (F)alse , (D)on't know, (W)ho cares?

3. The 9/11 Commission, that investigated the attacks of September 11, 2001, completely omits the collapse of building 7 later that day. Many feel that the spontaneous collapse of a 47 story building in a manner that looked a lot like a controlled demolition requires plausible explanation.

(T)rue , (F)alse , (D)on't know, (W)ho cares?

4. The revolution will not be televised.

(T)rue , (F)alse , (D)on't know, (W)ho cares?

5. Since 1950, the manufacturing and the financial services sectors of the U.S. economy have swapped places in their total percentage share of the nation's GDP. From 29.3 and 10.9% respectively in 1950, to 12.7 for manufacturing and 20.4 from financial services in '03. During that same period, the average U.S. corporation was making almost 60% of its profits from manufacturing in the 50's, with less than ten percent of the bottom line provided by financial services. In 2003, those percentages had flip flopped, approximately 5% profits from manufacturing, and almost 50 percent from financial services (credit cards, financing schemes, ect.)

(T)rue , (F)alse , (D)on't know, (W)ho cares?

6. While our current deployment in Iraq does involve some of the most miraculous, life-saving, medical systems, keeping the fatalities amongst our soilders amazingly low - this also means that far more individuals are kept alive with major head trauma and other horrific injuries. The average American has never seen a single image of a wounded vet who gave multiple limbs or a scary portion of his grey matter in this war.

(T)rue , (F)alse , (D)on't know, (W)ho cares?

7. While most folks today think of Vietnam protestors as spitting in the faces of returning vets, the anti-war movement amongst U.S. conscripts was so powerful and well organized that military leaders feared 'revolution' and a loss of control. Over 300 underground newspapers were published by soilders during the war. According to the Pentagon, a half-million deserted.

(T)rue , (F)alse , (D)on't know, (W)ho cares?

8. 1 in 4 children in America is malnourished.

(T)rue , (F)alse , (D)on't know, (W)ho cares?

9. In the 50's Iran had a democratically elected president. He didn't know his place, and began interferring in the activities of the major multi-national oil extractors operating in his country. He was replaced by the Shah in a CIA orchestrated coup, which created the oppresive environment where radial religious fundamentalists were later able to pull off a revolution. The CIA and the U.S. Military have tried, most often successfully, to assassinate or replace over a dozen democratically elected leaders in Central and South America. Usually because their 'socialist' agendas involved putting the welfare of their people before the property rights of U.S. based corporations.

(T)rue , (F)alse , (D)on't know, (W)ho cares?

10. Iran-Contra, a scandal that should be the first thing anyone thinks of when Ronald Reagan's presidency is mentioned, involved the smuggling of cocaine into our country on CIA planes.

(T)rue , (F)alse , (D)on't know, (W)ho cares?

Tune in later this week for 'Love Her or Leave Her, the angry vulgar rant.'

# posted by Aurelius : 29.5.06