AOL and Discovery Channel are producing a TV series in June to count down the 100 Greatest Americans. They created the list from nominations made by 500,000 voters (ignoramuses I’d say).
Let NewMexiKen share just some of the most absurd from the list to get you agitated:
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Barbara Bush
Brett Favre
Christopher Reeve
Ellen DeGeneres
Hugh Hefner
John Edwards
Lance Armstrong
Laura Bush
Martha Stewart
Michaels Jackson, Jordan and Moore
Pat Tillman
Dr. Phil
Tom Cruise
These are listed to compete with others of similar importance; you know, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain.
Professor Bainbridge has a good discussion.
Thanks to Ken for the pointer.
Most people are idiots. Every once in a while I come across something that confirms this so concretely that it stuns me. This is one of those things.
I didn’t see Bruce Willis on the list. Why isn’t Bruce Willis on this list?!
How about Bill O’Riley and Rush Limbaugh? It never ceases to amaze me how dumbed-down America has become in the past decade or so. My personal vote go to Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Linus Pauling, Watson and Crick, Jonas Salk, Henry David Thoreau, John Steinbeck, John and Robert Kennedy, Cesar Chavez, Justice Thurgood Marshall, Justice Oliver Wendell Holms, Pearl S.Buck, FDR, Clarence Darrow, NewMexiken, Teddy Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, The Wright Brothers, Maya Angelou, Audie Murphy, Chief Justice William O.Douglas, Sinclair Lewis, Robert Frost, Stokley Carmichael, Marcus Garvey, Malcom X, Dolores Huerta, John L.Lewis, William Seward, John Muir, Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keefe, Dennis Chavez, Ward Vhurchill, Rashid Khalidi, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Sandra Cisneros, SI Hiakawa, Bill Clinton, Daniel Inouye, Barak Obama,Woodward and Bernstein, John Sirica, Senator Sam Irvin, Jimmy Stewart, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell, John Adams, Fredrick Douglas, Sojurner Truth, James Madison, Thomas Edison, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feyneman, US Grant, RE Lee, John Nimitz, Douglas MacArthur, W.E.B Dubois, Richard Wright,Corky Gonzales,Jesse Owens, Woodrow Wilson, Susan B. Anthony, Barbra Boxer, Mario Cuomo, Jimmy Carter
Francis Crick was BRITISH.
Those in glass houses….
About 10 posts in 24 hours. Outrage from NewMexiKen.
I guess Jay Leno didn’t make the list?
Oops!
You are absolutely correct Francis Crick was British and I knew that. I got caught up in the fervor. I should have paid more attention. Recalling a quote from hy historiography class eons ago, ‘In History, accuracy is a duty and not a privelege.’
Your point is well taken. I’m feeling like Dan Quayle-ish right now. How does one spell ‘potato?” Thanks for the critique.
A pox on my glass house!
My high-school typing teacher isn’t going to be too happy with that post either. Sorry Ms. Fox, wherever you are.
I have to wonder, NewMexiKen, why you titled this entry with “Don’t they teach anything in schools anymore?” Was it today’s students who made up this list? Or was it adults who were taught in schools before standards were set to help teachers know what to teach. I can guarantee you that of the 100 on that list only a handful are actually mentioned within the national and state standards. I’m not saying schools are perfect, so let’s not go into a bunch of posts about that, I was just curious about this title.
Notice NewMexiken did not object to his mame being tossed into my list? I am shocked and disappointed he didn’t even read my list – sniffle, snort.
For all you know, he did notice and just didn’t disagree with you. 🙂