Well, This Sucks
We Americans are often chided for our abrasive, prideful anti-intellectualism. After all, this is a nation that put a teacher on trial for teaching evolution, put an artist on trial for obscenity, has states that remove mentions of evolutionary science, bans any and all frank sexual discussion yet celebrates explosions, fights and “24″. On top of it all, about 90% of the country is too stupid to realize that Hugh Laurie is British.
There’s no further evidence needed that we’re a nation of schmucks. Yet, ours is the ignorance that keeps on ignoring:
Merriam Webster’s 10th edition, which has been used for the past few years in fourth and fifth grade classrooms (for children aged nine to 10) in Menifee Union (California) school district, has been pulled from shelves over fears that the “sexually graphic” entry is “just not age appropriate”
No, no, it gets better.
“It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the paper.
It’s not hard to sit and read the dictionary. Sure, most don’t do it but there are some freaks such as me who spent a couple hours a day reading definitions and learning new words. Yah, a portion of us also looked up the rude words but that’s besides the point. The dictionary is a reference *book*. The only people who would find it “hard” to read the dictionary are the same ignoramuses who will stare at you askew if you happen to use a word containing more than two syllables.
This is what we get when we reorganize village life to suit the village idiots. We are all idiots (cf. NASCAR). Somewhere, Lee Greenwood is wiping a tear of pride from his eye as he launches into “Proud To Be An American” for the 50-trillionth time.
