All kinds of year end wrap ups are playing this video of the ditsy blond Miss TEEN USA from South Carolina when she was asked, "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the United States on a world map. Why do you think this is?"
Watch here and then read Juan Cole's defense: Although the answer was painful to watch just because Ms. Upton was so obviously stricken at that moment with stage fright, I actually think her answer had some merit...I hope that all U.S. Americans take to heart her values, and find ways to help improve education in this country about international affairs, and ways to help ensure that a whole generation of Iraqis displaced by our war does not grow up illiterate.
Watch here and then read Juan Cole's defense: Although the answer was painful to watch just because Ms. Upton was so obviously stricken at that moment with stage fright, I actually think her answer had some merit...I hope that all U.S. Americans take to heart her values, and find ways to help improve education in this country about international affairs, and ways to help ensure that a whole generation of Iraqis displaced by our war does not grow up illiterate.
