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25 August 2007
And now, Miss Teen South Carolina on why some Americans can't locate the US on a map.→[More:]From last night's Miss Teen USA pageant. Miss South Carolina was third runner up.
she does have a point, actually. if you give away free maps to all Americans, chances are some of them will then be able to locate the US in there. South Africa and Iraq, I'm not so sure.
maybe South Africa only because it's easy to locate, once you figure out which big block of land is actually Africa. once you do that, South Africa is like all the way south
I wonder, could she locate the US on a map? And, uh, does she know that South Africa and Iraq are not in the US?
"THE Iraq," people, not "Iraq!" If you had a map, you'd know that!
(Actually, in Arabic it is "The Iraq." Maybe she's fluent in Arabic & just got confused.)
To be fair, most Americans were looking at a map of Geauga Lake Amusement Park in Aurora, Ohio (which depicts a location within the United States, but does not depict the United States itself).
Well, that seems to be a no-win question. What could she have said, that some Americans are stupider or less informed or worse-educated than others? How can you put a positive spin on a question like that? I think her mind went blank but her mouth talked craziness to fill the time.
I thought about poor Miss Teen South Carolina all night. I completely agree with initapplette- there was no good answer to that question. Plus, I got to thinking about being a performer. As you get more and more experienced, you find out that that doesn't mean that your performances will never go poorly- it just means you're more capable of dealing with them when they do. Like Beyonce, who has had some interestingmishaps lately. And, bless her heart, she gets up and keeps right on working it! Miss Teen South Carolina will learn that skill too, in time.
Well, that seems to be a no-win question. What could she have said, that some Americans are stupider or less informed or worse-educated than others? How can you put a positive spin on a question like that?
My feelings exactly. What was she supposed to have said?
"Well, you see, many Americans are kind of provincial. And our society does have a long and ugly history of hostility towards book-larnin' . . . "
"Well, when you get right down to it, a lot of the people in today's world are so fucking stupid they need to take off their shoes to count to twenty . . . "
She's a beauty queen. She's been trained to Smile, Be Charming, and all that happy shit. Not deliver in-depth responses to charged political questions.
Really, there was. Every contestant should have a stock speech praising education, which this was designed to smoke out. Maybe internationalism was a second choice. Both would be good to carry up to the next level of competition.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
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