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-Short Attention Span Theater-

Milwaukee county supervisor: Arizona doesn't border on Mexico

2010-06-25

The Milwaukee County Board spent part of the day debating a measure that would call for the county to boycott doing business with companies in Arizona....

There was an odd moment during the debate when Supervisor Peggy West stood up and seemed to be confused about her geography. "If this was Texas, which is a state that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this saying that they had a major issue with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would have to look twice at this. But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border," West said during debate.

Her colleague, Joe Rice, quickly corrected her, "I just want to assure my colleague that Arizona does in fact share a border with the country of Mexico."...

West claims that the point she was trying to make is that because Texas has a much larger border with Mexico, she might feel differently about such a law in that state. "Had Texas come out with the legislation, having the largest border, I think that I would be more receptive to the fact that there was a problem. But having it be Arizona, having it be the second largest boarder and knowing there are troops on the border in Arizona, it didn't seem to me that this legislation was particularly necessary at this moment in time," West said.

The board sent the measure back to a committee, taking no action on it today.

Posted by:Mike

#19 The problem is not the education system per se. Like teaching geography. It is its tendency to close up curious minds. There were a lot of things that I did not learn at my schooling age (6-24) and yet I do know them. I also know what I don't know, and if possible, rectify that. I did not come out from the edu system with an idea that my learning is done, just the opposite--it was only a priming. The more time passes by, the more I am aware how the proportion of what I learned shrinks in contrast what is to be yet learned.

That, I think, was the best gift the edu system could have given me. But yea, that was about half a century ago. Times changed. The post modern zombie society can't have any of that.

Posted by: twobyfour 2010-06-25 23:58

#18 a college student in my class once who did not know where the library on campus was located.

Be fair, JohnQC. How many engineering students actually need the library? The information they need is in their well-written textbooks, and at least one person in their study group had a single room where they could study in peace. Mr. Wife was an engineering student once upon a time, and while he knew where the library was, he never had occasion to use it once he left his job at the oncology research center... and before that he probably used the research center's library, which was much better for the topics he needed to research.

Posted by: trailing wife 2010-06-25 23:32

#17 ....if you reactivate one of those Titan missile launch silos, you only need the zip code for accuracy.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-06-25 22:03

#16 Ms West, on behalf of my native state, rest assured that there are only two reasons a law enforcement officer from the Grand Canyon State would want to see your identification:

1) To reassure themselves that someone as freakin' stupid as you are is not a local, and

2) To find an address to ship you back. We already know the zip code is 53212, but the post office demands an actual house number and street name, dammit.....

Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2010-06-25 21:57

#15 A friend of mine's girlfriend couldn't name who the US fought in Word War 2. She guessed Vietnam. Very sad. Others I knew named the Soviets (this was during the cold war). Very sad.

Posted by: rjschwarz 2010-06-25 18:38

#14 AC, your comments make me sad. I hope those were outliers but I suspect not. However, I have noticed people specialize in their knowledge, doctors for example may no nothing about politics but be brilliant at the doctor stuff. Hopefully they have the sense not to opine on things they know nothing about as linguistics professors are known to do often.

Posted by: rjschwarz 2010-06-25 18:37

#13 It's Wisconsin. *shrug*

Posted by: imoyaro 2010-06-25 18:12

#12 These are the same people that say Bush and Palin are stupid.

Posted by: BrerRabbit 2010-06-25 16:47

#11 AC, that is sad. The result of the dumbing down of education. This young lady was a pre-med student? There is probably a place for her in the new health care system. I ran into a college student in my class once who did not know where the library on campus was located. I guess he never had occasion to use it. There are parts of Wisconsin that are somewhere to the left of Berkeley.

Posted by: JohnQC 2010-06-25 16:14

#10 I have always suspected that basic ignorance is a factor in many left-liberal positions.

A few years ago, I ran across a college student, a junior in pre-med, who did not know that there is more than one national military force in the world. She thought that all military everywhere was US and taking orders from the Pentagon. I asked her if she had seen video of the Israeli army fighting in Lebanon. She had but she thought the IDF was the Israeli branch of the US armed forces, kind of like a national guard unit since Israel is sort of a state doncha know.
I asked about her knowledge of World War 2 and who she thought our guys were fighting in that conflict. She acknowledged that fascist countries did have armed forces at one time, but they were defeated and we are the only ones left.
Naturally, she was a lib and a supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Lest anyone think I am picking on (dumb) girls, I encountered a young man recently who did not know what inflation was. When I told him my first civilian job in the US, in 1973, had paid $4.50/hour, he declared proudly that he would never work for that amount and that my employers should have been arrested for violating the minimum wage laws. When I pointed out that $4.50 was actually a very good wage then, he had no idea what I was talking about. He was sure I was pulling his leg when I told him a new Camaro cost less than $4K in those days. He, too, was a lib and could hold forth at length on the similarities between Bush and Hitler.

Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2010-06-25 15:38

#9 Notice the USA on the state license plate, because America's school system dropped learning what are the 57 50 states. Too many of our constabulary are unaware there is a state between Texas and Arizona on this side of the border. Sigh.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-06-25 13:42

#8 Peggy West

Her degree in 'Human Services' from the local technical college has done her well.

Posted by: Mullah Richard 2010-06-25 13:35

#7 #4,

Do they even teach Geography in HS anymore or just touch on it as a part of Social Studies?

Posted by: Hellfish 2010-06-25 13:22

#6 She was just confused about which one of the 57 states is Arizona...

Posted by: Iblis 2010-06-25 12:37

#5 Can anyone get an email address for this MORON???
They are going to boycott doing business w/ Arizona??? They're too freakin' STUPID to do business with anyone!!

Posted by: armyguy 2010-06-25 12:23

#4 "I did get a passing grade in Geography in high school and in college and I do obviously know that Arizona is on the border," West said in an interview after today's meeting.

I bet if you check her college transcripts she never took a course in geography in college.

Posted by: Penguin 2010-06-25 12:11

#3 No doubt she is a product of the public school system.

Posted by: WolfDog 2010-06-25 11:55

#2 Wow.

Posted by: swksvolFF 2010-06-25 11:48

#1 And why are numb-skulls like this in our government?

Oh yeah, they are too stupid to make it in the private sector.

Posted by: DarthVader 2010-06-25 11:41

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