Must... not... laugh....

BWAH-HA-HA-HA!!!

There's an interesting corrollary to this. Literacy rates tend to be much lower in urban areas. But it's those urban-dwellers who are more like to go blue than red. In other words, New York's rate is probably only as high as it is because a bunch of red-voting up-staters pull the numbers up.

That's exactly how it worked in Louisiana. Humorously, right after the '04 elections, someone started a web site (I don't know if it still exists) called "F*** the South". The irate author lambasted the South for voting red, and insisted that federal welfare be eliminated as punishment. His problem was that those residents of New Orleans most likely to be hit by such a move all voted for Kerry, and those who voted Bush all want to get rid of welfare anyway.

I used to work as a contractor to state DMV offices. I'll always remember one incident in particular: the state in question was having to hire some graphic artists to produce cartoons to describe how to move through the line at the DMV and where to find the appropriate forms and stuff because a lot of the people coming through were functionally illiterate -- totally ignoring the fact that if you can't read the instructions on how to do this stuff, you can't read the farking driving test!!

This particular state had a large population of immigrants (mostly illegals) from Mexico, and I remember reading a memo somewhere to the effect that most of these folks weren't just illiterate in English; they were illiterate in Spanish as well. So making the signs and forms dual-language didn't help much (more tax dollars down the tubes). They ended up allocating tax dollars for "remedial training" sessions to help these folks get drivers licenses -- basically it was a three-hour cheatfest where the examiner basically had the class memorize answers (in Spanish) to the questions on the DMV form.

Oh, and two of the examiners at the DMV in question were later busted for selling blank insurance cards to uninsured drivers and falsifying their records at the DMV.

C'mon, Ace. This is pretty weak. I'd expect any area with a significant immigrant population to have a greater percentage of illiterate adults than the national average.

Monty, please document. The state in question, particular state and two of the examiners and a plethora of they suggests the line from the Dog Brian on Family Guy:

"Are you sure you read it in a book? Are you sure it wasn't...nothing?"

If you really want a more accurate picture of New York, keep in mind that the number one employer in the State of New York outside the city is the criminal justice system. My wife is from New York state and we can't go to a neighbor's house or a local picnic there without being introduced to someone who is a prison guard. Hey Warden, where are you from?

This is pretty weak. I'd expect any area with a significant immigrant population to have a greater percentage of illiterate adults than the national average.

True enough, but New York City is, after all, the thing that makes New York State a blue state. Without NYC, it would be red. Or at least purple-leaning-to-red.

As someone upthread said, the idea that blue staters are smart is wrong... or, at least, it's the red-state-voters in the blue states that pull up the blue state's literacy, IQ, and income levels.

So you're attempting to make fun of people who don't know how the printed word works by demonstrating that you don't know how numbers work?

Meh. I'd rather not get into the debate at all, as it's silly and juvenile. Blue states aren't comprised solely of Democrats, nor are red states completely filled with Republicans. There's simply no way to pull any sort of significant data on intelligence and/or income by way of a state by state analysis.

And even if you could, who the fuck cares? What's it mean to me if Democrats really are smarter on average than Republicans? Is that supposed to have some bearing on my self worth? What difference does it make if some dumbfuck shares my political viewpoint?

Dumbfucks agree and disagree about all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons every day in America. A couple of IQ percentage points for one side or the other certainly doesn't make anyone's case for them.

It ain't where you are, it's how you get there that matters in my opinion.

Lighten up, people--it was a joke.

As a guy I knew once said (in all seriousness) "It was a joke. You know, J-O-C-E. Joke."

There's simply no way to pull any sort of significant data on intelligence and/or income by way of a state by state analysis

This was worth it simply to get this statment out. The truth is, outside of the Electoral College, there is no such thing as a Blue State or a Red State. There are only voting precints. And all the Blue Precincts are in massively populated cities. Not cities. Huge cities. Every other precinct is Red.

It always bugs me when people go on about the Red/Blue State thing. After the 2000 election, there were election results maps out there broken down by voting precinct that outlines this. Now, the best I can find is at:
http://www. /news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm

To look at the one broken down by precinct is staggering. It clearly shows Zell's point about "A National Party No More". The Democratic Party narrowly defines everything from the perspective of people that live piled one on top of the other like wood. It's why, after all the screaming about what sucks, they have no notion of an alternative. Can anybody give a coherent description of the Democrat's views on the GWOT? It doesn't count if you start with, "I can tell you what we shouldn't do...". Domocrats simply don't understand the Universe outside of about 20 city blocks.

How many people in Manhattan have a clue what goes on in the rest of their state? If they ever looked down the street in their state's capital of Albany, they'd see street after street of boarded up buildings. Look at Syracuse and Utica. There's nothing left. The entire state exists to support the Big City. And nobody in it has a clue there's such a thing as New York STATE.

Sorry. The above link should be:

http://ABCDEFG/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm

replace ABCDEFG with the address for "WWW.USA" followed by "TODAY" then ".COM"

And concerning John Kerry mentalism, there's this.

Show what happens when you read the New York Times more then you read MOBY DICK

Damn straight you tell them spurwing

This is pretty weak. I'd expect any area with a significant immigrant population to have a greater percentage of illiterate adults than the national average.

I agree.

Let's look at the "collidge edgycated" ...

"It's appalling -- it's really astounding," said Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association and a librarian at California State University at Fresno. "Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it. That's not saying much for the remainder."

[...]

While more Americans are graduating from college, and more than ever are applying for admission, far fewer are leaving higher education with the skills needed to comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the relationship between blood pressure and physical activity, according to the federal study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.

[...]

The test measures how well adults comprehend basic instructions and tasks through reading -- such as computing costs per ounce of food items

[...]

"What's disturbing is that the assessment is not designed to test your understanding of Proust, but to test your ability to read labels," he added.

It ain't just the immigrants...

it's the red-state-voters in the blue states that pull up the blue state's literacy, IQ, and income levels.

'scuze me? I'm an engineering student in Georgia who voted for Kerry. Am I an anomaly?

Am I an anomaly?

Not as far as we can tell. [Nyuk, nyuk]