# Civics Quiz and USA Today Article



## Charley (Feb 8, 2005)

Take the Quiz

USA Today article

I missed three.


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## Spence (Feb 28, 2006)

Wow, you're a much better man than I.

-spence


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## JDC (Dec 2, 2006)

I scored 48, although one question had a typo (the right answer is worded incorrectly), and a few others are open to creative interpretation. I flat out missed about six or seven.


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## JRR (Feb 11, 2006)

Missed 9. Tougher than I thought. Still much better than the mean senior.


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## radix023 (May 3, 2007)

Charley is still winning... I missed 6.


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## Laxplayer (Apr 26, 2006)

I missed 9 also. Well done, Charley.


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## Karl89 (Feb 20, 2005)

Gents,

I missed 5. Probably could have done a tad better had I not rushed through it but I doubt I could have topped Charley.

Karl


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

I blew 6 in the economics questions toward the end. Back to Craigs List and the job ads.


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## agnash (Jul 24, 2006)

I missed 4. It has been a long time since I read 18th century British political philosophy.


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## jackmccullough (May 10, 2006)

Interesting. 56 out of 60 correct.


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## Alistair (Aug 12, 2007)

While I appreciate the links, I do wonder why people feel the need to tell everyone how many they missed. It's like a bunch 3rd graders comparing their spelling test grades. Who bloody _cares_?


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## Karl89 (Feb 20, 2005)

Alistair,

Why do YOU feel the need to tell us that YOU don't care? But thanks for sharing.

Karl


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

Here's some of the reasons people vote I've talked to ; He belongs to my church , I like Elephants, Saddam has WMDs, My girlfriend said If I vote for x she'll do x, He hunts and fishes, Shes really a member of the Lizard people/Masons/ assorted global conspiracies. Remember those people while wincing at the ones missed.


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## Phinn (Apr 18, 2006)

I question the choices in No. 6:



> The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits:
> 
> D. establishing an official religion *for* the United States.


Actually, it explicitly prohibits establishing an official religion _*by*_ the United States _federal government_.

It does not (and was written so that it would not) prohibit any or each of the several states from establishing _their own_ official religions, several of which were in existence at the time the Constitution was ratified and for many years thereafter.

I also take issue with what they consider to be the correct answer to No. 50, although I had a feeling, based on the tenor of the preceding questions, which answer they were looking for.


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## JDC (Dec 2, 2006)

Karl89 said:


> Alistair,
> 
> Why do YOU feel the need to tell us that YOU don't care? But thanks for sharing.
> 
> Karl


Typically, "Who cares?" = "I failed the test".


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

Alistair, We are cut off in traffic by acne faced, undescended testical cretins driving financed red mustangs. Our mail is full of platinum, pre approved Master Cards with a $200 limit and $ 60 enrollment fee from Delaware or South Dakota. They say 'Dear Friend' with less earnestness than a Barrister from Nigeria informing us of yet another air disaster, revolution and failed yam crop in that long suffering nation. Some guy smiled at us in the public urinal and fear of a career destroying arrest sent us walking out with hands still half washed. We entered into the artificial lighting of a mall selling soul numbing sameness of stuff destined for landfills sold by square toed salesmen who parked their red mustangs so as to take up two spaces. We try to keep our children, nieces and nephew's children until the ancient age of 10 and the TEEVEE has smiling Bob promoting natural male enhancement, another station a control for genitial herpes or some creature who took photos of Anna Nicole and Pam Anderson into her cosmetic surgery office like some cloned sheep in the UK and is now commenting on world affairs over coffee with 4 other crones from a Shakespeare play. So we come online, pour two fingers and engage in a little male ego beating of spears on shields with each other and remind ourselves manhood is still there, deep in the DNA, waiting for the angst, horror and disdain for it all to pass.


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## Charley (Feb 8, 2005)

Alistair said:


> While I appreciate the links, I do wonder why people feel the need to tell everyone how many they missed. It's like a bunch 3rd graders comparing their spelling test grades. Who bloody _cares_?


Alistair,
I only posted my score as something to entice others to take the test and read the article. I expected that there would be quite a few here who would get all answers correct, much better than my misses. Probably much better students and certainly more recent ones. Perhaps they did and did not feel it necessary to advise us. And, really, who can actually know what anyone scored anyway. I cannot now remember with certainty, but it seemed that there were about ten of the questions which needed some real sorting out. And those could have the possible answers reduced fairly quickly to two or three from five. So, I must have done a fairly good job of semi-guessing on those ten to only have missed three. Lucky me today.


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## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

FrankDC said:


> Typically, "Who cares?" = "I failed the test".


Well...even a broken clock is right twice a day...


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## iammatt (Sep 17, 2005)

I missed 5. I thought I had missed at least triple that.

Fortunately, I only missed unimportant things like the idea of just war and when women became allowed to vote.


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## JDC (Dec 2, 2006)

Charley said:


> I cannot now remember with certainty, but it seemed that there were about ten of the questions which needed some real sorting out.


That's because about ten of the questions were there to satisfy a political agenda instead of test civics knowledge. E.g. for some reason it's important for us to know we've spent more supporting our senior citizens and disabled in the past 20 years than we've flushed down the toilet to the Pentagon.


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## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

FrankDC said:


> That's because about ten of the questions were there to satisfy a political agenda instead of test civics knowledge. E.g. for some reason it's important for us to know we've spent more supporting our senior citizens and disabled in the past 20 years than we've flushed down the toilet to the Pentagon.


...and there he goes...lemme guess...GWB mad eup this test huh???


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## JDC (Dec 2, 2006)

The Gabba Goul said:


> ...and there he goes...lemme guess...GWB mad eup this test huh???


Close enough: https://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/about_isi.html

"These programs work at different levels and in different ways to nurture in the rising generations an appreciation of our nation's founding principles-limited government, individual liberty, private property, a free market economy, personal responsibility, and ethical standards."

Or in other words, a "non-partisan" version of the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, etc etc etc ad fricking nauseam.


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## rsmeyer (May 14, 2006)

FrankDC said:


> Close enough: https://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/about_isi.html
> 
> "These programs work at different levels and in different ways to nurture in the rising generations an appreciation of our nation's founding principles-limited government, individual liberty, private property, a free market economy, personal responsibility, and ethical standards."
> 
> Or in other words, a "non-partisan" version of the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, etc etc etc ad fricking nauseam.


The ISI is considered on the conservative end of the spectrum. Nothing particularly wrong with that-but IMHO it does sway the wording of a few of these questions-but a reasonable exercise. P.S.-Got a 55/60.


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## JDC (Dec 2, 2006)

rsmeyer said:


> The ISI is considered on the conservative end of the spectrum. Nothing particularly wrong with that-but IMHO it does sway the wording of a few of these questions-but a reasonable exercise. P.S.-Got a 55/60.


I agree, and good score! We'll wait patiently while Gabba fabricates his. :icon_smile_big:


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## Charley (Feb 8, 2005)

FrankDC said:


> Close enough: https://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/about_isi.html
> 
> "These programs work at different levels and in different ways to nurture in the rising generations an appreciation of our nation's founding principles-limited government, individual liberty, private property, a free market economy, personal responsibility, and ethical standards."
> 
> Or in other words, a "non-partisan" version of the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, etc etc etc ad fricking nauseam.


FrankDC,
Sorry you seem to be upset by some of the knowledge facts that were required for a high score. Or maybe you just found some of the facts "inconvienient"?
Sumpter before Gettysburg before Appomattox is a tough one.
I really thought you should compalian about the question concerning Theater ticket prices. I got it right -> Higher prices = fewer tickets sold (however, it could yield Higher revenue)..

Your answer must have been more tickets. 
Higher prices means the "poor" cannot attend.
Gov't will take on a subsidized ticket program (a la food stamps) free tickets for the "poor".
Poor picket up their free ticket allocations and resell them for a discount.
Great - more ticket sales from high prices.


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## JDC (Dec 2, 2006)

Charley said:


> FrankDC,
> Sorry you seem to be upset by some of the knowledge facts that were required for a high score. Or maybe you just found some of the facts "inconvienient"?


To the contrary, Charley, ISI's "facts" conveniently (and consistently) advance their own agenda, not mine. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and not that some people, especially in this forum would have a problem with that. I'm just stating it for the record.



Charley said:


> Sumpter before Gettysburg before Appomattox is a tough one.
> I really thought you should compalian about the question concerning Theater ticket prices. I got it right -> Higher prices = fewer tickets sold.


Yes, I got that one correct. I even knew the one about federal spending on SSA vs. "defense".


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## Charley (Feb 8, 2005)

FrankDC said:


> To the contrary, Charley, ISI's "facts" conveniently (and consistently) advance their own agenda, not mine.


FrankDC,

Facts is Facts. There is no need for quotation marks as if there is something scarey about FACTS.
Agendas are not Advanced or Restrained by FACTS.
Any Agenda that does not recognize Facts is simply Propaganda, in that it ignores and hides them.

Your complaint seems to be that the Facts don't agree with your Agenda.

BTW, I did not have any intent of posting the original post with the links to cause a political disucssion. Most of the questions seemed fairly reasonable to me. But I don't object to limited gov't. or individual liberty or private property.


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## gnatty8 (Nov 7, 2006)

missed 8,

8 is my lucky number incidentally..


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## jackmccullough (May 10, 2006)

Phinn said:


> I question the choices in No. 6:
> 
> Actually, it explicitly prohibits establishing an official religion _*by*_ the United States _federal government_.
> 
> It does not (and was written so that it would not) prohibit any or each of the several states from establishing _their own_ official religions, several of which were in existence at the time the Constitution was ratified and for many years thereafter.


Right. The Bill of Rights didn't apply to the states until the Fourteenth Amendment, and the doctrine of incorporation.


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## Phinn (Apr 18, 2006)

> I really thought you should complain about the question concerning Theater ticket prices. I got it right -> Higher prices = fewer tickets sold (however, it could yield Higher revenue)..


It could yield higher revenue, but the question asked about the effects of the law of demand, which points to fewer tickets. Of course, the law of demand isn't the only force at work.

As Frank well knows, in the real world, higher ticket prices are the means by which the petit bourgeoisie exclude the proletariat from participation in civic life, the high ticket prices operating as a socio-economic signal to the hyper-privileged that they won't be forced to mingle with people of color, thereby tightening the grip of the straight, white male cultural hegemons.


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## jackmccullough (May 10, 2006)

FrankDC said:


> That's because about ten of the questions were there to satisfy a political agenda instead of test civics knowledge. E.g. for some reason it's important for us to know we've spent more supporting our senior citizens and disabled in the past 20 years than we've flushed down the toilet to the Pentagon.


This question does betray a political agenda.

On the other hand, what I thought was interesting was the foreign aid choice. Surveys of Americans consistently show that they grossly overestimate the percentage of the budget that goes to foreign aid; they also show that when Americans are asked what percentage of our budget should go to foreign aid, the number they pick is about twice of what we actually spend.


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## JDC (Dec 2, 2006)

Charley said:


> FrankDC,
> 
> Facts is Facts. There is no need for quotation marks as if there is something scarey about FACTS.
> Agendas are not Advanced or Restrained by FACTS.
> Any Agenda that does not recognize Facts is simply Propaganda, in that it ignores and hides them.


The line between fact and propaganda is simply a matter of spin, context and perspective. There are no shortages of examples of this in ISI's quiz, e.g.:

"Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas would concur that: 
A. all moral and political truth is relative to one's time and place. 
B. moral ideas are best explained as material accidents or byproducts of evolution. 
C. values originating in one's conscience cannot be judged by others. 
D. Christianity is the only true religion and should rule the state. 
E. certain permanent moral and political truths are accessible to human reason. "

The FACT is, no written record exists of three of these four men ever saying anything about "certain permanent political truths". The FACT is, classical scholars don't even agree amongst themselves about what Socrates actually believed about politics (although from written records, we believe he was rabidly against democracy as a form of government). And above all else, the FACT is, all four of these men have been dead for hundreds or thousands of years, so the authors of this quiz know jack squat about what they "would concur" with.

I could waste a lot more time exposing ISI's other propaganda in this quiz, but it frankly would be like trying to explain color to people who've been blind since birth.


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## Alistair (Aug 12, 2007)

FrankDC said:


> Typically, "Who cares?" = "I failed the test".


This isn't from a "typical" person - but stating my credentials would only be illustrating the point I was trying to make. Get over yourself pal.


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## Charley (Feb 8, 2005)

Phinn said:


> It could yield higher revenue, but the question asked about the effects of the law of demand, which points to fewer tickets. Of course, the law of demand isn't the only force at work.
> 
> As Frank well knows, in the real world, higher ticket prices are the means by which the petit bourgeoisie exclude the proletariat from participation in civic life, the high ticket prices operating as a socio-economic signal to the hyper-privileged that they won't be forced to mingle with people of color, thereby tightening the grip of the straight, white male cultural hegemons.


I hope that was satire.

Shakespear in the Park is free here.
I must pay $110 for a ticket to Aretha Franklin.

So, is it racist to assume you are inferring that people of color have no interest in attending the FREE Shakespear in the Park?

Or, following your theory, maybe it is Aretha who is racist by making the prices so high that the certain enclaves of the socio-econimic order will not be able to harrass her during her performance? Surely FrankDC will be able to explain this seeming conundrum of exploitation.


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## Alistair (Aug 12, 2007)

Karl89 said:


> Alistair,
> 
> Why do YOU feel the need to tell us that YOU don't care? But thanks for sharing.


To encourage some self-awareness among the absurdly self-absorbed contributors on this forum. And you're welcome.


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## rip (Jul 13, 2005)

Alistair said:


> While I appreciate the links, I do wonder why people feel the need to tell everyone how many they missed. It's like a bunch 3rd graders comparing their spelling test grades. Who bloody _cares_?


Wow, your score must have been really low!


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## pt4u67 (Apr 27, 2006)

rsmeyer said:


> *The ISI is considered on the conservative end of the spectrum.* Nothing particularly wrong with that-but IMHO it does sway the wording of a few of these questions-but a reasonable exercise. P.S.-Got a 55/60.


I'm not looking for an argument but by whom is this consideration made? My guess is that any instrument that pokes a hole in the theory of the infallibility of Ivy League institutions, and how those getting ready to graduate from those schools score no better than a D+, will receive that label.

Perhaps our institutions of higher learning should do a little more to establish the foundations for the most positive force in history, that being Western civilization and culture, instead of fluff the need for such illustrations will disappear.

P.S. I missed 6.


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## rip (Jul 13, 2005)

Charley said:


> Or, following your theory, maybe it is Aretha who is racist by making the prices so high that the certain enclaves of the socio-econimic order will not be able to harrass her during her performance? Surely FrankDC will be able to explain this seeming conundrum of exploitation.


I would sugggest that it is racist to imply that there is a racial component to either low income, i.e., unable to afford $110 tickets and/or likeliness to harrass her.


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

I am going to assemble a 60 question quiz on the leftist/labor history of America just for Frank. " Don't mourn, Organise."


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## Spence (Feb 28, 2006)

pt4u67 said:


> Perhaps our institutions of higher learning should do a little more to establish the foundations for the most positive force in history, that being Western civilization and culture, instead of fluff the need for such illustrations will disappear.


I agree...and suggest our instutitions of lower and mid level learning do the same.

-spence


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## JDC (Dec 2, 2006)

pt4u67 said:


> Perhaps our institutions of higher learning should do a little more to establish the foundations for the most positive force in history, that being Western civilization and culture, instead of fluff the need for such illustrations will disappear.


I'll be sure to fire off letters to Harvard and Yale, as soon as "Cops" is over.

Oh wait, back to back episodes. It must really be a popular show.


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

A quick thread summary 1. test questions may reflect a political bent or agenda. So the smart thing is to ignore such tests and also fail to learn and understand more about said groups. " Know thy enemy" and " keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." 2. reporting our personal scores is the equal to comparing caught fish or pees pees in the boys room. We really all need to grow up. Aromatherapy candles are in, 300 piece bags of green army guys are out.


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## pt4u67 (Apr 27, 2006)

FrankDC said:


> I'll be sure to fire off letters to Harvard and Yale, as soon as "Cops" is over.
> 
> Oh wait, back to back episodes. It must really be a popular show.


If you are capable of no more than watching "cops" then blame yourself and not Western Civ. The beauty of our culture, Frank, is that we are all free to pursue watch, read and think as we find fitting. I bet the Cubans would love to have the option to watch Cops rather than watching and endless loop of Fidel's greatest hits!!


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## Mike Petrik (Jul 5, 2005)

58 of 60. Missed the Puritans and the bond repurchase.


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