kick it

I think I failed that test.

What the hell are questions 1 and 11 even asking?

By the way, I have two advanced degrees from U.S. institutions. I guess that still doesn't make me literate enough to vote in Louisiana.

That's the point. Even the most brilliant genius in the world could be failed in those tests, because they weren't fed into some impartial machine or what have you...they were graded on the spot by appointed officials, who would determine whether the answers given were correct or not.

They're deliberately ambiguous, with multiple 'correct' answers, so that if someone gives a correct answer, enough correct answers to pass the test, you can just say 'No, no, the correct answer was THIS', and bam, nobody passes the test.

At least, nobody they don't want to pass.

Which meant white people passed and black people didn't.

Five for genuine, true, evil.

"What the hell are questions 1 and 11 even asking?"

They're both unclear, but my good-faith reading of them is:

1. Circle the "1.".

11. Cross out the "1" in "10000000000" to make it drop below a million.

Those are my good-faith interpretations. Whether my answers would be scored in equal good faith probably has a lot to do with my skin color.

It gets worse actually, that page I posted is only the first of three pages, and each page has more bizarre, more impossible to answer correctly questions, that have less and less to do with being literate:

Page 2: http://tinyurl.com/otnleds

Page 3: http://tinyurl.com/pzj4r8j

Also, keep in mind, you had a time limit of ten minutes (TEN MINUTES) to complete this test. If you didn't answer every question before ten minutes was up, or got ONE SINGLE ANSWER TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS WRONG, you automatically failed the test.

It's not THAT hard, but it's definitely poorly-written, confusing, and inappropriate for the purposes of establishing basic literacy levels.

The first question is, in my opinion, the worst written of the bunch. I believe what the authors are looking for, is for the test taker to circle the "1." at the start of the sentence. However, one might dispute whether or not that "1." is actually part of the sentence.

Eleven is pretty straightforward. They want you to x out enough zeros so that the number below would read 1,000,000.

The one that I would have the most trouble with is the "draw three circles" question. It tells you to draw three, yet only gives you instructions on two - do they want you to draw two concentric circles, then one to the side? Three concentric circles? Two concentric circles, and one circle partially overlapping the outer but not the inner nested one?

If I were taking the test, I could probably draw two concentric circles, then a second about an inch to one side, then, starting from the inner circle, a big penis shape connecting the two - so the picture looked like a cock, two deformed balls, and the test-givers wife, preparing to give me a blowjob. He would appreciate the attempt at light jocularity, I'm sure.

-edit- Oh, I just spotted the additional pages posted by DQL. I haven't had time to read through, but based on a quick skim, they don't seem too bad.

17 and 18 are mathematics questions, however. Not literacy.

Clearly, whomever wrote those questions needs to go back to school and learn the definition of "literacy". On the plus side, I'm certain they weren't allowed to vote!

Right?

Looking back at question number 11, I read it as making the number below one million, so 100,000 (or 10,000 or 1,000 etc). I think EH's interpretation of the making the number below [the sentence] one million is probably the one they were looking for.

Or, as dairyqueenlatifah stated, the correct answer was probably whatever the examiner wanted it to be.

Numbers 28, 29, and 30 are all like "I'll bet you really thought you were going to be able to vote today, didn't you? Sucker.

28's not so bad, it's just a little φ sign. 29 would be tedious, particularly after doing all that other bullshit. And 30, what the fuck? I'm guessing that whomever wrote that sentence left out the verb "have" - i.e. it should read, "that have one common interlocking part". Again, hopefully, the authors of that test were disqualified from voting.

"Write backwards, forwards"

This could be "backwards" or "sdrawrof", depending on how you read it...

This is actually pretty tame for her.

The system doesn't work, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Those who give their ability to vote up deserve whatever happens to them, and that's sad.

People have died, in this country, in our lifetimes or our parents', for the right to vote. Show me someone who thinks voting is just for saps and I'll show you someone who deserves a little tyranny. (I will make an exception for people in racial / ethnic groups who have seen the system work against them again and again; they have a right to some skepticism, and have probably seen enough tyranny already.)

slow clap

...but all that is already happening.

I couldn't take more than a minute of this.. in a way I think going blindly into a party can lead to trouble: Hitler was pretty good at doing that, and many people at the beer hall rallies didn't really know what they were getting into. And let's face it: charismatically, Sarah Palin is a ton more likable to a lot of folks than Hilary is, not to mention more attractive. That's why they picked her in the first place, because McCain was "boring." And that's not politics. That's American Idol.

If it makes you feel any better, Scynne, nobody's vote has ever mattered, nor ever will.

Voting's really just our way of signing a new Google TOS agreement en masse.

See above about "deserves a little tyranny".

infinite zest in on the right track but honestly, America has turned voting into American Idol every 4 years.

Oh and the crawl of "AHEAD" schedule list midway into the debate. What a terrible network. I am so glad I gave up on Cable TV years ago.

I wonder if she's ever read "Mother Night".

Of all people on this site, I never expected ROUS to be a conservative apologist.

I don't apologize for her, I just think that one Boondocks episode was possibly based on reality more than we thought.