I work for the US Air Force (but I’m a civilian). At various times throughout the year we must complete ancillary training–training we have to endure that isn’t necessarily related to our jobs but we still must accomplish it every year. Most of this training is online. This year they added an extra voluntary training module about the US Constitution. Being the curious sort that I am, I went out to see exactly what the training entailed. It was a general overview of the Constitution…what is the Bill of Rights, etc. I was discussing it with a coworker of mine and commented that I didn’t realize we had 27 amendments (I think it’s 27…can’t remember now–fat lot of good that training did me!)
My coworker (who has worked for the US Government for 37 years) informed me that there weren’t 27 amendments, there were only 10. When I tried to correct him, he condescendingly explained to me that there are only ever 10 and they are called the Bill of Rights. If they come up with a new one, the Supreme Court must decide which existing amendment to throw out!
Seriously frightening to know that it is people like this running our finely honed military machine!
This one actually makes some sense. I can see how a hand-made star in a circle might be mistaken for the anarchist symbol if you didn’t get a good look at it.
A co-worker of mine at a former job once attempted to convince me, completely earnestly, that it was more important to know the ingredients of a Big Mac than to know who your MP is or which riding you live in.
A gentleman once called the dispatch center where I work to report suspicious persons at a truck stop in the north part of the county, off I-70. Two “middle eastern looking” males with surfboards strapped to the top of their car, obviously up to no good. And why did he think that? I asked.
“Arabs don’t surf!” he told me impatiently.
Then there was the lady who wanted to know how she could obtain criminal history checks on 10 of her co-workers, since they were Iranian and it made her nervous to work with them. I resisted the urge to tell her we were at war with Afghanistan, not Iran, and it was none of her business anyway, and referred her to the highway patrol’s criminal history division, where hopefully they laughed at her and hung up.
Dispatching sure got weird for a while just after 9/11.
And that reminds me of a news broadcast or documentary I saw a few years ago where they were interviewing teenaged (probably) Arab madrasa students. The interviewer told them that there is a twenty-five million dollar reward for Osama bin Ladin, and asking them if they knew what they could buy with twenty-five mil. One young guy said, “I don’t know…a car?”
I spent one excrutiating year of my life as an account executive for a marketing communications firm. I was in a meeting once with two of the management guys – a VP and the safety director-- that worked for a company that was my client.
It must have been in or near Ramadan, because one of the guys said, “Hey, you know what those Moslem guys do during Ramadan? They spend the whole month shut up by themselves so they can ‘do’ each other!”
I was in a helluva bind – outraged, but knowing I’d catch hell for offending a client if I let them know that. I tried my best. “Now, Tom, I know what you’re saying about Muslims just isn’t true.” Blah blah blah. I don’t think I fought ignorance at all that day.
On a lighter note…a friend of mine who demonstrates spinning at craft shows once had a mother explain to her kids, “See? She’s making wool out of wood!”
And overheard in the checkout line…“You know that new pope, Benedict?” “Yeah.” First guy, in a conspiratorial and disgusted tone, “His name’s not really Benedict!”
On the other hand, we were playing a game of “Betrayal at House on the Hill” a couple weekends ago, and one of the players is a Muslim (and a nicer guy you couldn’t find) - somehow we got onto the subject of Ramadan (among other Muslim customs), and ignorance was indeed fought that day - maybe we cancelled you out. It was an interesting bunch - a Catholic, a Baptist, a mildly Christian person, a Pantheistic Neo-Pagan, and a Muslim. The great thing about religious tolerance is how much you can learn.
Recently, looking for information on Jewish feasts, I ran across a well-written webpage (don’t have the bookmark any more) by an Orthodox Jew, explaining aspects of the religion.
His explanation of why women “don’t count” for certain kinds of prayer (“because their duty is to take care of children and home, which is a higher calling”) sounded like it had been written by someone from Opus Dei.
If I ever win the lottery I may try to get a PhD in Comparative Theology, just so I can write a thesis called “Fundamentalis Bullshit In The Three Religions Of The Book.” I’d probably have to change BS to a more PC word, though, pity.
Right, and I should have known all of the above without being told. Mostly I don’t assume that random dudes on the internet have severely dysfunctional families, but I’m happy to form my opinions of posters’ ignorance based on their thinking that someone else miscarrying is a Good Thing. :rolleyes:[sup]3[/sup]
Sure, but people were saying “Dude, you can’t possibly be serious that there are only one thousand eighty atoms in the universe” and yet he was standing his ground.
OMG, this is just how my MIL thinks! (Of course, she’s 86, so if anyone has a right to be a little loopy, it’s her). To her, any seafood, even breaded, fried, and mayonnaised, is better for you than any red meat, even if it’s a really lean cut, lightly grilled, with au jus.
Of course, this is the same woman who has a (grown) granddaughter who: drinks to excess, smokes like a chimney, uses illegal drugs wtih wreckless abandon, lost custody of her daughter over all these things, and yet my MILs biggest problem with said granddaughter is that she dates black men. :smack:
