The New Dumb

Tell me you've noticed. Not that it matters. Take my word for it - no one's above The New Dumb. At least not lately. To wit:

1. Literacy. The United States of America is now ranked 55th in world literacy (according to the 2005 UN Development Programme Report). 55th. As Bill Maher put it, it's a sad state of affairs when there are 12-year-old kids in this country who can't spell the names of the teachers they're having sex with.

2. Political Attack Ads. Rapists, phone sex, killing babies, racism and terror. But enough about my weekend. This round of US mid-term election campaign ads have reduced the level of political discourse to “oxygen deprived” while giving everyone some pretty good reasons to fear fear again.

So thank you Kristen Gillibrand (NY). Thank you for fighting for more than our right to party.




3. Borat. U-S-A! U-S-A! To Sacha Baron Cohen’s unwitting co-stars - you’re all winners. My stomach hurt for quite a while after last night’s advance screening (opens Friday). But what was funnier – the ignorance, the homophobia, the ignorance, the anti-Semitism, the ignorance, the sexism, or the anus jokes?