I see that Andrew Rice at The Politicker has beaten me to the punch on this one, but it's worth rehashing. The good folks at People for the American Way, intrigued by the Federal government's revamped test for new citizens, decided to administer it to randomly selected people hurrying around downtown Manhattan, and the results are much what one would expect: slightly more than half failed.

So are we just ill-educated, vapid, reality-TV-obsessed shopaholic zombies, or is the test too high of a hurdle? Now, before you answer that – we Americans do have this tendency to describe ourselves in our great masses as, well, charming, but not always too bright – consider these questions:

How many amendments does the Constitution have? (My guess would have been twenty-nine, but the correct answer is two fewer than that. In consolation, nobody – nobody! – got that one right.)

What is the rule of law? (The correct answer is "Everyone must obey the law, leaders must obey the law and government must obey the law"; I would have likely started ranting about impeachment, but hey.)

Who is the Attorney General now? (In what jurisdiction? Clarify, goddammit.)

What is the longest river in the United States? (Answer: the Missouri. If you thought the Mississippi, as I did, our school system has failed you completely, and you, Sir or Madam, really don't amount to much – along with the 100% of respondents who got it wrong.)

Name one author of 'The Federalist Papers'. (Hah! Hamilton, Madison and some guy who never gets credit! Hah!)

What is the tallest mountain in the United States? (Mount McKinley! Though it now appears that some people call it 'Denali', presumably for reasons of political correctness? Silly, but there you have it.)

So I'm torn, having acquired my citizenship through a process known as 'birth', which was arguably harder on my Mom than on me. I'm all for increasing the knowledge among our citizens about specifics of what it is that defines our country, through beatings if necessary; but it would appear – cf. 'rule of law' above – that this new questionnaire is in need of some review; much as is anything that emanates from the Bush administration, one might add. At the very least, it's not a good sign if people who acquired their citizenship the easy way – sorry, Mom – flunk a test which immigrants need to pass. To see if you qualify, take the test yourself - here. Make us proud, please.

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