1.12.2009

You Can Always Kiss Off Into the Air

Civics and Reading Comprehension. You have ten minutes to read the following passage and respond to the questions below. If you finish early, you may move on to the next section. No child will be left behind.

From a 1/12/09 press conference:

I view those who get angry and yell and say bad things and, you know, all that kind of stuff, it's just a very few people in the country. I don't know why they get angry. I don't know why they get hostile. It's not the first time, however, in history that people have expressed themselves in sometimes undignified ways. I've been reading, you know, a lot about Abraham Lincoln during my presidency, and there was some pretty harsh discord when it came to the 16th President, just like there's been harsh discord for the 43rd President.

1. TRUE or FALSE: A President should know why the people are angry and hostile, even if he chooses not to address the peoples' concerns.

2. President George W. Bush's comparison of his presidency to that of Abraham Lincoln is:
A. Specious
B. Wacky
C. Insulting
D. Damn near heretical, if you ask me.

3. Lincoln went to war to preserve the union, and -- as a byproduct of that effort -- signed the Emancipation Proclamation. In the space provided, explain to the best of your ability, the reason for war with Iraq, as well as the byproducts of that effort: _________________________.

4. Rank the following presidents from best ever to worst ever:
A. Abraham Lincoln
B. George W. Bush

5. In the interest of the war effort, Abraham Lincoln temporarily suspended the writ of habeas corpus. During his eight years in office, what has George W. Bush suspended?
A. Civil Liberties
B. Constraints on torture
C. America's good name
D. Credulity.
E. All of the above.

6. Let's imagine a hypothetical time traveller from the future, who might warn Mr. Lincoln to refrain from attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1965. What might a similar time traveller have to offer George W. Bush?
A. Pretzels.
B. A faster shoe.
C. A few dozen more Gore supporters in Florida in November, 2000.
D. Tickets to Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre, April 14, 1965.

As Gordon Gano said, "I hope you know this will go down on your permanent record."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I didn't get the last question. How could the Zombie Lincoln and a 9 year old George W Bush be at the same play together? And, if the Zombie Booth shoots the Zombie Lincoln, does the Zombie Lincoln die? Who would produce Our American Cousin in the nineteen-sixties? And, didn't they tear down the Ford Theatre in March of 1965 after that Doors concert that ended with Pete Seeger cutting the power lines to the amps with an axe during a 23 minute extended version of "Crystal Ship"?