The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I'm really starting to think we should make world geography courses mandatory from grade school through college. Yet another recent report showcased our lack of knowledge in the area with regard to Africa and Ebola. It's being reported that Susan Sherman, a registered nurse and teacher at St. Margaret Mary school in Louisville, Kentucky, has resigned from her position at the school after the school received complaints from parents about her going to Africa on a mission and potentially endangering their children with exposure to Ebola. The problem with this is Ms. Sherman's mission work was in the country of Kenya, which is approximately 3,300 miles away from the Ebola outbreak. That's the equivalent of driving by car from Seattle, Washington, to Miami, Florida. It would take about 2.25 days to travel to Miami from Seattle by car. In other words, Ms. Sherman wasn't anywhere near Ebola while in Africa. Using this comparison as my guide, these parents would likely sa...

When Christopher Columbus came to the U.S. thinking it was India and, still to this day, many people refer to Native Americans as "Indians," it seemed all but inevitable that Americans would excel at geography like Rip Van Winkle excelled at speed-dating. Case and point, it appears as if some schools, in light of the Ebola outbreak in Africa, feel that the continent is one country, as opposed to 47 countries. The thing is, this outbreak has broke out in just 3 of the 47 countries in Africa (6.4%). According to my math, that leaves 44 of 47 countries in Africa Ebola-free (93.6%). However, these wild numbers haven't seemed to cease the panic any at some schools. In New Burlington, New Jersey, two Rwandan students are being forced to stay home due to the school's and parents' paranoia they'll magically infect kids with Ebola. Judging by the map and those crazy numbers again, Rwanda is about as close to a country fighting the Ebola outbreak as New York City is...

Well, for as bad as things are for the LGBT community in some states in this country, at least they can say, "Well, at least we don't live in Cameroon." Cameroon is an African country, where according to article 347 bis of the Cameroon Penal Code, "sexual relations with a person of the same sex" can be punishable of up to 5 years in prison, in addition to some fines. Sadly, Cameroonian attorney Michel Togue, whom has defended gay and lesbian clients, recently stated that police have arrested members of the LGBT community for simply presenting themselves in a manner which authorities deemed to not be in line with their gender. Zack Ford of ThinkProgress , whom interviewed Mr. Togue, wrote this about the matter: "...Once an accusation of homosexuality is made, police make arrests based solely on how individuals present themselves. For example, if a man is found to be cross-dressing, that could be used as proof that he is gay in court. If somebody has ...

In Tuesday night's Republican debate on CNN, Michele Bachmann criticized President Obama's foreign policy decisions, saying and I quote, "Now with the president, he put us in Libya. He is now putting us in Africa. We already were stretched too thin, and he put our special operations forces in Africa." For the record, Libya resides in Africa. Word has it that in future debates, Bachmann will talk about the separation of: Canada and North America Brazil and South America Antarctica and Antarctica Iowa and the United States Her residence and Mars http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/18/michele-bachmann-libya-africa_n_1018814.html