Are you smarter than an elected official?

The following quiz was given to elected officials and the general public. The general public got an average of 54% right, while elected officials only got 49% right.Since our public officials take an oath “to protect and defend the Constitution of the U.S.”  it seems to me they should know the document they’re swearing to protect and defend.

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Are you smarter than an elected official?
If you can correctly answer five or more of these basic Constitution-related questions, congratulations! You're smarter than the average elected official! (Answers are below -- but no peeking!)
1) What are the three branches of government?
A. executive, legislative, judicial
B. executive, legislative, military
C. bureaucratic, military, industry
D. federal, state, local
2) What part of the government has the power to declare war?
A. Congress
B. the president
C. the Supreme Court
D. the Joint Chiefs of Staff
3) In the area of United States foreign policy, Congress shares power with the:
A. president
B. Supreme Court
C. state governments
D. United Nations
4) The United States Electoral College:
A. trains those aspiring for higher political office
B. was established to supervise the first televised presidential debates
C. is otherwise known as the U.S. Congress
D. is a constitutionally mandated assembly that elects the president
E. was ruled undemocratic by the Supreme Court
5) What impact did the Anti-Federalists have on the United States Constitution?
A. their arguments helped lead to the adoption of the Bill of Rights
B. their arguments helped lead to the abolition of the slave trade
C. their influence ensured that the federal government would maintain a standing army
D. their influence ensured that the federal government would have the power to tax
6) The phrase that in America there should be a "wall of separation" between church and state appears in:
A. George Washington's Farewell Address
B. the Mayflower Compact
C. the Constitution
D. the Declaration of Independence
E. Thomas Jefferson's letters
7) The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits:
A. prayer in public school
B. discrimination based on race, sex, or religion
C. the ownership of guns by private individuals
D. establishing an official religion for the United States
E. the president from vetoing a line item in a spending bill
8) Identify one right or freedom below guaranteed by the first amendment.
A. Right to bear arms
B. Due process
C. Religion
D. Right to counsel
9) Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government listed below?
A. Make treaties
B. Make zoning laws
C. Maintain prisons
D. Establish standards for doctors and lawyers
10) Who is the commander in chief of the U.S. military?
A. Secretary of the army
B. Secretary of state
C. President
D. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

Answers are at the bottom of this post…

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Write About A Bed…

Today’s writing prompt was: “Write about a bed” What I wrote follows. Hope you get a kick out of reading it. I sure did while writing it.

Jerry crept down the stairs, avoiding the creaky third step from the bottom. If he were caught out of bed, he would be in deep trouble, but he had to find out what was going on. He’d heard some strange noises coming from downstairs.

He lowered himself to the floor and crawled, keeping his butt down as he had seen the Marines do in those war movies his dad loved so much. Of course, there was no barbed wired in the hallway that led to the spare room where he was heading. There were no enemy forces to fire at him from behind chairs or the sofa or a cabinet.

His pajamas slid easily and silently on the hardwood floor in the hallway. He could hear voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying until he got a little closer.

“Shhh! You’ll wake Jerry.”

“No, he can’t hear us. He’s sound asleep.”

“This is crazy, you know.” Jerry was pretty sure this was his mom’s voice.

“Well, it worked before.”

“I know, but you don’t really think it had anything to do with this old bed, do you?”

“Come on, Eloise, it’s worth a try. Besides, don’t you miss this old bed?”

His mom giggled. “Oh, yes. But I love our new Select Comfort bed, too.”

“Yeah, but we’re not trying to sleep.”

“Really,” his mom laughed. “And just what do you suppose we’re doing here?”

“We want to give Jerry a little brother or sister.” His dad growled low in his throat and it sounded as if he blew a raspberry on his mom’s tummy. “And this bed worked just fine last time.”

Jerry wasn’t sure about where babies came from, but he was pretty sure you didn’t get them out of an old bed. Since there didn’t seem to be much going on, at least nothing he understood, he turned and made his way back to bed. If there were a new baby in the morning, he’d ask his mom how it happened.

The Green Hornet

Today Karen and I went to see The Green Hornet. What a great movie! It’s as good as the previews indicate. Exciting! Great car chases! Funnier than all get-out! You’ll enjoy it! Go see it!

Answer key:
1) A; 2) A; 3) A; 4) D; 5) A; 6) E; 7) D; 8) C; 9) A; 10) C