I remember having a civics class as early as junior high, and a US Government class in high school. I also had the advantage of parents who took an interest in my education. I cannot claim that I was not unusually advantaged. Still, I am left gibbering in horror at this.

With all the other things to worry about (people in the US, even US citizens, being made to disappear without any semblance of due process or judicial review, a pro-torture yes-man being shoehorned into the attorney general's office, North Korea with yet another nuclear weapon, a rapidly destabilizing Middle East), it's kind of funny that the thing with the most emotional impact on me would be a casual statement by a Chinese economist.