Open thread - and they vote

I keep hoping against all hope that when I kid about American know-nothings as "sheeple" that it's not true, and then I see poll results like these, from Zogby.

* 57 percent of Americans could identify J.K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard as Harry Potter, while only 50 percent could name the British prime minister, Tony Blair. [You can count Paris Hilton among the folks who don't know The Lap Dog.]

* Asked what planet Superman was from, 60 percent named the fictional planet Krypton, while only 37 percent knew that Mercury is the planet closest to the sun.

* Respondents were far more familiar with the Three Stooges -- Larry, Curly and Moe -- than the three branches of the U.S. government -- judicial, executive and legislative. Seventy-four percent identified the former, 42 percent the latter.

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Is this a result of our weak education system, mass media dumbing down or what?