Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

We have a new game show in the U.S. It's called "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" and features contestants grappling with questions taken from our primary school curriculum. (Quickly Now: How many moons does the planet Mars have? No peeking.)

DD was in the fifth grade when this show debuted, so we watched several episodes. She delighted in knowing answers to questions that JP and I both had forgotten in the years since we were in fifth grade. (In my case, that's been a few years, believe me.)

One of the many things she studied this past year was the composition of the U.S. government. She learned how we have three branches, each designed to check and balance the other so that no single branch takes too much power unto itself.

I was recently reminded of her lessons--and the show--when I read of Vice President Dick Cheney's claims that the Office of the Vice President does not, in fact, belong to the executive branch of the U.S. government and is therefore free from oversight. These claims seem, well, disingenuous coming from one who has served in a variety of capacities in our government.

Sadly, it seems our vice president is not, in fact, smarter than a fifth grader. Either that or he's trying to hide something.

*Sigh* It almost makes me pine for a more innocent time, one where the (then) vice president was unclear on the proper spelling of a certain root vegetable.