It's disturbing how American-centric our culture is. We're supposed to take pride in our accomplishments as the most kicking-ass country in the world and how we whup everyone in the technological race -- and we educate our children as such -- but the truth is, we usually get beaten in the invention race. But when we do, we just distort and hide the facts a little.

Case in point: Ask any American schoolchild (or even adult) who invented the car and who was the first person in space, and they'll probably tell you Henry Ford and Alan Shepard, respectively -- if they even know, since American schoolchildren these days (and even adults too) are displaying an alarming lack of knowledge. However, that's incorrect.

Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile. Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach invented the first gasoline-powered automobile in Germany back in 1889. Karl Benz invented a similar model the same year, and both models were available in America before Henry Ford invented his Model T in 1896. Yes, Ford did invent the assembly line, but he didn't invent the car.

Alan Shepard wasn't the first man in space either. Our former arch-nemesis the Russians beat us there by a couple of months when a guy named Yuri Gagarin was launched upstairs. Hell, they put a woman into space almost 20 years before we did, and they were also the first to launch a satellite into space.

So the next time you see that Ford commercial talking about the Great American Tradition, realize that the tradition actually came from Europe. However, if you really want to feel patriotic, the next time someone asks you what you are, tell them you're American instead of launching into a full-on explanation about how you're 1/3 Irish, 2/7 Japanese, 1/4 Polish, 2/5 Russian and 1/2 Italian.