Quote of the day: Reagan on Education and Absolutes

Here is a quote I ran across while doing research about conservatism by the late Ronald Reagan.

“The educator is wrong who denies there are any absolutes – who sees no black and white or right or wrong, but just shades of gray in a world where discipline of any kind is an intolerable interference with the right of the individual.”

For some reason, I think this statement is about as clear as mud. Oh, I can read it and understand it, but I had to dissect it before I could figure out what he was going on about. And I really wonder what the original context was.

Shooting people over lack of tenure

I will admit that I am a little shocked over the fact that a professor, Amy Bishop, decided to shot several of her fellow teachers in Alabama. And over tenure, to boot.

I am not shocked that another shooting has happened at a college. Shootings at universities, colleges, and high schools, just seem to be part of our modern life. I am not sure whether to blame the easy availability of guns, the lack of medication (or theraphy), or our society's overwhelming exposure to violence (video games and movies) for most of it.

But tenure? Ok, this worries me. Sort of.

I live in Colorado, a state that has abandoned the concept of funding for higher education.

(I jest---we are either 49th or 50th in higher education funding depending upon who you ask. That is not an abandonment of college funding; this is merely voters, tax payers, and politicans deciding that anyone standing outside of Starbucks with a tin can is capable of paying for their own education.)

Now I am not too worried about the campus where I go to school. I have heard several professors joke about the possibility of their checks shrinking. I figure as long as they can joke about having to sell pencils to the passerbys on Colfax that none of them are going to go postal.

Besides, we do not have any importance tied to our campus. Auraria Campus may serve forty percent of the college population of Colorado; but let's be honest, we are not known for anything else.

And most of the professors are adjunct professors, part timers, as far as I can determine.

It is the other colleges in Colorado that I worry about. But not too much. C'mon, can you think of any college that anyone would want the respect that goes along with being tenured at them?

And it was the respect that Amy Bishop wanted if I am reading the news reports correctly. Then again, she did shoot her own brother...decide for yourself what that might mean.

Quote of the day: DeGeneres on finding time to work out

I gotta work out. I keep saying it all the time. I keep saying I gotta start working out. It's been about two months since I've worked out. And I just don't have the time. Which uh..is odd. Because I have the time to go out to dinner. And uh..and watch tv. And get a bone density test. And uh.. try to figure out what my phone number spells in words.

Ellen DeGeneres

Quote of the day: Work and the rich

I have long been of the opinion that if work were such a splendid thing the rich would have kept more of it for themselves.

---Bruce Grocott

The only way to prevent terrorism on airplanes

The latest terrorist attempt to take down an airplane has me once again kicking around my radical idea of how far we have to go if we want to make sure that no terrorist can ever take down a plane while being a passenger.

Basically, what we need to do is to have all passengers strip down buck naked. Then they must be poked and prodded...all of them...no exceptations. They must fly to their destination this way.

Their luggage must be flown on a different plane. No one is allowed carry-ons of any sort. And the buggage plane can only be used for baggage; it cannot carry passengers.

Furthermore, all passengers must be given drugs, so that they sleep during the entire flight.

All passengers must be subjected to xrays, and other assorted scans; we do not want people hiding bombs in body cavities.

Of course, the flaw in this plan is that it leaves the door open to biological terrorism. It also does not prevent terrorist organizations from recruiting airlane employees.

Oh, on second thought, let's ban just all airtravel and go back to trains and steamboats. After all, it is the only way to make airlanes perfectly safe. And that is what we all want, isn't it?

I am confused by healthcare reform

Something I realized recently is that I have absolutely no clue what the current healthcare reform bill looks like. All I know is that taking a cue from Dan Carlin, I suspect that it is going to cause more harm than good; the people who should be complaining about it, and fighting it every inch of the way, are not concerned about it. So what is in the bill that helps them (and hurts us)?

Presidential Lottery Spam

As most of my regular readers know, periodically I criticize the spam mail that I recieve. Often this happens when I am trying to get into writing mode (today my wife is home sick; all attached writers know how disruptive that is).

Today's winner was from the United States of America International Lottery Program (whoever they are). Supposely, my email address was partially responsible for me having the winning numbers. Hmmm, I am paranoid; I bet everyone who got the email was told the same thing, down to the exact same numbers.

But that is not why it was chosen as today's winner. Here is the best line from this particular piece of spam:

This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by the New American President (Barrack Obama) as part of his social responsibility to the citizens in the communities where they have operational base and you are entitled with a huge lump sum of One Million United States Dollars ($1,000.000.00USD).

Huh?

Ok, the person writing the email has less than perfect knowledge of grammar rules. And what exactly is an "operational base"? Won't it be a lack of an operational base? (Ok, I am bluffing; I have no idea what an operational base is.)

And more importantly, exactly how does running a internet lottery help fulfill the President's social responsibilty? I imagine each of my readers can come with a dozen things that he should be doing that would sooner fulfill his social responsibility.

Fixing the economy, funding higher education, making us safer, etc., add you personal favorites in the comment section.

Once again, I find myself wondering who writes this stuff; and more importantly, who exactly is falling for it.

Oh wait...evil thought...what if this is the same email that was sent to the companies who were "too big to fail"? That give-away was lumped under social responsibility, wasn't it? Maybe I should answer it; after all, it would hurt so many people if I fail, won't it?