Well Said

marriedtothesea.com

You're Kidding Me

I'm watching all of the episodes of Bullshit from Penn & Teller. I'll be posting reviews of certain clumps of episodes, but I'm starting with the episode College, which is actually an indictment of diversity. I can hear the bs reason for the society in Fahrenheit 451 already. In all seriousness, I am censoring my post because I am nervous about having this blog deleted, literally. Though I have almost every reason to believe that the threat of this is gone, the risk is too great, censoring away!



That is an image of [a college], my alma mater and the episode actually talked about [something I vividly remember]. [I had another paragraph about my relationship with the events and people and locations portrayed] [Finally there was a paragraph about the racial make-up of the campus and other things] I can say that the episode's description of events does not match my recollection in that it leaves things out and doesn't actually answer any of the questions I had 8 years ago.

The white rich guy in the episode said that women, people of color, LGBT, etc people are treated like children when we are "told" that we should not be exposed to certain types of speech or opinions. In my experience, these same people are asking for a learning environment free of these assholes. It isn't just speech or opinions either. Remembering going to my alma mater, I remember a lot of conversation and yes, vitriol aimed at people who said stupid racist shit. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism of your hate speech. But a lot of what was said also wasn't protected speech. Harassment and threats are not the same as free speech. Sure, attention to diversity can be problematic - I am not a moral relativist - but you can't have an open discussion with someone that insists that "f****ts", "n****rs", and "b***hes" are less than human.

We have a history in this country that creates a context of hostility towards anyone not that "majority" group with which we are familiar. It is very easy for members of a group that has not been threatened with violence or are seen [more in the past than now, thank goodness] routinely as less than human to tell us what we want. In fact, they do it all the time and they did just now. Sure, diversity is rationally ridiculous to people that don't benefit from it, but ask the out black lesbian who is going to college to learn chemistry about the tangible benefits of diversity training and even awareness in the people around her in her ability to obtain her degree.

This episode could have been much more powerful and I did not come away from the episode with any new knowledge, literally, even about the incident at my alma mater. It could have been an indictment of the excesses of diversity training. They hit on some overreactions at my alma mater and pulled a stunt protesting diversity at a diversity event. Tolerating intolerance is not tolerance and the episode proved that universities are aware of this fact. The tolerance of any idea without editing, without regard to effect is an excess of diversity and no one is doing that. Making campus safe for a KKK group would be a problem, but it isn't happening. I think the fact that this episode had to go to a second rate state university in a state that most people in America forget about to get an example of "diversity gone wrong" when it wasn't even ABOUT "diversity" is an indication that they REALLY had to reach for something that just ain't there. Seriously.

The show could have also addressed the issue of too many people going to college or getting crap degrees with which they cannot get a good job after they graduate. What about grade inflation and the snowflake epidemic? They tried to address this issue by trotting out names of talented and/or lucky people that struck it rich without college, but that does not a criticism of college make. Everyone knows that being an entertainer does not necessitate college, with the exception of maybe Peter Graves. But these days college has become what high school used to be - a training ground for young people before they enter adulthood. But we consider that college and made high school into a holding pen for children and elementary school is elaborate day care. Colleges need to be places that create future leaders, artists, professionals, and scholars to enhance society for all people, whether or not they went to college. They should not pass students after they skip the final and even ask not to be failed so they can have time to drop the class.

There is so much this episode could have been, and it should have been two episodes to address the excesses of diversity (because they exist) and the problems in college today. As is, this episode just taught me that some highly educated and high powered and uneducated but wealthy entertainer white guys don't think that diversity or college are good things, respectively. I should probably make up some kind of rating system, but overall, this episode is bullshit.

Yeah

toothpastefordinner.com

Related Posts: Waste

Classic

It dawned on me tonight, after I refreshed Pandagon, that almost any motion picture clip that existed, especially after the advent of VCRs, probably exists on YouTube, even if the copyright holder takes it down over and over again. So I went searching.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Modern Times

So, Sunday morning, I woke up with a headache, probably from that skittles vodka shot or something, but I had no food in the apartment. I headed to Whole Foods for some breakfast and grocery type things and made my way through produce and near the fish, I saw that they had fresh eggs out near-by. Some of the eggs were larger than normal and I noted that they were goose and duck eggs. Then I looked up and holy crap...

What kind of a place do I live in? I would buy one, but would be too worried that I'd open my fridge to see a baby bird inside. Is anyone else reminded of Jurassic Park?

I guess it isn't SO weird, I mean, there are ostrich meat farms, and ostriches can lay unfertilized eggs, just like chickens, ducks, and geese. But holy living fuck.

Stupid Stupid

In a document released yesterday, committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the panel’s top Republican, said taxing health benefits would address so-called “Cadillac plans” they said promote overuse of health-care services and boost the cost of care.

-Source

Most people do not go to the doctor for fun. This jackass probably thinks that normal insurance is just like congress insurance. I have good insurance, but I still have to pay a little fee any time I want some medical help, and the company that handles my p[rescripotions can still trump anything my doctor says and just refuse to cover the necessary medications. I tagged this post with politics, but health care should not be a political issue. I do want my tax dollars to pay for it, for me and for everyone, but government is not the same as politics.

Miracle, by Anatole France

A few pages of text, pages 175-181, to disprove any mythology.

What is the definition of a miracle ^ We are
told : a breach of the laws of nature. But we do
not know the laws of nature ; how, then, are we to
know whether a particular fact is a breach of these
laws or no ?

Recent Memory

Due to all the time spent in waiting rooms yesterday, I saw a bunch of magazines. One was the issue of Newsweek with the article about the decline of the Christianity in politics.* It had a tagline with a comment saying that there is less religion in politics now than in any other time in "recent memory", which made me wonder just how short our memories really are. Seriously, less religion in politics since when? Unless "recent" translates to 5 years, and "now" translates to two months, or the day Obama decided to not have evangelicals visit the White House for the National Day of Ignoring the Constitution Prayer.

It seems as if our cultural memory has been limited to less than a few years. We live in the constant present, thinking that anything that happens could mean the collapse of society. In other words, there is a significant lack of historical literacy in our culture. This is different from cognizance of perpetuation of historical trends, but the definitions are always easier to say than to apply. Regardless, "recent memory" of religion in politics should go beyond one presidential administration, and an assessment of the status quo should too.

*I guess I was too annoyed by the tagline and the knowledge that any amount of religion in politics is a bad thing to actually read the article. Not to mention the fact that the doctor came in too soon.

OMG This Rules

superpoop.com

God, I love Superpoop.

Vindicated by "Several Studies"

I was about to title this post "Exactly What I've Been [fucking] Saying [you goddamn idiots] because I get rather tired of fighting the "hard wired into our biology" vs. "there is shit we can actually DO to prevent and change this" and yes, the importance of time of year in our development arguments to people that refuse to admit that ::gasp:: present evidence just might be overlooking some factors that will probably be proven later on. Guess what, readers, I keep seeing new information to validate my side of the argument.

I should let you on to the fact that I have been to the dentist, work, doctor, and pharmacist today. At the dentist, I wasn't prepared to have half my face numbed, so my day started out stressful. I didn't want to go into work, but my boss needed something urgently, which caused a great deal of anger that didn't really dissipate for a few hours after I finished the assignment. The doctor was ok, but I had to fill in my "gender" on the intake, which I crossed off and wrote sex. Sometimes, I wish that I never knew that gender wasn't necessarily biological, or I wish that I had more patience when other people keep doing and saying things that I have realized just don't make sense/aren't true, but I don't. Then, at the pharmacist, I discovered how great our health care system is another time. Apparently, corporate bureaucrats know better than my doctor and have determined that I can only have 1 of my prescribed 2 pills per day. Don't we live in a great country. My only respite so far was the article I linked, which refreshingly referred to a generic human without the male pronoun.

And so, I end my ranty post, and oh yeah, I doubt you're the idiots to which I refer. You might be, but you are probably aware that I already think you're an idiot. I'm stressed and therefore more abrasive.