I Speak of Dreams

Speechless (Ward Churchill)

(Updated 2/5/2005): It turns out Professor X, Ward Churchill, who claims to be Native American, isn't.  Lots of good opinion at The Cranky Professor  and Big Arm Woman,  #1, and Big Arm Woman, #2.  Churchill has "retracted" his statment.

(Updated 2/1/2005):  The scene is that Professor X (of institution #1) has been invited to speak at institution #2, not by officials of the institution but a project housed at the institution.   The scandal is that Professor X has publicly stated that the civilians murdered by the terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001 deserved to die.  The president of institution #2 has decided that the correct thing to do is to (1) uphold the speaking invitation and (2) convene a panel to debate  and refute Professor X's assertions.  Professor X, Ward Churchill, is also scheduled to speak at Wheaton College, Norton, MA, Mar. 29, 2005 and at Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA, Apr. 5, 2005.  It will be interesting to see what is made of those appearances.

Lawrence Parker thought hiphoppas should have cheered the death of many in the World Trade Center Towers.  Professor X, Ward Churchill also claims that those who died in the WTC deserved to die, because they were running the "mighty engine of profit".

They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire – the "mighty engine of profit" to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved – and they did so both willingly and knowingly. Recourse to "ignorance" – a derivative, after all, of the word "ignore" – counts as less  than an excuse among this relatively well-educated elite.--" "Some People Push Back" On the Justice of Roosting Chickens ">

( KRSOne cheers Trade Center deaths  I am sure all the working-class folks who died would be glad to know that they were not innocent victims.)

Teresa Neilson Hayden's Tipping Point

This could be a rule of thumb for any group of people,

You can let one jeering, unpleasant jerk hang around for a while, but the minute you get two or more of them egging each other on, they both have to go, and all their recent messages with them. There are others like them prowling the net, looking for just that kind of situation. More of them will turn up, and they’ll encourage each other to behave more and more outrageously. Kill them quickly and have no regrets.

I just realized I should have disemvowelled some of my commentators. Perhaps in the future.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden's title is Some things I know about moderating conversations in virtual space. It is as always gracefully written and thought-provoking.

Grandiosity

Bronwyn nails what is so wrong with modern culture:

MD: Even the cleaning lady is giving me assignments now. The cleaning lady! I mean, people who shouldn’t even be talking to me!
[snip]

"Oh, I am so intelligent. Oh I am so educated. I am so above talking to those little people....who have to sweep for a living, and clean up for me."

I am revolted. There are a few of such (not physicians) infesting my life, and I lack the power (the magic spells) to banish them, alas. Entitlement and narcissism are the curses of this age.

New Living Opportunities on Campus

Suppose you dropped out of college to deal with your addiction to alcohol.  You're read to go back to school, but you are concerned about the alcohol culture on campus.  What are you going to do?

She Just Wanted To Be A Cool Mom

Sylvia Johnson supplied drugs and sex to boys from her kid's school so she could finally be cool. Arvada Colorado: home of the deluded. Or methamphetamine addicted. Or both.

Lame Wireless = No Posts

I am staying at an Embassy Suite "resort". There is indeed wireless high speed, as $10/24 hours, but several posts have been eaten by the lame wireless interface. Upon hitting "save", the hapless post is sometimes sent into some odd interface. Hitting the back key results in the post being gone forever. Clicking over to the next tab also sometimes starts the interface engine, or whatever it is called.

I am grumpy.

Fitness Story

I started out a while ago at over 160 pounds, and 41% body fat. I'm down to about 147 pounds, and 34.8% body fat.

I don't have a lower weight-loss goal, but I will get to 25% body fat and then re evaluate.

The way I'm getting there is monitoring my intake and exercise, and charting the change in my body fat percentage.

There's good advice at Three Fat Chicks.

I'm using the Calorie King Software to chart what I eat and how much I exercise.

Reality-Based Sex Ed

There was a recent study of who was doing what with whom at an American High School.

We went into this study believing we would find a core model, with a small group of people who are sexually active," said James Moody, a professor of sociology at Ohio State University. "We were surprised to find a very different kind of network."

In the most striking chain, 52 percent of the romantically involved students were connected in a manner of student A having relations with B, and B having relations with C, and so on down the line over the 18 months of the study.

The old saw, "you are having sex with all the people your partner has previously had sex with" is very true....and if abstinence-based education doesn't make you familiar with a condom, then the STDs are on their way. Ishbadiddle always has the good stuff ("Also, the actual report is here. Warning: numbers.")

Mysterious Life

On Monday I was at a memorial service for a man who was deeply loved by many. I have never seen Memorial Church so full. The service alluded to the circumstances, and I was moved to tears.

So stop a minute, will you? Take your hands off your keyboard and go find a family member or colleague (depending on where you are). Each one of those people are deeply, deeply precious. We never really know the mind of another. Make a connection. Tell that person his or her importance to you.

Miller's Law

"In order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume that it is true, and try to imagine what it could be true of."