OH NO! There goes the neighborhood!
September 14th, 2005
First it’s Bill, the math teacher/golf pro, who didn’t think there was enough room for him and the 8 raccoons he trapped in his house, so he went on up to teach in the Chisago schools… then Mr. Wadley died and Mike’s mom moved over to the hi-rise a few blocks away… and now Kathy and Dawn are moving. They’ve been the best of neighbors!
That’s Dawn on the left, Kathy on the right. Not long after I moved in, Kathy’s son got the dead squirrel out of my dryer, and they helped power up my house when I was experiencing “technical difficulties.” I’ve got a communal lawnmower, and their dog beats up my dogs regularly (mine are just being nice with the little bitch, yeah, that’s it).
The good news is that they’re buying their first house (about time!) and are just moving down the block and around the corner a ways. Now the houses on both sides are up for sale — I wish I could buy up the neighborhood.
Congratulations! I’ll miss having the cops come and shine flashlights on you and your friends tossing each other fully clothed into the pool in the wee hours! And Zoe… join us at doggie school! It’s taught by Natalie Faas Gerber, of Faas Kennels & Pet Supply through All Creatures Veterinary Clinic in Lake City (also Red Wing and Goodhue).
Intellectual Outtake and the Yuck-yyyyyyy-est girrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl in the whole UUUUUUU-S-AAAAAAAA!
September 13th, 2005
Well DUH! Remember that press conference the Center of the American Experiment had? Here’s coverage…
Conservative website aimed at college students
Meeks said the site was the brainchild of Katherine Kersten, former chairwoman of the center’s board and now a columnist with the Star Tribune.
Coverage… I wonder why…
While most of the site is informational, it also has an edgier feature called the “Daily Dish.” The debut item targets St. Olaf College in Northfield, which has declared sustainability as a theme for this school year. The website says Prof. Jim Farrell’s paper on sustainability, which is posted on St. Olaf’s website, “assumes we’re burning too much fossil fuel, we’re not eating healthy foods, we’re not respecting workers’ rights, we’re wasteful, and we’re spoiling the environment. Those are serious and controversial charges against our culture.”
Farrell, a history professor and director of American studies at St. Olaf, was puzzled by the criticism. Conservatives have a tradition of conservation, he said, pointing to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, who created national parks and signed the first significant environmental legislation.
“I just don’t see how this is a liberal agenda,” Farrell said. “Most people on campus are pretty excited about it.”
But here’s the funniest part:
“The point is not to indoctrinate students,” she said, but to “expose students to points of view not readily available in the classroom.”
If that’s true… why is there an “Ideas to go” page, shades of “Commissioner” Yucky, that says, and yes, this is for real:
Need quick ideas and arguments? Ideas To Go are quick one-page issue summaries that you can take to class or use as a quick reference for other school work. There are at least two sides to every issue and Ideas To Go conveniently lays out the competing arguments side by side. Maybe you?re online and in class right now. Quick access to arguments is at your fingertips.
Really… here’s the “Ideas to Go” link. So, all professorial sorts who are working to educate, and not indoctrinate, assign this page and ask them to explain these ideas! All answers will be googled for originality!
FYI – they’re soliciting contributions — send copy!
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And in the “Oh my Dog!” department:
Run, Yucky, Run!
Yecke is running in Florida! www.yeckeforcongress.com CLICK THAT LINK!!! REALLY!
Wait… Yecke is running in Minnesota’s 6th District! From Florida…
What? Huh? Where am I? …oh, spelling bee… c-a-r-p-e-t-b-a-g-g-e-r, carpetbagger… this is a dream, right? 2008, against Hillary… yes… why not? Right Georgie?
Barbara J. Miller in the New York Times!
September 13th, 2005
Barbara J. Miller, one of those progressive sorts in Eagan, got an LTE in the New York Times today! Click here and scroll down, she’s the one in there between Bly & Keillor.
To the Editor:
David Brooks poses this challenge: “Liberals who think this disaster is going to set off a progressive revival need to explain how a comprehensive governmental failure is going to restore America’s faith in big government.”
Restore faith in big government? Mr. Brooks, it is only in the years since George W. Bush assumed the presidency that faith in our government has plummeted. Americans do not trust him. Americans do not trust his merry band. Americans do not trust their motives or their strategies, at home or abroad.
And now this administration has failed Americans yet again. Our federal government is only as effective and competent as its governors. Cause and effect. The big question is whether there will be anything salvageable by 2008.
Barbara J. Miller
Eagan, Minn.
“Intellectual Takeout” slam of St. Olaf taken out… and back!
September 12th, 2005
Interesting… within a couple hours of when I was gifted with a link to this IntellectualTakeout site, it disappeared, or was disappeared! Here’s the disappearing link:
http://www.intellectualtakeout.com/campusnetwork/displayDish.asp?yd=2005&id=11
What’s up?
(update – as of Tuesday afternoon, it’s baaaaaaack, and it looks a lot different than it did before! A little birdie from St. Olaf told me that the Center for American Experiment held a press conference at the capitol today, where they spread the word that “We’re trying to present fair and balanced opinions.” Uh-huh… right… please refer to the G.W. photo posted 9/13)
Well, it seems that the Center of the American Experiment does not agree with the St. Olaf theme of “sustainability” for this academic year. OK, 1, 2, 3… AAAAAAAWWWWWWWW… So what’s the bee up their bonnet? The burr under their saddle? It’s a big “so what” yawn kind of thing… It seems their biggest bitch is that St. Olaf didn’t learn from their reactionary tirade some time back. Once more with feeling… AAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWW…
The short version:
Despite the substantial backlash over that incident, administration officials failed to learn their lesson and are now requiring freshmen students to read their environmental essay and take a survey to ?gauge their environmental values and ecological literacy.? Officials have done so because they have declared ?sustainability? to be the ?theme? for the 2005-2006 school year.
Here’s the real poop of it in its entirety from another site, its parent “Center of the American Experiment,” where the horse’s apple doesn’t fall far from the horse — it’s hard to get worked up into a response. But here is their complaint, see for yourself, and keep checking to see if that link ever comes back:
4. Why do Students Need IntellectualTakout.com? Look No Further Than St. Olaf
Center of the American Experiment staff and St. Olaf Alumni Chris Tiedeman and Britt Haugland have discovered that liberal political indoctrination is alive and well at their alma mater. Here is their take on St. Olaf?s latest liberal shenanigans:
A few years ago, St. Olaf was embroiled in controversy for refusing to present diverse points of view during a ?peace conference.? Administration officials even refused to allow attorney, author, and American Experiment Board Member Scott Johnson to make a presentation on peace through strength.
Despite the substantial backlash over that incident, administration officials failed to learn their lesson and are now requiring freshmen students to read their environmental essay and take a survey to ?gauge their environmental values and ecological literacy.? Officials have done so because they have declared ?sustainability? to be the ?theme? for the 2005-2006 school year.
According to a St. Olaf news release, the sustainability theme will be promoted through lectures by environmentalists and other campus activities ? including communal campus bicycles and a picnic that ?will serve locally grown food, including vegetables grown by the student-run St. Olaf Garden Research and Organic Works (STOGROW), served on biodegradable tableware.?
Incoming students will also be asked to read “The Nature of College,” which includes ponderous passages such as this, ?In this century, earth?s people must learn how to harmonize our lives with the teeming life of a blue-green planet. We must harmonize our ?buy-o-sphere? with the biosphere, nesting human economies gently within fragile natural economies.?
The author of ?The Nature of College,? St. Olaf professor James Farrell, also includes very profound musings such as, ?After s**t does happen, you?ll probably wipe yourself with toilet paper, using some of the 53 million sheets that are used on this campus each year. And if you are a good citizen, you?ll flush the poop and paper (and the water) down the drain, where it will be out of sight and out of mind. If you?re a normal American, you won?t think twice about it.? [Expletive deleted by CAE e-Extra editor.]
According to the news release, the sustainability theme ?will be academic as well, as professors across disciplines incorporate the sustainability theme into their syllabi. Before the Class of 2009 arrives on campus, the students will take a survey to gauge their environmental values and ecological literacy. Upon their graduation Professor of History Jim Farrell plans a similar survey to determine how students’ environmental concerns might have changed.?
What is happening at St. Olaf is happening at college campuses across the state. That is why American Experiment will be launching IntellectualTakeout.com this fall, which is designed to expose students to different points of view than they are hearing in the classroom and at the same time strengthen the intellectual health of universities by spurring debate on the important issues of the day.
Yawn… more diddling while New Orleans is flooding… Get a grip, folks, there’s “important issues of the day” to deal with!
Katrina – Class issues that can’t be ignored
September 11th, 2005
Could any warning have been more specific?
Drowning New Orleans from the Scientific American
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Q: What is George W. Bush’s position on Roe vs. Wade?
A: He really doesn’t care how people get out of New Orleans.
Compliments of Jonathan Larson
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Many people are uncomfortable with the class issues that were stirred up by the wind and water of Katrina. People are talking about the deathly impact of class in a way rarely heard in the U.S. It’s a raw and festering truth that doesn’t set well in the SUV McMansion world.
Usually we focus on the visible identifiers and distinctions of race, gender, and as a capitalist nation, we rarely discuss class, as taboo a topic as any in our culture. We try to ignore the growing gulf between those who have and those who have much much less, but that gulf is growing larger through horribly regressive tax policy at state and federal levels. Yes, Melissa, that is a fact, the very richest people pay a far lower percentage of taxes than the middle class or poor. Reality bites, and it bites the poor hardest of all — we cannot retain the illusion of equitable policy.
Katrina blew that away. We got the story of what is really happening in the United States right between the eyes. We got the story of how poor people live and are treated in this country by watching them suffer and die. We got the story because it happened so fast, and right in front of our faces, and no one could put a spin on it quickly enough. We got the story because television reporters were openly outraged on camera. We got the story because reporters asked real questions and demanded real answers, rather than throwing softballs and settling for the fluff and the spin that pass for news. It was raw, it was awful, and it slid under the skin of our sleepy, numb, feel-good lives.
Midweek, a guy working out next to me at the gym leaned over and said, “Can you believe this?” I only shook my head, but what I wanted to say was, yes, I can. Because here, finally, was the truth. Unavoidable. On TV. Later, I felt so anxious and miserable, I started to cry on the street.
From Nora Gallagher: Katrina blew away the gloss of business as usual on TV (link added).
ANN McFEATTERS: The lessons of Hurricane KatrinaOne more thing: No more across-the-board tax cuts. We need to get rid of the deficit and put aside money for the next catastrophe.
Hope is not enough.
It’s time to change the face of capitalism as we experience it in this country, recognizing that we are a democracy, which is a different focus than capitalism and its “one dollar = one vote” equation. It’s time make the changes necessary to bring the social and political reality more in line with our country’s grand illusions of equity and justice. My personal optimistic self says that “it’s never too late.”
