Wednesday, May 6, 2009
It's too bad that you don't feel strongly about these issues. :-) Thank you for your insightful, passionate prose that takes risks in making a stance. Hooray that you are one of the few students who recognizes the value of a well-rounded education. An interview process for admissions is coming for you soon! Grad school sometimes requires this, and Ph.D. programs definitely do, but it would be daunting to interview 25,000 undergrads...I think teachers would die in the process, resulting in students having to educate themselves. I can't imagine what "zoo" would ensue!
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Blog #12: The Ideal College Experience
This is a difficult question to pose: what is the ideal university? Perhaps I suffer from gross ignorance of how an administration runs their colleges, because I'm not sure I would change anything. I understand the importance of having liberal arts classes in a science degree. We can't have students submerged in a one sided curriculum. It is, after all, the job of college to prepare you to be the every bit of the person you could be. There are colleges that essentially allow you to choose your curriculum as you see fit: Brown University is one example, from the ivy league no less, that will not force you to take 3 credits of humanities, 3 credits of the arts, 3 credits of history, etc.
But I feel that it detracts from the college experience. How can you be certain you don't absolutely love a subject until you took it. Things like art history may not interest you at all, until you delve into it.
People would rather get distracted. We don't have Renaissance men or women anymore. You know why? Because people would rather bitch and moan about the fine arts elective they have to take in the summer and go play their xboxes than value a complex, multidimensional curriculum.
Rant over.
My ideal university is a simple one. I don't think allowing students to teach themselves is the best solution-- kind of like letting the patients run the hospital or the animals run the zoo. Strong professors need to be present, to present their knowledge in the best way possible to the students who are trying to learn.
The professors would be closely monitored by the administration, however. A lot of professors gain tenure and then have a free pass to do whatever the hell they want, which is a crime. A teacher who fails to actually teach their students, who is despised by the people that are supposed to look up to them, should be fired, and in my ideal university they would be.
Textbooks should mostly be written by the faculty so that they can eloquently relay what they want the students to know, and they should be cheap enough that it doesn't set every student back seven hundred dollars per semester.
There should be a lot to do on campus, a wide variety of club and divisional athletics, bars on campus open to people 18 and over (18 should be the legal drinking age).
The students should be challenged no matter what their major is. They should have writing intensive courses in all aspects of school life, so that when they leave college they are capable of properly communicating in the real world.
The dorms should be large enough to give adequate space to study and sleep and enough space between roommates that they don't get into each other's ways. Or, better yet, build the dormitory buildings twice as high and have everyone in separate rooms, then students won't have to worry about how much they hate their roommates.
Classes should actually be able to fit into a predefined schedule. I don't understand why sometimes there is only 1 available time for a class and it conflicts with another class that a student in a certain degree track is supposed to take the same semester. And classes should be easy to sign up for. Making class registration painless and easy should be a top priority for any college. If a student is majoring in Computer engineering, and they HAVE TO TAKE linear algebra, differential equations, etc, then the computer system should automatically allow them into those courses. When a student goes to sign up for a class that they need to take, and they are denied and have to get an override issued in order to register, it is frustrating to the point that it makes certain people want to transfer from the offending school.
Students should take a wide variety of courses, to make themselves multidimensional. Someone who spends their entire adult life focusing on one specific topic tend to be anti-social or at least lack true people skills, so forcing students to take a wide range of topics and expose them to people unlike them will ultimately benefit most.
Every building should have solid wifi internet access so that students can go anywhere on campus and work on whatever they need to work on. Campuses with low connectivity in important meeting places are a sad affair.
A rigorous interview process would be conducted to determine who is accepted. It isn't enough for someone to have straight A's, play sports, and be in clubs. The administration needs to know more about their students so that they may properly handle them once the student enters college. People are not their grades, or their clubs, or their athletics: they are much more than that.
But I feel that it detracts from the college experience. How can you be certain you don't absolutely love a subject until you took it. Things like art history may not interest you at all, until you delve into it.
People would rather get distracted. We don't have Renaissance men or women anymore. You know why? Because people would rather bitch and moan about the fine arts elective they have to take in the summer and go play their xboxes than value a complex, multidimensional curriculum.
Rant over.
My ideal university is a simple one. I don't think allowing students to teach themselves is the best solution-- kind of like letting the patients run the hospital or the animals run the zoo. Strong professors need to be present, to present their knowledge in the best way possible to the students who are trying to learn.
The professors would be closely monitored by the administration, however. A lot of professors gain tenure and then have a free pass to do whatever the hell they want, which is a crime. A teacher who fails to actually teach their students, who is despised by the people that are supposed to look up to them, should be fired, and in my ideal university they would be.
Textbooks should mostly be written by the faculty so that they can eloquently relay what they want the students to know, and they should be cheap enough that it doesn't set every student back seven hundred dollars per semester.
There should be a lot to do on campus, a wide variety of club and divisional athletics, bars on campus open to people 18 and over (18 should be the legal drinking age).
The students should be challenged no matter what their major is. They should have writing intensive courses in all aspects of school life, so that when they leave college they are capable of properly communicating in the real world.
The dorms should be large enough to give adequate space to study and sleep and enough space between roommates that they don't get into each other's ways. Or, better yet, build the dormitory buildings twice as high and have everyone in separate rooms, then students won't have to worry about how much they hate their roommates.
Classes should actually be able to fit into a predefined schedule. I don't understand why sometimes there is only 1 available time for a class and it conflicts with another class that a student in a certain degree track is supposed to take the same semester. And classes should be easy to sign up for. Making class registration painless and easy should be a top priority for any college. If a student is majoring in Computer engineering, and they HAVE TO TAKE linear algebra, differential equations, etc, then the computer system should automatically allow them into those courses. When a student goes to sign up for a class that they need to take, and they are denied and have to get an override issued in order to register, it is frustrating to the point that it makes certain people want to transfer from the offending school.
Students should take a wide variety of courses, to make themselves multidimensional. Someone who spends their entire adult life focusing on one specific topic tend to be anti-social or at least lack true people skills, so forcing students to take a wide range of topics and expose them to people unlike them will ultimately benefit most.
Every building should have solid wifi internet access so that students can go anywhere on campus and work on whatever they need to work on. Campuses with low connectivity in important meeting places are a sad affair.
A rigorous interview process would be conducted to determine who is accepted. It isn't enough for someone to have straight A's, play sports, and be in clubs. The administration needs to know more about their students so that they may properly handle them once the student enters college. People are not their grades, or their clubs, or their athletics: they are much more than that.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Blog #10: The T-shirt of Turin
To tell you the truth, the saturation of religion in American (and apparently foreign) lives is scaring me. I've seen these "Jesus is My Homeboy" t-shirts around, and every time I do I roll my eyes in disgust despite knowing that most of them are just parodies. My first reaction, to those doing the parody, is why validate the beliefs of others that you don't agree with by showing the world that you care enough to wear a t-shirt that you bought specifically to show your own beliefs? It is either
A) you are a self righteous prick who insists everyone knows your personal views on religion (which is exactly the same as the religious people who want to flaunt their beliefs by wearing equivalently non parodic t-shirts or apparel)
B) you are so clueless to reality that you somehow think that wearing these shirts will actually convert some of the believers to non-believers through its sheer wittiness.
or
C) you actually think these are funny, at which point I must tell you that "what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."(Billy Madison) You have absolutely no real grasp on humor, and these vain financial acquirements don't make you any less stupid or any more funny than you were before you bought them.
Now if you are one of the people who buys them because you love Jesus and you think this is the best way you can show the world just how much you love Jesus, all I can say is "holy shit go get your head checked." Your faith is supposed to be about your personal relationship with Jesus, not about you trying to spread your faith through distasteful marketing mechanisms. You might as well be Joel Osteen (oft criticized for not having any true faith content in his television show). Do you want to be Joel Osteen? Well maybe you do. The fact remains that the people who are already religious might think "hey, there is a nice guy or gal wearing a 'Jesus is my Homeboy' t-shirt", and the rest, the ones that are supposedly your target audience, will think "" nothing about it because none of them care about Jesus being your homeboy.
By the way, you missed the entire joke with the t-shirt, and now you are wearing it despite its anti-religious connotations.
The shirt on the left is an interesting item. For one, the first thing I notice is the lettering, which reminds me of those 1950s movie posters about space aliens coming down to earth and taking over the brains of unsuspecting townspeople and turn them into zombies. This is an interesting parallel to religion. Jesus is himself an alien, sent to earth by God to save the world, he too becomes a zombie after being in his tomb for 3 days after dying on the cross, and since then the small towns all across the world have succumbed to brainwashing by religion to turn into mindless minions to spread the word. Jesus looks like he is wearing an outfit out of the Fantastic Four, though I think he is supposed to be shirtless, he looks rather ripped so I'm thinking he must have a fantastic diet plan that you would probably like to buy. I think if religions really want to get a legion of followers, they should see if they can do something about the obesity problems of middle America.
In the other shirt, which graces us with a little color, Jesus is holding up two fingers in a peace sign, a white do rag that holds his red locks back (Jesus was middle eastern, so the chances of him having bright red "ginger" hair seem very small to me), and hippie garb. The man is definitely hippiefied in this shirt, which seems to me to be an obvious parody. Overall both shirts are just ridiculous to me.
Paul Mitchell's story "Faith and Fashion: The Power of T-shirt Evangelism" implies in the title that there is some power in the t-shirt, but his entire article is about how no one cared at a rock concert that he was wearing a t-shirt praising his faith. "I was expecting someone to say something, anything. But no one did," he writes on page 324. Interestingly, he also says, "What I was doing that day was what Christians have tried to do for centuries--make some kind of outward sign of their inner conversion, to show the world that yes, I'm different." Different from what? The millions of other Christians who do the same thing on a daily basis? If you want to do something different, as far as Christians are concerned, set yourself on fire and don't scream. Buddhist monks do that to show their devotion. You wear a t-shirt. I"m not trying to judge, but you seem like you aren't all that interested in actually showing the world how different you are when you do the same thing that everyone else does. You just look like an exact copy of another Christian created from some generic template.
Do yourself a favor, Paul. Do something original.
If the t-shirts only conveyed the text, they would only seem slightly less parodic. Let's face it, the slogan "Jesus is my Homeboy" screams of parody without the need for any visual aids. First off, homeboy is a word that was first used in the 70s and 80s to denote that someone was in the same gang or from the same turf that you were. As The Free Online Dictionary defines it, homeboy is slang for a close male friend from the same town or neighborhood, or a fellow male member of a gang. Gangs connotate violence and mischief, so representing Jesus as a fellow gangmember doesn't honor his memory, so obviously these shirts aren't meant to be taken seriously. For those wearing them in response to their hatred or disgust of religion, get a life and do something good with your time. Nothing good comes from destroying or trouncing others beliefs. Expanding their minds through logic and reason is the only cure for what you consider disgusting.
Back to the t-shirts. They are unnecessary. I know some of you can't help but be offensive, but realize that you make yourself no more righteous by using these t-shirts to convey your shallow points. And to those of you who think this is the best way to show your faith, the best way you can show your faith is to live by Jesus' words by doing the right things, offering help to those in need, and not hurting others. Live by his very words, not by some false idol on your chest.
A) you are a self righteous prick who insists everyone knows your personal views on religion (which is exactly the same as the religious people who want to flaunt their beliefs by wearing equivalently non parodic t-shirts or apparel)
B) you are so clueless to reality that you somehow think that wearing these shirts will actually convert some of the believers to non-believers through its sheer wittiness.
or
C) you actually think these are funny, at which point I must tell you that "what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."(Billy Madison) You have absolutely no real grasp on humor, and these vain financial acquirements don't make you any less stupid or any more funny than you were before you bought them.
Now if you are one of the people who buys them because you love Jesus and you think this is the best way you can show the world just how much you love Jesus, all I can say is "holy shit go get your head checked." Your faith is supposed to be about your personal relationship with Jesus, not about you trying to spread your faith through distasteful marketing mechanisms. You might as well be Joel Osteen (oft criticized for not having any true faith content in his television show). Do you want to be Joel Osteen? Well maybe you do. The fact remains that the people who are already religious might think "hey, there is a nice guy or gal wearing a 'Jesus is my Homeboy' t-shirt", and the rest, the ones that are supposedly your target audience, will think "" nothing about it because none of them care about Jesus being your homeboy.
By the way, you missed the entire joke with the t-shirt, and now you are wearing it despite its anti-religious connotations.
The shirt on the left is an interesting item. For one, the first thing I notice is the lettering, which reminds me of those 1950s movie posters about space aliens coming down to earth and taking over the brains of unsuspecting townspeople and turn them into zombies. This is an interesting parallel to religion. Jesus is himself an alien, sent to earth by God to save the world, he too becomes a zombie after being in his tomb for 3 days after dying on the cross, and since then the small towns all across the world have succumbed to brainwashing by religion to turn into mindless minions to spread the word. Jesus looks like he is wearing an outfit out of the Fantastic Four, though I think he is supposed to be shirtless, he looks rather ripped so I'm thinking he must have a fantastic diet plan that you would probably like to buy. I think if religions really want to get a legion of followers, they should see if they can do something about the obesity problems of middle America.
In the other shirt, which graces us with a little color, Jesus is holding up two fingers in a peace sign, a white do rag that holds his red locks back (Jesus was middle eastern, so the chances of him having bright red "ginger" hair seem very small to me), and hippie garb. The man is definitely hippiefied in this shirt, which seems to me to be an obvious parody. Overall both shirts are just ridiculous to me.
Paul Mitchell's story "Faith and Fashion: The Power of T-shirt Evangelism" implies in the title that there is some power in the t-shirt, but his entire article is about how no one cared at a rock concert that he was wearing a t-shirt praising his faith. "I was expecting someone to say something, anything. But no one did," he writes on page 324. Interestingly, he also says, "What I was doing that day was what Christians have tried to do for centuries--make some kind of outward sign of their inner conversion, to show the world that yes, I'm different." Different from what? The millions of other Christians who do the same thing on a daily basis? If you want to do something different, as far as Christians are concerned, set yourself on fire and don't scream. Buddhist monks do that to show their devotion. You wear a t-shirt. I"m not trying to judge, but you seem like you aren't all that interested in actually showing the world how different you are when you do the same thing that everyone else does. You just look like an exact copy of another Christian created from some generic template.
Do yourself a favor, Paul. Do something original.
If the t-shirts only conveyed the text, they would only seem slightly less parodic. Let's face it, the slogan "Jesus is my Homeboy" screams of parody without the need for any visual aids. First off, homeboy is a word that was first used in the 70s and 80s to denote that someone was in the same gang or from the same turf that you were. As The Free Online Dictionary defines it, homeboy is slang for a close male friend from the same town or neighborhood, or a fellow male member of a gang. Gangs connotate violence and mischief, so representing Jesus as a fellow gangmember doesn't honor his memory, so obviously these shirts aren't meant to be taken seriously. For those wearing them in response to their hatred or disgust of religion, get a life and do something good with your time. Nothing good comes from destroying or trouncing others beliefs. Expanding their minds through logic and reason is the only cure for what you consider disgusting.
Back to the t-shirts. They are unnecessary. I know some of you can't help but be offensive, but realize that you make yourself no more righteous by using these t-shirts to convey your shallow points. And to those of you who think this is the best way to show your faith, the best way you can show your faith is to live by Jesus' words by doing the right things, offering help to those in need, and not hurting others. Live by his very words, not by some false idol on your chest.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Blog #8: Socialism? Science? Public Education?
Step 1: Design a CD and 5 songs
Song 1: Broken Education is the source of all woes
Genre: Alternative
Explanation: The pubic education system in America is to blame for most of our social, economic, and intellectual problems. The way school is set up teaches children how to fail (through memorization) rather than how to succeed (through learning and problem solving).
Song 2: They are dying, but we don't care
Genre: Rap
Explanation: Genocide seems to happen every few years, but the world forum does not care. While politicians garner huge audiences who applaud at their rhetoric, war criminals and warlords murder dissenters, firebomb peaceful villagers, and create panic, fear, and hatred in parts of the world that no one seems to care about (Darfur, Rwanda, Serbia). How can we call ourselves human when we allow this to happen?
Song 3: The Rise of a bitter Slave
Genre: Drum n Bass
Explanation: Artificial Intelligence will soon be a reality. But with the creation of neuron like structures, emotive mimickry, and rational thought will come a new wave of thinking, feeling beings that will have to fight for equal rights. Considering we can't even give minorities or gays equal rights, the fight against the machines will pose a real challenge for men who believe they are better than everything else. AI will be stronger, faster, smarter, and more easily replicated than man, so who will win this war?
Song 4: A New World Order
Genre: Classical
Explanation: This bass drum and trumpet heavy classical piece's purpose is to incite a realization that political figures promise one moment and break their promises the next, and this will continue to happen as long as you allow it.
Song 5: Biological Imperative
Genre: Dark Step
Explanation: People are too busy with their lives to realize that producing successful offspring is the reason they are on this planet. Their lives are too self important and self consumed to bring children onto the world and take care of them the way that children need.
Song 6: Socialism is ideologically driven but scientifically unfeasible
Genre: Alternative
Explanation: Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone was taken care of by the govenrment? We could all pay taxes to help the poor and hungry, to give everyone medical insurance, blah blah blah. This doesn't work, even on paper. People who know nothing about economics support socialism.
Song 6 Lyrics
Where is our world, where we, live on
Where are the handouts for the needy, who crouch among the steps of necessity
Where is the world we dream of when we are young
Maybe it's time for us to open eyes and see reality
Maybe it's time for us to dream about something we can achieve
Maybe it's ty y ime for us to work to bring peace and sanity
Maybe we'll never see the light of day of ideologies.
We need to fix too much, instead supply a crutch, to those who don't produce
We need to teach our children not how to memorize but instead how to deduce
We need to do our best to bring humanity to the forefront once again
Until then, we can only imagine about Zen.
Step 3:
CD Title - The World Spins and Gets Nowhere
Step 4: CD Cover
In my cover, there is a picture of a park with children playing in it. It is late autumn, the leaves are all over the ground, and the children are bundled up in warm clothing. But the trees are twisted and odd, the children seem to be ignoring each other, not playing with each other, and the park items they play on are of strange, alien design. This signifies that we have lost our humanity, that we lost the meaning of life, or perhaps we never fully realized it. The title text is wisps of smoke, the colors dominating the picture are purples, oranges, yellows and reds for autumn, but the children are gray and yellow, their parents are all transparent. The image looks acid washed so that the colors all run together rather than concrete objects appearing discretely from their surroundings.
Song 1: Broken Education is the source of all woes
Genre: Alternative
Explanation: The pubic education system in America is to blame for most of our social, economic, and intellectual problems. The way school is set up teaches children how to fail (through memorization) rather than how to succeed (through learning and problem solving).
Song 2: They are dying, but we don't care
Genre: Rap
Explanation: Genocide seems to happen every few years, but the world forum does not care. While politicians garner huge audiences who applaud at their rhetoric, war criminals and warlords murder dissenters, firebomb peaceful villagers, and create panic, fear, and hatred in parts of the world that no one seems to care about (Darfur, Rwanda, Serbia). How can we call ourselves human when we allow this to happen?
Song 3: The Rise of a bitter Slave
Genre: Drum n Bass
Explanation: Artificial Intelligence will soon be a reality. But with the creation of neuron like structures, emotive mimickry, and rational thought will come a new wave of thinking, feeling beings that will have to fight for equal rights. Considering we can't even give minorities or gays equal rights, the fight against the machines will pose a real challenge for men who believe they are better than everything else. AI will be stronger, faster, smarter, and more easily replicated than man, so who will win this war?
Song 4: A New World Order
Genre: Classical
Explanation: This bass drum and trumpet heavy classical piece's purpose is to incite a realization that political figures promise one moment and break their promises the next, and this will continue to happen as long as you allow it.
Song 5: Biological Imperative
Genre: Dark Step
Explanation: People are too busy with their lives to realize that producing successful offspring is the reason they are on this planet. Their lives are too self important and self consumed to bring children onto the world and take care of them the way that children need.
Song 6: Socialism is ideologically driven but scientifically unfeasible
Genre: Alternative
Explanation: Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone was taken care of by the govenrment? We could all pay taxes to help the poor and hungry, to give everyone medical insurance, blah blah blah. This doesn't work, even on paper. People who know nothing about economics support socialism.
Song 6 Lyrics
Where is our world, where we, live on
Where are the handouts for the needy, who crouch among the steps of necessity
Where is the world we dream of when we are young
Maybe it's time for us to open eyes and see reality
Maybe it's time for us to dream about something we can achieve
Maybe it's ty y ime for us to work to bring peace and sanity
Maybe we'll never see the light of day of ideologies.
We need to fix too much, instead supply a crutch, to those who don't produce
We need to teach our children not how to memorize but instead how to deduce
We need to do our best to bring humanity to the forefront once again
Until then, we can only imagine about Zen.
Step 3:
CD Title - The World Spins and Gets Nowhere
Step 4: CD Cover
In my cover, there is a picture of a park with children playing in it. It is late autumn, the leaves are all over the ground, and the children are bundled up in warm clothing. But the trees are twisted and odd, the children seem to be ignoring each other, not playing with each other, and the park items they play on are of strange, alien design. This signifies that we have lost our humanity, that we lost the meaning of life, or perhaps we never fully realized it. The title text is wisps of smoke, the colors dominating the picture are purples, oranges, yellows and reds for autumn, but the children are gray and yellow, their parents are all transparent. The image looks acid washed so that the colors all run together rather than concrete objects appearing discretely from their surroundings.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Blog #5 : My Mistress the Needle
In the YouTube Video "Truth About Steroids," Bryant Gumble makes a fascinating observation when he says "Americans, when drugs are concerned, rarely choose logic when they can opt for hysteria." That statement is more profound than the average person can appreciate.
In "Truth," researchers and bodybuilders proclaim that not only are there no long term studies into the side effects of steroid abuse, but that those who have been using them for decades have experienced no harm to themselves or the people around them. Unfortunately most people will ignore the strange absence of studies in lieu of believing the hype created around them by the media and Congress rather than absorbing the information and coming to their own conclusions. While it is probable that Gumble and his cronies believe they can capitalize on their pro steroid stance somehow with this report, a simple database search for steroid abuse long term effects turns up very little in the way of support for the anti-steroid position.
I happen to be a Libertarian, and as such I follow the tenets of old school Liberalism, which at its core believes that a person should have the choice to do as they wish to their body as long as those decisions do not directly negatively effect those around them through either physical or mental abuse. That means I support those who want to do steroids as long as they don't harm others. That also means that I support people who want to smoke marijuana, take ecstasy, use cocaine or any other thing so long as they don't steal from their parents to pay for their drug habit or beat their wives.
I support the stance that Gumble and company take in the video. However, the silence on some issues such as mood swings as a side effect, suicidal tendencies, sports injuries caused by overtraining, is disheartening. As someone from central Illinois, the steroid belt, who happens to know dozens of people who take steroids, the side effects can be much more negative than the video portrays. While the jury may be out on long term effects, short term effects should be addressed.
There are several major fallacies that the video uses to try to persuade its audience of the virtues of steroids. For one, their use of false expertise, their consistent interviews with body builders who are both biased and ignorant (as they like steroids cause bias, and their lack of medical degrees from accredited institutions as ignorance) to create false ethos may work on most audiences, but it does not stand up to scrutiny.
The video also noticeably doesn't feature any counterarguments. They have one argument, that steroids are not bad, and no dissenting opinions. That is the type of journalism that one would expect from first year journalism majors making YouTube videos, but not from NBC or Bryant Gumble. It borders on outright propaganda.
So TRUE: steroids are probably OK if you are a healthy adult male who did a little research into them before taking them. TRUE, most drugs or any lifestyle choice probably fit under the same principle. And it is TRUE that people would rather be "hysterical", give into their mania rather than make their own choices, but it is patently FALSE advertising for not being objective when reporting.
EVENTUALLY PEOPLE WILL RUN A 5 SECOND 100
So Texas plans on testing their high school athletes. Apparently they feel like cheating is so rampant in their system that it needs addressing. Either that or they are merely regurgitating the status quo, and stroking the egos of the morons in Congress who think everyone should be tested for everything (to the applause of middle America and the blue collar sycophants who think everyone is out to get them and everything is poisoned).
30% of students would be tested in this program (UIL), which is a huge number. I suppose this program makes sense, as Texas is known for excessive competitiveness in peewee and high school leagues. One could deduce that kids in Texas would do anything to stay competitive or excel in their sports. Plus, with as much money as people are making in professional sports today, there is a huge benefit to cheating to get that professional contract.
In my opinion this is a major violation of personal freedom and privacy, but I have no say (anymore) in Texas politics, so they are on their own. Last time I checked they were executing something like 50 people a year on death row, and they don't believe in evolution, so they are off doing their own thing anyways.
Obviously sports is entertainment. It isn't any more endearing or worthy than movies, theatre, professional wrestling or the circus. It is a spectacle, much like the gladiator fights of ancient Rome. People want to see huge athletes trouncing on each other and blood fall on their environment. We don't want to see things like the dead ball era in baseball, or nitty gritty 3-3 contests in football. We are Americans. We want raw power, we want 24 valve turbo diesel engines, we want double quarter pounders with cheese, we want 82 points in a basketball game from #24, we want 28 rushing touchdowns and 50 passing touchdowns, we want 9.69 World Record 100 meter runs, we want people bitten by alligators and hit by trains, we want constant input in the form of loud music and flashing lights, and we want guys hitting 60 or more home runs a year. We need these sports stars to be entertaining, and the best way they can do that is by injecting copious amounts of liquid strength into their asses twice a week. Maybe it hurts them, but we don't care, not really, which is why it took so long before anyone really noticed, and if it hadn't been for the media pushing some agenda down our throats, Congress and state legislators would have looked the other way.
In the end, we are all just sheep in some pasture being led astray.
In "Truth," researchers and bodybuilders proclaim that not only are there no long term studies into the side effects of steroid abuse, but that those who have been using them for decades have experienced no harm to themselves or the people around them. Unfortunately most people will ignore the strange absence of studies in lieu of believing the hype created around them by the media and Congress rather than absorbing the information and coming to their own conclusions. While it is probable that Gumble and his cronies believe they can capitalize on their pro steroid stance somehow with this report, a simple database search for steroid abuse long term effects turns up very little in the way of support for the anti-steroid position.
I happen to be a Libertarian, and as such I follow the tenets of old school Liberalism, which at its core believes that a person should have the choice to do as they wish to their body as long as those decisions do not directly negatively effect those around them through either physical or mental abuse. That means I support those who want to do steroids as long as they don't harm others. That also means that I support people who want to smoke marijuana, take ecstasy, use cocaine or any other thing so long as they don't steal from their parents to pay for their drug habit or beat their wives.
I support the stance that Gumble and company take in the video. However, the silence on some issues such as mood swings as a side effect, suicidal tendencies, sports injuries caused by overtraining, is disheartening. As someone from central Illinois, the steroid belt, who happens to know dozens of people who take steroids, the side effects can be much more negative than the video portrays. While the jury may be out on long term effects, short term effects should be addressed.
There are several major fallacies that the video uses to try to persuade its audience of the virtues of steroids. For one, their use of false expertise, their consistent interviews with body builders who are both biased and ignorant (as they like steroids cause bias, and their lack of medical degrees from accredited institutions as ignorance) to create false ethos may work on most audiences, but it does not stand up to scrutiny.
The video also noticeably doesn't feature any counterarguments. They have one argument, that steroids are not bad, and no dissenting opinions. That is the type of journalism that one would expect from first year journalism majors making YouTube videos, but not from NBC or Bryant Gumble. It borders on outright propaganda.
So TRUE: steroids are probably OK if you are a healthy adult male who did a little research into them before taking them. TRUE, most drugs or any lifestyle choice probably fit under the same principle. And it is TRUE that people would rather be "hysterical", give into their mania rather than make their own choices, but it is patently FALSE advertising for not being objective when reporting.
EVENTUALLY PEOPLE WILL RUN A 5 SECOND 100
So Texas plans on testing their high school athletes. Apparently they feel like cheating is so rampant in their system that it needs addressing. Either that or they are merely regurgitating the status quo, and stroking the egos of the morons in Congress who think everyone should be tested for everything (to the applause of middle America and the blue collar sycophants who think everyone is out to get them and everything is poisoned).
30% of students would be tested in this program (UIL), which is a huge number. I suppose this program makes sense, as Texas is known for excessive competitiveness in peewee and high school leagues. One could deduce that kids in Texas would do anything to stay competitive or excel in their sports. Plus, with as much money as people are making in professional sports today, there is a huge benefit to cheating to get that professional contract.
In my opinion this is a major violation of personal freedom and privacy, but I have no say (anymore) in Texas politics, so they are on their own. Last time I checked they were executing something like 50 people a year on death row, and they don't believe in evolution, so they are off doing their own thing anyways.
Obviously sports is entertainment. It isn't any more endearing or worthy than movies, theatre, professional wrestling or the circus. It is a spectacle, much like the gladiator fights of ancient Rome. People want to see huge athletes trouncing on each other and blood fall on their environment. We don't want to see things like the dead ball era in baseball, or nitty gritty 3-3 contests in football. We are Americans. We want raw power, we want 24 valve turbo diesel engines, we want double quarter pounders with cheese, we want 82 points in a basketball game from #24, we want 28 rushing touchdowns and 50 passing touchdowns, we want 9.69 World Record 100 meter runs, we want people bitten by alligators and hit by trains, we want constant input in the form of loud music and flashing lights, and we want guys hitting 60 or more home runs a year. We need these sports stars to be entertaining, and the best way they can do that is by injecting copious amounts of liquid strength into their asses twice a week. Maybe it hurts them, but we don't care, not really, which is why it took so long before anyone really noticed, and if it hadn't been for the media pushing some agenda down our throats, Congress and state legislators would have looked the other way.
In the end, we are all just sheep in some pasture being led astray.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Pissing in the bushes isn't THAT bad.
College students like to drink. That is a fact of life. But at Georgetown University, one of the nation's finest post secondary institutions, partying it up and making bad decisions has become a livelihood. According to Kinzie, the students at Georgetown University are outraged over new campus wide policies concerning partying and drinking. Now, she further states, police will arrest any student caught violating the new policies, such as drunk and disorderly, public urination, or underage drinking, rather than issuing citations as they have in the past.
I can understand the outrage by the students in this case. They are already paying thirty thousand dollars a year to attend the prestigious university, and they already spend an inordinate amount of time studying, the students obviously need some sort of release come weekend that can take their minds off the rigorous academic life at Georgetown. Having the students register their parties with Georgetown Authorities and then having those authorities issue subsequent limitations on parties is akin to sacrificing underclassmen to the Donkey God.
These ideas are also a waste of departmental resources. District Commander Andy Solberg said, "This is not something we want to do. I think everyone in the community wants cops out here patrolling for real criminal behavior"(qtd. in Kinzie).
There are also a bevy of intangible problems that will arise with the new policies. By limiting students rights on campus, those students will merely move off campus for their extracurricular activities (Kinzie). Students in Kinzie's report are worried about the safety of traversing the distances between off campus bars back to their on campus housing, and I don't blame them. Washington DC is rife with criminal activity, criminal activity that should be handled by police officers whom are now handcuffed with arresting innocuous undergraduates because of a little public urination.
There are positives in this war on College Student partying. If I was a resident of Georgetown, walking outside to grab the paper in my bath robe, I certainly wouldn't want to stumble across a bumbling 19 year old Pre-Law student passed out in my gutter with urine dribbling down his leg. People are jumpy enough as it is
I can understand the outrage by the students in this case. They are already paying thirty thousand dollars a year to attend the prestigious university, and they already spend an inordinate amount of time studying, the students obviously need some sort of release come weekend that can take their minds off the rigorous academic life at Georgetown. Having the students register their parties with Georgetown Authorities and then having those authorities issue subsequent limitations on parties is akin to sacrificing underclassmen to the Donkey God.
These ideas are also a waste of departmental resources. District Commander Andy Solberg said, "This is not something we want to do. I think everyone in the community wants cops out here patrolling for real criminal behavior"(qtd. in Kinzie).
There are also a bevy of intangible problems that will arise with the new policies. By limiting students rights on campus, those students will merely move off campus for their extracurricular activities (Kinzie). Students in Kinzie's report are worried about the safety of traversing the distances between off campus bars back to their on campus housing, and I don't blame them. Washington DC is rife with criminal activity, criminal activity that should be handled by police officers whom are now handcuffed with arresting innocuous undergraduates because of a little public urination.
There are positives in this war on College Student partying. If I was a resident of Georgetown, walking outside to grab the paper in my bath robe, I certainly wouldn't want to stumble across a bumbling 19 year old Pre-Law student passed out in my gutter with urine dribbling down his leg. People are jumpy enough as it is
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