I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
April 16, 2008 - 10:12 a.m.
I�m going to try and be good today and make up my finite math Test and grade my tech math test. Ugh! I just realized that I left my finite math textbook in my office and I need it to make up the test so I have to go into school. I�m going to the Met game tonight so there is no way I�ll finish grading that test.
I am not sanguine about how my class did on the test. They seemed very unhappy when it was done. That is sad as every question was pretty much identical to ones I did many of in class. They even knew two of the questions beforehand. I guaranteed that they would have to derive the quadratic formula and draw Pascal�s triangle.
If the students had done all their homework the test would have been a breeze. They felt needless time pressure. They objected every time I tried to teach them faster ways to solve a problem then complained they didn�t have enough time to do them. They don�t seem to see the relationship between those two things.
I am most annoyed at a student not in my class. Yesterday morning I was waiting for the elevator along with a crowd of people. Everyone but one student was surprised which one came first everyone else was waiting by the other two elevators. As we moved towards the open elevator the doors started to close. One student got in just in time to keep the doors open. The first student in it saw all the people waiting and hit the door close button to keep us out so he could get to his floor a little faster. How can someone be so selfish?
The best thing yesterday was that I got to talk to LORi during my break between classes. I haven�t talk to her in ages.
I want to talk a bit about politics. There is a lot of press about what Obama said about people caring about guns and religion because they are frustrated. I am supporting Hillary but she is totally off base for attacking him on this. He is basically right. It isn�t as simple as he makes it sound and it is the sort of thing that you shouldn�t say even though it is true but history has shown that when people are economically stressed they often let the resentment out in other ways; they burn witches, lynch blacks, fight religious wars, etc.
On the other hand if Hillary had said it Barack wouldn�t have had to attack her. She�d be crucified in the press. Most of what I read now is not about what He said but his defense of himself. That has been the pattern the entire election. The press and public has made their shorthand character summaries of the candidates and everything is forced into that mold. The fact that, that kind of thinking led to Bush winning two elections doesn�t seem to bother anyone. Sure we were wrong for thinking Bush was this great guy to hang out with and Gore a robot with no personality but this time it easy, Hillary is a cold ruthless monster and Obama this warm wonderful person.
This is actually a lesson I learned from baseball. When Frank Robinson was with the Reds he was considered a selfish player with an attitude problem. He got traded to the Orioles and he became the epitome of the team leader. He was the same person; it was people�s perceptions that changed. We don�t know what public people are �really like.� We rarely meet them and have no real way to judge. My friend Heather worked in the Clinton White House and back in 2001, before he became a movie star, she told me that Gore was a warm and funny guy and that the press and public got it all wrong.
Bing Crosby and Joan Crawford were cold abusive parents but our perceptions of them were the exact opposite. Eliot Spitzer was a model of virtue. We get these things wrong all the time. It isn�t what we should base our votes on.
That reminded me of something else I�ve been meaning to write about. How come nobody has commented on the parallel between the L�Affaire Spitzer and Citizen Kane? I�ve been meaning to write about this for weeks and just saw part of Kane yesterday. In the film while Kane is running for Governor his opponent finds out about the affair he is having with Susan Alexander, once an aspiring singer. The headline in the paper said,
Candidate Kane Caught In Love Nest With �Singer�
Replace Candidate with Governor and it could have been a headline about Spitzer. More significantly as it said in the film about the Kane scandal, it set back the cause of reform 20 years. I hope I�m wrong about that.
Going from Kane to McCain has anybody heard about his fundraising scandal? I thought not. When his campaign was at its nadir he borrowed money and used his promise of getting public funding for his campaign as collateral. Then when his campaign revived he opted out of public funding. So he got a financial advantage from public funding without abiding by its restrictions. This is clearly against the spirit of the law and probably against its letter too. Why isn�t he being charged? The Federal election commission is two members short of a quorum. Bush appointed a biased political hack that the Senate won�t confirm and he won�t withdraw the nomination. This has been going on for two years. He would rather we have no functioning committee than appoint somebody else. Why haven�t you heard about this? It goes against the accepted narrative of McCain being Mr. Ethical. See how I tie things together?
OK now I have to eat breakfast and head to school for my textbook.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
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Horvendile April 16, 2008
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