The Darwin Award For: Cleansing the Gene Pool.

I found an old friend just now. The Darwin Awards, given for stupidity that results in either death or removal of the ability to procreate. Here is an example: "Picture this: A young couple driving on Via Dutra, the major freeway in Brazil with tons of heavy traffic, at 6AM under heavy fog the couple decided to park the car for "dating," according to the charming Google translation. And yes, they parked in the right lane of freeway, not on the shoulder or at a gas station -- and naturally, a huge cargo truck comes by and runs right over the car, immediately killing both inside during the act. Double Double Darwin! Two (2) people making two obviously stupid decisions, and natural selection acts at the very moment the two are reproducing . . . Textbook Darwin Award." (http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2010-06.html )

Today I was also playing around in a quotation site and found: “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” I would say “---try stupidity.” There are so many ways to be stupid it is a wonder anybody survives to adulthood and then to old age. For a laugh and to see just how stupid some people can be, look around on the "Darwin Award" site. And in closing I offer this wisdom from Forest Gump:”Stupid is as stupid does.”

(Forest Gump Quote: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/quotes )Image:http://www.shortsshortsshorts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/jackass-award.jpg

Why Don’t I Feel "Bucked Up"?

Let’s Look for some Good News
Ok, so we agree that we should look for some good news to “buck us up”. Where to look? Hmmmm. We could look at politics where Tea Partiers are doing pretty well in primaries. That is good news for somebody. And a multimillionaire Doctor (spent $38 million of his own money) under a cloud of suspicion for being involved (CEO) in a company that did some Medicare fraud won the Republican primary in Florida for Governor. That is good news for somebody. And, microbes are eating the undersea oil plumes. That must be good news for somebody. And the Feds are printing money to shore up the economy. That must be good news for somebody. And a Federal Judge stopped embryonic stem cell research to save all those potential babies (that would be defrosted and thrown away anyway) from helping cure disease. Thats just gotta be good news for somebody. And the USDA is getting on top of the biggest Salmonella outbreak ever, after dealing with deadly outbreaks of other disease-causing organisms for the past few years. That must be good news for somebody. And the floods in Pakistan are subsiding in the North but getting worse in the South. That must be good news for somebody. And there are 3 storms in the Atlantic right now, one hurricane, one tropical storm and one tropical depression. That must be good news for someone. (Maybe the “global warmers?) Wild caught fish have more PCBs, Mercury and BPAs than ever before. Is that good news for somebody?
Gee. There is good news all over the place.

So why don’t I feel “bucked up”?

Image and Undershorts available from: http://www.webundies.com/nb242g2m.htm

The Pendulum and Real Americans

The nature of a pendulum is to move one way for a while, then move back through the middle of the arc to the other side, then back then back then back - - - - .
The political pendulum had been in all the possible places in the last 200 or so years. In simplistic terms this means it has been to the right (conservative) to the left (liberal) through the middle and back and back etc. We have come to expect this and only those of us who are experiencing the “away” part of the swing get upset. Cooler heads prevail and sooner or later back it comes, then “they” are upset. No problem with that.
No, the problem I see developing over the last 10 or 20 years, and continuing into the future is the seeming tendency of the pendulum to keep going right. Growing political intolerance (tea party), growing religious intolerance (ground zero Mosque debacle), growing influence of minority religious views on freedom of choice (stem cell/embryo research, gay/lesbian marriage, abortion), growing influence on public school curriculum (scientific creationism, abstinence only education), growing distrust of medical science (vaccination avoiders), growing irrationality in border security (Arizona in a German accent: let me see your papers) all point to the pendulum going farther to the right than it should.
Here is a horrible thought: What if it should go so far to the right that it sticks in the wall and never comes back? The very places and practices we revile will look like us. Now that is a scary thought. And just who are the “real Americans" anyway?
(Read the following OpEd by Dick Cavett for more on this at: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/real-americans-please-stand-up/)
Image; helix.gatech.edu/.../Swarner/definition.htm

Help! I Can’t Find The Classroom!

The themes are varied but all involve missing an important event. Teachers forget where their class meets for the first time, or can’t find the room, or don’t remember when the class starts. Sometimes they sit around BS-ing or doing something else and suddenly remember a class they had an hour ago. Sometimes they are assigned to teach a class that is completely out of field. I am sure the list is longer.
These are dream scenarios that most of my colleagues and teacher friends over the years have had play out a few days before school starts. The damn dreams seem so real that sometimes they wake up and still worry. In my student days I had the same kind of dreams only they usually involved a math class I registered for but never attended until I had to take the final. Anxiety produces these modest night mares, and after the term starts mostly they go away, until next term. Longevity is no protection, nor is subject matter competence.
Friends in other professions have told me that they, too, have these dreams. Bankers dream of missing money; realtors dream of not being able to find a house for a “sure bet” client; auto sales people suddenly can’t remember where the dealership is or maybe how to drive. Same phenomenon.
So all you teachers, new and old, who are among my friends take heart. You are not crazy and you are not alone. And I can tell you from personal experience that the dreams never stop completely. They abate sometimes, but don’t go away forever. Last night I had an “A&P” dream. And if I remember the time, place and content, I may make it to class sometime somewhere this week.
Image: flickr.com/photos/egalloway/1296924920/