Bite my ass, Socrates

Let me send a message out there to everyone who may be teaching at a community college or college, or even high school level. SOCRATIC TEACHING DOES NOT WORK IN AN INTRO COURSE. For christ's sake people, the students have to have at least an elementary grasp of the concepts before they can debate them.

I'm taking this dumbass PSYCH 101 class at one of the community colleges in San Diego and it is a big waste of my damn precious time. Funnily enough, the textbook is practically riveting. I actually want to read it. It's the class that's useless. Basically we sit around and have group dicsussions about things like hurricane Katrina and indigenous populations with people who can't make a distinction between "civilized" and "westernized" and who call said indigenous populations "barbarians". The whole thing makes my little women-studies-trained head want to pop right off and start beating the unlearned about the ears. And the problem is, this is how we train our high schoolers (most of them are 18). They have no way to verbally treat subjects with respect not to mention the very little respect they exhibit for other cultures as a whole. It's downright disheartening. Not to mention the fact that the teacher lets this go unchecked, but I don't think he is very qualified to lead this class anymore.Granted, he has about 40 years teaching community collge, but has the gall to ignore this straight forward question regarding our dicussion of the indigenous populations:

Guy: "Um, I don't get it. What is psychology? Because I don't get why we're discussing this."

and the teacher responds with this gem:

Teacher: "Well, that's what we're here to find out" magnanimous smile.

No, you ass, answer his damn question. The kid is obviously not going to get anything out of this discussion if he doesn't have the slightest idea why the discussion is occurring. It's called a different learning style. One I happen to suffer from myself. I won't understand things unless I get why the thing is happening. It's like having a puzzle. I have to have the frame put together first. I can put a couple things together otherwise, but without the frame I will give up and go find a parcheesi board to play with. All he had to say was "psych = psyche + ology = study therefore psychology is the study of the mind. And the mind makes choices, we're studying mind choices. And all interaction and behavior are dictated by mind choices. That's why we're talking about civilizations." There, easy as pie.

This just in: Real news story overshadowed by filler article

And who says investigative journalism is a lost art? Just check out this article entitled "Inventor denies using dead cats for fuel" subhead: "German says alternative diesel uses waste paper products, possibly a toad". Within the article, they have this to say refuting even the need for this stupid filler article:

A spokesman for Bild told Reuters the story was meant to show that cat remains could “in theory” be used to make fuel with Koch’s patented method. The author of the story said Koch had never told him directly that he had used dead cats as the story implied.

Being this was printed in Germany, I don't think there was a dire need on the US's MSN to correct the assumption that cat carcasses are being used in unseemly ways by those notorious Germans.

But the most apalling thing about this article is that there is a real story in there. One completely ignored and much more headline worthy.

Christian Koch, an inventor and patent holder of the “KDV 500” that he said produces high quality fuel, said he can transform waste products such as paper, rubbish and plastic materials into fuel.

Do you mean to say that we have found an alternative fuel source? And it uses trash? All that shit lying around that will eventually cover New Jersey and all the other poorer states? If this actually works and the oil companies don't buy off Koch with several small islands, then this could be the solution to a couple problems at once.

I don't get it? Why hasn't this become front page news? This could boost the falling american dollar. This could alleviate national waste problems. Lower gas prices. Eliminate fossil fuel consumption. And who has more shit lying around than the US?

Just another example of why humans are much worse than animals

Disturbing article here.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - A 12-year-old girl who was abducted and beaten by men trying to force her into a marriage was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday.

She was beaten repeatedly before she was found June 9 by police and relatives on the outskirts of Bita Genet, Wondimu said. She had been guarded by the lions for about half a day, he said.
“They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest,” Wondimu said.
“If the lions had not come to her rescue, then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage,” he said.

Kidnapping young girls has long been part of the marriage custom in Ethiopia. The United Nations estimates that more than 70 percent of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction, practiced in rural areas where most of the country’s 71 million people live.

Are the levees an impeachable offense?

We all know what is happening down in New Orleans and the whole gulf coast right now. It is sad and disheartening and infuriating. There is one thing I want to know right now: Are the levees an impeachable offense? Bush was informed that the levees in New Orleans would not hold for a storm larger than category 3. He knew and he diverted funds designated for levee building to the Iraq war and homeland security. He knowledgeably put people at potential risk in New Orleans and now there are hundreds dead, a demolished city under martial law terrorized by vigilantes, prison riots, people starving and dying from dehydration. Should the administration be held accountable? Should they be convicted of manslaughter? If this was a private company that had chosen not to reinforce the levees, the courts would already be flooded with lawsuits. There would be a media uproar and a company would fall in disgrace.

Perhaps one good thing will happen from this and the public will become aware of how much Bush has siphoned off of America in sacrifice of the Iraq war. Fund diverting, social service cuts and no-bid contracts. We're getting fucked and New Orleans is just a symptom of an overall sickness. Granted, it's a big gaping wound, but the rest of us will eventually be afflicted by more than just high gas prices.