According to CNN, Liberty University revoked its recognition for the College Democrats since the college group "stood against the moral principles" held by the school and therefore could no longer be sanctioned. The faculty representative was told by administration: "'You can't be a Democrat and be a Christian and be a university representative.'"
Liberty.
University.
I think Garland Greene said it best: Define irony. Bunch of idiots dancing on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Is this funny, or is it completely inappropriate?
I read this article a "Hot for Teacher" night that is being held at a Seattle night club. I can't decide if I'm amused or disgusted. . .
Poem for the Day
"If I Could Only Live at the Pitch That is Near Madness," Richard Eberhart
If I could only live at the pitch that is near madness
When everything is as it was in my childhood
Violent, vivid, and if infinite possibility:
That the sun and the moon broke over my head.
Then I cast time out of the trees and fields.
Then I stood immaculate in the Ego;
Then I eyed the world with all delight,
Reality was the perfection of my sight.
And time has big handles on the hands,
Fields and trees a way of being themselves.
I saw battalions of the race of mankind
Standing solid, demanding a moral answer.
I gave the moral answer and I died
And into a realm of complexity came
Where nothing is possible but necessity
And the truth wailing there like a red babe.
If I could only live at the pitch that is near madness
When everything is as it was in my childhood
Violent, vivid, and if infinite possibility:
That the sun and the moon broke over my head.
Then I cast time out of the trees and fields.
Then I stood immaculate in the Ego;
Then I eyed the world with all delight,
Reality was the perfection of my sight.
And time has big handles on the hands,
Fields and trees a way of being themselves.
I saw battalions of the race of mankind
Standing solid, demanding a moral answer.
I gave the moral answer and I died
And into a realm of complexity came
Where nothing is possible but necessity
And the truth wailing there like a red babe.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Harrogate Offers A Public Apology
Harrogate is going to keep this short. Mostly because the person he needs to apologize to has no idea about the existence of this blog. But the truth is that in the past, Harrogate has several times maligned the blog, Little Green Footballs, as a far right extremist website.
This was never true, though at the time Harrogate sincerely thought it was. But since Obama's victory it has become quite clear that this blog, run by Charles Johnson, is a firecely centrist blog, far more centrist philosophically that Harrogate himself. Johnson has taken a brave stand against the Right who loved him during the Bush years, with respect to defending science and civil liberties for all. Harrogate disagrees with LGF's view of the international landscape and what to do about it, but that does not excuse the caricature with which he has painted LGF in the past.
Having followed the blog for the last few months, Harrogate apologizes.
This was never true, though at the time Harrogate sincerely thought it was. But since Obama's victory it has become quite clear that this blog, run by Charles Johnson, is a firecely centrist blog, far more centrist philosophically that Harrogate himself. Johnson has taken a brave stand against the Right who loved him during the Bush years, with respect to defending science and civil liberties for all. Harrogate disagrees with LGF's view of the international landscape and what to do about it, but that does not excuse the caricature with which he has painted LGF in the past.
Having followed the blog for the last few months, Harrogate apologizes.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Truth Spoken about Republicans and African-Americans
You always hear talk in the Right punditry that Republican racism is a mere construct, used by Democrats who are actually the racists because they follow what George W. Bush famously called the "soft bigotry of low expectations." That Republican meme is one of the most deceitful that is out there: but the good news is, it consistently fails to persuade substantial numbers of voters not already on board with the GOP agenda. That in mind, This is one of the best political blog posts Harrogate has ever seen. Too good for a snippet. Gotta read the whole thing.
On The Donald, Carrie Prejean's Statement, and Free Speech
The most recent kerfuffle over Carrie Prejean has to do with recent suggestions that she would be stripped of her "Miss California" crown for lingerie pictures she posed for at seventeen. However, one of the greatest thinkers and handsomest men of our modern era, Donald Trump, has brought the hammer down on this notion.
Heh. "In some cases." There's something sardonic about The Donald that Harrogate has always found appealing, however much Harrogate has tried to rebel against liking anything about the guy.
But enough about bad hair, smirks, and the like. In the clip below, Carrie Prejean commits the same error that so many Americans in and out of academia make. She states that she exercised her First Amendment rights on the stage when Perez asked her about gay marriage. This is of course true. But then she makes the leap into asserting that those same rights, for which her grandfather fought, were violated in the backlash that followed. Tied up in this of course is the notion that the Miss USA judges violated her First Amendment Rights when they allegedly deprived her of victory as punishment for her opinions.
Sorry, Miss Prejean, but ye are full of it here. The First Amendment protects you from facing government retribution for speaking your mind. It most certainly does NOT protect you or anyone else from being publically demonized for your opinions. This is part of the American tradition, too. Perez, classless as he is, was exercising HIS free speech rights when he called you a "Cunt," among other epithets. You might think of it as "punishment," but it is not a violation of your free speech rights for people to make fun of you or to villify your opinions. These, like it or not, are often the consequences of weighing in on a hotbutton issue in the American discourse.
All that being said. Harrogate, again, totally disagrees with Prejean's stated opinion, but also thinks that many on the Left have behaved very badly in demonizing her for what she said. Harrogate has established that in his opinion, when you look at the whole fiasco objectively, people like Olbermann and Perez look much, much worse as human beings, than does Prejean. And of course, Prejean's champions in the media, people like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity etc., are already wastes of skin who make their living spreading lies and hate, so who really cares where they fit into this particular equation?
And Miss Prejean, as for the judges. They are free to use whatever criterion they wish, especially since you will never be able to prove that you would have won but for offering said opinion.
Miss California USA can retain her crown even though she failed to reveal she had posed in her underwear as a teenager, pageant owner Donald Trump said Tuesday.
Carrie Prejean appeared by Trump's side as he made the announcement at New York's Trump Tower.
Trump also defended the answer that Prejean gave at last month's Miss USA pageant when she was asked her view of marriage by judge Perez Hilton, a celebrity blogger. She said she believes marriage is between a man and a woman.
"It's the same answer the president of the United States gave; it's the same answer many people gave," Trump said. "She gave an honorable answer; she gave an answer from her heart."
Trump said he and other pageant officials had reviewed racy photos of Prejean and decided they were acceptable.
"We are in the 21st century. We have determined the pictures taken are fine," he said, adding that "in some cases the pictures were lovely."
Heh. "In some cases." There's something sardonic about The Donald that Harrogate has always found appealing, however much Harrogate has tried to rebel against liking anything about the guy.
But enough about bad hair, smirks, and the like. In the clip below, Carrie Prejean commits the same error that so many Americans in and out of academia make. She states that she exercised her First Amendment rights on the stage when Perez asked her about gay marriage. This is of course true. But then she makes the leap into asserting that those same rights, for which her grandfather fought, were violated in the backlash that followed. Tied up in this of course is the notion that the Miss USA judges violated her First Amendment Rights when they allegedly deprived her of victory as punishment for her opinions.
Sorry, Miss Prejean, but ye are full of it here. The First Amendment protects you from facing government retribution for speaking your mind. It most certainly does NOT protect you or anyone else from being publically demonized for your opinions. This is part of the American tradition, too. Perez, classless as he is, was exercising HIS free speech rights when he called you a "Cunt," among other epithets. You might think of it as "punishment," but it is not a violation of your free speech rights for people to make fun of you or to villify your opinions. These, like it or not, are often the consequences of weighing in on a hotbutton issue in the American discourse.
All that being said. Harrogate, again, totally disagrees with Prejean's stated opinion, but also thinks that many on the Left have behaved very badly in demonizing her for what she said. Harrogate has established that in his opinion, when you look at the whole fiasco objectively, people like Olbermann and Perez look much, much worse as human beings, than does Prejean. And of course, Prejean's champions in the media, people like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity etc., are already wastes of skin who make their living spreading lies and hate, so who really cares where they fit into this particular equation?
And Miss Prejean, as for the judges. They are free to use whatever criterion they wish, especially since you will never be able to prove that you would have won but for offering said opinion.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Facebook Has a Ban in Place on Pictures of Breastfeeding
As most Situationers have been making copious use of facebook lately, this story will prove extra troubling for the immediate audience.
Now, the piece Harrogate has linked to, entitled "Jew Haters Welcome At Facebook, As Long As They Aren’t Lactating," is mostly interested in exposing Facebook's allowance of Holocaust denial----author Michael Arrington uses the ban of breastfeeding pics as a way to further that exposure.
Opinions will of course vary as to the allowance of Holocaust denial. Harrogate for his part is glad we do not follow the lead of many European countries, in criminalizing such speech. Let the loathsome cretin deniers speak out and be revealed in all their ugliness, for the rest of the populace to see.
But, Facebook. Really? You really have a ban on breastfeeding pics as a violation of decency standards? That is so freakin sad, and for so many reasons.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Quote of the Day
While researching things to do this summer in and out of The City, I found this line about the “Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective” exhibit at MOMA:
This can only be topped by an obscure Soul Coughing B-Side, "Come on and dig me, I'm the flying pygmy."
Kippenberg’s stated aim was to radically question the role of the artist in society, but it’s probably fairer to say that he was, at heart, a conservative who keenly felt the constraints of trying to make important art in the late the 20th century. Compared to Modern giants like Matisse and Picasso, he seemed to say, the Postmodern generation was a pack of pygmies.
This can only be topped by an obscure Soul Coughing B-Side, "Come on and dig me, I'm the flying pygmy."
Friday, May 08, 2009
...it's got a funky beat and I can bug out to it
There was a request tonight for more music posts.
Ta-da!
And a little end o' semester teacher's song:
Ta-da!
And a little end o' semester teacher's song:
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Gwen Stefani or Ed Grimley?
I just finished watching No Doubt on American Idol this evening. My eyes were on Gwen Stefani, but I swear I was watching Ed Grimley. It's not just their hair that's similar, but also their posture and gait.
Anita Hill as Next Supreme Court Justice? (A Thought Experiment)
On Mayday appeared in Vanity Fair online, this article by Nell Scovell, entitled "Let's Make Clarence Thomas's Worst Nightmare Come True."
A snippet:
It makes for a fun read that Harrogate thought many Situationers would find both amusing and interesting. Harrogate himself especially likes the inclusion of Hill's own comments on the matter. Haha.
A snippet:
Even if she doesn’t want it, I still think she’d be great. To use her phrase, there’s such “potential for healing.” I want the still ranking member of the Judiciary Committee Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) to finally treat Hill with the respect she deserves. I want Hill confirmed with more votes than Thomas. And, mostly, I want Hill to counter Thomas’s continued assaults on personal freedoms and equality.
It makes for a fun read that Harrogate thought many Situationers would find both amusing and interesting. Harrogate himself especially likes the inclusion of Hill's own comments on the matter. Haha.
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