Time for Some Randomness

Just heard that Algore and his wife are buying a 8 million plus dollar home. What is wrong with this picture?

I also went to see a colleague in another department Tuesday. He/she was not in office, but I looked at the door schedule. Hummm. Four office hours, one class, and I know that class has twelve people in it. Now, let me see. People in my department teach four or five classes a semester (and are encouraged to do more since we have so many students) and each class has 25-28 students. Plus we have to have eight office hours. What is wrong with this picture? We are in the process of hiring our next provost. That inequity is the first thing he/she will have to deal with.

But what I walk away with is: stop working so hard. Start having fun.

It's the end of the semester. Yes,that's a good place to start having fun.

I said no to a ministry this week. It's a good ministry, but someone else will do it well.

Change subject. During the Bush administration (according to some,the darkest days of American history), there was a bumper sticker that said, "If you aren't appalled yet, you're not paying attention." I am not totally unsympathetic to that sentiment during the Bush years, but for different reasons. He let the government get too big, good neocon that he is. However, we need to bring that bumper sticker back. I am appalled by this president.

I am a student of rhetorical history, and part of that is how the presidency changed. When he was an academic, Woodrow Wilson wrote books on how the constitution was an inadequate document, one reason being because he believed it did not give the president enough power. He also preached that the president should be the "voice" or "interpreter" of the people. We have the legacy of that, except it is all perception. The average American people have gotten so far away, in their understanding, of what the constitution says about the presidency. Now the president is the fixer, the solver, the "decider" (Bush's funny words), yeah, even the savior.

What a disaster when the American people so misunderstand their own government and want some media darling to solve their problems instead of being left alone to solve their own.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kallman's Syndrome: The Secret Best Kept

Do I Really Have to See the Barbie Movie?