partsofspeaking

I am one of those people who felt great happiness when I heard that Tucker Carlson would no longer be working on Fox News. That means that I won't even accidentally see or hear him after I listen to my recorded version of Special Report. Although Carlson has had a few defenders in the podcast world (Megyn Kelly being one, oddly), most of the ones I listen to were quite elated that he was fired ("parting ways" being the euphemism here).  Never having gotten the point of Tucker Carlson, I was appalled by his guests, his assertions, his style, hs wealthy background elitism, and most of all, his anti-Americanism, pro-Putin garbage.   But I really consigned him to outer darkness when he said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to Congress dressed like a strip club owner.  One, how does he know how strip club owners dress, and two, Zelenskyy was wearing military clothing, and three, Carlson would have been the first person on the plane out of Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy will go dow...

 https://rss.com/podcasts/dialogues-with-creators/

I confess, I wach Fox News sometimes.  Now that Tucker is gone (glorious day), I feel less conflicted about it. Probably shouldn't be, but..... On the other hand, I see some dumb commercials.  My pillow guy in your medicine cabinet. One, nobody has those anymore, do they? Two, I wouldn’t be excited, I would faint. Three, gosh he’s creepy. Fourth, no body remembers this was a commercial in the 60s.   Another annoying commercial is Relaxium. That woman starting to cry, oh my.  Keep it together, lady.     

  We say its name in a way that denudes it of its essence—wild. The strong "I" demoted to a weak "i." But the ancients would have none of that. We paint majesty of peaks and green of valleys, satiated by their supposed beauty, and the forefathers of forefathers saw none of that. They saw the danger, the lack, the thirst, the isolation, the bear and lion and serpent and stranger. They saw the raw power and violence of the wildness and something to be conquered, and they did conquer it—not with heavy machinery but pure labor and sweat. It did not matter the topography, it mattered that the desert was deserted and the forest had no trails and the mountains’ caves had no addresses. What do we seek in the wildness, the wilder-ness, of desert, jungle, forest, plain? Why does God send us to it? Have any of us in this modern world really experienced the wilder-ness, except in our metaphorical and perhaps overheated seeking for connection to the Bible?

 I confess. I let myself watch too much YouTube, especially short videos (that are basically TikTok even though I will never have TikTok on my phone.  Recently I saw a video, I think by Ben Shapiro, criticizing a young woman on Tik Tok who had sued her parents for "having her." A judge (stupidly) had awarded the young woman $5000 a month support from her parents (for how long, I don't know), but the parents had appealed and that was rescinded. The young woman was complaining about having to get a job and support herself.  She clearly faced life as "I didn't sign up for this."  None of us signed up for life or any of the circumstances of our lives. Medical conditions, ethnicity, sex, giftedness, region, parents, physical characteristics, parental socioeconomic status--nope. Not our choice, and not our choice to even talk about it being a choice.  And it might be that the randomness (seeming randomness) would be the core reason for any mental health problems. ...

https://apnews.com/article/teens-girls-mental-health-social-media-928d45094e94fccb81e1fa9aca30fcdf?utm_source=pocket-newtab  

  https://www.foxnews.com/us/biden-rule-redistribute-high-risk-loan-costs-homeowners-good-credit  Overlook this is on Fox--you'll find the same elsewhere.  Glad I'm not getting ready to buy a house and my son just closed last week.....This is so unfair.  The bigotry of low expectations rides again. 

I get a newsletter from a Christian college professors' organization. The one from yesterday talks about listening to students.  Good idea.  It references a rather common technique of asking students about their best and worst learning experiences. When I have used it, it sometimes shows more about their emotions and personality preferences than their objective learning.  I think we should interrogate that exercise with "did you really learn what you were supposed to, or was it just a good emotional and social experience?" For too long we have confused learning with fun or pleasantness rather than really restructuring the brain and acquiring skills.  I can make my students like me and my class environment when I teach public speaking, or I can guide them to acquire skills. Or I can do both, but they are going to encounter some things they don't like about it in the process. It's a trade off.  My point is that just asking them "best and worst learning experien...

I listen the The Commentary Magazine podcast every day, and their magazine has interesting articles.   https://www.commentary.org/articles/liel-leibovitz/paganism-afflicts-america/ I don't think the writer takes it far enough. We have been sacrificing our children, in a manner only a shade less ghastly than to Molek, for years. 

 "The U.S.’s mistake was not in lionizing higher education, which is a noble pursuit, but in stigmatizing the alternatives. In Germany and Switzerland , half to nearly two thirds of students pursue vocational education. Classroom learning does not end, but changes." From  https://time.com/6265266/america-college-degrees-essay/?utm_source=pocket-newta b   

 Although I have nothing to say, on this beautiful Resurrection Day I come back to my blog  with the ancient call, Christ is risen, He is risen indeed.  I took "Lent" off. I think it was wise. I can't say I have written much (about 2000 words on a novel and a lot of work writing), nor to I have any profound to share, but I will return to this.  I have been putting a lot of energy into my podcast, with four episodes out so far this season, three in the process, one interview scheduled, and several more in the offing. These include one where I will be interviewed, one where I will interview a controversial local historian, and one where I speak with psychologists about creativity.   It's a lot of fun; so far it is just a cost but no more than other hobbies.  I also will be announcing an Audible version of one of my mystery novels soon.  I am speaking at a conference on April 29 and my novel Sudden Future will be out in May, I hope.  I am healt...