Now this is the kind of feminism that we need to see more of.
Archive for March, 2006
Feminism
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006Abortion Debate
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006Just came across another oldie but goodie from student teaching. While we were doing our mock Congress exercise, each student was to write a bill. Some of these bills (the ones that got out of committee) were debated in front of the entire Congress (the whole class) and then the Speaker of the House requested a vote. One of our more… shall we say, ‘outspoken’ students was the Speaker, and when a bill regarding abortion came up, she requested a vote on it by asking, “Anybody for killin’ the babies?”
This was immediately followed by someone shouting, “I’m for it! Wait… I mean, I’m for the bill.”
Bush’s Cabinet
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006This one’s from when I was student teaching, but I just found the paper I wrote it down on, and thought I’d post this. One of the questions asked on a worksheet on the President’s cabinet was, “would you say that Bush’s cabinet is diverse?” Most of the students thought that it was, including one who wrote that it was “well diversed” and another who said it was “very diversy.” It’s good to see that the time spent in classrooms teaching diversity has paid off, even if it does seem to be at the expense of time spent learning English.
Bush’s Cabinet
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006This one’s from when I was student teaching, but I just found the paper I wrote it down on, and thought I’d post this. One of the questions asked on a worksheet on the President’s cabinet was, “would you say that Bush’s cabinet is diverse?” Most of the students thought that it was, including one who wrote that it was “well diversed” and another who said it was “very diversy.” It’s good to see that the time spent in classrooms teaching diversity has paid off, even if it does seem to be at the expense of time spent learning English.
Bulgakov Again
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006Mikhail Bulgakov has shown up again in the parts of the internet that I generally prowl. Not only that, but while I was trying to rearrange my junk today in my bedroom, my copy of The Master and Margarita crept out from under my bed. It might be making a break for the door, or possibly just the stack of books that’s waiting to be shelved. Either way, I’m beginning to think I’m being haunted.
Too Much Free Time
Monday, March 27th, 2006Going into the “you have too much free time” category with the guy who spent sixteen hours in a Home Depot, we have another young gentleman who spent three days in a Wal-Mart.
Who thinks up this kind of stuff? I’ve contemplated parking my car in a Wal-Mart parking lot and sleeping in it when I was traveling, to save the price and bother of a hotel room, but actually camping out in a Wal-Mart just for the heck of it?
Weird.
New Democratic Revolution?
Sunday, March 26th, 2006Following the push for democracy in places like Georgia and Ukraine, there is now increasing demonstration lately for democracy in Belarus. In a recent demonstration in Minsk, protesters were viciously beaten by militia units, soldiers, and police. (For a fuller story, CNN has a bit of background and more details .) There are more links to pictures here, as well as a link to a video from a Ukranian TV site. (WARNING: if you don’t like seeing violence, don’t watch this clip. The repression of this demonstration was pretty brutal — one demonstrater died of a broken skull, apparently beaten to death. I’m not sure if that’s the man in part of this video or not.)
I don’t know if Lukashenko is more of a fascist (as some of the protesters claim) or a throwback to communist authoritarianism, but either way, the man needs to relinquish power. I don’t know how much news Belarusians get from the internet (it sounds like Lukashenko’s government has a fairly firm grasp on this particular medium), but I did recently have at least one visit to this site from a computer there.
(Some of these pages came via Power Line, others I found on my own.)
Down with Lukashenko!
Free Belarus!
Oddities Of The Internet
Saturday, March 25th, 2006I got a piece of spam email today that caught my eye. I glanced at it while going through and telling Evolution to delete it, and the text looked suspiciously familiar. Allow me to quote:
“But there was no time for regrets. Stepa dialled the office of Rimsky, the Variety Theatre’s treasurer. Stepa was in a delicate position: for one thing, the foreigner might be offended at Stepa ringing up to check on him after he had been shown the contract and for another, the treasurer was an extremely difficult man to deal with. After all he couldn’t just say to him : ‘ Look here, did J sign a contract yesterday for thirty-five thousand roubles with a professor of black magic? ‘ It simply wouldn’t do! ‘Yes? ‘ came Rimsky’s harsh, unpleasant voice in the earphone. ‘Hello, Grigory Danilovich,’ said Stepa gently. ‘ Likhodeyev speaking. It’s about this … er … this fellow . . . this artiste, in my flat, called, er, Woland . . . I just wanted to ask you about this evening–is everything O.K.? ‘ ‘Oh, the black magician? ‘ replied Rimsky. ‘ The posters will be here any minute now.’ ‘Uhuh . . .’ said Stepa weakly. ‘ O.K., so long . . .’ ‘Will you be coming over soon? ‘ asked Rimsky. ‘In half an hour,’ answered Stepa and replacing the receiver he clasped his feverish head. God, how embarrassing! What an appalling thing to q ot ktmthu j tltp ukskt lunu rtouku mukur q furr urr sdjksdfsdfsdlgkj sdflkjsdf lksdjfsdfsdf”
…followed by an advertisement promising longer orgasms. In case you didn’t recognize it as quickly as I did, it’s from The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. (The obligatory attempt to make money is here
News Or Not?
Thursday, March 23rd, 2006ABC has released summaries of various documents captured in Iraq. These are definitely important documents, but I rather suspect that the media won’t be making a very big deal out of most of the information. I mean, the Russians passing military information to Iraq immediately before the war, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban had contact with the Iraqi regime and were working with them, and that Saddam was very interested in how to fund French election campaigns…
But that would make it seem like Bush might actually have been right about some things, wouldn’t it?
Latin
Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006I covered for one of the Latin I classes today, and the students were to read a section on Roman heroes. One of them was Cincinnatus, and I was explaining to them the significance of his renunciation of the dictatorship when the crisis had ended. I also mentioned the Society of the Cincinnati as an organization dedicated to upholding the principles that he embodied.
One of the students piped up and said, “Then how do they have a leader?”