Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you contend with shadows?
Do you move in a kind of sleep?
Time has slipped away.
Your life is stolen.
You tarried with trifles.
Victim of your folly.
The starry sky above…
All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.
Conservatives and Higher Education
These days you often hear consecutive pundits and politicos arguing that higher education is a liberal conspiracy against the Republican Party. On the face of it is seems like its just more of the same junk that they have been spewing out for years but this time it is different.
Colleges and universities teach their students to how to learn and expand their horizons. They preach the virtues of critical thinking and examining issues from multiple view points. Most importantly college graduates are prepared to form their own opinions based upon their own independent analysis of the evidence and options. This scares Republicans shitless.
The mainstream conservative establishment is powered by Kool-aid. The party’s power comes from their millions of followers who believe whatever the establishment wants them to believe. They don’t form independent opinions and certainly don’t examine the evidence or alternate hypothesis. Case and point: the modern Republican party uses denial of climate change and evolution as a litmus test for candidates standing for election. This alone should show how out of touch they are with reality.
The Republican party knows that if their supply of ignorant, uneducated people dries up they are in trouble. They can see this happening already. Traditionally California has been relatively evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Often leaning slightly one way or the other. In years decades Republican registrations have declined considerably and now stand at roughly a third of the registrations with Democrats coming in around 40% and no party preference voters at 20%.
The Republicans recognize that they have a problem and that their days as a viable institution are numbered if they don’t do something. But instead of adapting to a changing world (which would be inherently un-conservative) they are attacking and suppressing the intellectual development of our great nation.
A millionaire’s millionth dollar is worth far less to him than to someone who works the minimum wage.
Poor old Dr. Seuss…
Spreading the Creative Commons love round the internet.
Source: Flickr / davidciani
The Least Loved Branch
Our society doesn’t pay enough respect to our judicial system.
Some justices have delighted in their near anonymity. Retired Justice John Paul Stevens cherished one particular encounter, said Richard Davis, a professor of political science at Brigham Young University. One day, Justice Stevens was walking outside the court when tourists stopped him. They wanted to know if he would mind moving out of the way so they could take a good photograph of the Supreme Court.
Source: The New York Times
Ruben mac and cheese. Though that bread bowl is overkill in the carbs department…
Source: reddit.com
Who would have thought that would happen?
Ten years ago Portugal decriminalized all drugs. Since then, drug abuse is has dropped by 50%. Instead of locking people up, addicts are able to get the treatment they need. Maybe someday our country will wake up to reality and end the war on drugs.
Source: reddit.com
Ad cuius intellectum veritatem inquirendam et.
