The Political Thread - Browncoat edition... down with the Alliance!

[Amentep]

A college or university is a business. An indecisive student that takes a lot of unrelated classes and muddles around for a while is good for business. Why do you think Wal-Mart & Target arranges their stores they way they do? The WANT you walking around and seeing stuff. I was an engineering student. Did I need to take Psycology, American Lit. Creative Writing, etc? No I did not. But I HAD to take, and PAY, for all of them and others. Would you advise someone with no income who didn't know what they wanted or needed to go Target and buy a bunch of things on a credit card?

 

Of course they recoil like Dracula from a cross when you point this out.  I really upset one of my instructors one time. He made a rather glib comment about his role as our professor. I told him he had a fundamental misconception about our relationship. Miami Dade CC offers to teach people things for a price. I paid the price and "hired" them to teach me Calculus. As their employee they assigned him to fulfill their part of the contract. I was not his student, I was his customer. My contract with MDCC is if I pay and show up for class I'll be taught Calculus. That's our "relationship".  He was NOT pleased. But I was right, he was wrong.

 

You took Psychology, etc because that's what a Liberal Arts program does.  The goal is to expose you to a variety of subjects to make you a 'well rounded' individual with a broad and basic knowledge of a lot of things.  We can debate whether the liberal arts model works for the modern day, but you weren't taught things for no reason.

 

It is completely fair to feel these classes had no bearing on what you wanted to do certainly one of the biggest debates in higher ed is the utility of the liberal arts model in the modern day.  Designed centuries ago so graduates would have a broad base of knowledge to make them flexible and well rounded; able to converse or make informed decisions on a large number of topics followed by a lot of specific knowledge on their preferred subject of expertise which would be applicable to a particular career.  However college degrees were never intended to be a 'gate keeper' to employment like modern society has made them, thus leading to the natural debate as to whether colleges and universities should change their focus to one more in line with what business and industries expect their employees to do rather than the well-rounded individual approach.

 

Colleges weren't originally supposed to act like a business, although a lot of decisions through the years have forced them to act more and more as one creating its own level of problems.

 

Sounds like they made you take an elective humanities course to check off "we tried to make engineers well rounded", like they did with us.  Was a nice break from the endless math and abuse to get a relaxed course

 

Every liberal arts college will do this.  Its what a liberal arts degree means.  Even engineering schools, although most of them that I'm familiar with will make the liberal arts portion as small as their governing and accrediting bodies will let them get away with.

[Hurlshort]

 

Of course they recoil like Dracula from a cross when you point this out.  I really upset one of my instructors one time. He made a rather glib comment about his role as our professor. I told him he had a fundamental misconception about our relationship. Miami Dade CC offers to teach people things for a price. I paid the price and "hired" them to teach me Calculus. As their employee they assigned him to fulfill their part of the contract. I was not his student, I was his customer. My contract with MDCC is if I pay and show up for class I'll be taught Calculus. That's our "relationship".  He was NOT pleased. But I was right, he was wrong. 

 

I would argue that it isn't a straight customer relationship, because it is also falls to the professor to hold you accountable for that information. You are paying for the credit as much as the lessons. The professor isn't just hired to serve the students, they are hired to create and implement a curriculum that will allow the school to give those credits. You then pay the school for that credit. Hopefully those credits are then useful to you in pursuit of a career or financial growth. That's one reason why tenure exists. In most service jobs, keeping the customer happy is a top priority. In education, it is secondary.

 

Realistically if you are just in school for personal growth, you should have the financial flexibility to do so, because you are a hobbyist at that point.

[injurai]

When did this 'technical debt' buzzphrase come about ?  My first suspicion that it has come from Agile cultists.

 

In response to agile most likely.

[HoonDing]

Agreed.

She's creepy.

[Volourn]

FAKE NEWS tricks Obsidianites again!

 

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/fuller-video-casts-light-covington-043042380.html

[Malcador]

I knew they were all Nazis all along.

[Volourn]

Why are Kanadians so ignorant and obtuse? Nothing in that video shows them being 'nazis'. LMAO BTW, If you watched the black Jewish folk attacked the Natives ther eby telling them' you lost your lkand because you worshipped the wrong god'. Where's your outrage over that, racist?

[Malcador]

Why are Kanadians so ignorant and obtuse? Nothing in that video shows them being 'nazis'. LMAO BTW, If you watched the black Jewish folk attacked the Natives ther eby telling them' you lost your lkand because you worshipped the wrong god'. Where's your outrage over that, racist?

 

I said all of them.  The students. The native guy. The black guys.  That one lady at 03:33 in one frame on the left.  Nazis.

[Volourn]

So.. now you are a thief stealing my shtick. Good troll.... NAZI.

[Bartimaeus]

Imo, the community college course and book prices are very fair. The five books I just paid for (used mind you) came to ~160.00 and the courses themselves ~1100.00.

 

Depends on the state, depends on the college. Even a lot of community colleges around here cost upwards of 3 grand a semester to attend full time, and the "textbooks" come with mandatory CD keys to unlock online content that is a requirement to even be in the class (since professors will use that online platform to do all coursework, and you can't get on it without the CD key)...and those CD keys are only good when purchasing new, and new usually costs 120-200 per class.

[Gromnir]

Why are Kanadians so ignorant and obtuse? Nothing in that video shows them being 'nazis'. LMAO BTW, If you watched the black Jewish folk attacked the Natives ther eby telling them' you lost your lkand because you worshipped the wrong god'. Where's your outrage over that, racist?

 

you might notice our complete lack o' outrage regarding the incident.  whenever these kinda things happen, we hold judgment as am knowing how confused the reality may be regardless o' how events first appear based on print and video accounts.  nevertheless, is few things more stoopid than a group o' young men.  vol will no doubt think such an observation is sexist and nazi, but am thinking it is hardly up for debate neither.  young men, individual, may be thoughtful and intelligent, but get'em in a group and their brains dribble out o' their skulls with shocking speed.  we didn't expect a bunch o' young men to be particular mature, and their maga hats didn't particular trigger us. 

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/11/12/nazi-salute-baraboo-high-school-boys-wisconsin/1975695002/

 

am not making excuses for the teens, but am similar not shocked by immature and stoopid teens... particular a largish group o' teen boys. 

 

am similar not surprised by how easily triggered is folks nowadays.  see maga hats and is triggered.  get insulted by random stranger and get triggered.  feel as if you might be getting disrespected (*snort*) and is triggered. am not surprised by events on the lincoln memorial steps 'cause nowadays people is so freaking easily triggered (or whatever is the term du jour) it is impossible to see beyond hats and stereotypes.  

 

will observe how there were a teaching moment missed by the chaperones o' the boys.  stand on the steps o' the lincoln memorial and best response one arrives at is yelling school fight songs in reply to insults?  how 'bout remove hats, link arms and give us some amazing grace?

 

 

now imagine how that mighta' gone viral? whole different viral opportunity and utter missed 'cause the responsible adults in the crowd were equal triggered and immature as a bunch o' teenage boys.

 

regardless, is proving increasing difficult for Gromnir to become outraged.  am no longer certain what constitutes acceptable behavior in over-polarized 2019. have always been concerned 'bout a return o' the ignorance and stoopidity o' the pre civil rights era, but am thinking we never genuine believed such would return-- were one o' those worst-case-scenario or boogeyman worries.  look at person and based on nothing but color o' skin or their political party or their freaking hat, decide such peoples is worth... less.  

 

btw, the great danger o' Court activism, which hinges on fuzzy and utopian notions o' evolving standards o' justice, can be seen lurching up the steps o' the lincoln memorial. as much as one would hope evolution is progressive and beneficial, the truth o' the matter is social norms is as much subject to rot as advancement.  no, am not suggesting 2019 is as bad as 1919 insofar as many social and cultural norms is concerned. however, am thinking Gromnir is hardly alone in recognizing and lamenting the increased polarization and general anger o' Americans during the past decade... and is no guarantee situation gets better 'fore it gets worse.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[redneckdevil]

FAKE NEWS tricks Obsidianites again!

 

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/fuller-video-casts-light-covington-043042380.html

thankfully this got out but sadly this reminded me of the  type of propaganda shoveling bull**** we will see from Fox/CNN/MSM/etc coming soon when election time is near.

 

one thing that really bugs the **** outta me is WHY MSM isn't gonna be sued for reporting on a min video when they have the people and resources to fact check the "story".  When u **** up the story that damn badly, why isn't there consequences?  and before anyone goes on about not touching the right to press, WHEN (if it isnt already) our big news channels become propaganda machines like Russia's, how exactly will we fix it or prevent it from becoming like that if we keep a hand's off approach and WON'T do ****?

[Gfted1]

Depends on the state, depends on the college. Even a lot of community colleges around here cost upwards of 3 grand a semester to attend full time, and the "textbooks" come with mandatory CD keys to unlock online content that is a requirement to even be in the class (since professors will use that online platform to do all coursework, and you can't get on it without the CD key)...and those CD keys are only good when purchasing new, and new usually costs 120-200 per class.

 

Iirc, youre in WI? Refreshingly, last semester had 1 class with no book at all (wth?) and 1 class where the book was a free-to-access .pdf file.

[Bartimaeus]

Close, Minnesota. Yeah, it's partially up to the specific professor - some of them are not terrible people and don't require $200 new textbooks. Even then, sometimes a college will list a book as "required", then you actually get in the class and the professor tells you "don't buy the book, the school is making me list it, we won't need it". Which I mean...is better than nothing, but most people buy their books before the semester starts.

[Volourn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX6rII4HP6Q

 

 

L0L

[smjjames]

What does that have to do with politics? Also, guy should have ended the interview when they started being nonserious about it.

 

Anyways, Pete Buttiigieg joins the 2020 Democratic primary.

[Volourn]

Really? You can't guess what that has to do with politics? Imagine if two guys were acting that way with a female reporter. LMAO. That would be a #metoo moment.

 

 

Also, how is this for politics... gun politics.

 

 

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/texas-homeowner-shoots-kills-3-191149904.html

[Gromnir]

What does that have to do with politics? 

 

if you haven't learned by now the inherent dangers o' following an untitled vol link, then shame on you.  shame.

 

in different news

 

measles outbreak

 

so the washington county with lowest immunization rate suffers a measles outbreak?  measles is extreme contagious. herd immunity for measles depends on high rates o' immunization to be effective.  wouldn't mind folks in washington getting sick save for fact kids is overwhelming suffering 'cause their parents got the worstest o' incurable conditions: willful obtuse.  unnecessary.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 24, 2019 by Gromnir

[Malcador]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-guaido/venezuela-opposition-leader-swears-himself-in-as-interim-president-idUSKCN1PH2AN

 

Well, Venezuela is getting more interesting.  FInd it funny that a lot of them are entering Trinidad illegally.  Sort of tells you how bad the situation must be

[Guard Dog]

I read this while cooling my heels in a hotel room last night. I found it eerily appropriate with regard to the whole Covington School/Phillips/Black Hebrew whatever media coverage:

 

"Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, "Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that" or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything, God and our friends and ourselves included, as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred"

 

It's from C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity. Read it in a issue of The Atlantic.

Edited January 24, 2019 by Guard Dog

[Guard Dog]

 

regardless, is proving increasing difficult for Gromnir to become outraged.  am no longer certain what constitutes acceptable behavior in over-polarized 2019. have always been concerned 'bout a return o' the ignorance and stoopidity o' the pre civil rights era, but am thinking we never genuine believed such would return-- were one o' those worst-case-scenario or boogeyman worries.  look at person and based on nothing but color o' skin or their political party or their freaking hat, decide such peoples is worth... less.  

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

It might bring you no comfort to hear this but I really do not believe things are as bad as we are led to believe. The need for drama to sell news has led to so much attention paid to the worst acts by people. It's made even worse by political misinterpretation or even willful distortion such as we saw last week. To watch the news is to be told everything is viewed through a political prism. In the reality of most peoples lives, very little is. Just because "they" are telling us the margins define the middle does not mean it is really so. 

[Gfted1]

Wait, I thought "the press" got a free pass because they "keep the government honest". Are you saying thats not at all true and they each have their own agendas?

[Amentep]

RE: Textbooks - there's only I think two college textbook producers in the US, each with several divisions to hide the fact that there's only two.  They do revisions not because the information is wrong or bad (although science textbooks need revisions as new discoveries are made), but is more done to minimize the power of the used book market.

 

A number of colleges have been researching open sourcing course materials (ie creating the course content themselves and making it free to students), and some schools are trying to use mass market paperbacks (I've seen this in philosophy or history) rather than textbooks to lower prices.

[Guard Dog]

Wait, I thought "the press" got a free pass because they "keep the government honest". Are you saying thats not at all true and they each have their own agendas?

Well, the "press" is hardly monolithic. But even so both things can be true at once. 

[Gfted1]

Can you point me in the direction of this unicorn, good sir?