Do I CARE? No. Can you offend me. Not likely. I am a self-important douche-nozzle. The chip is only the size of Lake Huron, get your facts straight. It was frosting, not ice cream. Oooooh, you called me "tubby." Ouch. I'm glad you find it amusing, that was the idea.

Kiki, that forced a full on laugh from the gut... priceless.

I'm a nuuuuuuuube.

How do you kill that which has no life?

lemmiwinks, we're currently holding tent revivals at all major truck stops along I80, Piggly Wiggly food stores, and John Deere dealerships. You can also join up in our special prayer meeting this SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY at Hagerstown Speedway, in Hagerstown MD. Don't forget to catch GRAVE DIGGER and the gargantuan destroyer from prehistory: ROBOSAURUS!!!

I'll pm you with the pertinent information.

rohina, keep on trying. I have no problems at all with feminism. In fact I like all kinds of people: feminists, homosexuals, lesbians, rednecks, crackers, politicians, truck drivers, people of all races and political and social backgrounds. Then, I even manage to find tolerance for insufferable prigs.

My ten posts definitely suggest that I spend all of my time online.


Wait, wait, wait... they weren't just really good pals?

I applaud your efforts. From this and prior posts you seem to be an educated and articulate human being and very likely an excellent teacher. Can you deny that some professors do use their positions as bully pulpits? As to the first sentence of the above quote, to some extent that is true, but there is a limit. I've experienced first hand a tenured professor using her position to further her own sociopolitical agenda. I found it incredibly disturbing to watch her attempt to manipulate her students while the younger ones never batted an eye. Again, I realize professors like her are the exception and not the rule, and though I may not have articulated this fact, I have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone who dedicates themselves to teaching.

What does Malaysian television programming have to do with the anything?

Absolutely. At this very moment I'm in my tighty-whiteys, eating butter pecan frosting straight from the container and listening to Michael Bolton singing "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes". I epic fail.

I'm rather good at chess. He was far superior. We were not playing in an organized event and had no prior knowledge of one another as players. He is the son of a friend. We have played a number of times and I can count on one hand the times I've won. This is not really the salient point.

Many adults (particularly those with much higher than average IQs) find it difficult to have their intellect put into question by anyone, much less a child. While I admit a certain level of arrogance and therefore felt somewhat humbled, it was a most enjoyable surprise. One can question my intelligence all one wants. I am completely comfortable with who I am.

I disagree with your second statement. While there are types of brilliance not suited to chess, brilliance of some sort is required. Alan Turing was a genius, but in what context? Chess is far more than computation. Among other things chess requires strong spacial ability, planning and efficiency and an ability to quickly and accurately gauge one's opponent. Further, it takes years of commitment to achieve any sort of expertise at chess. It may take a combination of qualities to become a great player, but intellectual brilliance most certainly plays a part.

I'll readily admit that I know little beyond the basics about Alan Turing. Was he a dedicated chess player? Was he a spacial thinker?

Thank you, Basura, as well as everyone else for the stimulating discourse.

Out of the approximate 6500 members who post, there are over 2150 MATYans who fall into the top 99.99% intellectually? That is quite an achievement. Of course when I said "documented IQ" I didn't mean they received an email from free-iqtest.net.

I am well aware that I am not the most brilliant of the brilliant. I lost a chess match to a nine year old; rather than anger I experienced only awe and joy at witnessing a game played so masterfully. I have no ego to bruise. Try again.


I didn't gloss over anything. You may be right on that point, and as I already stated;
It doesn't change the fact that there are already morons with PhD's teaching in universities.


Since critical thinking and analysis, as well as a working knowledge of modernism and colonialism were very likely required for you to attain your degree, wouldn't you say that falls under the purview of your field of expertise? Does this mean you are competent to teach colonial history or critical analysis of modernist art? Further, does it make you an expert on sociopolitical topics? Perhaps you are competent to teach these subjects, but if that is the case, I would argue that it is due to your intellect rather than your degree.


Again I would argue that the underlying theory and idea falls under the scope of the discipline. I agree that good professors should challenge their student's assumptions and make them think, but making them analyze the subject from all sides, whether it parallels one's own beliefs or not, is just as important. It is not the responsibility of the professor to develop a curriculum that insinuates his or her own belief system into the minds of a captive audience.

By the way, I really have no interest in joining the "Grammar Police." It takes up far too much of your time. 9266 posts in not quite four years. You've averaged nearly 7 posts EVERY DAY in that time. Thanks, but I have this thing called a "life" and I prefer to spend my days doing real life "stuff". In a month or so, I'm going to a place called "outside" and because it's a really big place, I'm going to drive my motorcycle all over it for about three months, or maybe six. I haven't decided just how long yet.

While I'm sure that logging on here and posting every single day for four years is not a signifier of a boring and tedious life, I am quite sure my need to do "stuff" and go "outside" in "real life" would seriously impede my performance as an "Officer of Grammatical Rules and Enforcement". So, as devastating as it is to discover that I am too stupid to qualify for such a sought after and vaunted position, I suppose I can and will carry on. It may require sandy beaches, a couple of bikini-clad tarts and a buttload (no, literally a buttload) of tequila, but I'm firm in my position that I will survive...


Point taken Kyna and hopefully addressed above.

Oooooh, your dazzling retort stings. It's like a paper cut, even...

This is a ridiculous question and hardly worthy of a response. I think it should be obvious from my previous posts that I believe the rearing of children is the responsibility of the parent(s). The root of the entire problem is that parents are more concerned with their own wants and needs, and how supposedly " happy" their children are than to recognize that their main role is not to make sure their children are happy, but to ensure that they mature into quality human beings, i.e. free-thinking individuals with a bit of consideration for and politeness toward others thrown in.

The role of the professor is to educate within their field of expertise. Period.


Thank you for pointing out the completely obvious. Wow... just wow.


Did you actually read anything I previously wrote?


First, if you actually believe that there aren't fucktards out there that manage to attain a PhD, you're as pig-ignorant as they are. Second, do you honestly think that every school produces the same quality doctorate, or that all of them care about said quality? Silly.


O' Great Karnak, try again. Everyone recognizes my brilliance. The lowest grade I ever received on anything was ninety-two percent. In fact, that seems to be my magic, non-effort-making test score. My IQ is a documented 162, I was awarded a lifetime membership to the local MENSA chapter, I make an uber-delicious Jameson-based barbecue sauce, and write a mean haiku.

You cannot bait me
I rule, you drool, sugarlips...
but you keep trying



The Children of the Damned.

Yes, I truly believe that reading is witchcraft and teachers should all be slowly spit-roasted over a fire produced by burning a nice blend of hickory and maple woods. I also believe everyone should be required to drive pickups and where bib overalls and the only things that need be taught in school are the Holy Bible and yer basic cypherin'.

Then again, it's possible that I believe that not every professor is best suited to ask their students to question their assumptions. Ultimately, since half the population (according to the bell curve anyway, I think it's more like ninety to ninety-nine percent) is stupid to varying degrees, it is fairly certain that at least one or two college professors are morons who shouldn't be teaching finger painting, much less attempting to affect the social consciousness of young people. So, eat me.

To the professor: Many of the people entering university are not young adults. Children are allowed to be less and less responsible, resulting in retarded maturation. I don't hold professors responsible for normal, healthy behavior or children questioning their childhood beliefs or good old rebellion against the system. I try to refrain from hypocrisy. Being tattooed myself, I find some humor in the parental discomfort caused by such an innocuous act of rebellion.

I am all for questioning, well, everything. Questioning and challenging the status quo is the responsibility of any intelligent person. First however, the person must learn such things as independent and active thinking. Since the current trend, at least in the states, is to teach children not to bother thinking, I believe they may not be prepared for a few of the more politically oriented, less intellectually savvy professors who actually believe that because they managed to grind out a dissertation at some lousy jerkwater state school, they are better able to determine what is best for everyone.

This isn't to say I believe that of all professors. In fact, I don't believe it to be the case with the majority, based on my own experience. I was nearly thirty before I entered university, and I believe I value the experience far more because of my age. I built lasting relationships based on mutual respect with a number of my professors. I place a high value on any strong mind, and I have great respect for the true teacher; not the ones who teach because they cannot do, but the ones who teach because they recognize that knowledge is the only thing of real, lasting value.

Blue-collar elitist.... still chuckling about that...

Idiocracy is brilliant...and tragic in its dead-on glimpse into our future. Mike Judge excels at social commentary channeled through sophomoric humor.


In the states "leveling the playing field" is the politically correct terminology for catering to the lowest common denominator, and is being used all too frequently.

"Service Learning." How droll. I suppose using "Community Service" makes it sound rather less appealing.

My main concern with the whole concept is the incessant brainwashing used by teachers or the university to further their own social/political agendas. I've seen first hand the power that professors wield over children away from home for the first time. Their mindset is similar to that of someone being indoctrinated into a cult. I watched a teacher actively use cult tactics such as love-bombing to further the agenda of a sociopolitical organization of which she is a member.

As a firm believer in the principle that the individual is greater than the group, this type of activity terrifies me. Then, groups terrify me anyway. The current trend in socialist conformity literally makes me shiver. Conformity breeds stagnation and rewards mediocrity. There is already more than enough mediocrity in this world, where the stupid breed without surcease, and the intellectually superior worry about overpopulation and don't breed at all.

Universities are filled to the brim with students who have no business being there and are putting themselves into massive debt to attain a degree that becomes more worthless with each passing year. Higher education is NOT for everyone. Why is it that "leveling the playing field" invariably means making it easier for the stupid ones?

I could get into the role of government in this trend and the current dumbing down of the populace as a form of crowd control, but then I'd begin to sound like a paranoid freak.

I couldn't resist adding this; "Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

Thank you very much, lemmiwinks. My blue collar, high school drop out parents' efforts paid off. Five children; five college graduates. My public school experience had little to do with it.

I appreciate the welcome. I read through this thread with more than a little amusement. I am a convicted Grammar Nazi, and this site always provides good, satisfying entertainment. I've been lurking here for years, not finding a need to post. I either find answers to my queries through a little searching, or (my preference) I find my own solution.

The baiting and ridicule tossed about among the cohort of more articulate members reminds me of my family's rather voluble barbecues. I love it.

It's more probable that if parents would take their entitled brats in hand before they became so, they wouldn't arrive at university as such. The idea that one is going to change the entitled mindset is ludicrous. The entitled brat who attends university will in nearly every case remain an entitled brat, "community participation" or no. In fact, it has been my experience that many of the most active community participants in the the many places I've lived are the most self-important, self-absorbed, entitled fucksticks I've ever had the displeasure to meet.

A requirement by an university to "participate in the community" is nothing more than forced indoctrination. A large part of the problem with the distinct downturn in the quality of American education is that more time is spent with socialization than academic and vocational knowledge, from grade school through university. It is the right of the individual to choose their level of community involvement, even if that means as little participation as possible. Then, this comes from a pirate and misanthrope of the "take what you can, give nothing back" variety.

It is the responsibility of the parent to teach their children to play well with others, and the academic institution to impart knowledge.