Wit & Whim

First round of new classes began today. German for Teachers is going to be much better for than was Business German. The focus of the class will be on pedagogical methods, just taught in German, and mixed well with a study of the theory of German grammar. I also have a week to write a three page German paper. "Whyfor," you might ask. Why so early? The answer is money. The German Heritage Society gives two grants for $1000 dollars for books and tuition in the next semester; one must first write a three page paper on Germany's place in Europe, so I will be working on that tomorrow. I did not feel so lost upon beginning this class as I did last fall, I understood almost everything said and read, and even if my accent and pronunciation are still abysmal, at least I can parrot back everything in English. Arabic 150 was an even better beginning. I remembered just about everything, including things I'm not sure that I remembered for the final. And not only did some of the mo...

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you missed it, I feel that it is my solemn duty to alert you to the new year that has overtaken us. Time for the encouraging pep talk! This is a time of great excitement and potential, and there can be no doubt that we will correct all of the things that we did wrong last year, just like we do every year. Having learned so many valuable lessons in the past year, all that remains is for our now savvier persons to glide through this new year on auto-pilot. Our new found wisdom will propel us over those stumbling blocks of years past. Gone are our inconsiderate nature, perversions, and bad table manners. We will get back in shape, reform our spending habits, and restore some measure of beauty to the English language as it is spoken among us. We will study harder, curse less often, and refrain from wishing for the immediate destruction of that jerk who cut in front of us and made us miss the light. Mankind finally has really got it's stuff together, and this ye...

I think that college has come very close to teaching me a very bad lesson. In academic writing everything must be significant, analytical, and structured. The only topics worthy of attention are "serious" topics; the kind one spends countless hours researching, and agonizes about how best to present them. In short, you begin to confuse yourself into thinking that writing can only be worthwhile if it is well thought and pertinent to the plights of mankind. Poison. I have written some excellent papers, thank you very much, but I like best the silly things that I have written for the sake of writing; for the love of a good phrase, and the simple joy that comes from using words well. This is such an easy thing to lose sight of, and it is coming back into focus, and has been these last couple weeks. The difference is that I have been reading again, not purely for knowledge, or for an assignment, but for a story. I have a book full of clever little sayings about books, taken from m...

Beg pardon, but all the campaign related nonsense that is floating around right now has me snarky. There is almost certainly negativity to follow. Godspeed. I don't think I want to vote for any of the Presidential candidates. The Republican selection is the absolute scrapings of the barrel--wholly unappetizing. But the present POTUS, with his weekly promises to act (in lieu of laws allowing him to act) as he desires, will probably drive me to vote for one of them. I will not vote for Perry, Paul, Bachmann, Huntsman, or, most likely--it pains me to say--Gingrich. Perry is an idiot savant. I don't care how effectively you balanced the budget of your state; I do not desire a President whom I feel a burning desire to muzzle every time he gets up to read his next list of ill considered remarks. On top of that, his particular brand of Christianity makes me bristle. Give me a nice staid catholic or something; not an ecstatic. Ron Paul. It's funny to watch his followers lick their ...

I cannot wait to get to break. Not only does my poor over-taxed little brain need a while to chill, but I have some really serious reading to do, having only completed five novels since the outset of the school year. Was something wrong with me? Have I become lazy in my old age? I was wondering why I wasn't reading as many books as I normally do. Something had to be amuck. I could not remember another period on record when the number of books I read was so low. It was only tonight as I was sifting through piles of school stuff, gathering together all of my research materials for both of my papers--you know, to take stock--that I realized the truth. I figured out that I've read 16 complete books for school over the last three months; this number not even reflecting on the fact that a large portion of my assigned readings have been excerpts, and that I have read bits and pieces of countless tomes for my papers...It hit me that I've been doing a ton of reading. For some reaso...

There is no element more important to society than the family. A strong family is necessary to teach children morals, moderation, virtue, and care for their fellow man. The strongest familial education is one that includes religion, which is the ultimate arbiter of perspective; that is, we are each but a small part of the whole, and our greatest good comes from outside the self. The family must be strong for a nation to have longevity, because there must be a structure in place to educate people to be good citizens, to place value on something other than the individual. Many might say, there was not such a strong emphasis on the family in early American writings, and I would respond that it was because the family was extraordinarily strong. They did not speak of the necessity to strengthen the family because it was a non-issue. There is no question in antiquity of the need for strong families. Augustus primary reforms and laws were aimed at restoring and strengthening the family and Go...

From the standpoint of one looking for economic and political stability, it is not a good thing that there is such a tremendous spread in wealth. A large, independent, middle class is indisputably the basis for a stable and moderate society. That being said, income redistribution is an insupportable evil. Why would I say such a thing, if indeed it would be better for wealth to be spread more equally. My reasons are hardly simple, but let us touch them briefly. In the first part, a redistribution of wealth requires a sacrifice of political liberty and equality in exchange for a possibility of greater social equality. Men are not equal under the law when the law is specifically constructed to take from some to give to others. Next, government stepping in as the arbiter of financial support weakens the role of the family and community. Where caring for your elderly parents, your children, and day to day needs, used to be an action of the family and the community, it is now shunted off as ...