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"So I know if I can afford more stuff"

At first I thought it was a joke, but, sadly, I don’t think it is.

Who would think this is a good ad? I want to buy more stuff? Really?

Then I started to change my mind and thought, “Well, some people do just like to buy a lot of stuff.” Then I remembered I was reading Real Simple magazine. I am hoping Real Simple was thinking, “Sure Microsoft. We’ll take your money for an ironic full page ad that our simplifying readership can mock.” I think Microsoft was too busy with stuff to think about the audience.

As many of you may have read or seen, Bobby Fischer, an American Icon of the twentieth century, past away.  As a friend of the game of chess, I feel this loss a little.

If you would like to read more: BBC Time NYTimes MSNBC 

edit: TIME also has a quick photo tour giving an interesting glimpse into his life.

Earlier I wrote about parents waiting to put kids in school, so that the child would be on the older side of the class.  Now when they graduate, some parents want to give their children a cosmetic edge.

Some reason, “From a societal perspective, the reality is that whether we like it or not, our appearance does seem to matter.”  This article looks into the musings of some parents.  I think some are saying, “If we have the ability to make our kids prettier, why not?”

This presents us with interesting societal questions.  What is beauty and what should be?  Is this a move toward a better (we could make a case that beauty is a good) society or another trap of competition?

This reminds me of something.

Five times today I had the privilege of viewing The Age of Enlightenment, a stimulating film on the period of history in the century leading to the American Revolution. A huge contributor to this period was the more than 100 years of war in Europe created by religious differences. And, not surprisingly, some ideas espoused by the “enlightened” were a distinction between public and private life, as well as a separation of church and state. Along with these, the concepts of “we ought to be happy and work toward that end” and “science should serve the betterment of society” became popular. Though some of this period became radically anti-religious, many held some religious base. And while many of the ideas espoused then are still popular and foundational to our society (even with the upswing in postmodernity), the official end of the era is around the time of the French Revolution which occurred just years after the American revolution, both spurred by the enlightened mentality. This I suppose is the reason for postmodernity – the progress in thought developed in reaction to bloody religious conflict led to two bloody Revolutions.

Also, why have the French been so often thought leaders in the world? Math, Enlightenment, Postmodernity? What is it about that culture that leads to this?

Also, I leave you with some footage of Bec’s Birthday Bash this weekend.

Once again I struggle with the concept of race.  Today as I organized a stack of summer school applications, I noticed the following:

Ethnicity: (circle) Asian   Black   Hispanic   Native American   Pacific Islander   White

Here are a few of my issues with these categories even if the are allowed to circle more than one.

Asian – Who is Asian?  Chinese (of various kinds), Indian, Turkish, Filipino?  A similar issue occurs (possibly to a lesser degree) with Pacific Islanders and Native Americans.  Black – How dark should one be to be black?  Are all people of a certain range of blackness the same?  Dinka, bushmen, Australian Aborigini, (Black American, Black South American)?  Hispanic – Where was this race 500 years ago?  Would students in present day Mexico circle white and Native American a couple hundred years ago?  What race will we come up with next?

We could go more in depth about the naming issues that show no concern for culture or history, but I will stop here.

Can we please come up with something better than this and stop perpetuating our racism?  If white boys do poorly on a test in school, does it have anything to do with a few physical features, even if we can figure out who preceisely is white?Š

Tiffany informed me that Columbia is going to start using the bait car program.  Am I the only person who sees this as hugely flawed?  First, I think placing people in especially tempting situations is not helpful for humanity.  Second, and more importantly, I seriously doubt this is going to reduce crime.  Who do you think steals a car that is already running?  I have to believe it’s the opportunistic, somewhat desperate person.  To me, that is a different person from the “looking for a car to break in and steal” guy.  I realize there are probably those people who wander around on cold days trying to find cars people are warming.  Then again, if they are premeditating it that much, wouldn’t they pay attention to who is placing the car (in a residential area).

At least someone was being creative to develop this program, but I think we can do better and get closer to the root issues.

In an attempt to live out a critique of our society and refuse to adhere to the social norms of our culture (even our Christian culture) when we feel those norms are disadvantageous to living the culture of the Kingdom of God, Tiffany and I have decided to make our finances an open book.  As of January 1, 2007, we have kept track of every penny in and out.  To us this means we are accountable to others for what we do with money. 

Tiffany writes about part of the process that brought us into the open.

Ariah discusses finances as well.

I often find myself blowing on malfunctioning electronics.  And I know I’m not the only one.  That is why I often refer to our generation as the “blow on it” generation.  Honestly, the ubiquitousness of that cultural phenomenon never ceases to amaze me.  Thus, when this cartoon surfaced, I felt it my duty to share.

I’ve been struggling with the world the last few days after reading Singer’s article and realizing that the resources to save lives are available at little loss of convenience. The dormant technologies capable of reversing our pillaging of nature lay unused for apathy’s sake. Companies are bemoaning low sweater sales due to a mild winter, and it sure seems like this Brave New World is telling us buying sweaters we don’t need is better than companies making fewer sweaters. I’m not convinced our job market will suffer, though one might have to find a different job, a small price to pay. I think, to cure those dying of illnesses extinct in the developed world.

But just like the Joads‘, we have to worry about our own family, to our own demise.  But unlike them, it’s not about feeding our starving family, it’s about making sure we keep up and stay cool.  And most won’t to go green or give to the dying until that is the competition for cool.  Thankfully in some circles that is starting to happen.  I could weep for the underlying despair in that system, but today I can’t care.  Because today I’ll be happy if the excessiveness of Cribs is superseded by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

The population scares scares some, but the resources are there if we use them well.  When two-thirds of the US is not overweight, then let’s worry about not having enough to go around.  We have the resources to cure so many of humanity’s plagues; we have the technology to completely reverse global destruction, and I come to a conflict of interest because I know some people want to want what is right but can’t do it for themselves, and we need V to torture our fears out of us for our own good.  But who will do it?  Even our democratic government seems less of the people and too much the few to offer us the right amount of moral legislation, considering the near $100 billion wanted to continue the war.  So how do we move to action?

I want to call people out and say, “Tom, can’t you live on $44 million and give the rest to the sick and starving?”  But I can’t name all the 13 million who could generate $171 billion dollars annually, the least of whom would still have $83,000 that year.  It’s enough to meet the Millennium Goals.  I lay here with my soul burning that we’ve been given everything to make this world right and we won’t.

Everything we do is a moral issue.

I know quite a few people have beat this discussion to death, however I want to get my thoughts in type.  With plans for New York to allow official gender change regardless of sexual organs, great shifts in societal interaction will surely take place.  As the article suggests, public facilities and privacy become confusing issues.  This would also be a loop hole in the fight against same sex marriage.  For the record, I don’t care how the government defines marriage; I don’t really think the government has anything to do with marriage.  I am for a large scale change in taxes with the focus not on relationship but on joint use of income.

Here’s an interesting situation: sports.  We have men’s and women’s sports separate so that women can compete at top levels.  What if a B team guy gets a documented gender change, so he can dominate the women’s side in a sport like track?  (Guys are about a second faster per 100 meters)  I wonder what other ramifications this will have on society.  I mean, we can do what we want, but it may not end up being progress.

With a few days off due to the snow, I have had a chance to reflect on my substitute teaching thus far.  This semester has been a blow to m ego to be sure.  It is a rare situation in education for a substitute to be treated the same as a regular teacher.  From the students it is not as challenging, but when other teachers regard you as just a sub, I find it difficult.  This is particularly cutting, because I have a teaching degree and have been a regular teacher.  The humiliation is intensified when I substitute beside teachers that I graduated with or ahead of.  I may need to just get tougher, that’s true, but I am keenly aware of this when I walk into the schools.

I have also found that during my experience with children as young as three and as old as twenty, from students with severe mental disability to students blessed with exceptional intellect, that at every level there are students who will annoy and students who will endear.  For me, I have found no “right age.”
The teacher voice, that loud distinctive talk for conversing with an entire room, I have yet to develop with any fluency.  That fact may be the reason I have to grit my teeth when other teachers struggle to turn off said voice.  Some teachers speak as loudly in personal conversation, and I struggle with listening.

This brings me to my next educational struggle.  Being a conscientious objector, I am deeply committed to the truth that force and coercion are not the appropriate Kingdom means for convincing others to adhere to the desired idea.  So in the same way I don’t believe war creates peace, in education I do not believe loud creates quiet.  I am very weary of raising my voice to quiet the voices of students.  I believe in this principle and am seeking ways to implement that style of management in my classrooms.

Lastly in this list that I hope seems less like gripes and more like areas I see that could be better, I believe that teachers develop a subtle racism by not recognizing the difference between correlation and causation.  If two factors have a large correlation but there can be no causation of one to the other, then I believe it should not be a focus.  This happens most often, that I have seen, with race, particularly black students.  We see it in schools, universities, and national policy.  Race is a heavy focus in education.  It starts with a correlation between black students and poor performance.  To me, we have to decide causation.  Since we are not going to say that poor performance changes your skin color, then maybe some races are physiologically poorer performers.  If so, we cannot really change it anyway, so why talk about it.  I venture to say most of us do not want to agree with that.  Then we need to stop talking about race.  Save race discussions for what shampoo to use and how much sun you need.  Find a different correlation.  Stop being lazy, and looking at color because it’s obvious.  The cause might be parenting, culture, socio-economic, but I’m almost certain it is not race.
With about six months of a teaching career, these are my thoughts.  Take them for whatever they may be worth.

‘”In our caste-ridden society if someone breaks out of the mould and marries outside of the caste, we want to give them this money as a token of our appreciation. We want to make an example of them so that others will follow them,” Ms Kumar said.’ BBCNews

Though monetary methods may not be the deepest cure, it is good to see the government making efforts to eliminate these cultural barriers.  I would certainly like to see the castes’ extinction.  I think the Church in India has such a responsibility as well.  In this Christ-followers must be counter-cultural, for Christ himself was particularly culturally unconscious in these arena.

What are the glaring contradictions we live with in America?  In what ways are we being ‘culturally revelant’ to the detriment of imitating Christ?