And That's All She Wrote

This pretty much sums up what I think about the entire Donald Trump circus (about which I've purposefully posted almost nothing). 

Arguably one of the few things worse than Trump in all this is the media.  GOOD LORD.

Nerd Journal: FINAL EXAMS ARE UPON US!

Need I say more?  Regular posting and commentary will return after exams!

Finals. Yeah, it's like that.

Quote of the Day: Fools and the Prince of Fools

Via Smaizdata comes this pithy comment translated from the original Czech (this had appeared in a Prague newspaper):

The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president.

Oh, dear.  Is it really that bad? DON'T ANSWER THAT! IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION!

This Is Why I Gave Up Writing Satire

You'll remember that only a couple days ago I said that trying to campaign on Big Bird was fundamentally unserious and worthy of scorn.  

Now I read this, and it isn't satire as far as I can tell: "'Million Muppet March' Planned to Defend PBS After Romney Big Bird Comments."  Political culture is now utterly beyond parody.

Pop Culture Commentary: Honey Boo Boo and Aldous Huxley

By pure serendipity, I had just read this when a friend sent me this.  The two are not unrelated.

Quote of the Day: Thomas Sowell on Choices

This is a long-ish quotation, but it's worth a read as it delineates the difference between what people want to hear and what they need to hear:

This election is a test, not just of the opposing candidates but of the voting public. If what they want are the hard facts about where the country is, and where it is heading, they cannot vote for more of the same for the next four years. 

But, if what they want is emotionally satisfying rhetoric and a promise to give them something for nothing, to be paid for by taxing somebody else, then Obama is their man. This is not to say that the public will in fact get something for nothing or that rich people will just pay higher taxes, when it is easy for them to escape taxation by investing overseas -- creating jobs overseas. 

Even if most Americans do not have their own taxes raised, that means little, if they end up paying other people's taxes in the higher prices of goods and services that pass along the higher taxes imposed on businesses. 

There are no doubt voters who will vote on the basis of believing that Obama "cares" more about them. But that is a faith which passeth all understanding. The political mirage of something for nothing, from leaders who "care," has ruined many a nation.

Here's a related note.

Fifty Shades of Terrible, Fifty Shades of Snark

For La Parisienne especially and for everyone who (a) appreciates good writing and (b) takes pleasure in shredding bad writing.  If you thought Twilight was bad, wait until you get a load of Fifty Shades of Grey!  Fifty Shades started out as Twilight fanfic.  That should tell you something.

Now behold the intrepid soul who is reading Fifty Shades of Craptastic so you don't have to!  It is to Fifty Shades of Sewage what Reasoning with Vampires is to Twilight.

Have I personally read Fifty Shades of Abominable?  No.  I've only encountered snippets and excerpts, but they were enough to convince me that I'll never read the whole thing.  Am I really not going to read the book?  ABSOLUTELY. "But, but, Minerva!  Isn't this unfair?  Doesn't this fly in the face of your usual demand for intellectual rigor and solid research and ... ?"  There's an exception for every rule, sweet cheeks.  Read this again and grant me a dispensation just this once, mmmmkay?  Twilight was bad enough because it's clearly Stephenie Meyer's weird personal fantasy.  I have no desire to get involved in someone else's fantasy about that fantasy.  Nope, you'll find me off reading Jasper Fforde or Daniel Silva.

Thoughts on Foreign Policy in the 2012 Election

OK, so there's this piece arguing that Romney can't beat Obama on foreign policy.  Huh.  I have three quick thoughts as I run off to my nerd obligations:

1. What did I just say about Romney and campaigning?  It's the Economy, Stupid.  Hammer the opposition about the economy!
2. Despite Romney's squishiness on foreign policy, I can't believe there are that many people out there who actually seem to think that Obama knows what he's doing with foreign policy either.  You cannot be serious!  
3. Actually the entire non-debate about foreign policy all around the political sphere is just depressing.  When the Secretary of State is more effective as an Internet meme than as a Secretary of State, you know you've got some problems, dude.

Don't Know Much About History

ALAS.  Nevertheless, some of us are still fighting the good fight.  I refuse to give up.  I know you do too.  

Nerd News: Short-Changing the Bright Students

Edu-pocalypse continues.

Quote of the Day: Undoing the Enlightenment?

Hmmm?

It is no secret, especially here in America, that we live in a post-Enlightenment age in which rationality, science, evidence, logical argument and debate have lost the battle in many sectors, and perhaps even in society generally, to superstition, faith, opinion and orthodoxy. While we continue to make giant technological advances, we may be the first generation to have turned back the epochal clock — to have gone backward intellectually from advanced modes of thinking into old modes of belief. But post-Enlightenment and post-idea, while related, are not exactly the same. ... Post-Enlightenment refers to a style of thinking that no longer deploys the techniques of rational thought. Post-idea refers to thinking that is no longer done, regardless of the style.

UPDATE: Do read gentle reader and history buff Lumpy's comment below too.

Nerd News: A Report from the Campus Trenches

Oh, my.

Nerd News: Political Grading Study

Here's the link, but the reader comments are more interesting.  The "study" sounds like utter nonsense to me.  I'm glad to see that other nerds think so too.  It would have made more sense to have the two groups of professors grade the same assignments by the same students and then look at the results ... but I really think the basic assumption (that professors assign grades based on their personal political views) is deeply flawed.  

Quote of the Day: the Idiocy of Some Intellectuals

British physician Theodore Dalrymple sums up one part of our current so-called intelligentsia's trouble:

The avoidance of the obvious is an occupational hazard for intellectuals, because the obvious threatens them with redundancy. One might have thought that it was perfectly obvious that there were deep psychological currents in suicide bombing, and equally obvious that there us widespread greed and incontinence during epidemics of speculative behaviour. Therefore it is only natural that intellectuals should be found who would argue precisely the opposite, that deep motives are in fact shallow and shallow ones deep.     

It's positively Orwellian. Look, there is nothing so obvious that an "intellectual" won't utterly misunderstand it, and there is nothing so stupid that an "intellectual" won't believe it.  There is practically nothing so pernicious that a self-proclaimed elite won't espouse it in the effort to separate himself from those whom he (or she) considers to be the great unwashed masses. Now wasn't I just saying that the ostensible leadership class right now is utterly useless?  There is, of course, also this.

Leadership Fail on a Massive Scale

Pretty much, yeah.  You know, our self-proclaimed elites would be a good deal less obnoxious if they weren't constantly shrieking about their own "superiority" and demonizing everybody they don't like.  It's a morally rotten arrogance that purports to lead free-thinking citizens when it really wants to dictate terms to cowed and compliant sheep.  On a related note, I've said before that our current political class is a miserable lot of scoundrels and fools.

Nerd Analysis: Professor Niall Ferguson on Why We're Currently Going to Hell In a Handbasket

Need I remind you, though, that "going" doesn't mean "have already arrived"?  Read this and this.

Nerd News: Lunacy in College Admissions

Heh!

Nerd News: A Perfect Storm in Undergrad Education

Oh, boy.  Yeah, it's bad.  But articles like this also don't mention that there in the nerd trenches, some of us are absolutely busting our butts to teach well and teach substantively with high standards and expectations.  

Nerd News: Undergrads Not Learning Critical Thinking

Well, DUH.  Link via law prof Ann Althouse.

Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study...

UPDATE: I just got this related news story from one of my former undergrads.

Bowdlerizing Twain's "Huckleberry Finn"

*Sigh.*  The trouble is that the self-righteous, mealymouthed do-gooders behind this understand very little about history, literature, or education -- and possibly all three.  Read this response.  See also this comment that refers to the end of Chapter 15 of the book, in which Huck regrets playing a mean trick on Jim and states that he never did so again, even while stating too that he would never have done what he did if he knew it would cause Jim so much grief.  It is a powerful rejection of racism and human cruelty, though you'd never know it if you read the bowdlerizers.  In fact, the entire book is a repudiation of racism.

Of course, bowdlerization is a old sin against literature -- but it is still a sin.  If you can't handle the literature as it was written, then you should go away and read something else instead of trying to reshape the original text to fit your personal desires.  This is all of a piece with the habit of certain people to refuse to look at reality as it is (and was), and this most frequently appears in approaches to history and literature (between which an essential and vibrant nexus does exist).  Add also the pernicious idea that nobody must ever be even in the least bit uncomfortable in school about anything.  Sheer foolishness, really, because sometimes you should be discomfited if you're doing education right.  Anyway, I imagine Mark Twain, himself a colorful character, would have some choice words for the current manglers of his work. 

UPDATE: More here, along with still more proof that nothing is so wrongheaded that a New York Times columnist won't support it.