Blogging At Work

I won't make a habit of this, but I thought I'd update the Club on my new digs. As of yesterday, I have become a busy language executive rather than a haggard historian. While I cannot brag about my penthouse office with a view of the velvet North Mississippi skyline, nor can I claim to have a telephone at my desk, I am richer for this transfer to administration than I might have imagined. My colleagues are all happy to be here, a fact that may be attributed to how little research, writing, and academic b-s they have to do. These folks spend the day teaching English as a Second Language to people from all around the world, and it is plain to see they love doing it. The students are friendly and excited to be here, too, which is such a refreshing change from working across campus in an environment where being "too cool for school" and "acting like a spoiled brat" counts as a minor.

My new job includes coordinating off-campus programs in various countries and Washington, D.C. Right now my top priority is to draft a proposal for the D.C. internship program that I will send off to our partner schools in Asia and Latin America. I am also working on a practicum syllabus for graduate students who will be getting their teaching experience in Barbados, South Africa, and various sites in Latin America. Starting next month, I'll be drafting a proposal for an extensive English as a second language program in Barbados, and then I'll be making plans to go to Taiwan to recruit students. Later in the semester I'll make a trip to Barbados and Washington to see how the programs are coming along.

Also, I'm actually working with Sweet Pickles. How awesome is that?!?

I really can't believe how lucky I am to have this new job fall into my lap. As an undergrad, I wanted to major in foreign languages so that I could find a job working for the UN or the State Department. Regrettably, I never made my way to the universities where this was a viable career option, so I changed my focus to history. I don't regret choosing the history option, and I am very pleased that I successfully completed the terminal degree, but a career in history has proven unsatisfactory. Now, here I am coordinating international studies programs and traveling the world! Despite the detour, I seem to have arrived at the same place my naive little heart wanted to go at 18.

Anyway, I hope to get back to our regularly scheduled snark-fest soon. It seems like ages since I wrote a creative post that made *me* laugh. The Club could use a bit more levity, and now that I am in a better frame of mind, I hope that I can bring it.

Well, It Ain't Newark

In 2009, our good friend Werner Herzog's Bear got married in a beautiful cathedral near the downtown district of Newark, New Jersey. The church was part of a largely working-class Italian neighborhood that has evolved over the years into an area of town that deals with more crime and trouble than the old folks remembered. Proof of this change hit home after the wedding when we discovered that one of our friends' car had been broken into. A few things were stolen and the driver's side window was smashed in, so our friend decided to call the police to report the crime. Considering the lot of us had about 2 hours to waste until the reception, we decided to wait with our friend at the church until the police arrived. After an hour, our friend called the police again to gently request an ETA so that we knew what to expect. Not long after this second call to dispatch, in which our friend was told that his problem was a minor one and could wait, we all witnessed a car accident that quickly turned into a street fight between the drivers and about 30 spectators from the neighborhood. Anyway, this melee inspired our friend to cut his losses, and, following his lead, we all got the hell out of there. As far as we know, the cops never showed up.

I tell you all that in order to alert you to this headline:  "Camden Police Will Not Respond to Some Crimes Due to Layoffs"  I guess they are just taking a page from the Newark Police Department's guide to public safety.

Oh, for the Love of Christ!

Pop Quiz! Who said this:

"... if you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister.  Now I will have to say that, if we don't have the same daddy, we're not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother."

A. The Pope
B. That Mormon at your door
C. Sweet Pickles
D. The Governor of Alabama

If you answered D, congratulations! Either you saw this little piece on the Salon.com, or you live/have lived in the U.S. South, where this sort of craziness is par for the political course. Here, the establishment clause of the constitution doesn't actually apply to state and local government. There is only one religion (Baptist), so why worry about offending anyone?

But seriously, folks. The Governor has every right to his own religion, and he can pick and choose who he calls friend or family. What he should avoid, however, is the following:

1. Appearing to privilege born-again Christians over non-Protestant Alabamians
2. Suggesting that he will not recognize non-Protestant Alabamians as part of his constituency
3. Implying that you have to get right with Jesus to get right with the State of Alabama.

The good people of Alabama have been through this sort of business before--see the ignoble career of former Chief Justice Roy Moore, and I am satisfied that there are plenty of folks there and throughout the South who are not down with this flagrant disregard for the separation of Church and State. Governor Bentley won't suffer for this gaffe, but I hope to God he'll do a better job in the future of keeping his relationship with Christ closer to his heart.

Rageaholics Anonymous

Yesterday I sat down to watch "Fall From Grace", a documentary on the Westboro Baptist Church headed by the Rev. Fred Phelps in Topeka, Ks. The film gave the Phelps family ample opportunity to unleash on this gay-loving country and all of its associated sins, which was very illuminating. Did you know, for example, that God uses IEDs (improvised explosive devises) to kill American soldiers in order to avenge the attempted bombing of the Westboro Church? Well, I defy you to convince the Phelps clan otherwise! Watch this movie if you want to see what happens to otherwise intelligent people when they are fed a steady diet of rage and hate their whole lives. It's soul-numbing.

Which is why this message from Jon Fugelsang of MTV fame is so satisfying:

Looking at things in the aggregate

I have gone back and forth on the issue of gun control, but I think it is fair to say that we need to approach the issue with some degree of moderation. Here is an article that reminds us why:

"A Flood Tide of Murder" by Bob Herbert

On the Gifford Shooting

This is one of the better articles I've read on "the rhetoric of violence" and in reaction to the shootings in Tucson this weekend. The author, Alex Pareene, makes many strong points, but I especially liked these quotes:

"The Tea Parties are based around the rhetoric of the American Revolution, which was a violent insurrection. It makes a sad sort of sense that a bunch of comfortable white reactionaries would dress up their childish tantrums with such grandiose language, because "desperately protecting your privilege in the face of what appears to be the demise of the empire" sounds much less inspiring than "defeating tyranny"...

~

"When everyone's hoisting guns and shouting "tyranny" and playing at being a revolutionary, there will be a couple people who don't see the wink."

I'd be interested to read other articles on this matter, so if you know of any, post the URL for me in the comments.

The Data is in

I ought to offer some sort of correcting comment about the unwise use of the word "retarded" here, but why? It totally works.

If the Wind is Right You Can Sail Away

One: I Love This Song

I also love this video. I mean seriously, what is the deal with "J. Geils" (a.k.a. Peter Wolf. He is not actually J. Geils--that is the bassist--Peter Wolf is the singer. And did you know he was married to Mommy Dearest?)

It is like the guy is made entirely of pipe cleaners. He reminds me of that creepy Christmas Tree lurker, what's his name?

The "Original Elf on the Shelf". Yeah, only with striped tights. Anyway, I love this guy. Well, I mean "love" in the sense that I originally found him exceedingly creepy. I wish this were the ultimate of creepy for me, but I've aged 25 years since first seeing this video. I've since become nostalgic for that feeling of weirdness that did not in a million years anticipate this:

Impeach Scalia!

"Justice" Antonin Scalia's opinion on the status of women in American is wrong-headed and dangerous.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/03/scalia-women-discrimination-constitution_n_803813.html

Scalia's assessment of the protections granted women under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is beyond the pale. If I understand him correctly, he is arguing that the word "citizen" cannot be interpreted as gender-neutral because it was not perceived as such when the amendment was passed.

This is what it means to be a "strict constructionist." It is also the very definition of "asshole."

What drives me crazy is the extent to which this interpretation of the law is taken seriously. I do not know enough about these things to get into a pissing match with him, but I believe Scalia's interpretation of U.S. law is profoundly obtuse and should have no place on the Supreme Court.