Just stewing over liberals

My thoughts are a little scattered, but my feelings are perfectly clear on this.

I’m really not good at debating in general, but abortion is a topic that I have always felt strongly about and I have always thought I could do a good job discussing it. I didn’t pay much attention to the big Republican debate in Iowa, but in passing I heard Rick Santorum answer a pretty tough question about abortion. He did it so skillfully that I questioned my own ability to defend the right to life. That’s what I’ve been thinking about lately.

Here’s a link to a video of the question, from a bit of a liberal bias : http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/08/santorum-abortions-only-traumatize-rape-victims/

After mulling that over for a couple of weeks, I’m a bit more hypersensitive than usual to the pro-life cause. So when I see people defend the environment as if it were a living breathing human being, and then oppose the base rights of an actual living breathing human being? That makes me angry.

I’ll try to write a more organized, detailed post on this topic soon. It’s important.

Silly Science Fiction Conversations

Firstly, Ouch. I am full of disappoint.

***

I read the first 5 chapters of War of the Worlds for Science Fiction class, and thoroughly enjoyed it!  Martian invaders with ray guns and all that. Classic.

So I walk into scifi class, sit down. The teacher asks “What can we know about these aliens?” (we’re comparing Wellsian aliens to Bradbury’s beasts, see.)

We know they’re ugly.

We know they’re way more technologically advanced than we are.

We know they’re from Mars.

What else…

It’s early in the semester, still time to establish a positive relationship with the prof. I raise my hand, partly for class participation, partly to smugly expound objectivity (I’m a big proponent of objectivity) and say “We know they’re EVIL.”

Professor X cocks his head and says, “are they?”

“Are they really evil?”

Now I promised myself I would not take this class too seriously. It’s a science fiction course at community college. We are discussing the philosophy of fictional 19th century aliens at 1 pm on a Friday for crying out loud.  But to say that everything’s relative when big gray aliens are obliterating every human in sight is simply not right.  It’s NOT!  Seriously, what do you call big gray aliens that obliterate every human in sight? You call them BAD GUYS. Bad guys who are trying to kill you and take over the world and look super creepy doing it. That is the extent of the story. That is all.

This is starting to remind me of my Art Appreciation course last semester.

Sexist Language

My impression of the overall philosophy of my microeconomics class is still up in the air. My opinion of the overall philosophy of my argument-based research class however, is firmly in place.

Mr. English 112 proudly and loudly declared on the first day of class that he didn’t believe in grades,  the attendance policy, or Capitalism. We subsequently found out about his lack of belief in power relationships, red ink (naturally too reminiscent of power relationships) or absolute truth.

Well then!

It was definitely a good waker-upper for my sleepy eyed self at 8 AM, I will give him that much. I don’t know why I was surprised though, since the Communist Manifesto was listed as required reading in the catalog.

Now this is English 112. Argument-based research. Not supposed to be too philosophical, just your basic level 1 course. Not today however! When everyone’s a brainwashed Capitalist, you can’t expect Professor Red Ink to waste time teaching basic paper-writing skills. There are more important things going on, such as drugs, man! and sexist language!

Ah sexist language. Second day of class, we walk in. I’m terrified because I haven’t read the text (Amazon’s fault, not mine. Still waiting on the package!) so I sit down in the front row, expecting to be called on by Professor R.I.  And then I get a 75 minute lecture on the dangers of sexist language.

Now I thought when people spelled women with a ‘y’, (womyn) they were just trying to be all medieval, like when you say ‘thee’ instead of ‘you’. Kind of annoying of course, but very quaint and adorable.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  You see, when you replace the ‘e’ in ‘women’ with a ‘y’, you rid yourself of that pesky word ‘men’.

So that’s what I learned on Tuesday. That any word that references or sounds like it might have any connection to the word ‘man’ or ‘men’ is a naughty, naughty word. This coming from the guy who explicitly told us we could say the d-word or H-E- double hockey sticks in class.

More on this tomorrow, I have a quiz and a three page paper due tomorrow and it is already past 11.

Microeconomics : The Uncertain Beginning

In my microeconomics class, we’ve just started in on the Ten Principles of Economics. I was surprised because, for the first few principles at least, I really felt like my textbook was holding up Capitalistic economic standards.  This being a college economics textbook, and my teacher being a Krugman fan, I was all ready for a blatant liberal bias.  I was surprised then, because we talked about how people respond to incentives. How if the government focuses on ‘equal pieces of the pie for everyone’, the economy slows down because people don’t have positive incentives to work anymore. We talked about equality versus efficiency, and which is better for the economy. The first economist we learned about was Adam Smith. Adam Smith, the rocking Scottish father of modern Capitalism! The only logical conclusion to be drawn out of that discussion seemed very clear to me! That is that focusing on equality is not as good for the economy as focusing on efficiency is.  And isn’t that one of the basic standards of Capitalism? Of course the principles we covered were general, and it was only the second day of class, so I am still expecting things to go downhill from here. I wouldn’t be surprised if my professor’s definition of Capitalism is very skewed. So I will definitely be keeping a record of what I am learning from here on out. Things should get interesting quickly, considering the current economic state of the country and the fact that my professor likes to discuss that type of thing.

Also. Two of my professors (including Mr. Microeconomics) have already clarified that they are NOT ‘tea party people’, and it’s only the fourth day of class this semester.  Is it really necessary for them to announce that? I really couldn’t care less either way.  It does say something about how influential that particular movement has become, however. Or maybe it’s just saying that college professors are super weird. Maybe it’s both. Something to think about!

On Ironic Detachment

I read Rich Lowry’s latest column, and one sentence in particular stuck out to me.

“Perry apparently lacks all ironic detachment, the quality that so endears liberals to Pres. Barack Obama even though they constantly exhort him to become a fighter.”

When I was younger, it was always the coolest kids who knew best how to wield that wall of ironic detachment.  Everything was lame to them. Even my imitations of their cool was lame. As I’ve grown up, however, it has become more and more apparent that this facade of exclusivity is simply the easiest line of defense for the insecure.  It is also one of the defining features of a true liberal, and (as I am learning) establishment Republicans.  Lack of this not-so-elusive feature immediately puts you up for fire from weaker individuals trying to certify their superiority. Thus, if Rick Perry truly lacks all ironic detachment, then he will quickly become vilified by the liberals. Not to reiterate Mr. Lowry but this is unremarkable and extremely predictable. The fact that it has happened already and with such force is what is awesome. It firmly cements Rick Perry’s ‘apparent lack of all ironic detachment’. And if that’s the case then I’m all for him!

More importantly : Ryan for President?

Cue squeals of fangirlish glee. I don’t think he would win, but it would really set him up for a future run. Which would allow me to become an even bigger fangirl!!!

Britain’s answer to Paul Ryan?

You don’t have to have known me very long to find out that I have a massive crush on Paul Ryan. The gentle curve of the rep’s perfectly coiffed hair, his ice blue eyes and endearingly crooked nose.  It’s enough to make any girl’s heart melt, conservative or not. All the outward trimmings, however, pale in comparison to his policies and communication skills. The Wonkish Wisconsin Wonder never fails to make the muddiest economic concept clearer than crystal to my mind. His rhetoric has a sense of urgency that always fires me up.  And maybe it’s just because I don’t know too much about economics yet, but his ideas about the fiscal state of things in this country make a whole lot of sense. I could go on and on and on.

Republicans don’t just have all the pretty women.

 Now keep in mind my fascination with all things Paul Ryan. Keep in mind that he is one of my few points of reference.

I was traipsing around the conservative areas of the web, looking for something good and serious to write about for my first blog post.  There are plenty of newsworthy things going on today, but I feel that my rather rudimentary knowledge of economics and current events prevents me from diving into a heavy opinion piece just yet.  Fortunately, I did stumble onto this lovely bit on Free Republic. It’s a speech by Britain’s ‘Chancellor of the Exchequer’, or Treasury Secretary, George Osborne.

These events did not come out of the blue.
They all have the same root cause.
Debt.
I believe that events around the world completely vindicate the decisions of this Coalition Government from the day it took office to get ahead of the curve and deal with this country’s record deficit.
While other countries wrestled with paralysed political systems, our Coalition Government united behind the swift and decisive action of in-year cuts and the Emergency Budget.
While other countries struggle to command confidence in their fiscal forecasts, we have created an internationally admired and independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
These bold steps have made Britain that safe haven in the sovereign debt storm.
Our market interest rates have fallen, while other countries’ have soared.
And the very same rating agency that downgraded the United States has taken Britain off the negative watch that we inherited and reaffirmed our AAA status.
[...]
Ours is an absolutely unwavering commitment to fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction.

Deficit reduction? Budget responsibility? I may be a total rookie, but don’t think I am mistaken when I say that I’m getting a definite Paul Ryan vibe here.  George Osborne is absolutely on top of it.  I hope for America’s sake that we start making the same ‘bold steps’ he speaks of.

Could it be?