Questions

Questions.

I have questions.

To wit:

-- How do dogs decide which leg is to be lifted when they pee?  Is one leg better than the other?

-- Is all of Corporatelandia full of automatons now?

--  There is a theory that there's a conspiracy to reduce gas prices to ruin the American gas industry, but considering how much trouble Russia is going through with the reduction in gas prices, isn't it possible that the conspiracy targeted Russia and not the United States?

-- Are there really people that stupid that think that Paul McCartney's collaboration with Kanye West is going to put a turbo boost to Mr. McCartney's career?  Can they really be that ignorant?

--  Why is it that when I want something bad it means that I want it a lot?

-- How come I know about Sting and Stewart Copeland but have no clue what the name of the third bandmember of The Police is?

-- Who decided that wearing a pinkie ring was fashionable?

--  Why are tough, through, though and thought pronounced differently despite the fact that there are only two letters of difference between them?

--  If Hollywood is exclusive because it shuns conservatives, can the same argument be had against country music because it's devoid of liberals?

--  Who thought it was a wise idea to crack open an egg, cook it and eat it?

-- Who decided that blondes have more fun than redheads?

-- Am I a racist if I think Bill Cosby did those things of which he's accused or a chauvinist if I don't think he did them?

-- What would happen if a Christian living in a Muslim country complained that a certain activity offended his or her religious beliefs?

--  Likewise, if I move to a South or Central American country, will the populace accommodate me by learning English so I don't have to speak Spanish?

--  Will actors and actresses be reminded of their idiotic political views when they're in their dotage?

-- Why can't some people learn the difference between they're, their and there, or it's and its?

--  Churchill may have been a great wordsmith, but when are people going to learn about his abject racism?

--  What on earth is the Obama administration's foreign policy?

-- In a similar vein, what possessed the President to thumb his nose at the new Congress in the State of the Union address?

--  How can people believe an administration that is routinely shown to be using cheap tricks to make its political arguments?

--  Am I the only man who thinks that Kate Upton is overrated?

--  Just where is the report on Bowe Bergdahl?  For that matter, where are the reports on the Department of Justice investigation into the Ferguson, Missouri shootings?  Or does the MSM only report the news with which it agrees?

--  What is up with the overuse of exclamation marks?

-- Just what is sustainable bilingualism, anyway?  Can someone die from it?  Is it a renewable resource that doesn't pollute the environment?

--  Unless one is from these places, does anyone know how to pronounce Faneuil Hall and the Schuylkill River?

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

The Politicization of Academia

This is an open secret.  For years now, academia has become more and more politicized, and only in one way.  It used to be that universities were bastions of the exchange of ideas and the pursuit of knowledge.  Now, they are nothing more than highfalutin madrassas of the left, redoubts protecting liberal zealots masquerading as professors trying to inculcate young, impressionable and quite malleable minds with the only true religion, liberalism.

Or so it seems.

There has been a spate of revelations over the past few months where liberal professors have been outed by the very people whom they see as acolytes:  Their students.  Lest you think I'm making this up:

Don't discredit the message because of the messenger. Remember, José Canseco, not noted for being balanced and insightful, did out Major League Baseball's use of performance enhancing drugs.  These are the very people who seek to convert students to the cause of liberalism.

The drumbeat goes on:

Note the schools at which these professors teach.  These aren't marginal schools that aren't accredited, but fine schools like MIT, Michigan, Akron, Alabama (I know, I know) and other schools worthy of the lofty title of university.

But if you think this is all hearsay, try this one on for size:  There's a site called profaganda.com where college students are invited to rate their professors by their political bias, whether it be liberal or conservative.  I clicked on recent ratings and this is what I found:

http://profaganda.com/recent-professor-ratings/


Admittedly, the number of reviews provides a small sample size, but the reviews are consistent in labeling professors as Far Left Leaning or Left Leaning.  It's hard to argue with that.

Think about it for a minute:  What school in the country is identified as being conservative?  Chicago, perhaps?  But is it really?  I did a brief online search for conservative schools in the US and came up with this:

http://www.thebestschools.org/rankings/20-best-conservative-colleges-america/

Although I recognize some of the schools on that list, two things jump out at me:  Of the twenty schools listed, only three would be considered immediately identifiable:  BYU, Texas A&M and Pepperdine.  The rest are either quite small or very, very religious (which includes BYU).  Missing on this list are the likes of Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Notre Dame....in other words, there's a huge disparity.  Well, at least I think there is.  When I changed my search from What are the most conservative schools in the country?  to What are the most liberal schools in the country?  I could only find one list -- by the Huffington Post.  Most of the results to my second query dealt with a liberal arts education.  But my first search resulted in a few dozen such lists, almost as if the schools deserved to be on a list equal to a sex offenders registry to warn people what schools not to attend.  It's also worth pointing out that many of the schools on the HuffPo list were baby Ivy League schools.

Having been in academia as both a student -- Master's and Law -- and a professor, I've seen first hand how liberal most faculties can be.  It's nauseating.  What is supposed to be a petri dish of thought and debate is instead at once an incubator for one side's message as well as a rallying point for attacks on the opposition.  That's not what universities are supposed to be.

In fact, the notion that universities are the functional equivalent to madrassas is quite apt.  Think about it:  About the only thing different between the two scenarios is the dress and the language.

Otherwise, the message is the same:  Do not tolerate opposition.

That is positively un-American.

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Why New Year's Bores Me

Happy New Year's...I guess.

Sorry, but I just don't understand all the hullabaloo about this holiday.  Sure, the year changes. Writing the new year instead of the old year takes some getting used to.  But other than that, besides accountants, who really cares about a new year coming into being?

I suppose New Year's gets short changed a bit.  Unlike the other holidays, New Year's only has a week between it and Christmas, a mega-holiday if ever there was one.  Christmas is so big that even those who we wouldn't think had any interest in it -- namely, Jews -- celebrate it (which I find odd, but no matter).  All the other big holidays -- Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving -- have time around them that allow them to breathe, as it were.  Not so New Year's.

Still, New Year's just seems like an invented holiday.  Better yet, it gives people an excuse to blow off steam in the middle of the winter.  After all, what are we celebrating?  We're changing from one month to the next, something that we do eleven other times during the year.  We change one digit in the year when we refer to it.  Other than that, bupkes.

Yet, such a big hoary deal is made of the day.  I just don't get it.

Here, then, are reasons New Year's Day just bores me:

Champagne:  I hate champagne.  I never acquired the taste for it, so I don't understand all the hoopla. Yet it's the holiday's staple, akin to what egg nog (another noxious potable) is to Christmas.

Countdowns:  Everybody's got one. New York has the big apple, Atlanta the peach.  Spaniards toss a grape into their mouths each of the last twelve seconds of the year before midnight to symbolize the last twelve months which, at least, is somewhat original.  The only reason I can see for having a countdown is a rocket launch.

Crowds:  People cram into Times Square or wherever, braving freezing temperatures, just to watch an automated apple descend on the side of a building.  Many of these people would readily criticize football fans who go shirtless at playoff games.  Come to think of it, I'm quite sure many of these same people are the ones who line up on Black Friday at the buttcrack of dawn outside Best Buy to get the best deals.  I don't understand that activity either.

Dinner and Dancing:  In and of themselves, dinner and dancing are fine.  Even joined for a night out their fine. But paying exorbitant prices to do what one would for far less at virtually any other time of year is enervating.  What's more, having to share this with a few dozens of my closest stranger as they tie one on, often at deafening decibels, isn't my idea of a good time.

Auld Lang Syne:  I'm Irish, not Scottish.  It's a quaint tradition, but given my antipathy to Scottish Presbyterianism and all that it's done to Ireland, I'll pass.

Parades:  It seems that everyone has to have one on New Year's Day.  The Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Cotton Bowl.  Parades should be used on Memorial Day and Independence Day, only. They're martial in nature and I see no reason to dilute them with a meaningless holiday.  Then there are the insincere network anchors who have to do play-by-play...for parades.  Inane.

Bowl Games:  I love college football.  I don't enjoy watching middle-aged men running around in garishly loud colored suits pretending to be benefactors for this or whatever charity.  It's like they belong to some secret society that is neither secret nor interesting.  All that they are is grown-up frat boys anyway.

The Effect on Television:  Television executives, thinking that everyone loves a bacchanalian ritual, don't put any good programming on television.  Even cable television executives, who should know better, put crap on.  It's like television takes a holiday itself and offers up the crappiest programming imaginable.  Trained monkeys could pick out better shows to televise.

Food:   Thankfully, I've only been subjected to this a handful of times, but on New Year's, everyone decides to get inventive.  Let's put out that guacamole queso in the football shaped bowl.  Everyone, try the haggis-inspired casserole!  How about the tortilla bake with habanero chiles, roast beef, swiss cheese and truffles.  Enough, already.

Ryan Seacrest:  Dick Clark 2.0 seems like a nice enough guy, but he's branded by American Idol. Sorry.  And while we're at it...

Networks Ringing in the New Year:  Every station has to trot out its talent to behave like they're really enjoying this forced day of labor.

The Winter Classic:  It had to happen that Gary Bettman couldn't stay away from this.  Putting hockey games in baseball stadia is just stupid.

Enjoy the hangovers, everyone.

(c) 2015 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles