Lately this blog has become too political and sparse in its content. I have decided to make it more of a journal of personal and family happenings. I am doing this because my own journal writing has fallen off considerably - and I recall that my old blog during grad school often provided an excellent accounting of important events in my and my family's lives.
I am finished teaching for the summer - my two classes during the second five-week session were canceled due to low enrollment - and now have a "honey-do" list almost two pages long. I still have some commitments at OCC. Today, after I donate platelets, I will go in to finalize the grades for my earlier summer classes, write the report for the department assessments, and attend a meeting of the Advising Policy ad-hoc committee. Before next Tuesday I have to submit a budget for my team's part of OCC's Perkins Grant. After that, I will only have the College Senate and an ad-hoc bylaws committee to worry about until I start preparing for Fall.
That's all for today - I will try to post more regularly and include information about the family (especially the kids) to keep it interesting for everyone.
Looking forward to a more family-focused summer,
Brad
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Credit where credit is due...
I found this piece over on the Weekly Standard blog:
Is it possible that the Iraqi election experience had something to do with Iranian expectations of an election? If critics of the war can for just a moment move beyond their own deeply held opinions about the invasion of Iraq -- that this was a war of choice fought on false premises to lower gas prices or whatever -- and examine the effect of that war on the region as a whole, they might see a connection to the current turmoil in Iran. After all, one of the intellectual arguments in favor of overthrowing Saddam Hussein was, in the words of Dick Cheney, to place "a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future.”
I think a case can be made that Barack Obama's election as president has also raised expectations of the democratic process in countries around the world. It is certainly possible that we are seeing an Obama effect in Iran as young people there look to replicate the excitement and enthusiasm of young people here during last year's election. But any honest assessment of events in Iran would also have to consider the effect of having a functioning democracy right next door -- a democracy that millions of Iranians have seen for themselves as they make religious pilgrimages and conduct business in Iraq. Iran has had a tremendous influence on Iraq these last few years, usually to the detriment of peace and security there. Perhaps the current protests in Iran are evidence that influence doesn't just cross the border in one direction.
Regardless of how it got there, the Middle East has its first legitimate liberal democracy that's not an "evil Zionist entity illegitimately place there by imperialists." It has shown that liberal democracy is not incompatible with Islam or other ethnic or religious identities in that area - contrary to what many academics in the U.S. and government leaders in the Middle East have claimed.
This could be the start of the fourth wave of democratization. Hopefully it is not a continuation of the third "reverse" wave (as has been seen in Russia and Venezuela.)
Trying to stay optimistic,
Brad
Is it possible that the Iraqi election experience had something to do with Iranian expectations of an election? If critics of the war can for just a moment move beyond their own deeply held opinions about the invasion of Iraq -- that this was a war of choice fought on false premises to lower gas prices or whatever -- and examine the effect of that war on the region as a whole, they might see a connection to the current turmoil in Iran. After all, one of the intellectual arguments in favor of overthrowing Saddam Hussein was, in the words of Dick Cheney, to place "a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future.”
I think a case can be made that Barack Obama's election as president has also raised expectations of the democratic process in countries around the world. It is certainly possible that we are seeing an Obama effect in Iran as young people there look to replicate the excitement and enthusiasm of young people here during last year's election. But any honest assessment of events in Iran would also have to consider the effect of having a functioning democracy right next door -- a democracy that millions of Iranians have seen for themselves as they make religious pilgrimages and conduct business in Iraq. Iran has had a tremendous influence on Iraq these last few years, usually to the detriment of peace and security there. Perhaps the current protests in Iran are evidence that influence doesn't just cross the border in one direction.
Regardless of how it got there, the Middle East has its first legitimate liberal democracy that's not an "evil Zionist entity illegitimately place there by imperialists." It has shown that liberal democracy is not incompatible with Islam or other ethnic or religious identities in that area - contrary to what many academics in the U.S. and government leaders in the Middle East have claimed.
This could be the start of the fourth wave of democratization. Hopefully it is not a continuation of the third "reverse" wave (as has been seen in Russia and Venezuela.)
Trying to stay optimistic,
Brad
Sunday, May 24, 2009
End of semester stories part II...
A Simple Socialism Analogy
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little.
The second test average was a D. No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.
Of course, you don't have to take this story's word for it. Star Trek: TNG's The Masterpiece Society makes a somewhat similar point.
Hoping to post some real stuff soon,
Brad
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little.
The second test average was a D. No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.
Of course, you don't have to take this story's word for it. Star Trek: TNG's The Masterpiece Society makes a somewhat similar point.
Hoping to post some real stuff soon,
Brad
Friday, May 15, 2009
End of semester stories part I...
Over the last week of classes, my students have debated several controversial issues within the field of political science and politics in general. Several of the subjects have involved issues of economic "fairness" (welfare policy, universal healthcare, the bailout, etc.) Here is a story that one of my students shared with me after her debate...
A woman recently asked her friend's little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so the woman asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?' She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'
Her parents beamed.
'Wow...what a worthy goal.' The woman told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.'
She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked the woman straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?'
The woman said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'
I have since seen this story - in different forms - across the internet. I would change the last line to 'Welcome to the Conservative movement' but that's only because I'm an academic.
Brad
A woman recently asked her friend's little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so the woman asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?' She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'
Her parents beamed.
'Wow...what a worthy goal.' The woman told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.'
She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked the woman straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?'
The woman said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'
I have since seen this story - in different forms - across the internet. I would change the last line to 'Welcome to the Conservative movement' but that's only because I'm an academic.
Brad
Monday, May 4, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Christmas in April...
We just got our Federal welfare check (actually it was direct deposit, but that's not the point!) and are planning how best to use it.
I want to know: "How are you planning to spend your Federal welfare check?"
-Brad
Monday, April 27, 2009
Beauty pageants and feminism...
I found this over at Hot Air. Just add "speech suppression" to the other indictments against beauty pageants.
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