Since I’ve convinced you that not everyone should vote, I’d also like to convince you now that not everyone should go to college. It’s ok not to go to college. There are jobs out there and no one should feel bad about not going if they don’t want to. It should be a choice, not an expectation.
It all starts when we’re children and our parents tell us we can do whatever we put our mind to. That’s a lie, and when I was 4, I knew it. I specifically remember thinking “No matter how much mind power I put into lifting my house with my pinky finger, I will never be able to do it.” And the cynicism has continued ever since.
College is one of those things that guidance counselors are paid to tell you to strive for, but what they don’t tell you is that if everyone were to take their advice, finding a job would be a miserable and almost impossible experience.
College is commonly thought to be a place that is attended by a student hoping to learn skills for their future profession. This is just not true. College is actually a place that is attended by a student hoping to get a degree which will in turn set them apart from the average applicant when trying to get a job.
If everyone were to go to college then the people who want to set themselves apart in the job market, have to get more advanced degrees. This is what has been happening over the last 30 years. In the U.S. over 50% of high school graduates are now going to college. That’s not good. Now people like me who want to get a good job have to go another 5 years to get their masters or doctorate, as if 17 years of institutionalized education wasn’t enough. Keep in mind that these degrees have nothing to do with being smart, or having skills, it’s all about the appearance of being smart and having skills. I have to take classes like anthropology and “Legal Environment of Business”. They say it’s to make me a well rounded student, but at over $1,500 a course, we all know what it’s really about.
Since colleges exist to make money, and not to actually train people, it’s easy for colleges to lower their standards so more students can attend.
I have two other problems with college. The first problem is that Wikipedia is free. Doesn’t seem like a problem but it is. It’s a problem because what I’ve learned from 2 years of college so far, I could’ve learned on Wikipedia in about 2 hours. The fact that it is free is a problem because most people have to pay for college. I don’t, but if I did, I would think it to be an even bigger problem.
The second problem is that professors in college don’t like Wikipedia. As progressive as college professors think they are, they still think Wikipedia is some hacker’s thread. They say that they don’t accept Wikipedia as an academic source because anyone can post on it. The reality is that I posted an article this morning that was taken off in less than 3 minutes. This is it:
The fact that this was taken off so quickly is a perfect example of how Wikipedia is trying to show professors that it really isn’t so bad. If Wikipedia was full of hatred and contempt for college professors, which they have a right to be, they would have kept my article up, since it was such an accurate depiction. Despite the accuracy of the article, I didn’t cite any sources, so it Wikipedia took it off. It’s the rule.
Perhaps college professors are jealous of Wikipedia’s accuracy, broad mindedness, and true progressiveness. Or perhaps they are worried that if people knew how much absolute hogwash they spout out every lecture, that they will stop paying them and turn to the free and more available Wikipedia.
So it all boils down to a few things. Colleges should keep high standards so that people who really go to learn don’t have to spend 30 years on their education. If people don’t want to go to college, then they shouldn’t be expected to. And if we ever have the option to choose between going to college or Wikipedia, the answer is Wikipedia. Hands down.
I have very observant friends. I was told about this card the other day. I had to run to K-mart and pick up this card. (They’re still in business? Who knew?)
A Mother’s Day card for fathers? That has to be one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. Is this K-mart’s lame attempt at being progressive? I’m not certain but I assume it’s aimed at split/gay families with no mother. It’s a shame there’s so much inequality in this world that there’s no opportunity for us to celebrate our fathers. Ya know? I wish there was a Father’s Day so mothers didn’t get all of the caretaking credit. I should make a holiday like that. I would make it an annual holiday on the 3rd Sunday in June.
It’s a funny title indeed. Fueled by two separate situations in the past month, I think it important to explain further using these examples.
This was a comment I saw on a page recently “have never bought into the invisible dude in the sky thingy.”
Despite the obvious problems with capitalization and sentence structure, this is really just an example of how simplistically God can be looked at. “invisible dude in the sky thingy”? I mean, come on.
I don’t know anyone who actually believes there is an “invisible dude in the sky thingy”.
Although, it’s not uncommon at all for people to believe that theists are somehow lacking in cortical activity. That we believe outlandish ideas of a cumulous-clouded heaven with winged harp players worshiping a white bearded old man that resembles a LOTR wizard.
The very fact that you can actually search Google images for “God” with success proves my point exactly.
But why is that view so common? Where did the idea that theists are so dimwitted arise?
Is it because society is truly a bunch of simpletons or has it been programmed to believe it?
I think it’s both, but since there’s nothing I can do about the former, I’ll discuss the latter.
The programming has come about by the complete over-simplification of heaven. Preachers and evangelists have been making some really detrimental errors when describing how much “fun” heaven will be.
Which leads me to my second example:
I was at a church service recently and the pastor said “Turn around and greet three people.” After we were done he said “Great! Now just think. When we get to heaven we will do that for eternity!”
Uh… Woohoo.
No one wants to go to heaven.
No one wants to go to heaven, because it’s assumed to be a place where there are worship services and Benny Hinn marathons all day long…for eternity.
If that’s the case, I don’t know about you, but hell seems like a viable option for me.
I have no idea what the real heaven is like but I guarantee that the creator of the infinitely complex universe in which we live would not think of a place like that as an “upgrade” for His chosen ones. I would suspect he would be a little bit offended for us even thinking that way.
Like I said, I don’t know what the real heaven is like but my thought of heaven is incomprehensible, like a 3 dimensional world for a stick figure drawing.
When America won the revolutionary war we forgot one thing. We took our freedom, we developed an unprecedented constitutional document all our own, and we transferred our loyalties from the Motherland to the new America, but some things didn’t change. The Imperial system of measure was kept to haunt us for the next 233 years and counting.
The Imperial system of measure is the one we Americans use: gallons, pints, quarts, miles, feet, pounds, etc. (fathoms, pecks, grains???)
The Metric system is what everyone else uses: liters, meters, kilometers, grams, kilograms, etc. It’s a base 10 system just like we use to…count.
Smart…Very smart.
There are only three countries not using the Metric system today. United States of America, and two other countries that I just found out exist.
There’s no need of this. We had our chance 200 years ago and missed it. Our own Ben Franklin brought the Metric system to France but was unable to convince the American people that the base 10 metric system was in fact superior to our modified Imperial system. Which is sad since Americans bought the absurdity of Daylight Savings Time (also Franklin’s contribution), but decided against the simplicity of the Metric system.
Just think, we would no longer have to use Google conversion to find out how many inches are in 13 miles. (Not that too many people actually want to know that…I think it’s just the idea.) We could just move the decimal point to find kilometers! Brilliant!
And if finding an easy way to calculate how many inches you get per tank of gas is not convincing enough…
How many women would love to have a weight of only two digits? 100% you say? Well let’s do it. Let’s go on the Metric diet.
200 Imperial weight = 90 Metric weight
The only thing we’re measuring with the Imperial system is our own stubbornness. As if the world doesn’t think we are stubborn enough. But let’s not just switch because “everybody’s doing it” because that’s just giving in to peer pressure, let’s switch because there are 63,360 inches in a mile. And because “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” But later said he had no idea how much that was. Everyone else confessed the same.
Yeah, you read it right. I said it, “Obama is white.”
I’m sick of hearing all this race nonsense getting thrown around. Genetically he’s just as white as he is black. His mother was white and his father was black. So if you can call him a black candidate, I can call him a white one. Race should not be an issue in this election. Despite what some of the black community leaders try to spread, most of the American people are not racist. 50 years ago it may have been an issue for the elections but it’s 2008, I don’t even want to hear it. I’m not saying that racism is completely abolished in this country, like slavery, but what I am saying is that we have to put things into perspective.
There are several reasons why I consider him “white”, and will continue to label him as such.
First, of all, because genetics couldn’t help us in figuring out what race to consider him, since he’s exactly as white as he is black, than maybe this will.
Which looks more like Barack Obama the guy on his left or the guy on his right?
Ya, that’s what I thought.
Second, this eliminates the race card in the election. No one can be racist, because all the candidates are white.
Thirdly, this helps him. I’m not saying I want him to win, but then again, I’m not saying I want him to lose. If he runs as the “white” candidate we all know him to be, he’ll probably win. If anyone else has noticed the last 43 presidents have been white. That’s 100%. That gives him a lot better odds.
Lastly, by bringing the ambiguity of his race to the forefront, I can bring up his biggest downfall. If Obama is half “white” and half “black”, shouldn’t he be at least half “outraged” at Reverend Wright’s racist rhetoric?
Fuel prices may be one of the hottest issues of today. I think it basically stems from the fact that Americans don’t really care what goes on as long as the price of gas is low. Ethics and integrity is willingly thrown out the window so long as the price of gas stays affordable.
The truth of it all is that we will never “run out of oil”. How do I know? Supply and demand. If we were in danger of running out of oil it would become extremely expensive. As supply decreases prices increase. So how much are we willing to spend for our personal transportation? That’s what it all comes down to, because the closer we get to running out, the higher the price will get. It’s not going to skyrocket to $20 a gallon in a year though, as the supply gradually decreases, prices will gradually increase. Eventually, we won’t be able to afford it.
So what happens when oil prices creep up beyond our willingness/ability to pay? We find other ideas. Car companies won’t sell cars if people don’t buy gas. So they will be forced to make cars that are affordable or go out of business. You can bet that everyone who uses oil now will quickly find some other form of energy that their technology will run on.
Although we will never run out of oil, we will need alternative fuel sources for when the prices become too much for the average person. What’s the best idea to solve our problems?
Hydrogen? Corn? Nope. Algae.
Algae will be the future of fuel. Algae as a fuel source is incredible. Some types of algae are made up of 50% oil, which can be made into bio-fuel.
Advantages of Algae Fuel
After the initial building of algae farms it would cost 1/3 of what we spend every year buying oil from other nations.
The money we spend on algae fuel, is not leaving our country, but actually helping to stimulate our own economy.
Algae farms could be used to clean up waste streams from humans or animal farms.
Corn can produce 100 gallons per acre per year whereas algae can produce 4,000 gallons per acre per year.
Using 80% of the acreage we now use for bio-fuels, we could fuel the entire United States using algae farms.
The acreage used for algae farms is likely to be desert land, which is unused land anyway.
A corn crop takes a year to grow, an algae crop can be grown in a couple of days.
Conclusion
As long as we can a.) get oil companies to invest in this or b.) keep oil companies from ruining this, I think that this has great potential for solving some if not all of our nations fuel problems as well as some of our economic problems.
Our culture has some odd obsession with those uni-legged, patch-eyed sailors with annoying birds fastened to their clavicles.
Let me tell you something. They were not nice people. They were the terrorists of their time. Terrorists. You know Saddam Hussein, and Osama Bin Laden? Those are the pirates of today. The only difference is these terrorists terrorized on land, and pirates terrorized the seas.
What are we teaching our children by letting them have pirate birthdays and wear pirate costumes and pajamas and watch “Pirates of the Caribbean” and play pirate themed mini-golf?
Now you may think I’m being picky. “Lighten up!” you might say.
“It’s just all in good fun. The kids don’t know that pirates stole, raped and pillaged. Heck, they don’t even know what two of those words mean!”
Agreed. It’s all in good fun, until you have to walk the plank.
I think we need to be careful about how we portray our past. No one would think it appropriate to come to a costume party dressed up as Charles Manson, or Hitler, would they? So why is appropriate to have children’s birthday party’s with a cruel and ruthless seafaring theme. That’s ridiculous.
You know what else is ridiculous?
This.
Blackbeard would rollover in his watery grave if he saw this becoming the future of pirating.
He would be outraged to see all his work of immoral and destructive training had lead to such disgraceful children’s song and dance.
One of the major problems with pirates is the way they talk.
If those dang pirates didn’t have such a catchy dialect, it would be much easier to convince people that pirates were actually horrible people.
There’s a website that dedicates their existence to spreading the word of pirate words to the masses.
“Talk Like A Pirate Day” is what they promote. I won’t have any part of it though. I’m promoting against it.
I just want to remind everyone that Talk Like a Pirate Day is Sept 19th.
Since I’ve convinced you that not everyone should vote, I’d also like to convince you now that not everyone should go to college. It’s ok not to go to college. There are jobs out there and no one should feel bad about not going if they don’t want to. It should be a choice, not an expectation.
Yeah, you read it right. I said it, “Obama is white.”
