Entitled to fail

The pervasive culture of entitlement that teaches us mantras about the world owing us something has gained momentum in Canada's universities. (Jarret (KerPlonka) also comments on this story) A study of 400 undergraduate students revealed that about a third of students believe they deserve a grade B if they attended most classes and/or completed most of the reading, or feel short-changed on the grades they get on assignments. Between a sixth and a quarter have been led to believe professors have to fir their own commitments and business around students' schedules and plans. Seriously, what the fuzz is this?

Education is not about sitting on one's backside listening to the prof. Being educated means accumulating knowledge, understanding it and knowing how to use it. Just being present and having read the stuff doesn't mean you should get a passing grade, let alone a B. These attitudes drag down the standards of any educational institution's graduates, plunging the entire degree course and degree category into irrelevance.

When grades are too easy an A stops meaning "outstanding". When no-one can fail everyone gets a Bachelor's, thus the value of a B.Sc. or a B.A. asymptotically approaches zero. Entitlement leads to mediocrity, particularly in areas where human beings are naturally prone to competing and excelling.

A message to all entitled student princesses out there. I've had my fair share of outstanding profs and mediocre ones. I saw profs who were geniuses with decades-long experiences be completely out-of-touch with a class, while newly-hired fresh-out-of-PhD lecturers energized the audience and taught almost perfectly. I know of profs in Italy who are proud of being unreachable except by paper mail and profs who check e-mails ten times a day.

But I never for one moment believed to be entitled to a pass just for being there. If I ever asked for extenuating circumstances I made sure my motives were bomb-proof, and yet I still felt a slight guilt for inconveniencing the prof. I studied hard for my exams and cried over some assignments. I showed effort by submitting the best possible work and attempting many solutions for a question I didn't understand. And I ultimately loved my uni experience and what I learned.

My father had to fight leftard slackers during his time, who advocated "common grades" for the entire class (everyone is awarded the average grade) and the "political 18" which meant everyone passed, no matter what. Today's entitlement princesses are no different.

It saddens me that more and more people of my age would rather weasel their way into merit rather than earn it by getting off their backsides and looking up the true meaning of the word "effort" in the dictionary.

Maldives save up for the future

The newly-elected President of the Maldives has announced that part of the country's tourism revenues will be saved up for buying up land somewhere else in case the ocean floods the sandy cays that make up the archipelago. Properly administered, this savings account might turn out to be a great investment, but not for the reasons its founders envision.

Since global warming and oceans rising have something in common with the Armageddon, Nessie, the Yeti and Elvis being alive Maldivians will find themselves in a few years time with either a massive gold pot or some potentially profitable developed land.

The Maldives will NOT be flooded. It would be a giant pity for the whole world (the islands are GORGEOUS). The new President is pragmatic enough to realize that Maldivians abandoning inter-island air transport for fighting climate change will do next to nothing for their islands, except probably annoy tourists facing long rocky transfers. Nevertheless, it is always good to save up for a rainy day. With the current economic downturn comparisons to the islands' monsoon season are more than appropriate.

An anniversary of freedom

We may be approaching Remembrance Day, but today marks the 19th year since the world took a deep breath of newly-found freedom, and began unshackling itself from the bounds of socialist oppression. The quintessential symbol of Socialism - grey, unwelcoming, secretive, oppressive and downright deadly - the Berlin Wall, fell on this day in 1989. I was barely four at the time. I wish, however, to express my gratitude to all those who helped bring the horror to an end in Europe.

As we remember our parents and grandparents who fought in the trenches, let us also spare a thought for all those who suffered at the hand of a murderous and deceiving ideology, and the brave ones who dared challenge it, often paying the price of life for their courage. Let us also give thanks for the free-er world we live in today, a world where some could actually call Obama a socialist without being laughed at. With a bit of luck the innate human drive for freedom will help eradicate Marxism from planet Earth.

Before we continue on the path, let's not forget how far we've come and how many we have to thank for it.

CJ's truth about President Obama

A beautiful post by Paul at Celestial Junk on Obama's presidency and how it will not be the revolution only the ignorant could really hope for. One sole comment: my thoughts exactly! Excellent analysis. Keep it up!

No safe haven for the scum of the earth

Pervert Troy Greenbank first arranges a threesome with a woman and her 10-year old daughter, goes as far as buying sexual props for the girl and, when busted, flees to Canada begging for asylum because he'd be killed in jail back at home.

We've got news for this sicko: Canada has no use for his ilk, and I hope he gets his perverted backside hauled back to Missouri. Where he will face an all-too-lenient punishment for his sickening intentions.

One thought stands out, though. How are the American authorities dealing with the mother?

Liberals have no place to hold convention

If they want to anger no-one and rake in a few votes from boosting local businesses that is. Their earlier plan to hold the convention in Vancouver is apparently under re-consideration as Ottawa and Quebec City are rumored to be throwing their hats in. If the rule of bad news coming in packs needed proving, the Liberals leave no room for doubts.

Their decision, whatever it may be, will result in losses or at least in no improvement for the party's standing. Sticking with Vancouver will upset Quebeckers and at most result in some lifting of Liberal fortunes, gains which time and pre-election campaigning will weather away. The root of Liberal problems is not in Quebec, thus holding the conference in Quebec City would do the party no good either east or west of the Outaouais. Ottawa is, for obvious reasons, saturated with politics and politicians' business. Furthermore the town's political connotation may lend a Liberal convention the perceived aloofness and absence of touch with the rest of the country that is confining the "natural party of power" to the opposition benches for the foreseeable future.

By all means the convention should be held in Vancouver: a change of plans is exactly what the Tories are waiting for to demonstrate that Liberals don't care. The LPC needs, however, to address the deeply rooted malaise that is rotting the party from the inside. Where to undego this surgery should be the Liberals' least concern.

Prestigious think-tank says - Blame It On TV

RAND corporation identifies a correlation between teen exposure to televised sexual content and teenage pregnancy. My Baloney-O-Meter immediately rings an alarm bell. While disapproving of excessive sexualization of any media production aimed at adolescents I believe the root of the problem at hand is not in TV or any other factor external to the family.

If parents aren't present and prepared to tackle the important issues with their children before they arise trouble is around the corner. I don't know whether RAND included parental education about human sexuality in their calculations, but I'd bet my money this factor would potentially outweigh TV content as an influence on teenage pregnancy rates.

So why does RAND seem to want to spread the blame so widely that no-one's guilty in the end? Here's a probable explanation:

While RAND strives to be middle-of-the-road ideologically, the more conservative scholars at RAND tend to work on military studies, while the more liberal scholars tend to work on domestic studies. Because the military studies are sometimes classified and often more mundane than the domestic studies, the media and members of Congress tend to cite the domestic studies disproportionately. As a consequence, RAND appears liberal when judged by these citations. [...] think of RAND as two think tanks: RAND I, the left-leaning think tank which produces the research that the media and members of Congress like to cite, and RAND II, the conservative think tank which produces the research that they do not like to cite.

The take-home message, therefore, is take all research with a pinch of salt and before blaming TV and the entire world one should look at one's own reflection

Big Deal! - a cynical rant about the US campaign

Sometimes we forget how relaxing just expressing opinions can be. Just pure opinion without claims to scholarity or intelligence. Let the cynicism flow.

With the polls swinging wildly, watching the US presidential campaign approach its climax has become a chore rather than a pleasure for me. It is as if part of our own recent Gong Show factor seeped across the border and is now frustrating our southern neighbors.

This is why I have flatly decided to sit back, chill out, read the headlines, affix a "Whatever" stamp on most of it and expect to wake up on November 5th with some relief. There will be one name dominating the headlines and we'll all know what to expect one way or another. Obama's most radical proposals would probably be watered down in Congress, McCain will provide another four years of Republican oversight of a Democratic legislature. Big Deal!!!

In eight years at most history books with Obama's name will be collecting dust on library shelves, keeping the most obscure former presidents some company. One can rarely pull off an inferior appointment after being the Commander in Chief without having all their energy and enthusiasm dismissed as power nostalgia. The Senate wouldn't swallow his appointment to the Supreme Court, and as far as governors go he'd probably have a chance. Again, Big Deal!!!

John McCain may serve one term at most, crown Sarah Palin as heir and send her to electoral slaughter, maybe by Hillary Clinton herself. Instead of having eight years of Democrat insiders telling an inept Obama what to do, we would find ourselves with Bill Clinton back in the White House and Hillary at the helm. A President with cojones, not bad as a prospect.

I'd love to see John McCain give pundits, media and the entire Obama-love-fest a gigantic finger. There's still a good chance it might happen: opinion polls don't speak, ballots do. If it doesn't? The world would be a little less how I want it to be. Business as usual.

November 4th isn't going to be the Second Coming. It's going to be another Tuesday, another day when we look forward to the weekend still lurking in the distance. An ordinary Tuesday on which, by the sheer luck of our present space-time conformation, a subset of the human population that doesn't include me gets to say who will run their country. It's their choice and I hope they choose responsibly. But no-one's going to die either way.

People in democracies have chosen bad leaders and good leaders with equal gusto. McCain might take the Bush stigma off the GOP, Obama might vaccinate the US against very liberal Democrats for a century, and either way a President will come, go and be replaced. If you're steering a ship the size of the USA, changing the captain for a little time won't alter the course significantly. What's four years compared to history?

When funds are tight, ask the Russians!

Sending letters soliciting donations is certainly a repetitive task. Checking the addresses may, however, avoid you some nasty mishaps. Thankfully this one is common to both parties, so it's more of a joke than anything else.

The McCain campaign sent a letter soliciting funds to the Russian envoy to the UN. Of course, this is immediately plastered across the media spectrum as if computer mistakes didn't occur. Barack Obama and Joe Biden, however, solicit funds from foreigners with equal gusto.

Oksana Polischuk, an ITAR-TASS correspondent in New York, received letters from Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Joe Biden asking for funds. This, however, isn't as broadly reported, confined to russian-language media. Taking a computer mistake and blowing it into a big news story makes for a very boring news bulletin. Not reporting that the other side makes the same mistake justifies the "Obama media love-fest" stereotype.

Come on!

Election '08 report card: no A marks

An election is a cathartic experience. On election night most people are too exhausted to attack anyone any more. The leaders' speeches were fairly refreshing, kind of what politics should be about. I didn't blog much during the campaign because I thought it was mostly a gong show, as Right from Alberta pointed out at the very beginning.

A majority became impossible just a few weeks into the campaign. Despite the enthusiasm at rallies and the "steady as she goes" platform, I think we let certain weaker spots be monopolized in the debates and the media. We also delivered several policies wrong. Instead of balancing funding cuts with promotion of mecenatism we let the cuts rule the news. The Young Offenders amendment could have been delivered more diplomatically without the harsh language that lost us Quebec and potentially one of the most capable ministers in the outgoing government. I've seen a lot of pointed fingers, which almost completely hid the merits of every party's stances. If we were to write a report card, here's what it would look like for Headmaster Luca:

Liberals: The big survivor in this election. Between the Tory hammer pounding mercilessly and the hard anvil of Greens and NDP the party still managed not to go into complete disarray. Dion deserves credit for not breaking down in tears by the end of the campaign. Seeing Dion being pounded by Layton, someone close to me remarked: "He's so cute!" That's the main trouble with Dion - his cuteness. As a prof and as a scholar he is probably a star, in the world of politics he is a lamb sent to the slaughter. The Liberal Party needs to go on a fundraising spree if it wants to survive until the next election.

Tories: The ones who blew it. With the polls in majority territory they allowed themselves to be bogged down in minor matters. They need to re-evaluate their campaign milestones and their timing, and a trip to 30 Millbank, London UK may be in order. Definitely the party with the most impressive quantity of tangible electoral assets. Rarely can one blow a campaign and stay in government. We need to wake up to the fact, however, that people hate being taken for granted, and that's probably what killed us in Edmonton-Strathcona.

Bloc: Consistent with their record, the Bloc is biting, ready to fight with a frighteningly solid electoral basis. Considering their origin I am not surprised the major parties have a hard time beating them. Nevertheless they are the force to be reckoned with in Quebec. Their campaign, however, could have been much better, pointing more to their own stances rather than the need to not vote for a particular national party. Duceppe can teach the other leaders a few lessons in campaigning, debating and communications: his straight talk and granitic stubbornness give him a granitic base in his home province.

NDP: Great campaign, but drop the childish rhetoric. Seriously, the words "corporation", "big oil" and "Bush" aren't good premises for winning an election. And for the record corporations bring jobs, Big Oil is propping up Canada's economy and helping us avoid a major economic meltdown, while G.W. Bush kicked Taliban butts and hangs a Damocles sword above North Korea. Jack Layton holds no Gospel and the NDP has no monopoly over truth, morality or care. If Layton keeps up the efforts he may well overtake the Liberals very soon.

Greens: You are kidding, right?

One last thought for Newfoundland and Labrador. I've seen much N.L.-bashing in the Toriosphere, and I believe it is unfair. Newfoundlanders misplaced their trust and got kicked out of a Tory government in Ottawa. A more dramatic reality eluded many minds though. The election of October 14th showed that Newfoundland and Labrador is hardly essential for a majority government. Newfoundlanders may have paid back the Harper Government for equalization, but at the price of manifest irrelevance. THAT, my friends, is sad.