Podcast 046; Season 4, Episode 10; November 3, 2020 This podcast is scheduled for Election Day in the United States, November 3, 2020. Though I have some interesting episodes with guests recorded, I decided this was not the week for episodes on education or general health topics. Instead, the election…
Tag: politics
Severe test anxiety haunts me. I hate exams of any kind. Like many people, I feel sick leading up to any test and I feel uncertain of my knowledge. I worry for weeks before a test, during the test, and for the time after the test until I receive my…
Duke University historian Nancy MacLean is currently a trendy historian who spent 2017 touring and promoting her book Democracy in Chains. The book has some serious scholarship flaws, which have been addressed by Henry Farrell and Steven Teles on Vox, a website considered progressive on most issues. MacLean has made the stunning…
Increasingly, I am aware of the “communities” to which I don’t belong. An overused word in the humanities, “community” is more than a group of people with some minor similarities. A community has to have some manner of unified sense of purpose. I belong to several organizations without any desire…
[2026 Note: I was proved wrong when the supporters of Donald Trump embraced anti-vax nonsense.] The following mixes and matches several quite different groups, confounding people that represent various political views — not a monolithic anti-government movement, but general skepticism: The Very Angry Tea Party By J.M. BERNSTEIN http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/the-very-angry-tea-party/ …
I attended a regional academic conference on Friday and had planned to attend Saturday, but one full day left me completely exhausted. I presented on autism and writing courses, in particular how we might better accommodate the needs of students with ASDs in our classrooms. I presented during the last…
I was informed recently, “People like you should be progressive Democrats because Republicans don’t care about people.” Activists are always blinded by prejudices… and if you decline to state an affiliation, they assume the “worst” and try to save your political soul. And people wonder why there is so much…
I don’t like lies, factual omissions, data manipulation, et cetera. I like honesty. Tell me the truth, and even if I disagree with your conclusions I will respect you. I have been told I am “black and white” when it comes to data. I certainly hope so. Shades of grey…
This weekend hasn’t gone well, from mid-Friday or so onward. Maybe earlier. My left eye is definitely out of focus, possibly causing my headaches and worse. I have made an emergency appointment to see the optometrist or whatever the “O.D.” is at the university health clinic on Monday afternoon. I…