Didactic Synapse

Just chillin’.. you know. Our dog’s real cool.

I think as part of her new reality show, Sarah Palin should spend several months alone in Bus #142, along the Stampede Trail. I don’t want her to starve to death, like Chris McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp) did in August 1992, but I would like to see her achieve the same anti-materialist and community-minded enlightenment that he reached.

And come on — wouldn’t it really be interesting to see how she does on her own in the real wilderness? Let’s see if she can succeed with the moose where poor Chris failed. (Though I doubt she would bring Jack London or Henry David Thoreau to read. She’s probably scribble arcane aphorisms in the margins of Glenn Beck.)

Action

Sometimes I feel like I’m not doing enough. I go to school, I try to persuade kids that reading is important. (But they know that they can just go to SparkNotes and fake their way through life. Rant for another time.) I know teaching is important, and I hear from many students that I’ve helped them understand stuff better.

Today I was watching (for the 20,000th time) the part in Manufacturing Consent where they highlight the good work of Z Magazine and South End Press and groups like that, and it reminded me of when I used to work on The Final Analysis and — later — Down at New College. I felt like I had a platform where people cared about what I thought, and I could dig into political and social and cultural issues without feeling constrained by state standards or curricular foci or parental blowback.

Sometimes I think I should resuscitate Down. (I even have a super idea for the cover image!) I could give copies to people and hopefully get feedback from folks that don’t read stuff I write online. (Hell, I’m happy if I get any comments here on this blog. Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Blah blah moan whinge.) I’d be happy to pay for the printing myself — I’d think of it as an investment into the local political/social conversation. Like those Justified Textworks pamphlets I sometimes print up and hand out. Those are usually well-received.

But then I’m always so tired at the end of the school day. And I’ve got bowling (like it’s some huge burden) and Go Club and the video game website and podcast. And Wikipedia (not that I’ve put in any work there for the last five months) and other stuff. And I think about all the work it would take, and I just say “To hell with it.”

And instead I Photoshop Sarah Palin’s head onto Alexander Supertramp’s body and pray that his spirit won’t be too pissed off. Then I go play video games so I can relax a little and be rested enough to go back into the classroom tomorrow and do it all again.

TimeWasterâ„¢

Dude, it’s just a game.

Today I’m listening to: Machines Don’t Care!

From their superb podcast Smiley and West, here’s Princeton professor of religion and philosophy Cornel West and interviewer extraordinaire Tavis Smiley discussing the electoral defeat of the great Russ Feingold, and progressivism in the Congress.

Just click to listen.

smileywest_feingold

I’m really sad that I didn’t become a senator from Delaware! I’m not a witch, either.

But you know who’s never gone on national television (and blown up the internet) denying that she’s a witch? Sarah Palin, that’s who!

Photo swiped from Jays Jots. In case you haven’t seen it, peep Sarah’s post-election ad. Together!

Dude, how awesome is that grizzly mama!? RAWR!

TimeWasterâ„¢

Today I found this nice Christine O’Parody from SNL:

And the auto-tune remix is good too:

Feingold lost.

What’s this?