Category Archives: humanities and social sciences

Profanity is Useful

Profanity is useful. People need those words to express things that cannot otherwise be expressed. There are times when the artful use of non-profanity works better and there are times when you simply must have the quick punch of a “bad” word. And to have profanity, you need to maintain at least a loose taboo on certain words.

But this is ridiculous:

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Elementary Graduations are Ridiculous

Somehow in the last few years it has become popular to have traditional graduation ceremonies—caps, gowns, Elgar—for increasingly younger students at increasingly inconsequential stages in their education. Apparently this idiotic tendency has also taken up the traditional valedictorian and speech.

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How Not to be a Kindergarten Teacher

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Last week, [Wendy] Portillo held a vote in her classroom in which the students “voted out” 5-year-old Alex Barton, who is in the process of being tested for Asperger’s Disorder, a type of high-functioning autism, said his mother, Melissa Barton.

After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn’t like about Alex the teacher said they were going to take a vote, Barton said. They said he was “disgusting” and “annoying,” Barton said.

Kids are mean enough to each other without calculated help from their teachers. Ridiculous.

Identity Theft Playground

The LA Times offers another reason to worry about overexposure on the internet.

Web social networks friendly to identity thieves

“Social networking sites, which let users create detailed profile pages and connect with friends, are becoming the hot new thing for identity thieves, both amateur and professional. As improved spam filters and skeptical consumers make bogus e-mail less successful, scam artists are taking advantage of the atmosphere of trust that exists within these online circles of friends.”