June 15, 2009
· Filed under Culture War, Internet · Tagged bullshit issues, dazed and confused, funny, gay rights, homosexualists, lgbt, morality war, proposition 8, real america, real american, same-sex marriage
June 5, 2009
· Filed under Columbia University, Culture War, Insanity · Tagged bullshit issues, columbia, Columbia University, depressing, economics, entirely uncalled for, good on-goings-on?, new york, recession 2008, selling out, wtf
Last year, I walked in to one of my classes about five minutes before class, got settled in, and waited for the professor to call the class to order and start teaching. He did the former, but he didn’t start the latter right away.
Instead, a representative from Kaplan — the standardized test corporation — was allowed to give a brief presentation about how awesome the Kaplan classes are (I think it was for the LSATs) and, while he did that, the TAs handed out Kaplan fliers.
Apparently, this wasn’t an isolated incident, either. A number of people I’ve talked to about this — as well as a reader who e-mailed us about this growing problem — have also experienced this invasion of our classrooms. You see, what I found eminently frustrating about this was not only that I was essentially part of a captive audience and that I had to deal with seeing even more advertising (I get more than enough living in NYC and on the internet, thanks): the money that I paid to take that class was being used to foist a product upon me.
But what was even more outrageous was the use of University employees (the TAs) to participate in the advertising. When I came to Columbia, I never expected the lifetime of debt to which I acquiesced to pay for the distribution of what I am sure the University administration would describe as “vital” “educational” “materials” or some nonsense. In all fairness to the TAs, however, I am sure they never expected to be the pack mules of Kaplan when they took the job. Probably, it wasn’t even in the job description.
While the University administration might try to justify this obscenely obnoxious practice with the claim that they’re trying to keep the University above water by trying to raise more money, that claim is just laughable (for example, it’s been going on since before the economic crisis). While we’re being forced to pay to watch advertising from corporations such as Kaplan and RedBull (as our reader says), the Spec points out that the athletics department is still raking in millions and millions of dollars.
Keeping dorms open on the weekend (Wallach is now closed Friday through Sunday. Apparently it was also too costly to inform students about the change beforehand.) or our classrooms free from annoying advertisements? Apparently that’s just a luxury. But God forbid that we should cut our athletics spending or PrezBo’s ridiculous salary.
April 22, 2008
· Filed under Election 2008, Internet · Tagged barack obama, bullshit issues, corruption, depressing, douchebaggery, hillary clinton, idgit voters, john mccain, PACs
I feel like this video summarizes my feelings about the “Bittergate” nonsense that’s been seen everywhere on TV recently.
For those who don’t know what happened, Senator Obama was giving a speech in San Francisco when he said the following allegedly damning words:
it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
So, perhaps some of that could have been taken by some as somewhat offensive. But, given the reaction of the American media, one would have thought that he had called someone a macaca, a cunt, or a gook. But has the entire American media painted John McCain as a misogynist or a racist? No. It hasn’t. In fact, neither what he called his wife nor how he referred to the Vietnamese was covered particularly widely. Many Americans haven’t even heard either of those stories. Yet, somehow, everyone has heard about Obama’s allegedly offensive remark.
This is the sort of frenzy that calls to mind the Onion News Network’s pieces on “bullshit issues” and “idgit voters“.
Granted, this election has been going on for so long that, perhaps, the news media have run out of actual issues to discuss (as perhaps revealed in the last Democratic primary debate). Yet, on the other hand, it seems to me that the American media have never really expressed much of an interest in educating American voters on the issues.
I’ll never forget watching the Iowa results come in and hearing the reporter say “Well, it looks like Obama came in a surprise first with 38%! And Senator Clinton came in last! Now let’s take a look at the Republican race!” Anyone else notice something missing? Maybe Senator John Edwards, who came in second?
But of course that doesn’t matter to them. John Edwards was “too far to the left“, I suppose, or “too anti-corporate and anti-corruption” or some bullshit to actually win. With the Pennsylvania primaries tomorrow, I’d like to take this chance to remind everyone that neither Obama nor Clinton are particularly reliable when it comes to monetary ethics and taking money from PACs; because, while Edwards “never took a time” (in his own words), Obama only stopped taking money two weeks before he started his campaign and Hillary has continually refused to stop.
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