An inconvenient bashing

The Stockton Record reprinted an AP article that also ran in USA Today, essentially doing what I've come to expect from the Stockton newspaper that serves a very conservative agenda (I've come to the conclusion that you can tell a conservative newspaper because it's the only newspaper in the area that prints Mallard Fillmore, the comic, which is a strip that proceeds to bash liberals AND somehow thinks that's enough of a punchline to make it humorous).

The point I wish to make about the following article is the point I think we should always keep in mind, no matter whether you are liberal, conservative or completely off the spectrum: Bashing the individual is NOT the same thing as criticizing the message. And that's the problem in a nutshell right there. Conservatives, for reasons that I don't think even conservatives remember anymore, are against the whole global warming thing. Sometimes the posturing is so bad that they go off the scientific meter and just invent science and will quote a Holocaust denier as long as the guy says global warming isn't happening. Honestly, with more of a decent approach to dealing with the issue scientifically, I think a good counter argument can be made, but it rarely is without coupling it with ridiculous and ludicrous charges.

That's what's happening here. Think about this. Here's the math: Al Gore believes global warming is happening. He wants everyone to do something about it. Al Gore may not be doing all that he can to be against global warming. Therefore, Al Gore is not doing all that he can be doing, and this immediately leads to global warming is a farce and is not happening. Yeah, not a great mathematical proof because the math doesn't add up. Yet, this is how the argumentation goes.

Unfortunately, it's probably going to continue going this way because the liberals will then take the high road (not higher ground) and claim that conservatives are anti-science and continue to argue that a zero sum resolution might happen. In other words, neither side is willing to look at the issue from a non-political view and think, "golly, what if it is happening, and what if we have to do something about it without destabilizing the country in the process?" Unfortunately, that's not going to happen anytime soon.

USA Today /AP (2/28) reports Al Gore, "a leading voice in the fight against global warming, is being called a hypocrite by a conservative group that claims his Nashville mansion uses too much electricity." A spokeswoman for Gore "said the former vice president invests in enough renewable energy to make up for the home's power consumption." Gore's documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, "which chronicled his campaign against global warming, won an Academy Award on Sunday. The next day, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research put out a news release saying Gore was not doing enough to reduce his own consumption of electricity. The group disputes whether global warming is a serious problem." Utility records "show the Gore family paid an average monthly electric bill of about $1,200 last year for its 10,000-square-foot home." The Gores "used about 191,000 kilowatt hours in 2006, according to bills reviewed by The Associated Press spanning the period from Feb. 3, 2006, to Jan. 5. That is far more than the typical Nashville household, which uses about 15,600 kilowatt-hours per year."

The Washington Times (2/28, Pierce, 88K) reports in its "Inside Politics" column that Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, said, "If this were any other person with $30,000-a-year in utility bills, I wouldn't care. But he tells other people how to live, and he's not following his own rules." The Times adds Kalee Kreider, "a spokeswoman for the Gores, did not dispute the center's figures, taken as they were from public records. But she pointed out that both Al and Tipper Gore work out of their home, and she argued that 'the bottom line is that every family has a different carbon footprint. And what Vice President Gore has asked is for families to calculate that footprint and take steps to reduce and offset it.'"

Bush Ranch In Crawford Is Eco-Friendly.

The Washington Times (2/28, Pierce, 88K) reports in its "Inside Politics" column in "contrast to Al Gore's profligate use of energy at his Tennessee mansion, President Bush's 4,000-square-foot house in Crawford, Texas, is 'a model of environmental rectitude,' according to a 2001 article by Rob Sullivan in the Chicago Tribune." Marc Morano, "an aide to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, posted the Tribune article yesterday at www.epw.senate.gov."

"Green" Politicians' Jet Travel Criticized.

The Los Angeles Times (2/28, Pringle, 850K) reports California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) "offers plenty of tips on how California households can combat global warming." But "one bit of information Feinstein declines to share is the number of times that she flew last year on her husband's Gulfstream jet, which burns much more fuel per passenger-mile than commercial airliners." California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) "also has asked constituents to do their part to conserve energy...even though he takes to the skies on leased executive jets." Aides "say there is nothing contradictory between the pro-green pronouncements and the flying habits of the Democratic senator and Republican governor. Some environmentalists aren't so sure." The Times adds, "Noncommercial aircraft and other carbon-related indulgences have caused politicians considerable turbulence recently."

Dowd Says Gore Would Make Campaign More Interesting.

In her New York Times column (2/28), Maureen Dowd says, "The best ex-president who was never president could make one of the most interesting campaigns in American history even more interesting." Will Al Gore "use his green moment on the red carpet in black tie to snag blue states and win the White House? Only the Goracle knows the answer. The man who was prescient on climate change, the Internet, terrorism and Iraq admitted that maybe his problem had been that he was too far ahead of the curve. He realized at a conference that "there're ideas that are mature, ideas that are maturing, ideas that are past their prime ... and a category called 'predawn.'" Dowd adds, "With Hillary overproduced and Barack Obama an unfinished script, maybe it's time to bring the former vice president out of turnaround. Hillary's henchmen try to prognosticate the Goracle's future by looking at his waistline, according to Newsday; they think if he's going to run, he'll get back to fighting weight."

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Conference over

The conference went well. The trip there was a nightmare due to the weather conditions. Let's just say that I don't intend to go back to Reno any time soon. My car seems like it's about to fall apart right now because of that trip. Not good.

For the past month now, my left arm has been causing me serious pain at night. Not sure what it is but I've been seeing a masseuse about it, and for short periods of time it feels better but it really bothers me at nights. I really hope to take care of this somehow without having to the medical or medicine route. We medicate for way too many things these days, and honestly, I don't think we really cure anything anymore.

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Conferences and contests

Today, I leave for a conference in Reno. Really not much more to say about that.

I also sent off "Buried Memories" to the Stockton Arts Commission contest. Not really sure why I did it, but just felt like I wasn't really doing anything writing-wise, so I sent it off.

Socially, things are kind of in weird limbo. No, not much to add about that either.

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Just an update

A few days ago, Marie visited me. It's been nearly a decade since I last saw her. Sometimes, it's really good to catch up on things with someone you've known for a very long time. She has a cute little dog named Sara (sic). But for me, her visit brought up something I've been thinking about for awhile, and that's the point that sometimes it's so easy to let go of the past because we allow ourselves to become too busy in the present.

That's my situation these days. I came back to California because I missed my past. But now that I'm back, I can't seem to find the time to reconnect with the people of my past. And to be honest, I'm not doing anything of any real significance in my present that should constitute a barrier to recapturing the manifestations of the past.

And I guess that's what leads to those passive thoughts. I don't know what I'm doing. I really don't. I am studying for a graduate degree in communication, but for no real reason in particular. Oh sure, people remind me that I'll be able to teach in communication, but so what? I want to be a writer, but I can't seem to make that career happen for me. And that just makes things worse because people, when they hear that complaint, put "writing" in a category of "hobby" rather than occupation, and they think that for me (because it would be that way for them) writing is just a side activity that's like playing a computer game. To them, it has no purpose other than self-gratification.

I got older last week. Yes, it was a birthday, and all birthdays seem to do for me these days is remind me that I've done nothing really significant with my life. I don't even really have a significant other in my life. Hell, I don't even have a dog. I had a plant, but he ran away.

I'm starting to look for a job now because I realize that if I don't have one before summer, I'm really screwed. I don't have the money to survive through summer, or even into summer for that matter. And if I don't find something soon, I really don't know what I'm going to do. So far, I haven't had a moment to even focus on finding a job. My life seems to be at the beck and call of other people who I haven't actually accepted as controllers of my time and destiny. Yet, even when I tried to take ONE WEEKEND to myself, my phone never stopped ringing, my email never stopped sending me "important" messages and people kept trying to pile on more work for me to do when all I wanted was ONE FREAKING WEEKEND to myself. I didn't even get it. Because people succeeded in piling on more crap for me to do when all I wanted was one FREAKING weekend to myself.

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Reflections on a day....

Well, things kind of worked out today for the best. I got a lot of work done that needed to be done, and I'm starting to get back on top of things. Some of the contentious issues sort of worked themselves out, so no need to harp on things that aren't really of issue anymore.

This weekend I have another tournament, and then it tapers off for a few weeks. I will be attending a conference in Reno towards the latter part of the month, but I'll be honest and say I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be going with a professor from school I like and respect, and a good friend from the graduate school, so it should be a good experience. We get to present our paper on romantic communication on Myspace, and as EVERYONE knows, no one knows more about romantic communication on the Internet than me, the Internet love god. No, really, that's what they call me. Okay, that's what my stuffed animals call me. Okay, maybe they don't either, but at least they don't throw things at me anymore like they used to do. Stupid stuffed animals!

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Are we as educators required to be advocates?

I was in a seminar the other day going over a paper I read on gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender issues in the classroom, written by an out lesbian professor who indicated that it was not enough to be non-homosexist but one must also be an advocate as well. I found a problem with this because as much as my personal life often has me advocating quite a few things that the general conservative might not find too appealing (or a few liberals for that matter), when it comes to classroom behavior, I prefer to take up a stance of neutrality on issues, ONLY stepping forward when I feel someone has gone over the line by either curtailing someone else's rights or insulting someone else for the lifestyle, perspective, beliefs, attitudes or state of being one lives within.

Yet, the argument of how I had to be proactive and an advocate kept coming up, being explained to me in that ever popular "no win" situation of "well, what about this type of situation?". I so wanted to answer: "I don't care, really." If someone is being attacked for his or her lifestyle or disposition of any nature, I will respond, but that doesn't make me an advocate. It makes me a defender of the rights of others.

What I was getting from this article is that it's not enough to be tolerant of those who are different than me. I have to take up their cause as well. Yet, no one takes up my causes. And for the most part, they probably won't. The whole argument of "support the minorities of today, because they will support you when you need it" is such a bunch of baloney. When the women's movement stalled itself to support the African-American suffrage movement, they found themselves standing alone in the rain when it came time for turn about and return support. People are generally only interested in their own gains; once they get them, they become part of the majority and really don't see a need to support the next up and coming issue-based people. Look at the melting pot history of our own country. Foreigners coming to America were looked poorly upon, and it was generations before the Irish were considered acceptable in America. But ask that acceptable demographic about some of the demographics who are going through the same struggles they did those years back, and you might be shocked at the responses you'll receive.

I did a lot of advocacy work for the gay rights movement a decade or so ago because it was something I believed in. Things WERE bad back then, and AIDS was really out of control. I didn't have to be gay to do a lot of the background work I did back then; it just seemed right. However, when the issues I advocated for after that movement were addressed, I found the same people who I worked with didn't want to upset City Hall by speaking out against other issues that weren't gay-themed. That was about the time I received my education on how advocacy works in the real world.

So, what is an educator to do? Advocate for everything that's got a huge politically correct army behind it? Advocate for nothing and be accused of all sorts of hatreds you don't actually have? Or leave education completely and let the advocates fight it out amongst themselves as more and more educators get tired of shoveling dirt up an endless hill that has forgotten the original reason educators were hired was to actually teach something. I guess the fight these days is what should be taught, as more and more industries and countries look at the United States, wondering why we don't produce technologically educated students anymore in our schools.

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Another birthday about to clobber me

My birthday is on Monday, and to be honest, I'm not looking forward to it. I'm getting another year older, and I'm still in school. What's the freaking deal with that?

I realized for real today that I don't want to be in school anymore. I'm too old for this crap. I'm sometimes treated like a ten year old, and I'm really tired of it.

I'm going to look into dropping 50 percent of my classes tomorrow. After this weekend's tournament, I'm going to start looking full time for a full time job. It's really time for me to grow up.

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A few days of rest and then back at it again

We took 2nd place at the Point Loma tournament in San Diego. It was a huge win because we really didn't expect to do so well. Our coach has promised the team a trip to Great America (was going to be Magic Mountain, but it was closed on the final day of the trip). It was kind of a bet to the team ("make at least 5th place, and I'll take you to Magic Mountain"); he didn't expect to have to actually pay off.

So, that means 3 more days home and then back out on the road again for another tournament this weekend. These things take a toll on you after awhile.

When this weekend is over, after I finish catching up with school work, I'm going to start focusing on trying to find a job. I don't mean a part time after school job, but a real one. I'm getting a bit old for being a lifetime student, and I really feel the need to be doing something constructive outside of the academic environment. If it works with school, great. But I need to do something in my life right now, so we'll see what happens.

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