Category Archives: National media

* Student Stripper Makes $180K a Year and Will Graduate Debt-Free

Bookmarks:
Student Stripper Makes $180K a Year & Will Graduate Debt-FreeTalking about race is no black-and-white matterThis Hummus Has Standards, OK?Mass murder, misogyny and moviesEven the NRA thinks taking assault rifles to Chipotle is dumbMcDonald’s update

Continue reading * Student Stripper Makes $180K a Year and Will Graduate Debt-Free

* I’m so jealous!

(Originally published 06/11/13 at Trojan Horse Productions.  Reblogged 01/31/19.)

Delilah: Radio Host Talks About Why Her Show Is so Successful

I’ve never heard of this woman before. She and I appear to be on the same wavelength.

If only that were more than a pun!

Update, 2014-06-13:

A follower has advised that the link seems to point to an interview with Michelle Kwan.

The restrictions on videos on web pages here at the library are such I normally ignore them, and count on people just reading the text.  For the video interview with Delilah one wants to click on this image:

* Free speech issues, etc.

Bookmarks:
Some news sites cracking down on over-the-top commentsObama suggests sense of powerlessness in confronting the world’s evilsScary people downtownAn angry young man, and divine intervention

Continue reading * Free speech issues, etc.

* No humane death penalty, and other news

Bookmarks:
There’s no humane way to carry out the death penalty.The focal issue for the midterm electionsU.S. “torture” isn’t new.Misleading headline

Continue reading * No humane death penalty, and other news

* “Don’t blame college kids for intolerance. Blame us.”

Don’t blame college kids for intolerance. Blame us.

One gets the impression from Matt Bai’s article that closed-mindedness is something new.

I think first of a quotation from Jeff Snyder, from 1993:

“‘Dignity’ used to refer to the self-mastery and fortitude with which a person conducted himself in the face of life’s vicissitudes and the boorish behavior of others. Now, judging by campus speech codes, dignity requires that we never encounter a discouraging word and that others be coerced into acting respectfully, evidently on the assumption that we are powerless to prevent our degradation if exposed to the demeaning behavior of others. These are signposts proclaiming the insubstantiality of our character, the hollowness of our souls.”

I think next of Stuart Chase’s “Guides to Straight Thinking,” which I still mean when I can to post as an e-book on my blog.  Published in 1956, it includes many, many examples of exactly the sort of problems Matt Bai complains about here; and is corrective of them.

Chase’s book pretty much presumes a college education, so I wrote “Free Speech Handbook” (Google: “Free Speech Handbook William Tell”) to make the same principles  accessible to folk who don’t necessarily have that; and as a textbook of critical thinking skills for use on “The William Tell Show.”  (The above Google results will take you to my blog, where you can easily enough find “My Resume.”)

Circa 2000, I became alarmed at the Balkanization of the airwaves being carried out at that time by much the same folk and in much the same way as is occurring now; and conceived “The William Tell Show” in response.  The ageless conundrum is that listening, really listening, to one’s opponent is less a task of the mind than of the heart, and not too many people have the heart to do it.

Postscript, 13:59:

Wrote just now in my diary:  “It is distressing that so many conservative respondents, like this one, seem to think the very idea of listening to other points of view is a liberal scheme to violate the First Amendment and to force conscience.”

Such is the sturm und drang that first moved me to conceive William Tell the talk show host.  It underscores the need for a William Tell Show.

Post-postscript, 2014-05-30:

Bloomberg bashes liberal McCarthyism at Harvard commencement

I think he’s right on the money.

Post-post-postscript, 2018-02-10:

I’ve had occasion in “recycling” these now-Thursday-posts to puzzle that very little seems to have changed in my spiritual life in four years.  Now we find that not much has changed in the world of public free speech, either: these issues pre-date The Donald, the alt-right, antifa, and on and on.

(Reblogged 12/06/18.)

* Michael Jackson “son” hoax, and other notes

Bookmarks:
Michael Jackson “son” hoax  •  Interspecies altruism  •  Zookeepers play Mama Bear
Screwed up names spell screwed up people  •  Scandal again  •  My first thought
D.C. homeless housing crisis  • Income inequality

Continue reading * Michael Jackson “son” hoax, and other notes

* McDonald’s commercials have changed; and other briefs

Bookmarks:
McDonald’s commercials have changed
The crazies and the stupids
Creation vs. the Big Bang?
Julius Henson in the news again

Continue reading * McDonald’s commercials have changed; and other briefs