Donald Trump, Oligarch

What kind of American President would Donald Trump be?  A bad one, yes; goes without saying, but "what kind of a bad one?" Would he be a thug in office, a supporter of the common man, a ruthless and unapologetic Capitalist?

Would be be "liberal" or "conservative?" His positions often lie on both sides of the political spectrum. Would he be a strong leader? A weak leader? A complete follower of his own subordinates (since deigns to stay away from too much knowledge about any topic that is too tough).

He would be -- as he is now -- just another rich guy, with too much power!

The Oscars

Chris Rock -- brilliant!  Diversity -- reinvigorated by humor, cynicism, frank admission of racism, etc!

Awards -- evenly distributed across a number of categories; lots of superior performances acknowledged!  The Oscars are determined to "add membership" in the trades; make for a fairer nomination process; find its way into the 21st Century!  Thank God!

Donald Trump, Capitalist

In "The Art of the Deal" Donald Trump and his ghostwriter lay out the "raison d' etre" of his life!  He is a "dealmaker;" he is a capitalist!

It should surprise anyone that Trump uses the political tactics he uses: logical fallacies (ad hominem, slippery slope, either/or, ad ignorantiam, etc), invective, indirect bullying, Mafia-type threats (your family has a lot to hide), gross comparisons, assuming non-belief by casually mentioning an unproven and made-up fact (some people are saying Cruz can't be President, he wasn't even born in America), etc. His strategies are the strategies of the huckster salesman. He is selling us "greatness" when he can't even deliver that for himself! He is a phony; a characterless chameleon, an unrepentant liar, a Mussolini-type leader, and --- hopefully-- the next loser candidate for President from the GOP.

Sleep, Perchance to Dream

This time of year the one thing that keeps me "sane" is sleep. It restores some perspective; it heals some aching bones/joints/muscles; it helps the mind to refocus.

Dreams don't resound as much for me this time of year as they do in the winter, or when the semester is "fresh" on my schedule, or when someone is "on my mind." When my mind is very active during the day -- I dream very "actively" at night, but usually unrelated to the things of the day except in the most general of ways.  Dreams help to give me feelings of: nostalgia, comfort, peace, happiness revisited, coping with things, and even sadness "deja vu." Dreams help to "solve problems" even though the problems in the dreams are not the same as current problems in life.

Dreams point to things -- to unresolved issues, to people come back into one's life, to the past as future (and the future as past).

The Election is Broken

The American election for the next President of the United States is now fatally flawed. Old traditional patterns of campaigning, covering campaigns, talking to voters, talking to other candidates -- all those processes are broke and broken.

We tweet innuendos -- begin a media-covered controversy, and reduce the argument to one that is totally absurd.  What had done this? Social media, Donald Trump, staid Republican obstructionism, anti-government sentiment, what? We are in a "reductio ad absurdum" situation! We don't know who to vote for because there is no one we can or should vote for. The politics of the distant past is attractive but impossible to reattain. The politics of the present amounts to criminal mischief -- rather than solving any kind of real problems. The politics of the future my hold a "strong man" or "strong woman" presidency without allowing for any progress at all.

Things will go on -- but at an even more ridiculous pace than currently. "Idiocracy" in the real world order, has now arrived.  

Life Choices: America, Russia, the Third World

I would hate to be in the position of having to support a government I do not believe in. That is often the case in the Third World, where dictators or religious mania rules. And it is sometimes the case in First World nations where effective dictators hold sway as if they were demigods, and nostalgia for a lost empire replaces common sense.

How quickly the United States could slip into the absurd situation of contemporary Russia! How easily could Trump become the new Putin, or the US could be mimicking Uganda in its insane anti-gay policies! We in America are moments away from being as foolish and stupid as the poor people in Russia, or the encaptured multitudes in places like Uganda.

We still have our election process to weed out the morons and the "strong men!"  

Should "Old" People Have Sex?

Depends on one's point of view, I suppose. If young people are asking (or answering) the likely observation is just "ewwwwww!" If a middle-aged person is asking -- they are likely to just say --
"Well sure, if they still can."

If a "true Catholic" is asking they must say: "Of course not -- sex is for procreation, not recreation! No babies possible; no sex!"

If an older person is asking (or answering) they just chortle and shuffle off to their own business, not worrying about what anyone else says (especially the Church).

So there it is. The big question is answered. Perhaps the big answer is even better -- "if they want to, then yes!" I think I know quite a few "older women" now -- and they have pretty much given up on sex -- because they are widows, or divorced, or just plain sick of the "romance" as it is interpreted by
current culture. Older men (and probably some older women I have not surveyed) would like to have sex, or even romance (love?...I daresay); except the people they are still attracted to are no longer attracted to them.

I keep looking for women with a "father fixation" -- no luck so far!

In the Blink of an Eye

Time, like every other phase of life, passes by like a bird in flight. It moves so swiftly that it cannot be completely seen. One catches perhaps a glimpse of a "shadow passing" or a "reflection retreating" just ahead of your eye's movement; just beyond your range of vision.

Breasts sag, muscles shrink, great powers vanish into smaller powers. Change happens. Age happens.
And with age comes all its compensations: pain, regret, memory, and even perhaps anger. Joy is always left for the present -- it doesn't present itself as the "center of one's past" ever. Not sure why either. Most of our lives have tremendous joys.

Sometimes I long for the joys of the past I can no longer really clearly remember. What it was like to be loved by someone I loved. What it was like to feel fresh and new in a relationship. What it was like to kiss someone romantically in a small way, and let that "small way" become all the passion it could become. I miss that. Especially on a Monday!

FDD

Yes, today is yet another useless Faculty Development Day! Welcome to the category: "more useless things in people's lives put there only because other more self-important people who want to continue to feel even more self-important by exercising control over a captive audience." Wasting away!

Feel the pain -- we all do!

The Hard Life of Women

Through careful observation I have learned a lot about the women I work with. Some of them, particularly the new Head of Social and Behavioral Sciences, is unflappably happy -- singing and humming her way through her office playlist most of the time she is not teaching.  Other women at school are more "dogged" and due to sheer overwork and lack of contact with humanity, revert to somber and unreadable body language.

Other "younger" women ride the roller coaster of manic-depression like professionals -- always seeking the end of the day, and the beginning of the party.

Our school/bureaucracy/corporation offers no kindnesses to anyone, especially to women. We have a female on top of the administrative totem poll,  but that offers no succor or support to anyone else. Women have a hard life at Savannah Tech.

February is Fraught with...

In Savannah February is the "end" of winter! Days get progressively longer...and warmer...and the plants, libidos, and anxieties all spring to life.

People are "sharper" with each other once February "schools" them on their own anxieties. Anger, like lust, springs up quicker and more often.

The prophecies of Ground Hog's Day are gone; the niceties of Valentine's Day disappear.

This year in particular is: one of the warmest ever (month to month), plagued with the ridiculousness of Donald Trump et al running for President, and ensconced in "bubbling controversies": how did Scalia die, really?; do "black lives" really matter?; is government totally corrupt?; do we care, or is it time to abandon everything and leave for some "lost place" to quietly live out our lives?

What is Beautiful?

A smiling face? A laughing child? A kiss? A hug? A refreshing drink -- water, your favorite drink, wine? A gentle touch? A conversation that really means something?

An agreement? An agreement to disagree? A sweet? A chocolate?

A pat on the back? A touch of hands? Holding hands? Walking together? Thinking of beautiful things?

Understanding? Finally realizing? Hoping? Saying hello? Saying goodbye? Just saying...?

Knowing someone? Liking someone? Being liked? Being loved?

Wanting? Having? Giving? Giving back? Yielding? Asking? Forgiving? Smiling again?

Blondes? Really?

Do they have more fun? Are they more adventurous? Are they "off the chart" sensual? Are they different than brunettes and redheads, et al?

Blondes are blondes. And that is enough...said.

Women, Fickle, Women; Men, Fickle, Men

The drive towards "sexual completion" continues throughout one's life. It is a "gift of aging" that civilized control of our urges becomes easier: not because desire decreases so much, as the simple fact that we cannot or will not "live up to those urges."

All night love-making sessions?   Hah-- impossible,  when the body aches after an hour of easy exercise! So the body at first let's us down -- and not very easily -- but then the public perception of our abilities, and the subsequent embarrassment if we are sexual or flirtatious, is destructive of our self-esteem as well. Damned if we do; damned if we try!

So sex doesn't die -- it just finds ways to hide. Gifts of imagination -- or gifts given without acknowledgment? Both ways to fill the urge...quietly.

Life is Mesmerizingly Boring

There are cycles of repeating excitements: the Super Bowl, the Super Bowl Commercials, the Political Debate cycles in both parties, the Tony Awards, the Grammy Awards, the People's Choice Awards, the Academy Awards, the NBA All-Star Game, the Final Four, the start of ML Baseball, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam!

And we live through them all -- and we anticipate some, and ignore others. And life continues on -- with or without us. And we end, finally; not "with a bang, but a whimper."

The Blue Pickup Truck

It isn't always there -- she doesn't always need it! But it is always there when she needs it -- like Valentine's Day, and Christmas, and the 4th of July!

Holidays that make it hard to be alone. But the "blue pickup truck" is always reliable -- it brings a load of pleasure and very little pain. It is a private (very private) plea for being normal. It is a Happy Time
release!

Yep, lots of girls have a "blue pickup truck" they can rely on.  Too bad they don't "need it" more often.

Too bad. And that ain't good.  

Happy Valentine's Day !

I am no cynic when it comes to Valentine's day!  Every woman I know should get multiple cards, letters, and candy snippets from all the men who know her! It should be a rule.

Women are meant to be treasured -- but not just treasured. "Respected" is perhaps the better term -- and so it should be.

Women are not "men in the making" either in business, in relationships, or in any phase of life. Women are different. Vive la difference!  I know, love, and respect many many women. And I am thankful for them all -- much love to all.

Trump not Triumph

Trump "won" the New Hampshire primary last night!  Voters showed their displeasure with the GOP and the government in general by voting for a chubby, cuddly, racist, sexist, xenophobic, pseudo-businessman and professional huckster-moron: Donald Trump. This just shows how far we have fallen. We have abandoned our own system of government and installed anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-humane, and anti-women people into Congress.

Now we are stuck with the results. We have raised a P.T. Barnum to the heights of "Presidential Candidate." We have gone the way of Italy, or Venezuela, or Columbia! We have chosen -- at least up until this point -- the least representative representative to be our symbolic future leader. And our Founding Fathers have slowly turned over in their graves. Who can blame them; they simply cannot watch! We must do all we can to defeat this ridiculous "businessman" for President!

Is North Korea an "Insane State"?

Threatening the world; threatening the US; threatening South Korea? Why does the "current leader" of North Korea act so bizarrely? Why does he resist the overtures and critiques of China, the UN, and every other civilized country?

Missiles that can carry "nuclear warheads" to the shores of Hawaii, California, the Philippines -- and of course Japan, South Korea, and China as well!  What is to be gained by opposing civilization and every other country that exists? Prominence through "fear" within his own country perhaps?

If he launched missiles at us -- or anyone; wouldn't he face the destructive wrath of mankind? Who would defend him and the terrible course of World War? Russia? Certainly not. Iran? No, again. Then who? China? They are too intelligent for that. Insanity has no support in the world today!

Super Bowl is DONE

Thank God, NFL football is finished for another year.  The "CTE" spawning business/sport has worked its magic on the American public for the last time.

I am not anti-football; I am anti-concussion, anti-violence, anti-insensitivity, anti-boorishness!
The Super-Bowl is not so "Super" anymore. The half-time show is, as always, a perfunctory nod to "pop fizz." And the commercials have lost their lustre.

So much for the pinnacle of American culture!

Callow Youth

In the world of "college" we now have a significant incursion of "dual enrolled" or simply high school students taking college classes.  This is probably, on the whole, a good thing.  But not always.

Some of my "dual enrolled" students are truly just precocious children -- "callow" in every sense of the word.  They exhibit extreme narcissism, a cloying disrespect for the rights of others (older or younger students), and an exaggerated sense of their own "accomplishments!  Because they are "in" college they think they deserve to be there.

But they often fall back on childish conceits to get what they want --- "how can I take the test today Mr. Mel; I was absent all last week -- I'm not ready!" You got a schedule in your hand, and one online, to be used by you to recognize and live up to your duties as a student. You're not ready because you are not taking note of your responsibilities, and living up to them. I am not your Dad; I am not your Mom; I am your teacher -- a partner in learning, not an overseer.  Get to work -- do what you need to do -- or get out!!

Dreaming of She

Sometimes I have the horrible dream! I had it last night. The "dream of She's death" day!  I relive all the events of that day, night, and day --- moment to moment; in horrible precise detail. Primarily this dream is about how a young woman suffers when she is dying.

It is about what tiny comforts can be brought to the dying by those of us standing by. This dream conveys the "feelings" (both physical and emotional) that accompany death. It also shows how much each of us have to look forward to.

But not me -- I have died so many times, through life and through this dream -- and I am sure how it will all feel. Someday, it will come for me...

A Testing Day

Lots of 'tests' out there in the real world today!  Politics is testing the mettle of candidates in the Presidential race in the US on both sides of the aisle. Hillary versus Bernie; Trump versus the world; Cruz versus himself; all the others versus all the others!

Tests also exist on the cultural plain -- this is SuperBowl weekend. Will we watch? Should we watch? We no know that many of those NFL stars that we watch are affected by, and perhaps dying of, cte (chronic traumatic encephalopathy)! Do we feel at all guilty about enjoying young men "kill themselves" playing football!  Today, Wednesday, is also "national signing day" for high school athletes on the way to college football teams around the US. The SEC is vying with the Big Ten, and every major team within those conferences is vying with every other team. All for football -- all for the "glory" of the game -- all for "big money" from the TV networks, cable networks, sponsors, and rich alumni! And all of the backs of 18-22 year old's laying themselves open to "cte" by playing football.

Is our "love of football" worth all those lives? Is it? Can February survive without the SuperBowl?
Can we?

My Hispanic Students

The largest block of new students in my classes are foreign (read: "students from countries other than the USA"). Of that group the largest number are Hispanic students: from a variety of countries in Central and South American, the Caribbean, etc.  I have recently had and currently have students from Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Peru, Columbia and many many islands.

I enjoy working with the Hispanic students because of their generally strong "work ethic" -- which is not couched just in descriptive phrases but real words and ideas; real sweat and brain power. Any teacher out there in any country understands the kind of "open" and "hard working" temperament I am referring to. My students soon exceed expectations and work in the realm of higher inquiry.


Questions get asked -- inquiries get made -- learning happens. It is the way it should be. At all levels of education.  

Be An Internationalist

Know the world!  Know its tremendous variety!  Understand that people of other countries besides your own are both the same and different from you!  Visit other places -- in person, and online, and in your dreams.

Make a friend who is different from you!  Understand opposite points of view from yours!  Be open to change and new thinking!  Try new things.

Challenge your thinking, and if possible, the thinking of those around you.

Be loved and love others in ways you had not previously imagined. Do not fall into the trough of sameness. Read new things. Be new. Be you.