Entries Tagged 'So it goes' ↓

As high-holidays went by, and the new Jewish year seems to be going just fine, I wanted to take a moment and reflect, being a logical thing to do, as an old year has wrapped up and a new one has just begun.

Holidays and tradition, when far away from home, family and friends, feel a little different.

As opposed to having a large mass of family time and guilt, trembling before god and newspapers on Yom Kippur fast, when (according to Jewish tradition) god signs the books of life and death and our sentence is sealed - Celebrating that holiday in LA, where each is to his own, has a different feeling.

Whereas I haven’t always enjoyed high holidays (or any holiday) in Israel, having family obligations and feeling trapped in a godforsaken city, where there’s nothing to do - they actually meant something. Los Angeles, and the US in general, do not commemorate the day.

Yom Kippur in Israel means lack of television, since all channels cease to broadcast. There are no cars out on the streets. All stores and services are closed. Newspapers are filled with memories, researches and articles of the Yom Kippur war of 1973, where Israel was taken by surprise and drawn into a bloody war, that had no real winners. There’s a sense of holiness in that day. Where all walk around the city for hours, half the night, trying to exhaust themselves in order to sleep in the next day, having the fast go by a little quicker.  Many secular people fast, take restrictions upon themselves, and the whole day is a halt.  A chance to get away from the everyday life and reflect.  Think about our actions so far, who we’ve wronged, and how to become a better person.

Yom Kippur in LA, on the other hand, is just like any other day.  Only those who observe it notice there is something different about the day.

This was supposed to be a fun, amusing, witty post, but I guess I’m in a strange mood, once again.  Feeling the differences and gaps between my past and present.

LA is not bad at all.  West Hollywood is pretty darn amazing, but there’s this magic in Israel this time of year, that I wish I had experienced.

n.  Liberty to teach, pursue, and discuss knowledge without restriction or interference, as by school or public officials.

For the past Semester and a half, I’ve been a student at a community college, not far from home.

This semester, I’ve been taking a History 11 course, dealing with American History up until the Reconstruction Era (which was quite a while ago, if I’m not mistaken).

When a professor rambles on about topic not related to course materials, attacking the United States structure, government.  Claiming that the United States is a predator.  Why does it count as academic freedom?

going back, over and over again, to the claim that the US is only after oil.  That there is no United States.  Only us (public) against THEM (rich people, the Polity of our days).  And THEM are taking our money and drinking it up.  Why does THAT count as academic freedom?

Ending the 15 minute ecstatic speech with the notion that Iraq was first, Iran is next and that the CIA killed JFK, using more and more Marxist terms when reviewing topics, ignoring students moving uncomfortably in their chairs as he goes on and on about racism, religion and OIL.  (Oil comes up a lot).  Academic freedom, again?

Academic freedom is key here.  It does not matter that course materials are mostly untouched, since the instructor keeps losing track of his (terribly planned) presentation, being carried away into long speeches about the topics above.

The most important thing is:

we are committed to academic freedom, but recognize that academic freedom precludes discriminatory conduct from anyone.  The discussion of diverse ideas, which is an integral part of course content is not discrimination.  An essential part of education is to encourage opinion and explore ideas, which may cause some students discomfort. Faculty have the right to teach, students the right to learn

Where does the college stand in regard to Academic Freedom when classes are not taught properly? Or is it not important, what is actually taught in class, as long as the instructor has his damned academic freedom

George Carlin passed away on June 22, just 4 days ago, in Santa Monica, right here in California.

I only made the connection between the name and the man today, as I watched his Defrags the 10 Comandments on YouTube.

I first saw George Carlin perform in the Bill&Ted movies, later in Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob strike back.

This post doesn’t seem to flow that well today, too much work on my hands, but I just wanted to mention this talented man, encourage you to view him on YouTube and get a few laughs.  Look for a piece called “Seven Dirty Words“.  It is hilarious, but too inappropriate for me to link directly to.

George Carlin died this week.  So it goes.

Have a funny day, y’all.

It’s a Friday afternoon, office is stuffy and my right hand is bothering me. Doc says it’s “like tennis elbow, yes?”, and that without proper rest all we can try is anti-inflammatory non-steroid medication. It’s been 4 days since I started taking the medication and there’s no improvement. So it goes.

For tomorrow I have to finish reading 2 chapters of “Nemesis” by Chalmers Johnson. I also must read through acts 3, 4 and 5 of “Titus Andronicus” and summarize approximately 5 articles that deal with US foreign policy. preferably ones discussing US military presence in foreign countries. I should have done that in the course of the past 4 weeks but was low on motivation and discouraged by the lack of interest i have in these topics. Tomorrow we will also view a few more scenes from the movie “Titus” that appalled me last week. So it goes.

I’ve been researching blogs and implementation of multi user blogging systems, testing it in one of my domains, registrations are now open in: www.write22.net/MU

Target audience is aspiring writers (ones who can spell better than I do), but all are welcome.

So it went, and is going a whole lot better.

This weekend I’ll be driving down to San Diego, to a children’s books fair of some sort.