“Modern Society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyles.”

First of all, the only reason for my lack of commentary on the passing of Pope John Paul II is that fact that the TV is inundated with it already. I really don’t need to say much more. I have a great respect for the man in both his very eventful life, his humanity/personality and what he was able to accomplish in the world and the church within the confines of Catholic dogma, however I do understand where the criticism comes from in condemning the use of condoms in Africa and not taking a stronger role in the pedophilia scandals (though his health was failing at the time).

Still, I think as far as Popes go, he was one of the best the Catholic Church as ever seen. He will be missed.

On Behalf of Honest College Students Everywhere: Nicole Kristal is a Shoddy Fraudulent Bitch!

"Just sit at her computer and type for her," my boss advised me with my first client, a private-high-school student. But as I typed her name at the top right corner of the screen, she slithered onto her bed to watch "Are You Hot?" I asked her what she remembered about Huxley's "Brave New World."

"She's a slut," my client said with a sigh, referring either to the character of Lenina or the woman on TV. After a handful of three-word responses like that, I realized she didn't care. I was hired to do the thinking. The parents knew it. So did my boss.

Welcome to the world of professional paper-writing, the dirty secret of the tutoring business. It's facilitated by avaricious agencies, perpetuated by accountability-free parents and made possible by self-loathing nerds like me. For three-hour workdays, the ability to sleep in and the opportunity to get paid to learn, I tackled subjects like Dostoevsky while spoiled jerks smoked pot, took naps, surfed the Internet and had sex. Though some offered me chateaubriand and the occasional illicit drug, most treated me like the help. I put up with it because I feared working in an office for $12 an hour again.”
She then goes on to talk about other clients and whine about how depressed she was and how sad it is that her singer-song writer career never took off.

Sounds like divine justice to me. If she had any integrity at all, she would have walked out of her first assignment. If the she were truly remorseful, she would turn over the names of students that she had “completed nearly two years of college for” (or less) to the schools to have their degrees revoked and she and the tutoring company she worked for would stand trial for fraud.

I work 40+ hours a week and go to school at night and bust my ass to get the grades I do. How dare someone help spoiled, irresponsible rich kids cheat me and other honest qualified students out of places in college and the workplace and then ask me to feel sorry for her.

Sticky Sticky: Should AmerIndian Tribes Be Able to Lay Claim to Ancient Remains?

That’s a toughie, and one of the reasons I went into the history side of things rather than the anthropology side. (Besides simply not being that nosy. People who have been dead for a few hundred years are not likely to be embarassed if I pry into their personal lives.) ;)

Of course, part of it is the natural human reaction to dead bodies. If someone dug up your grandmother and stuck her in a glass case on display, you’d be pretty irate too. She’s not there anymore, but your feelings for her are. So while my family is very black humored, cracking jokes in the ER and probably will crack them over each of our corpses, I understand the feelings involved. Then there are the cultural rituals that each tribe feels that need to be fulfilled for the betterment of the soul in question and the tribe.

However, I do think there needs to be a limit of some kind. I don’t think anyone has a personal attachment to an ancestor 300+ times removed. Tribal cultures have shifted and changed so much he would have to be thoroughly studied to determine which tribe he should be remanded to anyway. (In fact, that’s one of the reasons they want to study him, ifs he more closely related to the peoples living in the area now, Apaches, Maya or of the peoples living in Chile?) So while I can sympathize with Tribes protecting the remains of their ancestors from the last couple centuries or so, I think they are outta line with this one.

Not Everything is Bad...

Things may still be dicey in Kyrgyzstan, but they are trying.

And Syrian Troops Quit Lebanon as U.N. Backs New Probe

YAY!

Film About the Baja 1,000

Dust to Glory looks kick ass. Gonna have to check that one out!

Have a great weekend all and Best of Luck to the Dale, Mark and Elliot and their teams!

Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought. ~ Pope John Paul II

P.S. Random Act of Kindness

Some guy standing in front of me at the food court paid for my lunch. How sweet! :D