tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60625982011-08-05T18:55:12.250-07:00Conservative English MajorBusting stereotypes - We're the type of diversity the Graduate programs don't want! Here we vent and expose the idiocy of liberal english professors and grad students.John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.comBlogger751100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-25213023630866973282007-03-03T18:46:00.000-08:002007-03-03T18:50:15.902-08:00I'm done with this blog.I'm still going to be posting at the comic book blog, but there are three reasons why I don't want to continue this blog:1. Dissertation. That speaks for itself. It needs to get done.2. I'm sick of partisan bickering, and I've decided blogs like this were I complain about stuff is not part of the solution - instead it just feeds the flames.3. I've moved on, and have decided I could care lessJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1159052192015462582006-09-23T15:51:00.000-07:002006-09-23T15:56:32.026-07:00Have I just been sexually harassed?Often I hear of people being sued for sexual harassment just for having sexually provocative pictures of women around where others can view them.A few days ago in class, one student was giving a presentation on the text for the day, and he passed around several books for us to look at ("seminal works in the field" and all that). This student is gay and studies Queer Theory. Every book had "John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1157498291119923172006-09-05T16:13:00.000-07:002006-09-05T19:11:47.686-07:00Creating shock troops for the revolution...Here I am at the start of another new semester - and I just got new copies of the textbooks I'm required to use while teaching my freshman level composition class.One is an "African-American reader" that contains rant after rant after rant on the evils of white people (and one essay on why Clarence Thomas is a sell-out, con man and liar).This reader isn't designed to teach independent thought, John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1147378721282252382006-05-11T13:16:00.000-07:002006-05-11T13:18:41.296-07:00Hello!To anyone who still checks this blog out:I plead dissertation. It's going well, but it leaves little time for blogging.I have a bit of time right now, so I'll likely have more semi-regular updates.In the meantime, if you don't already know about it, you should be reading the blog Phi Beta Cons over at National Review online: http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1129824647155465072005-10-20T09:00:00.000-07:002005-10-20T17:22:11.686-07:00Perhaps I should count my blessings.....I complain about the liberalism of my fellow travelers in English literature, but I'm taking a class over in the communications department, and I've decided I have it easy. I have no idea how a conservative could survive in the Communications department on our campus. At least in our classes, we spend some time discussing the texts at hand. In the Communications department, there are no centralJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1125937044187481952005-09-05T08:59:00.000-07:002005-09-05T09:18:11.836-07:00This is what is wrong....[I don't post much on this blog, yes. This is my occasional blog, I guess. Over at the Conservative Comic Book Pundit site, I post more often. Oh, well.]For those who argue that Higher Education is not hopelessly liberal, I offer the following exhibit:American Voices, 5th editionI am required to use this textbook for the composition classes I teach while earning my bread as a grad student. John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1120398826542424242005-07-03T06:49:00.000-07:002005-07-03T06:53:46.546-07:00Enjoy your 4th of July weekend.Most of my professors won't. Well, that's unfair. Perhaps most of them will. But I know of two that won't, since I overheard them complaining in the hall about "jingoistic imperialism day" followed by the usual self-affirming rants about conspiracy theories that have Rove and Bush at the center.Hey - I'm going to a fairly big BBQ with lots of hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and dip - and friends.John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1119196063578647502005-06-19T08:35:00.000-07:002005-06-19T08:47:57.393-07:00SO - I visited my professor's office the other dayThis professor is one that constantly complains about the Conservative Media Bias in the news media. She is convinced the New York Times is really a shill for Bush, and that big powerful corporations are controlling the news media to help keep us down.When in her office, I noticed she nearly two dozen books that argue for either a conservative media bias, or else argue that Bush and his "croniesJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1113350544528147962005-04-12T16:56:00.000-07:002005-04-12T17:02:24.530-07:00So - here's my thought (or three)Very rough, very preliminary thoughts, subject to change or clarification at a moments notice.One argument I hear for why there are so few conservatives in academia is that they "self-select" out and get high paying jobs in the private sector, whereas liberals prefer to dwell in Ivory Towers and take the low(er) paying jobs in academia so they can espouse Marxism without the taint of market John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1109733339334234442005-03-01T19:14:00.000-08:002005-03-01T19:15:39.336-08:00Oh yeah - and in case you hadn't noticed - I've now added comments. In some ways I am still ignorant of technology. I was taught BASIC and PASCAL computer programming, so this HTML stuff still confuses me.Comment away.John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1109729207694312192005-03-01T18:00:00.000-08:002005-03-01T18:06:47.696-08:00I've also started another blog over here.Check it out. It's going to deal with comics, and I will likely update it more often than I do this blog (though I ain't going anywhere).Yes - I used "ain't." I think "ain't" should be a perfectly good word. Here's why:Here are several phrases capable of contraction:I am not - You are not - he/she/it is not - we are not - they are not.You can contract John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1109710278181992482005-03-01T12:43:00.000-08:002005-03-01T12:51:18.183-08:00Whoa! I'm back! Darn dissertation!Of course, this blog was created to vent, and lately I have found myself less angry. Instead I just have a low level disgust aimed at the unthinking knee jerk liberalism of my fellow students.Anyway - interesting experience:So, we're discussing St. Augustine for whatever reason (I'm not sure, as no one in the class understands any of the scriptural allusions John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1106944379985529052005-01-28T13:30:00.000-08:002005-01-28T12:32:59.986-08:00I minored in Philosophy, so I found this post about Rice and Hegel to be instructive about how liberals demonize conservatives, especially when they don't know what the he{ck} they're talking about.
A great read.John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1105716449157831852005-01-14T07:25:00.000-08:002005-01-14T07:27:29.156-08:00Yeah - I'm still here. School doesn't start until next week, but I'm finding my vacation is busier than my semester.
Anyway, go read this article while you wait for me to resume my irregular posting schedule.John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1103944282347202472004-12-24T19:07:00.000-08:002004-12-24T19:11:22.346-08:00MERRY CHRISTMAS!
And happy holidays, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, Boxing day and Feast of St. Stephen (how many people out there are aware "Good King Wencelas" is not a Christmas tune, but is a St. Stephen's day tune?)
See you in the new year. School is out and when not spending time with my family, I'm working on splitting my master's thesis up into some publishable articles. I probably John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1103052173973546052004-12-14T11:13:00.000-08:002004-12-14T11:22:53.973-08:00Back to comic books, because I am fascinated by the subject.
Comic books actually provide proof that many journalists are slaves to political correctness. Why? In every report I've ever read that deals with the following two comic book characters, they get "labeled" incorrectly" Blade, the Vampire Hunter and the Black Panther. What are they labeled as? "African-American."
Well, their skin John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1102899129691923532004-12-12T16:34:00.000-08:002004-12-12T16:52:09.690-08:00About a month or so ago, I had an interesting conversation with a fellow grad student. He was upset that the "red state" religious right was creating laws in order to enforce their morality "on the rest of us."
I asked for an example, and he gave me a few. They revolved around some (occasionally bizarre) laws in several "red states" revolving around alcohol consumption, adultery, or public John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1102002491915555312004-12-02T07:36:00.000-08:002004-12-02T07:48:11.916-08:00I'm a PhD candidate in English, and I love comic books.'
We won't get into the debate over whether comics are worthwhile literature (I think they are), but this entry at Power Line intrigued me:
Karl Zinsmeister is the editor of American Enterprise magazine, one of the best political publications in America. Karl has been an embedded journalist in Iraq, and has written two excellent books, John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1102000370667772802004-12-02T07:03:00.000-08:002004-12-02T07:12:50.666-08:00Okay - here's the cool experience I promised to relate:
Basically, I have some hope for the future of English, though not a whole lot.
In class we were discussing our seminar papers, and several students were writing papers on "post-colonial" topics. One of them was looking at a school set up by a Western government in one of its conquered provinces.
This fellow student of mine mentioned John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1101351248055848672004-11-24T18:52:00.000-08:002004-11-24T18:54:08.056-08:00Happy Thanksgiving to y'all.
I have a cool experience to relate, but as I am spending the holiday with my family, I'll wait until after the holiday to relate it.
Enjoy your Turkey day!!!!!!John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1100970763159508212004-11-20T09:04:00.000-08:002004-11-20T09:12:43.160-08:00One of the wonderful perks I get from being a grad student occurs when I get to overhear conversations in the grad student ghetto.
The ghetto is the basement room where 60 or so grad students share 15 or so cubicles - even when teaching several classes, we don't get offices - we get cubicles we share with 3 -4 other grad students.
So - the nature of the ghetto is such that you hear pretty muchJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1100483902210173562004-11-14T17:54:00.000-08:002004-11-14T17:58:22.210-08:00Some have asked why I am suddenly blogging more than I have previously.
CAPITALISM BABY!!!!!!!!!!
Basically, I got a nice donation (see link on your top right).
Figuring I should earn my keep, I decided that I had better blog so the anonymous donor(s?) gets his/her/their money worth.
FWIW.
(By the way, I find it funny that when I do the built in spell-checker for blogger, the spell-checker John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1100317756501251772004-11-12T19:44:00.000-08:002004-11-12T19:53:02.246-08:00RE: My earlier logic post.
I really messed up. I had the forms correct. But, for some dumb reason I didn't actually dig out my old logic textbook, so I used the wrong name for the forms.
The forms were valid. But "affirming the antecedent" is valid. The invalid form I discussed is called "affirming the consequent."
A shout out to the half-dozen people who let me know I had gotten the John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1100184745738730082004-11-11T06:50:00.000-08:002004-11-11T06:53:13.673-08:00YOU MUST READ THIS ARTICLE!!!!!
From the Chronicle of Higher Education website:
Liberal Groupthink Is Anti-Intellectual By MARK BAUERLEIN
Brief excerpt: (but go read the whole thing!)
Yet while the lack of conservative minds on college campuses is increasingly indisputable, the question remains: Why?
The obvious answer, at least in the humanities and social sciences, is that academics shun John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1100145343473512942004-11-10T19:53:00.000-08:002004-11-10T19:55:43.473-08:00Here is an interesting email I received just before the election. I figure my readers might enjoy it. Here it is with no commentary from me:
This [is an] e-mail that I received as part of the grad-student e-mail distribution list.....
Okay, everyone (except for the 1 or 2 Republicans in the Dept),
Moveon is organizing a huge push this Wed to have volunteers talk to registered, but unlikely,John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1099751431080410982004-11-06T06:10:00.000-08:002004-11-12T19:50:48.203-08:00A couple of people have attempted to fault the logic in my previous post.
Basically, I have been accused of the logical failing of "affirming the consequent."
For those unfamiliar with logic (and who aren't scared away or bored to tears by discussions of it) here is a brief explanation:
If A than B.
B.
Therefore A
If you know anything about logic, this is an invalid logical construction.
John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1099616849698133762004-11-04T16:47:00.000-08:002004-11-04T17:07:29.696-08:00Expanding on my post yesterday, one reason I think many of my professors and fellow graduate students are prone to accepting liberal conspiracy theories comes from current literary theory.
Nearly all current literary theory is based on terms such as "hegemony" (from Marxist and post-Marxist theories) to "patriarchy" (from feminist theories) to "eurocentrism" (from post-colonial and other "John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1099539534169405352004-11-03T19:21:00.000-08:002004-11-03T19:38:54.170-08:00A conspiracy theory (as popularly understood) generally has two features: It is fungible and irrefutable. Fungible, because it applies to all members of the "Conspiracy group" equally (the "Jews," the right-wingers of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" or even the ultimate fungible pronoun "they") and irrefutable because all evidence to the contrary is taken as evidence FOR the conspiracy ("John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1099402515459339552004-11-02T05:33:00.000-08:002004-11-02T05:36:40.936-08:00Yeah, yeah. Everyone else is saying this as well. I'm giving another reason:
GO OUT AND VOTE TODAY!!!!
And vote for Bush so we can all annoy my professors. Some of them have actually threatened to leave the country if the "Shrub" (as many liberals refer to him) wins.
But then, so did Alec Baldwin.John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1099079683870722982004-10-29T13:46:00.000-07:002004-10-29T18:07:30.383-07:00I prefer to blog about being a conservative English major, and I don't blog much on the election. However, it's obvious I'm voting for Bush.
Anyway, for those few who may not have seen it, guest blogger Megan McArdle over at Instapundit has given the best and most nuanced (I hate that word, but it actually applies here. Oh - and Kerry is NOT nuanced at all) endorsement of Bush. Here are the John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1098841123188720672004-10-26T18:27:00.000-07:002004-10-26T18:38:43.190-07:00This is very odd.
I have spent the last two weeks making sure this is actually happening - and it is. I don't know who is doing it, but they must have a lot of free time.
In our graduate student lounge there are around half a dozen computers for us to use. I surf the net and check my e-mail. I also visit many, many political websites. Some liberal, some conservative. I like to see what all John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1096728097054196072004-10-02T07:35:00.000-07:002004-10-02T07:43:00.130-07:00Interesting exchange the other day on campus:
Me: "That is evil."
Fellow Student: "You mean different."
Me: "No - I mean evil."
Fellow Student: "Evil is such a loaded term. What you mean is that it is different and you don't like it."
Me: "I don't like it and it is still evil."
Fellow Student: "You are incapable of respecting other cultures."
What were we talking about? The recent bombingsJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1094853379663652222004-09-10T14:36:00.000-07:002004-09-10T20:28:06.820-07:00Okay, here's my big problem with "English" studies today. (warning: some sexual terminology is used).
Conversing with a fellow grad student, and I asked her about her dissertation topic.
She replied that she was writing her dissertation on Baseball.
I said something like this: "A lot of novels about baseball focus on the magical and fantastic aspects of it. Bernard Malamud's The Natural does John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1092965439754860002004-08-19T18:21:00.000-07:002004-08-19T18:30:39.753-07:00Back to school. Some training starts this week, with school next week.
I should have some interesting tales from the training (training to teach a freshman writing class - you know: the class that the tenured faculty refuse to teach, so they make the underpaid grad students and adjunct faculty do it instead).
In the meantime: Check out this article about the legalization of pot (marijuana) in John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1091678668412679692004-08-04T20:56:00.000-07:002004-08-04T21:04:28.413-07:00Not much to report, as I am still working 16 hour days. Next week I will have returned to my graduate program, so I should have lots to report on then. I'm going to try to post something between now and leaving Alaska, but no promises.
Meanwhile, check out the new link on the sidebar for http://www.youngelephant.com/ - I'm registered there as "The English Major." I haven't posted there (yet) - John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1089519096606143312004-07-10T21:02:00.000-07:002004-07-10T21:11:36.606-07:00As I have said, I am in Alaska right now.
Here is an interesting news story.
Why? Well, basically this election in Homer was a mandate from the voters. The measure was approved by almost 60 percent of voters. This election wasn't even close.
The results had barely been certified when the opponents of the measure (who were, by and large, from the liberal side of the aisle) began talking John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1088219508698221592004-06-25T20:01:00.000-07:002004-06-25T20:41:46.193-07:00Just a few weeks ago, the Anchorage Daily News was running front page headlines about how the 9/11 commission found no link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda.
Today, on page 8 was a small article about connections between Iraq and Al-Qaeda.
The editorial policy at the ADN is obviously:
Bad for Bush = Front Page Headlines.
Good for Bush = to provide balance, we'll stick it somewhere obscure in the John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1087090424478925822004-06-12T17:57:00.000-07:002004-06-12T18:33:44.476-07:00Just finished The Knight by Gene Wolfe.
That man is a genius. There are two things I admire about Gene Wolfe's ability as an author:
First, he can create unique vocal patterns and vocabularies (idiolect for those who are linguistically minded) for each of his characters. In comparison, Orson Scott Card (one of my other favorite authors) has admitted that he makes only cursory attempts to makeJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1086412579083139232004-06-04T22:11:00.000-07:002004-06-04T22:16:19.083-07:00Boy. I really need to post more
Well, the semester is over and I am working in Alaska for the summer. In August school wills tart up again, so I may have more horror stories to tell then.
But for the summer I may just start spending more time writing mini-essays on just what direction I would like to see English studies go in, my teaching philosophy or the election. Or whatever I may feel John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1084058121402251272004-05-08T16:15:00.000-07:002004-05-08T16:22:00.763-07:00In the middle of huge term papers on subjects totally new to me (and I already have a Masters Degree!), but I had to post part of this email I received from Adam Kotsko of The Weblog, and then give a brief response:
I just wanted to address one point in your post about seeing God face-to-face. It is true that your professor and fellow students are probably ignorant of Scripture and shot you downJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1083170226702976262004-04-28T09:37:00.000-07:002004-04-28T09:48:37.780-07:00A lot of bloggers are commenting on
this story.
I wonder if the Secret Service is bound to investigate every threat to the President's life - because I hear at least once a week (sometimes daily) wishes that someone would assassinate Bush.
Most of my colleagues, when I have asked, say that they would never advocate killing Bush, and they just hope that ol' "Shrub" is voted out of office (orJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1082896981883800632004-04-25T05:43:00.000-07:002004-04-25T05:50:17.653-07:00According to the latest talk in one of my classes, the Pope should just shut up.
After several members of the class blamed the Pope for the spread of AIDS in Africa (due to his anti-condom stance) and the death of women in third world countries due to back-alley abortions, I replied:
"So you're saying that Catholics should disobey the Pope?" and I was told, well yes, but even better - the PopeJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1082223484483467272004-04-17T10:38:00.000-07:002004-04-17T10:42:04.920-07:00I really should post something, but I also have 60 plus pages to write in the next two weeks (not to mention the research involved).
Expect posts to be short and sporadic (just like they have been so far, just more so).
Happy crunch time!John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1081045515496339452004-04-03T18:25:00.000-08:002004-04-03T18:35:27.060-08:00Over at Erin O'Connor I noticed this.
This is addictive. My contributions:
The Book of the Brave New Sun: Severian the Torturer, after becoming Autarch, introduces to his subjects the wonders of Soma.
A Connecticut Yankee in Muad'ib's Court: Paul Atreidies finds his rule of Dune upset when a colonial Yankee arrives and begins teaching why the aristocracy is a bad idea.
A Canticle for MollJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1080957228221946902004-04-02T17:53:00.000-08:002004-04-02T17:57:28.263-08:00I am not making a biblical argument. I can read New Testament Greek, but I do not know very much Biblical Hebrew, so I have no idea what the words behind these verses are, or what the Talmudic commentaries on them might say. They can be read literally (if you're a Mormon) or figuratively (if you belong to pretty much any other Christian denomination - and please no emails about how Mormons John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-10801895472890442004-03-24T20:39:00.000-08:002004-03-24T20:42:35.343-08:00So far, this has no happened to me at the Graduate level (mostly because I have avoided any classes that contain "feminism" or "gender" in their titles or course descriptions)
However, today, for some reason, I was recalling one of the most annoying features of the many undergraduate English classes I took.
This happened in at least a dozen classes, most of them key major requirements - not John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1080007841982170452004-03-22T18:10:00.000-08:002004-03-22T18:14:07.560-08:00Spring Break just got over - and no, I did not go to Cancun or Florida. All I did was hang out here and have a few picnics and outings with my wife and kids. Very nice.
Anyway - a job opening was offered to the Graduate students here: a small administrative job that doesn't pay well but looks great on a resume. So I went to the secretary to get the application and was told "well, this isn't John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1079142479961987972004-03-12T17:47:00.000-08:002004-03-12T17:51:11.500-08:00I was informed that conservative need to stop complaining about the lack of diversity in opinions. There's lots of diversity! my fellow student informed me.
See - on the subject of gay marriage:
1 - one professor thinks that gays should be allowed to be married, but
2 - another professor thinks marriage itself is an inherently unequal institution, and
3 - 3 agrees with 2, but thinks marriages John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1078519684241653872004-03-05T12:48:00.000-08:002004-03-05T12:51:05.700-08:00WARNING: possible offensive language present. Not mine, but from my professor. I'll give some extra space for those who wish to avoid gutter language.
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Okay - one of my professors, apparently unaware that any of her students might be a Bush supporting conservative, called Bush a "son of a bitch" and a "bastard" (I guess only his mother knows for sure) and ranted briefly John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1078021246127253932004-02-28T18:20:00.000-08:002004-02-28T18:23:40.013-08:00Sure why not?
I won't review Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, because I am not eloquent enough. I can't do the movie justice.
I will link to the best review of it. Here it is.
This one is done by Science Fiction writer Orson Scott Card. A better, more thoughtful review does not exist anywhere else in cyberspace. This is closest to what I would have said if I had a better way with words.John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1077921391107935082004-02-27T14:36:00.000-08:002004-02-27T14:40:15.030-08:00Here is why expelling conservatives does not bother liberals in the slightest.
From an essay by Susan Crowley (in Contending with Words, New York:MLA ,1991; pages 196-197:)
"Because . . . students are in some sense our captives, we must give up our traditional subscription to liberal tolerance if we are to bring about social change through them." (emphasis mine)
Now, before you go and say I John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1077920801636048512004-02-27T14:26:00.000-08:002004-02-27T14:29:33.950-08:00Some people have questioned why I post semi-anonymously. Well - if you want to find out who I am, it ain't hard at all. But check out this tale and then see why I am a bit worried.
I am not attending SF State, and Tatiana Menaker made some ill-advised public comments I admit - comments I avoid making by staying out of the spotlight. We all deal with it in whatever ways we can.
Still, John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1077313897708134092004-02-20T13:51:00.000-08:002004-02-20T13:54:19.950-08:00Yesterday in class I was informed that ALL arguments against gay marriage are by definition bad arguments. There can be no good arguments against gay marriage at all. None whatsoever.
Actually, there are lots of bad arguments against gay marriage - but there are lots of bad arguments for it as well. The main problem as I see it is that both sides are speaking different languages. They may John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1077313311911469762004-02-20T13:41:00.000-08:002004-02-20T13:44:34.280-08:00Thanks to the very cool blogger over at Metrosophical I have just discovered a slightly scary fact.
I am not sure how Google decides to rank websites (I understand they recently changed the algorithm used) but:
if you type in English Major I come up third. AND - if you type in "English Major" with the quotation marks (an exact phrase search) I come up first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (so if you John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1076471142453572242004-02-10T19:45:00.000-08:002004-02-10T19:48:11.310-08:00Today, I was told that since I was religous, I knew nothing about the Bible, since I could not read it objectively.
Then the speaker went on to talk about how Noah ate the apple in the garden.
No further comments are needed on my part.John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1076183327582265362004-02-07T11:48:00.000-08:002004-02-07T11:51:11.966-08:00"Morality" is a bad word.
So is "Ethics."
In my theory class the other day, we read a theorist from the 1970s who used the words morality and ethics a lot. What was the near unanimous opinion of the class?
In the words of one of the students, to which the teacher and others agreed "That was creepy."
I asked why, and they gave me odd looks (I'm so used to that, I wonder if they can really John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1074301794899370912004-01-16T17:09:00.000-08:002004-01-16T17:11:49.780-08:00I've got a couple of emails I will respond to in the next few days (I'm still slogging through an academic article one guy sent me - as soon as I make up my mind on whether I like it or not, I'll post it and given the emailer a tip of the hat).
but first, a few emails expressed concern that I have a "Make a donation" button . Whatever. I put it up for the he[ck] of it. I don't expect any John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1074180386009454912004-01-15T07:26:00.000-08:002004-01-15T07:28:18.716-08:00AH HA!! Over at Winston's Diary Winston has a "dialogue" of sorts going with a man named Adam. One part concerns me:
Winston: Finally, Adam goes on to attack Conservative English Major, presumably because I have linked to him:
Adam: Meanwhile, not everyone has arrived at their conclusions through the scientific method: the Conservative English Major, a blog-friend of Winston's, has up aJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1074137101710065042004-01-14T19:25:00.000-08:002004-01-14T19:26:53.763-08:00Semester hasn't really started yet, so I have nothing new to report in the way of liberal antics, but I did want to clarify a question that I have gotten a few emails about.
Yes - my fellow Grad students and my instructors for the large part really do think Bush is Hitler. One professor actually has a picture of Bush with the Hitler style mustache photoshopped in.
And they think the parallels John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1072919471711382712003-12-31T17:11:00.000-08:002003-12-31T17:11:29.670-08:00Oh - and happy new year to y'all!!!!!!!!John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1072919456141353072003-12-31T17:10:00.000-08:002004-01-01T13:39:10.023-08:00I've decided I'm going to stop checking the "white/Caucasian" label. I'm checking the "mixed racial background" box, if there is one.
I've been filling out a lot of forms lately for one reason or another. I have a friend who was born and raised in South Africa, but he happens to be white. He left South Africa because of his disgust over his family's involvement with the repression of Black John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-107291901287708632003-12-31T17:03:00.000-08:002004-01-01T13:40:04.493-08:00Quick item of interest:
Number 2 pencil has this entry on handwriting vs. typing. Reminds me of my elementary school years, where I was actually taken out of class for an hour a day to have private handwriting lessons because the teachers couldn't read my handwriting. After two years and no improvement, they actually taught me how to type my assignments. I learned typing three years ahead of John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1071786835801248752003-12-18T14:33:00.000-08:002003-12-18T14:34:10.060-08:00The Semester is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway - all us TAs got together for one last dinner with our professor (who is actually very nice about feeding us once a month). Well, the conversation turned to failing inner city schools, which our area has a lot of. Guess whose fault it was?
George W. Bush. Of course. Everyone at that table had lots to say abou that (expletive) Bush who is John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1071156615144394502003-12-11T07:30:00.000-08:002003-12-11T07:32:23.093-08:00Bouncing off my last blog, Winston's Diary has a much more eloquent and better reasoned example of how the strident left-wingism of the academy can force moderate students to the right.
Worth checking out.
Also - there is no media bias? FOXnews.com's current headline is that "the USA has captured insurgents leaders in Iraq along with a huge cache of weapons". I can't even find an article thatJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1070940653612253792003-12-08T19:30:00.000-08:002003-12-08T19:31:05.436-08:00Anyway - I promised to talk about how the views of many of my fellow grad students and my instructors has pushed met to support Bush more than usual.
Where - I have to say that I do like Bush. I think he does a good job. I don't agree with everything though. I wish he would try to reign in government spending rather than increase it, and I didn't care for the No Child Left Behind act, but John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1070940162384180962003-12-08T19:22:00.000-08:002003-12-08T19:22:54.193-08:00Hmm. Does anyone vote for Republicans? How do they ever get elected?
Why do I ask this? Well, on the news I just heard (on various stations) that the Democratic party "traditionally" has a "lock" on the following voter blocs:
Senior Citizens
Younger people or The Youth
Blacks
Hispanics
Women
Artists
College students and faculty
Southern States
West Coast
The Poor
Blue Collar Workers
Union John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1070852369383061132003-12-07T18:59:00.000-08:002003-12-07T18:59:41.236-08:00SO, how come this story isn't on CNN.com or other news sites?
Iraqi WMD
Fox may be more conservative than other networks, but that likely just places them in the "moderate" camp - and if its the only place to get news like this, I can't help but understand why the network new is losing viewers in droves.John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1070848422464154602003-12-07T17:53:00.000-08:002003-12-07T17:55:17.726-08:00I was right in my Thanksgiving day prediction. Many other grad students not only attacked Bush for his "Cheap stunt" the other day in the student lounge. A few actually wished that someone would assassinate him. I wonder if I should I contact the Secret Service?
I didn't really like Clinton, but I always assumed that at the least, he was limited to 8 years in office. I never once heard a John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1070494787270373012003-12-03T15:39:00.000-08:002003-12-05T12:28:09.423-08:00So, here are a few lines from one of my favorite poems:
"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The Blood dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
This is from Yeats' "The Second Coming." Early drafts of the poem show he was referring toJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1069986060050735882003-11-27T18:21:00.000-08:002003-11-27T18:21:09.046-08:00Happy Thanksgiving!
Or, as one of my fellow grad students called it "Colonial oppression day."
I had a nice dinner with my wife and kids. I promise no indigenous peoples were oppressed by our meal.
I often wonder why English majors have to attack holidays for things most normal people never even think of when celebrating them. It reminds me of the few Wiccans I know who claim the John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1069375914766069222003-11-20T16:51:00.000-08:002003-11-20T16:52:24.010-08:00Well, www.erinoconner.org has found this blog. Cool. I enjoy Erin's blog immensely (I've linked to it before - see entries below), so it's nice to see someone out there has alerted Erin to my presence on the web.
As for the comment about being unable to check the accuracy of what I have written - well, I am being somewhat anonymous (though if you really want to find out who I am, it isn't thatJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1069298858013414082003-11-19T19:27:00.000-08:002003-11-19T19:27:44.763-08:00Warning: mild profanity (not my words, but the words of one of my professors).
I recall when I started my PhD program that the professor I was "TA"ing for at the time, got all the TAs together and told us how to deal with "right wing assholes' who will try to steal the discussion and push their narrow views on the class.
I made a comment about how, yeah, extreme views on either side of the John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1068847438304577662003-11-14T14:03:00.000-08:002003-11-14T14:28:51.493-08:00Guess what? The professor I work as a TA for (in a general education class designed for the General student body) admitted he chooses works of literature that are anti-religious because he wants to show the students how idiotic it is to be religious. This is a general education class designed to teach literature to students who otherwise will never take a literature class.
Instead of teaching John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1068600296400232812003-11-11T17:24:00.000-08:002003-11-11T17:27:07.596-08:00Not much today, other than another student that is pro-choice, pro gay marriage, anti-George W. Bush, all for higher taxes and who thinks all religion is bad for society tried to convince me he was a moderate.
Found a great link at another blog for more on the Conservative English major problem:
http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/000746.html
Enjoy!John Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6062598.post-1068519222455454922003-11-10T18:53:00.000-08:002003-11-10T18:53:46.586-08:00Okay - here we go.
Today's topic is: FOX News. Today, many people in one of my classes began ripping on the FOX news channel for being a conservative news network controlled by Rupert Murdoch. Of course, I mentioned that CNN was partly created by Ted Turner, a liberal man if there ever was one, and they just blew it off.
Later, we read our teaching philosophies and one student actually saidJohn Phelanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16888272795693719527noreply@blogger.com0