Michigan State University students had an unconventional math class this week after professor John McCarthy, 57, reportedly stripped naked in Calculus 1 class and began screaming that “there is no f—ing God” and “It’s all an act and none of it’s real.” In the age of laptop computers, the most surprising thing is that the students noticed and looked up from their computers. Presumably one student asked the standard question of “will this be on the test?”
Category: Academia
The scourge of sex texting has continued to spread. This week, Swiss scientists announced that dairy cows will now text farmers to tell them when they are in heat. Sensors have been implanted in cows to detect and report shifts in heat and will then send text messages in German, French or Italian as well as English or Spanish. The Jersey cows tend to be the most crude. I believe the message reads simply “I’m horny.”
Continue reading “WYWH XOXO: Bovine Sextexting Hits Switzerland”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
I’m a fan of professional football and I’ve followed it for almost 60 years. Many of those who come to this site, especially our Proprietor, are football fans as well. The game is exciting to watch lending itself perfectly to television viewing, as compared to the other professional sports. However, this is not a post about the sport, the players, its violence or its merits. This is a critical look with the overarching corporate structure of the National Football League. The NFL has become the most lucrative sports business organization in the United States, receiving approximately $8 or $9 Billion a year from TV networks and its revenue from all other sources, including licensing, radio and satellite TV. On average each of the NFL’s 32 teams earns an average of $175 million per year which includes ticket sales. Under the collective bargaining agreement, won after a threatened “player lockout” in 2011, each team has what is known as a “hard salary cap”, which means that the total each team pays to its players is capped at a fixed amount which cannot be exceeded. Currently the cap per each team is about $130 Million per year. Therefore the average NFL team probably makes a profit of at least $30 Million per year after other expenses. Given the state of business, any corporation of medium size that would receive a guaranteed net profit of $30 Million yearly must be considered very fortunate.
The NFL has a rule barring corporations from team ownership:
“Ownership groups must contain twenty-four or fewer individuals, and at least one partner must hold a thirty percent or greater share of the team. The Green Bay Packers are an exemption to the current policy, since they have been a publicly owned stock corporation since before the rule was in place.”
At first glance this may seem a salutary policy, but in operation the League’s ownership consists mainly of billionaires, who are either football fans, publicity seekers and/or both. In fairness I must admit that some of the current owners are descendants of their teams’ founders, such as the Rooney’s in Pittsburgh, the Mara’s in New York and the Halas family owners of Professor Turley’s beloved Bears. Mainly the teams are run by people who made their money in other professions and decided that a football team would make a great hobby. The problem is that the “hobbyists” have and are exhibiting the type of business philosophy that seems to have taken hold in America, which is a ruthless model, in which their employees and even their customers, the fans, are merely pawns to be run over roughshod as they satisfy their egos and their greed. After the break I’ll explain my thinking on this and show why I see the NFL as a metaphor of what’s wrong with our country. Continue reading ““The NFL and what’s wrong with America””
The aging American disco ban Generation Esmeralda experienced a bizarre tragedy in Rio this week. Drummer Brad Parker, 59, collapsed on stage and the band continued to play without coming to his aid. It is not clear whether assistance might have saved Parker who had suffered a heart attack mid show.
Continue reading “Dead as Disco: Band Continues To Play After Drummer Dies On Stage”
University of Tennessee student Alexander Broughton, 20, was hospitalized after he used one of the free alcoholic enemas passed out by the Phi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was dropped off in an unresponsive state at a hospital due to alcohol poisoning. The case could present a rather unique tort action and, in the meantime, the entire fraternity has been wisely suspended over the incident.
Continue reading “Tennessee Fraternity Member Hospitalized After Using Alcohol Enema”
Scientists have determined that men can extend their lives but I expect there will be few takers. By studying the genealogy records of Imperial Court of the Korean Chosum Dynasty, the researchers at Korean University found that eunuchs had significantly longer lives than their contemporaries. The difference would suggest that it is male sex hormones that shorten the life expectancy for males.
Continue reading “Do Eunuchs Live Longer Or Does It Just Feel Longer?”
Thirty minutes ago, our blog passed the 13,000,000 view mark. The fact that we passed 12 million recently shows how fast the blog continues to grow. Congratulations everyone.
I am still in Utah for a speech and I have spoken to many people here about the current presidential campaign. Many locals here have expressed dismay over the missteps of the Romney campaign. However, David Twede, 47, a scientist and managing editor of the online magazine MormonThink.com, says that his criticism of Mitt Romney has led to his being called to account — and possible excommunication — from the Church of Latter Day Saints. The fifth-generation Mormon says that Church elders demanded names of other Mormons with which he was working on the site. He says he was told “Cease and desist, Brother Twede.” The controversy has now been reported on the Washington Post, Huffington Post and a number of other sites – though primarily as a political story. From a legal standpoint, the case raises a classic conflict between free speech and free exercise that we have discussed in other areas.
I am in Utah today to give a keynote address at the opening of the new Center for Constitutional Studies at the Utah Valley University. I am honored to follow Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough who gave the opening keynote yesterday. It was an ironic pairing since they will open with a devotee of John Adams and close with a Madisonian scholar. They were able to keep us separate to avoid any fights in the halls. Despite our disagreement over the legacy of John Adams (McCullough seems to blow through that whole Alien and Sedition Act business pretty quickly in his extraordinary book on Adams), I was pleased to read how McCullough warned the audience about the rising dangers posed by citizens who are increasingly passive and detached from their government.
There is a growing controversy involving a community college professor who claims to have been placed under investigation after he publicly questioned his school’s decision to begin a gay studies program. Professor Jay Rubin wrote a letter to the editor at Alameda Journal that challenged the fiscal basis for the creation of a new program. While he did not sign the letter with his academic title, Rubin was reportedly subjected to a charge of sexual harassment based on that letter by a colleague. I have been pursuing this story for days because of the lack of details and documents in the media. I was able to secure some of this information from Matthew McReynolds, his counsel, with the Pacific Justice Institute.
This week I spoke at the Lou Frey Institute on Constitutional Day at the University of Central Florida and students were particularly interested in the controversy surrounding Professor Sharon Sweet at Brevard Community College (BCC) in Florida. Sweet, 58, is now on leave after she allegedly told students to sign a pledge that reads: “I pledge to vote for President Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket.”
Now here’s a question. What do you get for the groom who has everything? Apparently disciples of Jesus may have faced that dilemma after analysis of a centuries-old papyrus fragment refers to the “wife” of Jesus — possibly Mary Magdalene. The fragment, written in Coptic, states “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …”
Continue reading “A Marriage Made In Heaven? Ancient Papyrus Fragment May Refer To Jesus’ Wife”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
CPS Parent Matt Farmer Puts Penny Pritzker on Trial at CTU’s Stands Strong Rally
Rahm Emanuel promised to “shake up the Windy City’s schools” when he campaigned for mayor of Chicago in 2011. One of his main goals was to change the teacher evaluation process. He is a big proponent of using students’ standardized test scores in determining the effectiveness of classroom practitioners.
Continue reading “Chicago Teachers Take a Stand Against Mayor Rahm Emanuel and His Contract Demands”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Our memories not only serve the purpose of learning to avoid danger from past experience, they serve as the glue that holds our sense of our fleeting lives together into a linear personal narrative. For all of us most memories are specific to our direct life experiences. There are some memories though transcending personal encounters and that directly affect us as well as society as a whole. The murder of John F. Kennedy is one such experience from my life that profoundly affected me and my generation, even though all I knew of the man was third hand at best. Closer in time but equally, if not more indelible is the image of the destruction wrought on the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. I would guess that almost all Americans who were alive on that day know where they were and what they were doing. This past week we passed the eleventh anniversary of this horror and innumerable solemn observances occurred throughout the nation.
I can remember one phrase that began to be used over and over from that day onward and my rising anger at the implications of that phrase. “This Changes Everything”. I’ve not been able to determine what news-person or pundit first uttered those words, but afterwards the phrase reverberated incessantly. As that fateful day passed, what took shape in the meme those words created, was that the United States had undergone an experience that changed all the rules we had purportedly lived by in dealing with the world around us. In effect it was like saying “No more Mr. Nice Guy”. Whether or not our country ever lived by the ideals it purported to live by is another question entirely. My anger rose at the overuse of this meme because I’ve spent my life wanting my country to live by a higher standard in both national and international relations. I correctly saw this meme as an attempted usurpation of this tragedy towards turning our country away from our national ideals, such as they were. As the years passed since 9/11/2001, we have watched the erosion of these America Ideals. Two murderous wars have been waged. Hundreds of thousands have died, or been maimed. Our “national treasure” depleted, torture has become legalized and with the passage of the “Patriot Act” we have watched the demolition of our personal freedom. With this anniversary, two articles appeared nationally that call into question what was really behind 9/11 and also why there was a possibility of deterring it, which was ignored by the G.W. Bush Administration. I want to discuss both of these articles and then add my own thoughts on their real context. Continue reading ““This Changes Everything””