Shaun Duke

With commentary, of course. Presidential Election: Barack Hussein Obama w/ Joe Biden as VP. It doesn’t matter that sixteen electoral votes are still being decided, because Barack Hussein Obama is our next president. Period. He earned is 349 electoral votes to McCain’s 173. And if you didn’t see Obama’s acceptance speech, then look no further than here:Part One Part Two I don’t think anything else needs to be said. This has been one of the most amazing moments in American history. Can we change America for the better? Yes we can! Senate Election:Democrats — 56Republicans — 40 I don’t when we’ll find out about the last four seats that the Dems need to have a fillibuster proof majority, but right now they have a pretty firm hold on the Senate. Not much more to say about that. House Election:Democrats — 252Republicans — 172 Talk about taking everything! Dems control all branches of power now. This could mean disaster, but I hope it means that change will come easier for us. I really hope so. California Ballot Measures:Prop 1 — YesOh man, this is awesome! We’re going to have a highspeed rail!Prop 2 — YesOverwhelming picked, unfortunately, and we will all face the consequences of this bill head on. Prices for produce will go up drastically. Many people will be forced to close their businesses, thus putting thousands and thousands of workers out of jobs, and we’ll likely start importing more of our meat. Good work animal rights people. You’re doing a fantastic job of destroying America. I don’t like the mistreatment of animals either, but you could have come up with a better way to deal with it than this. You know, like putting in protections for California families and businesses, or a good transitional period for them, or a billion other things. Jerks.Prop 3 — YesGreat, so we’re going to throw a billion dollars at people who haven’t even spent the $700 million we gave them four years ago. What kind of crap is this? Think about it. We’re giving a loan to someone that hasn’t used their last loan yet and going into debt because of it.Prop 4 — NoNot by much either. I think a better bill will show up eventually. I’m not saying that teenage girls shouldn’t share information with their families, but I’m not willing to support a bill that forces them to ahead of time so they can intimidate these already terrified girls.Prop 5 — NoHope this is a good thing.Prop 6 — NoBig no on this one. That’s probably a good thing.Prop 7 — NoOverwhelming voted again. Something else will spring up for this eventually. You know it will.Prop 8 — YesLooks like one point for bigots here. It was an incredibly close one though, with a difference of about 300,000 votes, which sounds like a lot, but really isn’t. It’ll get overturned eventually. Not much more to say here other than I’m sorely disappointed in Californians right now. I’ll post more about this one later.Prop 9 — YesGood. Now more rights go to the victims.Prop 10 — NoGood, we were smart on this one!Prop 11 — YesPretty close on this one, which shows that a lot of people were also iffy on it.Prop 12 — YesI’m glad that Californians like veterans too. Well, that’s it. It was a relatively good election and most of the propositions that should have gone through or been shot down did. And with that, I’m off to school to go learn and be useful to society.

While perusing my RSS feeds I noticed a post by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. about teaching and students and whose responsibility it is to learn. Modesitt makes a valid point by stating: The responsibility for learning has been quietly but dramatically shifted over the past two generations. Long years ago, when I was in school, and longer years ago, when my parents and grandparents were in school, the responsibility was very clear. Regardless of the circumstances, the student was the one who was responsible for learning, and the teacher was responsible for teaching. Today, everywhere I look, and everywhere the teachers in my family look, the responsibility for both has been placed on the teacher. Today, teachers must inspire; they must create the atmosphere in which children will learn; they must create a climate where student self-esteem promotes learning. Everything must be positive, despite the fact that, outside of school, life has a tendency to provide far more sticks than carrots, and that “life lessons” can be brutal. Interestingly enough, I agree wholeheartedly with this. Teachers have become responsible for producing results in students, but the reality is that students should be more responsible for their learning (and it is the job of parents to make sure their children are responsible). Once you get into college it becomes crystal clear where the responsibility sits, because professors don’t give a flying fig about whether you succeed or not (well, if they like you they do); they are there to teach and if you aren’t willing to learn, that’s not their problem (some professors are exceedingly open to discussion though, and are not fascists who aren’t willing to help you better understand).Modesitt goes on to talk about why students have little motivation, remarking that, “[it] has gotten to the point where most students take little or no responsibility for learning, particularly if the subject is difficult or ‘boring.’” While I agree with Modesitt on the basic principle, I think something should be said about why students lack that motivation. It isn’t just that the subjects are boring; they, too, feel that the subjects are of little interest, and in a way they are right. To those of us who have an education (mine is almost exclusively within the arts) understand the importance and value of that education (with exception to the occasional thing that I know I will never use again).But imagine how kids who are learning a wide range of subjects feel about those subjects. How many of them are actually going to want to become biologists or chemists or historians? Most people don’t head off to college to advance themselves, sometimes for good reason, or at least what seem like good reasons to them. “I’m never going to use geometry.” “When am I ever going to need chemistry and biology if I’m going to be a contractor?”I’m not saying that this sort of mentality is right, but I do understand it. I also understand why the burden has been placed on teachers. Too many of our students don’t care, even the intelligent ones who could very well become leaders in this country, or in the world. We have to get to the bottom of why they aren’t enthusiastic about learning. Do their lives at home influence their interest in learning? I imagine that the environment a student lives in will have significant impacts on his/her education, and here I leave out the obvious instances of home environments that are not conducive to learning (exceedingly abusive parents, child molestation, kidnapping, etc.).I don’t know if Modesitt is suggesting that teachers stop playing an active role in getting their students interested, but if so, I think that will be a disservice to society as a whole. I do understand where Modesitt is coming from and I do agree, but when it comes down to it if we just sit back and say “we’re not going to push you to be interested” we will end up with an entire generation of kids that fit into the following: Don’t know anything and realize it. Don’t know anything and don’t care. Don’t know anything, but think they know a lot of things. Don’t know anything, but don’t know what to do about it because they don’t know anything, or they feel that it’s too late. Don’t know anything and have no drive whatsoever to do anything productive. Insert your own version here. We need scientists. We need teachers. We need literary enthusiasts and educated people in this country. The fact is that we can’t rely on students to become enthusiastic about certain subjects on their own. We can’t rely on students to become interested in advanced education without a little push. Something has to give, and unfortunately with the majority of parents not playing an active role in their children’s lives (or playing a negative active role by effectively attempting to dislodge or deconstruct what their children are learning) we have to lean on teachers (and this is short of making public policy that dictates how people teach their children, which would, in my opinion, be a significant breach of civil rights). Teachers are our mediating factors and until such time as parents or students become more involved on their own we are going to rely on teachers to do what has to be done to keep this country competitive and educated (to the best of our ability).

If you want to protect marriage, then don’t vote for a constitutional amendment that will actually destroy legal marriages. That’s right, all those people who got married when the courts turned over the ban on gay marriage will effectively be forcibly stripped of their marriages all because a few people are upset at the prospect of homosexuals being able to share the same rights. What 8 will do is put the government into a position in which it will interfere in our personal lives and strip people of their rights and of their marriages. Think about that while you’re considering how to vote. Are you willing to tell homosexual married couples that they can no longer be married because you don’t like their marriage? Not just from the comfort of your own home, but to their faces. If you’re not willing to tell these people straight up that they can’t be married because you say so, then why are you voting for 8? Vote no on Prop 8. Let’s be fair here. The fact is that marriage hasn’t been threatened one bit by homosexual marriages. Not once. Look into it. Thousands of homosexuals have been married since the change, and has marriage been damaged? Nope. Not at all. Just think about what you’re doing when you vote yes on 8. Think real hard about it. Because you are contributing to the historical and social discourse of hate depending on how you vote. That is all. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)