Listening to the radio on the way to work this morning, The Morning Grind Radio program, local liberal morning drive-time show. The host, Matt McNeil, who I generally like very much, was moved by the coincidence of both himself and his producer, William Wonderful, watching (separately) Finding Bigfoot Tuesday evening. He went off on a short rant about about 'the nuts in the woods', as part of a larger theme of the dumbing down of Americans from, in part, reality TV.
A caller then raised the thought that the IQ of American citizens have dropped 17 points, to the point where we are giving out Tech visas to immigrants to fill our technical positions.
I sent this to the comment line, and have added a touch for clarity.
Mr. McNeil, Mr Wonderful,
I am a huge fan - normally. Today's second hour, however, was ridiculous, in re: to the 'Sasquatch' conversation.
What harm are they (Finding Bigfoot) doing? They like to hoot and holler in the woods, you can believe or not, it's entertainment. They, and I, think that sasquatch (and ghosties, and UFOs) are out there to be found. Other people believe in god - I do not know the religious leanings of the characters on the shows, but I don't.I am not religious, and while I can believe in, and question, the unknown, even the 'spirit of nature', I do not believe in the traditional Bearded Sky Fairy, smiting the shit out of everything, who will throw me into a sulfurous pit for not hating teh qweers enough. A second, shorter, Open Letter:
Dear Organized Religion,
Fuck off.
Love, paleo
What I see is other people believing in god going on TV every Sunday morning and scaring widows out of their social security. Finding Bigfoot has never gone on TV saying "If you believe in Sasquatch hard enough, and give us every cent you can spare and then some, Sasquatch will make you rich." That's Mac Hammond and his most famous congregant One L Two N's. The Ghost Hunters have never been busted in the LA Times for having a cover-up of kiddie-diddling ghost researchers.Prosperity Gospel. Ha. Ha. Roger Cardinal Mahoney needs to be jailed all the way through Purgatory.
Regarding **** from *******'s comment about visas, and how we are allowing people into the country to fill tech jobs, those people brought in on visas to fill those positions do so at almost non-living wages. Its not a lack of tech savvy people, it's a lack of tech savvy people willing to work for, when one's salary is divided by hours worked, well under minimum wage. It's not substantially different than undocumented workers coming in to do manual farm labor.Not to mention, someone overseas can get a great technical education for a fraction of the cost of a university education here in the US. Not to mention, any tech worker unemployed after the age of 45 will be unhireable. Not to mention, any hi-tech worker employed after the age of 50 will soon be unemployed. Not to mention that going into hi-tech as a woman is asking for a lifetime of abuse from the unfortunately very real stereotype of most code monkeys being male Randroids.
My two cents.
paleo
Do my arguments make sense? Am I totally off base here? I don't knock on people's doors at dinnertime to pass out copies of the Patterson-Gimlin film. I am aware I'm a nerd, I'm okay with it, but does that make me stupid? I'm quite pissed off.
I don't knock on people's doors at dinnertime to pass out copies of the Patterson-Gimlin film.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why not.
{Tears of laughter run down my leg}
DeletePeachy!
the real problem is that education and intelligence are no longer winning propositions in America. It is obvious to even the most jaded observer that connections, inheritance, and a line of bullshit is what makes for success here.
ReplyDeleteCollege students graduate with $100,000 in debt and weaker job prospects than I had in high school.
And the supposed Masters Of The Universe have never explained how they can pay everyone else a pittance and somehow still manage to sell anything.
I guess that's why they don't give a shit about moving manufacturing out of the country. They don't actually give a shit about producing anything.
There is a lot of scamming involved as well. I am going (I hope) to start for an MBA next fall (if everything, including stupid house, gets lined up. I have picked a mortar university with an okay rep, which I will get pretty heavily subsidized.
DeleteJust for grins, I gave Phoeneix Online a call, just informational - huge horrible no-goodness, frequent calls, promise the moon, no GMAT, etc. Jeebus.
Then I've heard that administration compensation for these peanutheads is off the scale, and that marketing is 20%-30% of their budget.
Hard times bring out evil sunzabitches.
Young Zombie has been accepted at every college he's applied to. His preference is for MSOE or UofM (Minnesota has not notified yet. Has the state shut down from ice already?)
DeleteHe's aiming toward Software Engineering. But hey, I was looking at Mechanical Engineering when I started college, so Mileage, variance, you know.
Wife Sublime is planning on taking some ancillary courses in fall, she already has an MBA in addition to the Engrg degree.
I am pretty much the only one with a dead future.
Re: Minnesota shutting down from ice - actually, this is the first safe ice-fishing winter in a couple.
DeleteRe: UofM, software engineering - I have a thought, if you're willing to make contact off-blog
Good for bringing the Boot of Righteousness down on their pates. Making fun of "nerds" and "kooks" is one of the last socially acceptable forms of bad behavior. Hell, I remember back in the day when journalists would show up at the monthly Secret Science Club lectures hoping to write a "hey, look at the freaks!" story. The number of reporters dwindled when they found out that the attendees were a diverse, well-adjusted bunch of people who just wanted to drink beer and listen to a science lecture.
ReplyDeleteAh, well, I listened today, not really expecting much for a follow-up or even "Well, everyone thinks what they think." Was not expecting another 5 minutes of 'freaks/drunks/con-artists' abuse.
DeleteDouchebags.
I like my interests, I don't apologize, and I am quite capable of reading/driving/math/plunging my hands into a live panel safely, they can kiss my ass. Hey, I love geology, too, have a degree - obviously a scam.
Dickweeds.
Making fun of "nerds" and "kooks" is one of the last socially acceptable forms of bad behavior.
DeleteChainsaws and zombies. You guys have it easy.