I can get better reading references than those from people with degrees that are making 6 figure salaries. People such as my parents, my Political Science Ph.D father and my Georgetown Law School honors graduate mother.
I am sure you can get reading lists from all sorts of people. I gave you a classic recommendation. It has nothing to do with politics, indeed, and if you were considering it just as a recomendation coming from a liberal, Dostoevsky was writing after he found religion in the Gulag. It is a beautiful book full of insights that are more than likely deeper than a modern yellow rag in book form. It is short, too.
Other books that will not sway but may help you think are Dante's Inferno as translated by Robert Pinsky (his notes are exquisite and offer insight into when politics were really dirty).
What degrees the person offering reading suggestions really has nothing to do with the quality of the books they recommend. How much money they earn is even less relevent and for all you know I could be pulling down seven figures with three degrees and a pet Chiuaua.
Edit: I just saw your edits. I have to agree that college towns generally produce well educated children by merit of the faculty's children, but I meant as a whole -- the majority of the students of Penn State are from one of the most conservative areas of the country -- so be it.
Apparently the smarts aren't in the genes since a) you misread my post and b) you actually think Sean Hannity has a clue.
Just to add to my other post, maybe when you grow up you'll see how little graduate degrees actually reflect a person's intelligence and how little salaries matter beyond being able to provide for kids and retirement.
Let's say my parents are smarter than you...they had sex and created me, so now I have a better learning capacity than you do.
That is funny. If only children were the average of their parents, but it is quite possible that you recieved all the bad intellect "genes", and are quite literally as dumb as a brick. But I don't think that is the case.
Just so you know I graduate Phi Beta Kappa from college, but at the same time, honors like that represent mostly the product of work ethic and not necessarily intelligence.
Oh, I think degrees sometimes (and more often than not) do reflect the intelligence of a person. Graduating with honors from a top law school is pretty amazing, straight A's throughout your education...then being able to turn that into a lucrative profession, I think means that the person deserves to be considered smart.
In any case, I dont think that voting for Bush automatically makes you dumb, unenlightened, or ill informed.
Oh, I think degrees sometimes and more often than not do reflect the intelligence of a person. Graduating with honors from a top law school is pretty amazing, straight A's throughout your education...then being able to turn that into a lucrative profession, I think means that the person deserves to be considered smart.
No, it just means they stayed up late a bunch of nights. phds are a joke (except in relation to the vary narrow individual course of study) and law degrees seem like they are handed out like candy to anyone willing to drink enough coffee.
My girl has a running joke about lawyers (she's an executive at a major law firm/financial company): most of the time, they just end up sounding like a police chief getting his 15 minutes from an abduction (you know what I mean). The only difference is that lawyers also like to string together transitional phrases. "also on the same note in addition..." It's their attempt to sound like they know what they are talking about. If only they knew how dumb they really sounded.
And I work at a major university, so the vast majority of my interactions are with the sea of individuals with graduates degrees of some kind. I can't stress enough that some of the stupidest people I have ever met have prestigious graduate degrees.
Deserving to be considered smart and being smart are very different, but I will leave it at that except to add that most sucess in the world is luck.
No. Voting for Bush does not make you dumb. Voting actually is a first step towards intelligence as far as these things go. Philisophically, I do not think you can vote for Bush without placing a strong weight on what he has been percieved to have done. Placing weight on what he has done leads to contridictions and every indication of a failed presidency or at least one that, by defining its own rules, has tripped itself up more than once. But those are my thoughts, and my parents have no influence on them (lucky me).
No, it just means they stayed up late a bunch of nights. phds are a joke (except in relation to the vary narrow individual course of study) and law degrees seem like they are handed out like candy to anyone willing to drink enough coffee.
Grades are meaningless in every post-graduate school except Law School. This, perhaps, is why Messiahtosh, the putative son of a highly paid lawyer, places such weight on them. My parents both educators in some fashion (Medical School and Special Education -- I am being a bit sly about my use of educator but they both teach so...) and their weight on grades was nil. They made us realize that to understand the material was the key and if grades followed they followed if not, eh. In college there are going to be courses that just simply are not worth your time to get the A...
I should add, however, that I think higher education is extremely important, even if just means taking a class every couple of yearsa at the local community college. I have a lot of respect for people that make themselves knowledgeable. That's the whole reason I do my job. But the whole elitist thing that some people turn it into is just ridiculous.
There are really smart people doing important work in graduate school, but that doesn't mean that people with graduate degrees automatically know what they are talking about.
Has anyone ever thought about the contradiction Steve Jobs has in terms of his political affiliation and his company goals? He runs an elitist company, one that only will produce a certain standard and not fall below it for the sake of sales alone.
Steve is obviously just very guilty about his entrepreneurial gifts and success, so he has to knowingly have an inner contradiction about this. It's probably why when he announces a product and says, "iLife is only $49" he beams from ear to ear...he loves any chance he gets to talk up the value and the aggressive nature of some of their products prices. It is obvious as to why...what a case of ambiguity.
Has anyone ever thought about the contradiction Steve Jobs has in terms of his political affiliation and his company goals? He runs an elitist company, one that only will produce a certain standard and not fall below it for the sake of sales alone.
Steve is obviously just very guilty about his entrepreneurial gifts and success, so he has to knowingly have an inner contradiction about this. It's probably why when he announces a product and says, "iLife is only $49" he beams from ear to ear...he loves any chance he gets to talk up the value and the aggressive nature of some of their products prices. It is obvious as to why...what a case of ambiguity.
Comments
Originally posted by giant
Who doesn't have a graduate degree these days?
From your statement it's pretty clear you have neither a 6 figure salary nor a graduate degree. Poor you.
Read it again, I edited the post. Thank you.
Originally posted by Messiahtosh
I can get better reading references than those from people with degrees that are making 6 figure salaries. People such as my parents, my Political Science Ph.D father and my Georgetown Law School honors graduate mother.
I am sure you can get reading lists from all sorts of people. I gave you a classic recommendation. It has nothing to do with politics, indeed, and if you were considering it just as a recomendation coming from a liberal, Dostoevsky was writing after he found religion in the Gulag. It is a beautiful book full of insights that are more than likely deeper than a modern yellow rag in book form. It is short, too.
Other books that will not sway but may help you think are Dante's Inferno as translated by Robert Pinsky (his notes are exquisite and offer insight into when politics were really dirty).
What degrees the person offering reading suggestions really has nothing to do with the quality of the books they recommend. How much money they earn is even less relevent and for all you know I could be pulling down seven figures with three degrees and a pet Chiuaua.
Edit: I just saw your edits. I have to agree that college towns generally produce well educated children by merit of the faculty's children, but I meant as a whole -- the majority of the students of Penn State are from one of the most conservative areas of the country -- so be it.
Originally posted by Messiahtosh
Read it again, I edited the post. Thank you.
Apparently the smarts aren't in the genes since a) you misread my post and b) you actually think Sean Hannity has a clue.
Just to add to my other post, maybe when you grow up you'll see how little graduate degrees actually reflect a person's intelligence and how little salaries matter beyond being able to provide for kids and retirement.
Originally posted by Messiahtosh
Let's say my parents are smarter than you...they had sex and created me, so now I have a better learning capacity than you do.
That is funny. If only children were the average of their parents, but it is quite possible that you recieved all the bad intellect "genes", and are quite literally as dumb as a brick. But I don't think that is the case.
Just so you know I graduate Phi Beta Kappa from college, but at the same time, honors like that represent mostly the product of work ethic and not necessarily intelligence.
In any case, I dont think that voting for Bush automatically makes you dumb, unenlightened, or ill informed.
Originally posted by Messiahtosh
Oh, I think degrees sometimes and more often than not do reflect the intelligence of a person. Graduating with honors from a top law school is pretty amazing, straight A's throughout your education...then being able to turn that into a lucrative profession, I think means that the person deserves to be considered smart.
No, it just means they stayed up late a bunch of nights. phds are a joke (except in relation to the vary narrow individual course of study) and law degrees seem like they are handed out like candy to anyone willing to drink enough coffee.
My girl has a running joke about lawyers (she's an executive at a major law firm/financial company): most of the time, they just end up sounding like a police chief getting his 15 minutes from an abduction (you know what I mean). The only difference is that lawyers also like to string together transitional phrases. "also on the same note in addition..." It's their attempt to sound like they know what they are talking about. If only they knew how dumb they really sounded.
And I work at a major university, so the vast majority of my interactions are with the sea of individuals with graduates degrees of some kind. I can't stress enough that some of the stupidest people I have ever met have prestigious graduate degrees.
No. Voting for Bush does not make you dumb. Voting actually is a first step towards intelligence as far as these things go. Philisophically, I do not think you can vote for Bush without placing a strong weight on what he has been percieved to have done. Placing weight on what he has done leads to contridictions and every indication of a failed presidency or at least one that, by defining its own rules, has tripped itself up more than once. But those are my thoughts, and my parents have no influence on them (lucky me).
Originally posted by giant
No, it just means they stayed up late a bunch of nights. phds are a joke (except in relation to the vary narrow individual course of study) and law degrees seem like they are handed out like candy to anyone willing to drink enough coffee.
Grades are meaningless in every post-graduate school except Law School. This, perhaps, is why Messiahtosh, the putative son of a highly paid lawyer, places such weight on them. My parents both educators in some fashion (Medical School and Special Education -- I am being a bit sly about my use of educator but they both teach so...) and their weight on grades was nil. They made us realize that to understand the material was the key and if grades followed they followed if not, eh. In college there are going to be courses that just simply are not worth your time to get the A...
How far to the right does someone have to be to find someone like me "ultra-liberal"? You're either with us or against us?
* "the crazies". Term used in the Bush Sr. administration for the likes of Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith et al.
I consider myself pretty up to date with what's going on with our government. I couldn't vote for Bush and his administration again. No bloody way.
There are really smart people doing important work in graduate school, but that doesn't mean that people with graduate degrees automatically know what they are talking about.
Originally posted by billybobsky
but I meant as a whole -- the majority of the students of Penn State are from one of the most conservative areas of the country -- so be it.
That's news to me?
Originally posted by billybobsky
Voting actually is a first step towards intelligence as far as these things go.
NO, it isn't.
Apathy is the only reason democracy works as well as it does.
Enough people vote already.
Steve is obviously just very guilty about his entrepreneurial gifts and success, so he has to knowingly have an inner contradiction about this. It's probably why when he announces a product and says, "iLife is only $49" he beams from ear to ear...he loves any chance he gets to talk up the value and the aggressive nature of some of their products prices. It is obvious as to why...what a case of ambiguity.
Originally posted by Matsu
NO, it isn't.
Apathy is the only reason democracy works as well as it does.
Enough people vote already.
Damn you, Matsu!
Originally posted by Messiahtosh
Has anyone ever thought about the contradiction Steve Jobs has in terms of his political affiliation and his company goals? He runs an elitist company, one that only will produce a certain standard and not fall below it for the sake of sales alone.
Steve is obviously just very guilty about his entrepreneurial gifts and success, so he has to knowingly have an inner contradiction about this. It's probably why when he announces a product and says, "iLife is only $49" he beams from ear to ear...he loves any chance he gets to talk up the value and the aggressive nature of some of their products prices. It is obvious as to why...what a case of ambiguity.
What's your argument, again?
Originally posted by ShawnJ
What's your argument, again?
This thread just got me thinking about political affiliation I guess...and it is a Mac message board.