random things

It has been nearly a month since my wife moved to Elkhart to continue her seminary degree. It is the first time in my life when I have come close to living by myself. So far I have been surviving. A week ago I drove to Elkhart after school and spent the weekend. We had a nice time, though it didn't help her keep up with her reading. When I went to watch the Iowa football game in the small student lounge I discovered the Canadian students must have chosen the channels. There were numerous stations showing hockey or soccer (which I didn't mind) but the ESPN stations were not among those available. I did figure out how to watch the game on the computer.

Sometimes I wonder about my students. In World History we have been looking at the middle east and spent some time comparing Judaism, Islam and Christianity. This can have some pitfalls because some kids have been taught that Islam is satanic, that it worships a moon god, or that the Qur'an says Muslims should kill Christians. This is in addition to the negative view of most Muslims in our media.

In the midst of this a kid asked about circumcision. Since they are sophomores the boys usually giggle and visibly cringe if this topic is mentioned but one young man winced and then asked, "how do they reproduce?" The kids all got quiet. I suppose they were wondering if I was going to explain circumcision to him or if I would avoid the subject like their parents and Sunday School teachers had apparently done. I explained that when boys are born their penis (giggles) has something called a foreskin, and that circumcision is the word used to describe the process of removing the foreskin. He winced again and asked, "so they don't cut it all off?" I said "no, the Dr. just cuts the foreskin (giggles) from the penis. (more giggles) The next question was a bit shocking as he asked me if he was circumcised. One of the male students quickly said, "I'm sure you're circumcised." I told him I didn't know if he was circumcised or not but that maybe his friend who seemed to know, or his parents could inform him of his status some place other than my classroom. His last question was, "so if I'm circumcised I can still reproduce?" He probably can, but given his intellect, maybe he shouldn't.

In U.S. history I usually have a fair number of students who believe the United States was created by divine intervention and that all of the founding fathers were doing their Christian duty when they instigated the American revolution. This year I typed some excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and Common Sense. On the rest of the page I typed an excerpt from Romans 13 and just referred to it as Document A. I had a few questions for them including one which asked if "Document A" was consistent with the Declaration of Independence. I was disappointed that not one student recognized "Document A" as being from the New Testament. Most assumed it was written by a Loyalist and as such most suggested it should be ignored. Now I know you can argue about the relevance of scripture, but the lack of knowledge about what scripture says is one reason why I think some conservative Christians have bought into the whole myth of God and country. They seem much more content to wield their Bibles has a weapon to hit people over the head, rather than to spend much time actually reading what the scriptures say and mean, (not that I am any kind of expert either) I don't imagine "liberal minded people" know the Bible any better, but at least they aren't trying to use the scriptures as a weapon to threaten and intimidate.

Now that the taxpayers "own" 80 per cent of AIG, does that mean I can get government sponsored health care?

It is hard to not become cynical watching congressional republicans talk about "congressional oversight of the executive..." in the last week with talk of the 700 billion dollar bailout. Where were they during the first six years of the Bush presidency when they seemingly rubber stamped everything Bush wanted?

It is interesting to hear a number of the political pundits talk about the government becoming more socialistic as they talk about the bailout. I don't think I have heard any of them talk about the government becoming more fascist as a result. I think Bush/Cheney would be happy to be dictators.

Apparently I have enough foreign policy experience to become the vice-president. I have visited seven countries (including Canada and Mexico), three or four more than Palin has visited. I have to admit that I can't see any foreign countries from my window, but since I live in a small town, I assume I have some of those all important "small town values," whatever those are.