Another Piece of My Heart, Baby

The United States Postal Service came up with a winner recently with a Janis Joplin forever stamp available in panes of 16.  It's done with 1960's psychedelic-style ornate letter like might have appeared on a poster.  At last, there's a positive recognition of the counterculture of the 1960's.  Get a few panes and use them for personal mail.

Here's Janis Joplin (1943-1970) performing "Piece of My Heart":

Knaves, Fools, Douchebags, and Dingbats

Well, it's close to another election again; and I have the same sterile choices that the two major parties offer.  It's a dismal choice between the Democrat knaves, fools, and douchebags and the Republican knaves, fools, and douchebags.  I'd rather vote for my dog. 

Bad words.

That's why I'm voting for third party candidates, if any are there.  And I know, dammit, that they're not likely to win.  But don't give me that bull hockey about throwing my vote away.  I'm voting third party because it's the only way I have of flipping both the Republicans and Democrats the bird!  They both can perform coprophagic behavior, for all I care!

I'm afraid that part of our national problem is our being wedded to a two party system.  While there's a dime's worth of difference between the two, unlike the late, unlamented George Wallace claimed, neither alternative is attractive.

AS a matter of fact, I'd rather vote for a loony than a Democrat or a Republican.  Honest craziness does have its appeal.

And I'm voting against all of those damned amendments!  

Relaxed Pink

There's a recent article in Slate regarding the University of Iowa's visiting team dressing room being colored pink.  Apparently a law professor there  related it to sex discrimination and a put-down of visiting teams.

If the latter was intended, it would seem to be counterproductive.  After all, it's not good gamesmanship to rile your opponent before the game!

The rationale for this color scheme was that pink would have a calming, relaxing effect on the opposition, apparently.  Apparently, rooms that were painted a mixture of a gallon of white  interior paint and a pint of semi-gloss red yielded a particular shade of pink that Alexander Schauss proposed to try, and a pair of naval officers who directed the Navel Corrections Institute in Seattle subsequently found, to have a calming effect on inmates.

It is known generally as Baker-Miller pink; or informally, drunk tank pink.

Whether rooms colored with this shade of pink do have a calming effect on those within is certainly something that deserves empirical research.

Baker-Miller pink

Temporal Direction Signs

The Creeping Encroachment of Schools' Authority

In my opinion, the recent story of the Muscle Shoals High School student who had "disruptive" red hair being sent home and told to dial it down a bit is part of what seems to be an increased sense of self-importance and control that schools are assuming over the students' and teachers' lives.  I am so sympathetic with the unfortunate, put-upon girl.

In recent years, some public schools are even going in for school uniforms.  Now I had to wear one while going to a Catholic school; and it sucked.   So did having to polish the brass buckle of the khaki web belt.  I prefer jeans; as a matter of fact, I wish I could have worn them while teaching on the university level!

The local Florence, Alabama schools had a dress code which included a prohibition on shirts with legible writing involving off-color or beer ads and hoodies, even though the message was nonthreatening and inoffensive.  As a matter of fact, some students were sent home for wearing t-shirts praising the head of the school board!  Geesh!  Humor-challenged administrators!

Another example comes from Alaska in the Frederick v. Morse case.  Some high school students held up a sign at an off-campus event involving the passing of  the Olympic torch bearing the message "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" and their school disciplined them by suspending them for ten days!  The school did so despite the fact that the parade in question was an ordinary public event and not one sponsored by the school.  Unlike an earlier student rights case, the Tinker v. Des Moines case, the Supremes backtracked on student rights.  Apparently, there was a built-in judgment that quality of the content makes a difference.  Okay, protesting a war is serious stuff, unlike a satirical or humorous message that seems silly.  But isn't that beside the point?

Teachers' rights as citizens have been also abridged by their employees (the schools).  For example, a teacher was summarily fired because she posed for an "Eye Candy" modeling magazine [as it styled itself]; and another for serving as a bikini crew member on a charter vessel during weekends.  Would some rigid principal also fire one for discovering her arete in a roller derby or as a stand-up comedian?

These sorts of thing can stack up in the long run.  Singly, they might seem small-scale; but together they can result in an augmentation of school system authority at the expense of students and teachers.  Do we really want school boards or principals to have such dictatorial authority?  I've never seen academic administrators who could manage as philosopher-kings. 

There's another aspect.  As a former low-level college administrator (an academic department chair), I have learned that one should avoid looking dumb, petty, or silly.  Sometimes you're called on to act that way by your bosses; but then it just sucks all over.  Still, turning a blind eye and being an absent-minded professor can be an adaptive strategy.

Political Ads

Up to My Wazoo in Spam!

Political spam chafes my butt.

Pardon my bluntness, but I feel this needs to be said.

Spam (not the Hormel type) has been around since almost the advent of the internet, and I remember having to filter through penis enlargement ads, messages from distressed Nigerian princes in need of a short-term money support, practically daily missives from companies I've done business with in the past, and so forth.

As a matter of fact, I get more spam than readable content.  As most of us do.

Several e-mail providers, like Google and Hotmail, offer spam filters; but there is one form of spam that manages to get under the wire.

It's spam generated by friends and family.

For example, one of my sisters-in-law has a proclivity to send right-wing spam to all on her list, regardless of their possible orientation or interest.  What's worse: in doing so she makes my e-mail address available to others, who might send me more stuff.  Or ask for money.  (No, I don't want to be asked to help fund a nephew's mission to convert the heathen Alaskans.)

I have a left-wing cousin who makes a similar general mailing.  It's like there is a left-wing versus right-wing spam arms race going on.

But there's no one thinking that perhaps I would simply like to be left alone.

Or that the e-mail address they send it to is for professional purposes only.

We need some generally accepted form of spam etiquette.  Or at least a means of opting out of spam and other general mailings.

I hate to be be rude about it, so I fall on the next best approach. 

I block mail from the sender of political spam.   And I'm an equal opportunity spam blocker.