Teri Schiavo

I haven't been commenting on Teri Schiavo because I'm one of those people who need to know the facts before making public commentary.

Let's go over some facts

- Teri Schiavo had bulimia. All those years of binging and puking led to a heart attack which led to brain damage

- Schiavo needs a tube to feed her

- Her husband wants to take out the tube

- Her parents disagree

-Schiavo has no written will

- As of now, the courts side with Teri Schiavo's husband and the tube is out.

As of this moment, looking at CNN website, Schiavo hasn't been declared dead yet.This is a hard case.When you are in such pain or if you're in an eternal coma, would you want to continue living? A lot of people wont. Some people would rather take a lethal injection.

Schiavo wasn't able to have a written will to tell others what she would prefer. Because of that, the controversy is here.

It seems to me that giving a lethal injection is illegal, while taking out a feeding tube is legal.If I have a fatal incurable disease, I'd rather be lethally injected instead of being starved & dehydrated over days (which is what's happening to Schiavo right now)

However, if Schiavo's parents want to take care of her, maybe Schiavo's husband should just give the parents custody.

UH Tuition increase


The University of Hawaii is planning to increase tuition.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Mar/22/ln/ln01p.html

In the late 1990's, when tuition is increase, enrollment went down. Then revenue. So what happened next? More tuition increases, less enrollment and less revenue.The cycle continued until 2001.

After the 9/11 attack, many elite Hawaii families who once preferred mainland colleges started to prefer UH. This was partly due to fear of terrorist attacks in major US cities, partly out of keeping the family together in case of another attack.

However, the fear of terrorism has died down.

And now UH wants to increase tuition. I predict the cycle of the late 1990's will happen again.

Yes, I know, UH is cheaper than many elite mainland colleges. However, many of the local families that send their kids to UH tend to be either 1) middle class or 2) low income who rely on scholarships and financial aid.

Add to that, Hawaii's high cost of living.

Many students have to work part-time to make ends meet.Meanwhile, elitist morons like Dr Foltz (retired UH English prof) and Dr. Lieberman (UH psych prof) expect their students to read all their assigned books. Hey, even if the students are interested in the books, they aint got time to digest the info since 1) they got other classes to study for, 2) they got part time jobs to make ends meet.

UH doesn't have as many trust-fund rich kids like many elite mainland universities do.

Nor do I ever want to hear this crap that students should graduate from college in 4 years. With all the core requirements and daily time constraints, 4 years is too short a time to graduate from UH unless you prefer 2 hours of sleep. I graduated from UH in 5 1/2 years and if you got a problem with that, I got 2 words for you. (1st one starts with an F, 2nd one starts with a Y)

Safe Drinking, Safe Sex, Safe Needles, Safe Sports

 

1) Safe Drinking

With all the controversies over binge drinking at many colleges, Colby College has an innovative approach.

http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D88U6VS00-77.shtml

Colby College, a private liberal arts college where students 21 and older get together on Friday nights in a school cafeteria to learn about and drink beer and wine.

The get-togethers are intended to teach students how to imbibe in moderation and how to imbibe well. The emphasis is to savor, not swill.

Colby officials say the program is just one component of the college´s alcohol education efforts.

"We´ve gotten overwhelmingly positive responses," said Janice Kassman, dean of students. "There are some who say the college should take a just-say-no approach, but I don´t think that´s realistic."

It is true that it's unrealistic to expect college students to not drink. While abstaining from alcohol is ideal (which I follow), many young adults will experiment regardless of the rules.

So in the real world, you sometimes got to go with the lesser of 2 evils. Colby College approach of having a moderate-alcohol sipping event is better than putting our heads in the sand while the kids are binge drinking and thumbing their noses at the rules.

However, the Colby College experiment might lead to a hook-up leading to a date rape. Though it would be worse at a "F--- the rules frat party".

2) Safe Sex

The Colby College situation is similar to giving out condoms at public schools.

The ultra-conservatives put their heads in the sand and say that giving out condoms is encouraging sex. In reality, it is going with "lesser of 2 evils" which is 1) kids having sex without condoms or 2) kids having sex with condoms. Kids will have sex regardless of the rules, regardless of all the conservative correctness they heard all their lives from parents, ministers, teachers, pundits, etc. So might as well go with "lesser of 2 evils" and give out condoms.



3) Safe Needles

Another similar issue is giving free clean needles to drug addicts

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/24/needle_exchange/index.html

No study has ever found that the existence of needle exchange motivates addicts to keep taking drugs -- in fact, most find that syringe-exchange users are more likely than other addicts to seek treatment.

AND

Under the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, it rapidly implemented clean-needle measures in response to the outbreak of AIDS, starting in 1986. HIV prevalence has rarely reached more than 1 percent among intravenous drug users there, compared with over 50 percent at the epidemic's peak in New York.

Again, while the ideal is not injecting drugs in the 1st place, we must deal with reality as it is - people will experiment with drugs regardless of laws and "just say no" campaigns. In that situation - pick the lesser of 2 evils - 1) watch addicts inject themselves with dirty needles and get infected with AIDS or 2) give them a clean needle to reduce the prevalence of HIV.

Plus, for many addicts, the most humane people they meet up are those giving clean needles. The drug dealers just want to exploit their misery, the cops have to arrest them, others avoid them. Those giving clean needles are likely to hook them up with drug treatment programs.

4) Safe Sports

The alcohol, sex and needle situation can be applied to sports.

We dont tell kids not to play football. We give them shoulder pads, jock straps, mouth guards and helmets.

5) Conclusion

While it's ideal that kids dont try alcohol , premartial sex or drugs, people will try them. So we might as well make those situations safer. If not, the kids will defy the rules and be in a more dangerous situation.

Cultural Adjustment to Hawaii

 2 months ago, I mentioned there wasn't enough coverage in the local media on ethnic conflicts many immigrants face in Hawaii.

Here's an article on Filipino immigrants in Hawaii.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Mar/21/ln/ln09p.html

Elena Lactaoen Lao, who was born in Hawai'i but spent most of her formative years north of Manila, Philippines, moved back to the Islands and found herself a foreigner in her birthplace.

In high school the girls I hung out with were more local than Filipino, and the freshman year, I was teased a lot. I had an accent, even how I dressed. Academically I felt I had to prove myself, I had to excel," said Lao, 30, who attended Waipahu High School. "It wasn't until my early 20s that I began to think I am part of this culture."

Isle singer Marlene Baldueza said she felt a clearer cultural identity, owing to her parents' involvement with Filipino associations. However, when she visited the large Filipino community in San Francisco, she admired the more overt "Asian pride" the teens there expressed.

State Rep. Michael Magoay, elected by the North Shore community where he was born, remembered the tension between the colorful Filipino demeanor and laid-back local culture.
"Once you go visit the Philippines, you see the culture is very rich," Magoay said. "Locals are more reserved; they say, 'Eh, no make 'A.' But once you go out of your element and find out where they're coming from, you understand why you're a Filipino."

Magoay said some immigrant students he meets on school visits abandon their language a year after their arrival in the rush to fit in.
"They tell me they're 'shame,' and I say, 'Why are you shame?' " he said. "Those barriers are just within your mind."

More Coaches Busted for Drunkenness

Earlier this week, I mentioned that Kahuku High School girl's softball coach was drinking with his players. There was no report of sexual misconduct, though I did mention it is a possibility.

Well, guess what? At Lanai High School, the coaches of the girl's basketball team were drinking with the players and there was a report of sexual misconduct.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Mar/19/ln/ln03p.html

Two Lana'i High girls basketball coaches have been fired after allegations that players were given alcohol during a trip to O'ahu last weekend, the school's athletic director confirmed.
Maui County police on Lana'i said they were investigating reports involving the girls basketball team that alcohol was distributed to minors and of sexual misconduct, but wouldn't name any suspects.

No details were released about the alleged sexual misconduct.

Sophomore guard/forward Anna Castillo, 15, who was released from the team, was angry.
"I'm really mad about it, and some girls took threats from (the coaches), and they told us to take it to the grave, and some girls are scared," she said.

More Stupidity from Russell Jacoby

 Again, commenting on the same article

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050404&s=jacoby

(note: 

Klein and Stern lecture us, but in social science and humanities faculties "clearly the non-Left points of view have been marginalized." This is "clearly" not true, or at least it is not obvious what constitutes a "non-Left" point of view in art history or linguistics

The Klein study and others like it focus on the humanities and social sciences. Conservatives seem little interested in exploring the political orientation of engineering professors or biogeneticists

My Response: Let's get back to reality - most of the university indoctorination DO come from the arts and humanities courses, and profs in those departments DO tend to make off-topic political rants in class. That is a fact!

---------------------

Conservatives seem unconcerned about the political orientation of the business professors.

My Response: That's because most business professors don't make political rants in class. It's the social sciences/humanities profs that do so.

--------------------

Another "abuse" occurred in an introductory class, Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, where military approaches were derided. A student complained that "the only studying of conflict resolution that we did was to enforce the idea that non-violent means were the only legitimate sources of self-defense." This was "indoctrination," not education. Presumably the professor of "peace studies" should be ordered to give equal time to "war studies." By this principle, should the United States Army War College be required to teach pacifism?

My Response: Actually, in a 2003 article in the NY Times about the US Army Academy (West Point) football team, one of the student athletes was taking a philosophy class debating about "what is a just war". In this case, a military academy is being more balanced than a peace-studies/conflict-resolution class.

-------

More leftists undoubtedly inhabit institutions of higher education than they do the FBI or the Pentagon or local police and fire departments, about which conservatives seem little concerned, but who or what says every corner of society should reflect the composition of the nation at large?

My Response: This is comparing apples to oranges. Firefighters don't have as much influence in shaping the worldview of a 18-24 year old college student as a professor does.

-------

If college students can vote and go to war, they can also protest or drop courses without enlisting the new commissars of intellectual diversity.

My Response: In most cases, the students don't even know anything about the profs until class starts. By then, it's too late, because it would require a major overhaul of a set schedule.

In Jacoby's mind, those who remain in North Korea, Iran or Sudan deserve to be tortured. That's what it sounds like with his so-called "logic".

I found that Russell Jacoby is a UCLA professor. With his attitude, you can imagine the following

- if Jacoby was a cop, he will viciously insult anyone concerned with police brutality
- if Jacoby was a priest, he will viciously insult anyone concerned with child molestation.

Tobin Jones and Russell Jacoby - 2 of hearts?

 In the leftist magazine "The Nation", Russel Jacoby insults those of us who believes that professors should stick to their subject instead of indoctorinating us with leftist propaganda.

It reminds me of Tobin Jones.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050404&s=jacoby

Since I forgot to save my letter to The Nation, but it goes something like this.

I am a recent graduate of the University of Hawaii-Manoa, and while some professors are able to stick to the topic and present various viewpoints, some go over the line.

Some are more concerned with counter-balancing Fox News than teaching their assigned topics. Nevermind that most students at my university are too busy studying and working part-time jobs to vigorously watch any news-stations, much less be devoted to Fox News. This makes those students vulnerable to one-sided rants from professors.

In my Poetry & Drama class, the professor wasted class time with rants of hatred towards President Bush. How would Russell Jacoby feel if (for example) a biology professor wasted class time insulting John Kerry? Hmmm? Hmmm? Hmmm?

All we ask is that professors stick to their subject and respect various viewpoints. How hard can that be, Russell Jacoby?