Politics and Culture

I'm a high school English teacher. All California students must pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) before graduating. The school tries its best to prepare students for the test. Hard cases take a special Saturday course and everybody takes practice tests. This month, every 9th grader in California had to answer the question on the (actual) sheet below:

It's supposedly illegal to distribute this. I don't feel it goes against the spirit of the law since this is just a diagnostic test and doesn't count for anything. I took out the bottom part, so that might save me.

It reads:

You belong to a science club that is very concerned about the potential connection between human activity and global warming. The club decides to address this concern by urging students to take steps to conserve energy in their daily lives.

Write a persuasive essay for your school paper in which you convince readers of the importance of taking action to decrease energy usage. Convince your readers through the use of specific reasons and examples.

What's wrong with this question?

1. Either the question-maker wanted to pick a question that he was sure students would be familiar with, in which case one might want to ask, "Just how much time do students spend on this topic, and instead of what?"; or he just wanted to push an agenda.

2. Notice what the student is expected to assume:

a. That there is global warming.
b. That it's caused by energy use.
c. That we can affect it.
d. That it's appropriate for high school students to engage in controversial issues.

The question wants students to convince people to limit energy use, not to argue whether it's true, or a good idea to either reduce energy use or engage in political agitation.

3. From a purely academic point of view, this is the worst standard question I've ever given a student. Why?

The student just has to communicate the following syllogism already present in the question:

a. We should prevent ecological disaster.
b. Global warming is one such disaster and it's caused by energy consumption.
c. Therefore, we need to limit energy consumption.

The essay doesn't ask the student to think so much as write propaganda copy.

The analogy game:

Imagine if the question had been:

You belong to a science club that is very concerned about the potential destruction of jobs by cap and trade legislation. The club decides to address this concern by urging students to take steps to prevent government interference in their daily lives.

Write a persuasive essay for your school paper in which you convince readers of the importance of economic growth and using a disciplined cost-benefit analysis before drawing up legislation. Convince your readers through the use of specific reasons and examples.

1. I've heard people criticize Gates by saying that you shouldn't talk back to the police because "police have a gun." Not only isn't that a funny joke, it's an absurd argument. Does anybody think that a cop would shoot a man for being sassy?

2. The real problem with people arguing with police is that order breaks down. I'm a public school teacher. I can't have students decide whether to cuss me out in class. Everything would fall apart.

3. I don't see why whether the lady who called the police described Gates as "black" makes any difference.

4. Just to prove that conversations on race inevitably turn stupid:

Murphy also disputed accounts of her client as a white woman in the traditional sense. "The fact is, she's olive-skinned and of Portuguese descent. You wouldn't look at her and say, necessarily, 'Oh, there's a white woman.' You might think she was Hispanic," Murphy said.

5. In fact, the reason the study and discussion of racial things on campuses, from grammar school to college, has exploded in the past thirty years is because race talk is easy to understand. Even those without any academic talent can understand and comment on it.

6. Yes, Obama: One wrong turn in your life, from an elite private school in Hawaii to Columbia to Harvard to Chicago machine politics to president could have easily turned it into a crack-filled Hell. I think Obama should have been a motivational speaker instead of president:

7. Following Obama's policy of calling patriotic Americans "stupid" and "clinging" and insulting friendly nations while doing what he can to appease our enemies, Obama has shut down the ticker that gave Cubans their only non-Communist-censored news (the equivalent of talk radio in the United States). Good job! Because the reason that Cuba represses its people is that we're too informative.

8. Being consistent isn't too hard. I admire and agree with the Catholic nurse who refused to perform the abortion at Mount Sinai hospital in New York. If I owned a hospital, I wouldn't perform unnecessary abortions or, if abortion weren't against my religion, I wouldn't force doctors or nurses to do them. I don't own a hospital, however. A boss should expect his workers to follow his legal rules and have the ability to fire those who refuse.

9. I've sometimes wondered why I don't have any interest whatsoever in anything Harry Potter. I've tried to read it, but couldn't get past the first chapter. I couldn't finish any of the movies either. I don't hate Harry Potter; it just doesn't grab me. I think I have an answer.

I think back to the biggest Potter fans I've known. They're not little kids- they're middle-aged female librarian and English teacher types. The series is just too feminine.

10. I know why the Obama health care plan is failing: "Let's see: more money, less care and freedom. Ummm, no."

11. You can't blame "special interests" this time, as they all supported the Obama plan, even the insurers. It's been a grass-roots effort, like immigration reform a couple of years back.

12. Michael Vick should absolutely be able to play football. All he did was abuse animals. Plenty of players have abused intrinsically valuable people and are playing. That he's able to play is a good sign for national values.

13. The globa...I mean climate change debate is almost over. Soon, people won't be able to make the claim with a strait face anymore. More counter-evidence here.

I grew up in the seventies and the glow of space exploration still illuminated the country. I remember making an Apollo 11 plaster wall ornament in school. McDonald's would give away space exploration posters. Today is the fortieth anniversary, and I spent a little time thinking about the argument about whether we should have gone or not. Both arguments make sense to me.

Arguments for the Apollo program:

1. National Pride. Great nations accomplish great things. Just like the pyramids stand today as a testament to Egyptian ingenuity and persistence, the American flag on the moon will remind people that one country accomplished more than others.

2. Man does not live by bread alone. Only the pathetic live to survive. Sure, the space program cost money, but such things inspire people and you can't put a price on that.

3. The effort brought about, directly and indirectly, scientific improvements that have benefited people.

Arguments against the Apollo program:

1. Cost. Similar to how some people criticize religions for building nice Churches, they argue that the billions of dollars spent on the space program could have been saved, or spent on things that would have more directly benefited mankind. The space program is indeed like ancient national projects, where societies squandered their resources on vainglory.

2. Lack of benefit. Besides some rocks, we didn't really benefit from going to the moon. Tang?

3. Puritanism. Similar to the first, pride, whether individual or collective, is a bad human trait.

4. Libertarian argument. Undertakings that don't directly protect the people or serve our national interest should be privately financed.

So, there you have it. I don't know myself where I stand.

1. Sarah Palin is an individual who's popular because of her story (mother, pro-life decisions, family) and sex appeal. That doesn't mean that she hasn't been a good governor or isn't smart. I'm just saying that that's why she's popular.

2. What endears her to 40% of the population, however, provokes the opposite reaction in a group at least as large. It may be a good or bad thing, but it's gotten to the point in the United States that a woman who's primarily associated with good motherly values has less of a chance than a pure business woman like Meg Whitman of gaining office. There just aren't enough old-fashioned mothers and men who appreciate them.

3. Someone might bring up the contradiction as well that such a traditional-minded person may actually prefer not to vote for such a woman as they might feel that politics isn't her role (I guess that "someone" is me). I don't believe it- I'd vote for Sarah Palin- and it may not be true, but I just wanted to throw it out there.

4. Sarah Palin may agree with that proposition as it applies to herself, however, if she resigned because she wanted to live a simple life with her family, which I think is the best explanation. People who can't fathom such a possibility do so because they're projecting their own love of politics and/or power onto her.

5. North Korea has launched several missiles this week.

6. Barack Obama still wants to cut missile defense.

7. In fact, Barack Obama has a habit of analyzing a problem and then doing the opposite of what's required to fix it. Cap and Trade during a recession, for example. A hyper Glen Beck below:

8. As Glenn Beck mentioned, some scientists say that the earth will cool until 2030. Logic: If carbon emissions cause the world to warm and the world is perfect at it's current temperature and the world is cooling, wouldn't that mean that we need more carbon emissions?

9. For more evidence that the left feels that conservative blacks, women, and Hispanics must be destroyed at all costs, read lefty blogs this week on Sarah Palin. No link necessary; any one will do.

10. Sarah Palin is 800 times more worthy of holding office than Joe Biden:

"We did it in Saddam's palace and I can think of nothing better. That S.O.B. is rolling over in his grave right now," Biden said of the former Iraqi dictator, who was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and executed by the Iraqi government in 2006.

Remember, Biden voted for the war, then opposed it. Then, he wanted to split Iraq up into three countries. Now, what does he want? Who cares?

My daughter's school urged her to participate in Earth Hour by turning off the lights in our home. I said, "No, Guirado's don't do that." I explained:

Humans have a soul. Our nature, related to the fact that we have a soul, provides us with the characteristics that divide us from the animals: pride, love, hatred, self-awareness, intellect, and the need to worship. It's the recognition of the source of our creation and gratitude for it that prompts religious people to thank (worship) God.

Atheists, still possessing a human nature, but lacking belief in God, need a God substitute. Earth Hour is a certain kind of atheists' mass; turning off the lights is their kneeling; and sitting there in the dark, a secular "moment of silence."

The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality by Andre Comte-Sponville

Why do I care?

One classic atheist complaint is that religious pursuits distract humanity from more valuable activities (as if people would spend the three or four hours a week they currently set aside for prayer and services helping out in soup kitchens, reading Shakespeare, or building bridges and not watching youtube videos or playing World of Warcraft).

World of Warcraft Battlechest by BradyGames

Well, things that secular people use to fill the worship "hole" in their soul bother me because they take people, like my daughter, away from the true order of reality. Some, like Earth Day, Earth Hour, and global warming nuttiness actually cost me money.

So, just like the secular do with Christmas and Easter, I will do what I can to ruin any length of time- hours, minutes, days, years- devoted to creation worship. In the spirit of earth humbug, I therefore urge every theist to neglect this useless, feelgood, mass-dumminess.

"It's just to build awareness."

I'm aware of the environment. I use it every day.

By the way, I expect a strong correlation between the concentration of secular people and how many lights are turned off in a neighborhood. It should be very dark in Europe and America's mini-Europes (San Francisco, Santa Monica, et al.) and blazingly bright in Texas, Saudi Arabia, and Poland.