RMS Speaks at IUPUI
Posted on October 31, 2006
Richard Stallman, better known as RMS, is scheduled to speak at 3:30pm November 1st (tomorrow) in the Wynne Courtroom at the IU School of Law at IUPUI. I just recieved this email from the USSG listserv. I’m tempted to go, but I’m not sure. His presentation is titled “Copyright v. Community in the Age of Network”
The Fundamental Right
Posted on October 23, 2006
As we head into the last week and a half before the mid-term elections, I thought a few quotes might be in order. Some of them seem oddly prophetic.
Thomas Jefferson
- Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
- Whensoever hostile aggressions…require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.
- I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.
- I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
- I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance, or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.
- Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.
- A little revolution now and then is a good thing; the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
- The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
- On matters of style, swim with the current. On matters of principle, stand like a rock.
- These are the times that try men’s souls.
- Tyranny, like hell, is not easliy conquered.
- Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
- The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.
- The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected.
- It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.
- The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
- Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.
- Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder.
- In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude.
- Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
- My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.
- Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it.
- The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
- Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
- Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.
- The fundamental article of my political creed is that depotism, or unlimited sovereignty, or absolute power, is the same in a majority of a popular assembly, an aristocratical council, an ogliarchical junto, and a single emperor.
- In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
- Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
- The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
- This nation of ours was not founded on Christian principles.
- Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
- There never was a good war or a bad peace.
- I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.
- The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood.
- We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read.
- Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.
- Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.
- This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.
- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
- With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
- America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
On the lighter side, we have:
- Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with.
- I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
- The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that’s out always looks the best.
- The American people are a very generous people and will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible exception of stupidity.
- An ignorant person is one who doesn’t know what you have just found out.
- Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.
- Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate; now what’s going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House?
- I don’t care how little your country is, you got a right to run it like you want to. When the big nations quit meddling then the world will have peace.
- Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.
- My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its officeholders.
- Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.
- It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.
- It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
- Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out…and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel…and in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for “the universal brotherhood of man” — with his mouth.
- Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.
- The citizen who sees his society’s democratic clothes being worn out and does not cry out is not a patriot but a traitor.
- Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
- Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
In case I don’t blog again before November 7th, be sure to get out and vote. Show Congress who’s the boss.
teh funnay
Posted on October 10, 2006
I was cruising electoral-vote.com and they have a link to a page of political humor, which is pretty good, but the funnier stuff is in the section called My Little Sister’s Jokes. They also have some funny images, including this one, which made me scream. That is just wrong.
Political campaigns as hollow rhetoric
Posted on October 9, 2006
Just saw this article over at Topix. The author articulates to a certain extent, what I’ve felt for years – that the Democrats and Republicans mainly care about getting more of their people into office, and less about the business of running government well. It’s a game and the party with the most seats wins.
For me, there are two big reasons to vote independent. First off, traditional two party politics leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Choosing the lesser of two evils means either way, the voter has a poor selection to choose from.
Second, with independent candidates, even if I disagree with what they say and what they stand for, I can at least be certain they aren’t telling me something just to get my vote. They’re telling me their position because they believe.
TESOL
Posted on October 3, 2006
It’s been so long since I blogged, I had to blow the dust off it.
The latest, greatest scheme of mine (it seems as if they change every few weeks) is to work at getting to teach English as a Second Language. I’m not 100% sure how this came about, but within the past few months, I started getting the idea that people who go overseas to teach English, might not necessarily know the language of the country they are teaching in. I still don’t know if that’s true or not, but from stuff I’ve read on the web, it sounds like it isn’t required. It seems counterintuitive, but some of the TESL/TESOL/TEFL jobs sites I looked at had listings that specifically said the only language the teacher had to know was English. Most of the listings required TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) certifications, but some didn’t even require that. Some schools offered their own “quickie” certification courses. The big thing they seem to want is native English speakers.
IUPUI offers has a certificate program and a MA in English with a TESOL certification, and since I’m an IU employee, I could use the Fee Courtesy benefit to work on this. I’ve been looking into it over the past week or so. It looks like the MA program would require an extra year or so, but an MA with certification pays better than a Bachelor’s degree with certification. It’s kind of a fun idea, though I don’t know how serious it will be until I start taking the classes. One of the required classes is a practicum, which I assume is actual teaching.
The idea of going to another country and living there for awhile (as opposed to a vacation) is an exciting one, though there’s a bit of trepidation, too. If you don’t know the language, it’s probably sink or swim. I’m not sure why I’m fascinated by the idea, though if I had to guess, I would probably say that it’s because the two industries I worked in that I most liked (bicycles and clothing) have many factories overseas. Maybe it would be a good way to get a shoe-in-the-door (so to speak) by already being over there. Probably not. Also, by already being over there, and hopefully learning the language, I might be able to help out with translation. I looked at the English versions of some foreign websites, and even some of the English language schools needed some help with their English.
Anyway, I don’t know how far this will go. I did find some blogs of people teaching overseas, which I will post here later. I also plan on updating this website to the current version of WordPress and changing the theme (I’m getting a bit tired of this default theme). But, I’m a slasker, so it may be a little while.
