Last Ride of the White Valkyries
There was an in-class assignment one day (still 306 Race/Ethnicity), to use some database of extremist groups for research, and write up two pages on the group of our choosing. On one hand, I lucked out and picked a fun (as they go) group of jerks. On the other...
The best bridges deserve a good burning, baby.
I have any number of bones to pick with my theater years, which gets professionally tricky. Bad press starts to read like mere sour grapes, and I become the bad guy for having a bad attitude. And it’s a tough sell anyway, because everyone loves the movies. But movie...
More Politics and Race (pols306) Midterming. Part 2.
Good God, did I proofread this thing at all? So many typos. Think I got a B on this midterm, I’m not entirely surprised why. Usually I’ll do a quick read of each paragraph before moving on to the next one, but some of these exams were done at...
Batting For The Cycle- Cleanup on the Netflix aisle
I wasn’t super-inclined otherwise, but between Spartacus and Rome I’ve been on an Italian thing lately. So I gave Netflix’s docu-drama a try- Roman Empire. And… Eh. It’s both more and less than Spartacus and Rome were, though it’s clearly inspired some by both. There’s sex and gore still,...
Pols 306- Politics of Race & Ethnicity midterm pt1
Ah, the good stuff. Race & ethnicity. And you thought perhaps I sounded condescending before, the guy commenting on rape culture? Ha. There are few things in this world more ridiculous than a white guy talking about racial issues. Tall people, perhaps- they’re pretty bonkers. But this was the...
Pols301: Letters to the Editor
This was the midterm. I’ve been looking around for the final, but that may have been the Smith thing. I know there’s a few things that were lost to mis-saves though, so who knows. In this case, the assignment was a flight of fancy. The lawyer representing Trump had...
A Coffee Date With Adam Smith
The 301 prof was not a big fan of big writing assignments, but he liked to mix things up. For different classes he would identify different media for students to use, and for ours he decided on Adobe Slack. There was a practice assignment, then a presentation assignment. I...
Pols301: Declarations of Independence
301, the first of the “actual” classes. Political Theory. The assignment here was a one-pager, just a quick compare/contrast between several Declarations. A funny bit of trivia- this class didn’t take much in the way of writing, but the professor was married to the one who assigned tons of...
Pols 102, part 3: The Global South
Just one short essay left here. Gonna roll hardcore and not even proofread. 5. Consider our discussion of cases in the Global South: Mexico, Brazil, India, Nigeria, and South Africa. Choose any three of these countries and discuss the institutions of colonialism as they pertain to political, economic, and cultural challenges...
No soy Espartaco, yo
I wrote an essay back at PCC on “rape culture”, years before I wrote about ‘Spartacus’ a few days ago. As I’m re-finishing the last season, I’m reminded of how closely related they are. Rape is a storytelling device throughout the series. Male slaves are used by women or...