The Office and Philosophy

 

The Office and Philosophy, originally uploaded by pharoah6905.

Being an avid fan of The Office combined with my interest in philosophy told me I had to buy this book.

Anti-anti-piracy Ad

Yup, that’s not a typo. Here’s one group’s response to those MPAA anti-piracy ads.

Barbie Girls…and a Ken Girl

I don’t know what to say about this…Barbie Girl

And the beat goes on

As some of you who know me may already know, I got an iPod Touch last week and have been using it constantly ever since. However, today when I was walking around the house with my headphones in, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. I found that my footsteps were suddenly going to the rhythm of the music. Has this ever happened to anyone else, or am I just going crazy? (that second part was a rhetorical question)

Lies, Damned Lies, and the OC Register

Yesterday I got an email notifying me that OC Register had ran an article titled “Santa Margarita Catholic High School to adopt policy on school trips”. I initially thought that this had to do with the recent decision to allow the religion department to go on field trips. However, I felt it was somewhat suspicious as a small change in policy such as that was hardly newsworthy.

Then I opened the article and was somewhat surprised by the subtitle “The new guidelines hold students accountable for actions on and off campus.” I was primarily intrigued by the idea that they were presenting this as “news”, even though we have always been told that we were representing the school, and could always face punishment if we misbehaved on the trip.

The real shock did not come until I actually read the article. Within the first few lines I realized what this was really about:
“‘In a nutshell, what the new policy will say is that if a school is sponsoring a trip – whether or not it is at the school, and during school hours – all the school rules apply to the trip,’ said Rev. Gerald Horan…’It will eliminate all confusion to students, staff and parents.‘”

I have several problems with this right off the bat. First off, it is clear that the diocese is now attempting to institute rules that will help them justify the ridiculous firing of two teachers last Spring.

In addition, Rev. Horan states that this is an attempt to remove confusion, but in my opinion, this only creates more confusion by forcing us to clarify between a school sponsored trip, and one that is not necessarily approved by the school. If a teacher opens their house to students and one of the students is seen using a cell phone, can they then be given a detention since they are breaking a school rule? What about field trips where we are not required to wear our uniform, are we still held responsible under those circumstances.

At this point, I would also like to point out some of the obvious media bias in the article. It was immediately aware to me that the subtitle of the article was clearly an attempt to make it seem like they’re “watching out for the kids’ safety” when in fact it is merely their means for justifying the firing of two of the greatest teachers Santa Margarita Catholic High School has ever seen. And speaking of those teachers, did anyone else notice the mysterious omission of the fact that Doc Hansen has a PhD (Popular art teacher Eric Hansen was fired ), a clear attempt to discredit him as a teacher.

Moving down in the article comes this lovely quote “Horan said he still can’t release details about the allegations.” I think pretty much everyone in the entire school already knows by now, but the diocese seems to be determined to make sure that the public thinks it’s something sexual, which is not true. It is merely the fear that they will have to admit that they were wrong in firing Mr. Rhodes and Dr. Hansen which keeps them from telling us the truth.

The Register then threw in a quote from Lauren Bordages “It will void our early policies regarding school trips” which is basically legalese for saying “hah, now you can’t question us for firing the teachers because we changed the rules.” Little do they realize that by doing so they violate the Ex Post Facto Law from Article 1 Section 9 and 10 of the United States Constitution which states that a person cannot be convicted for an act that was made illegal after the person committed the act.

To top it all off, the Register added this final paragraph, “‘I believe the school handled the situation very professionally,’ said Terry Edwards, a parent of two SMCHS students.” WHAT!! First off, I’m just wondering how many people they had to ask before they finally got someone who was clueless enough to agree with what the school did? Also, why would you ask a parent of two students who NEVER even had them as teachers, to comment on a story about those teachers.

All in all, this story just blows my mind…I honestly can’t believe the media could stoop lower than it already has with Fox News and all the other garbage out there. But this just proves how little I know about these crazy morons that call themselves reporters.

Piracy Joke

So I was watching a DVD the other day and the anti-piracy video came up and it said “You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a mobile phone.” Then I thought to myself, you know, I wouldn’t steal a car, but if my friend came up to me and said “Hey I just bought a brand new Lamborghini, do you want me to burn you a copy?” I reckon I’d accept.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I translated my site into pirate speak.

Christian Philosophy

Hey everyone,

A lot of people asked me if I would post the Philosophy Presentation online, so here you go Christian Philosophy. By the way, if anyone else has their groups presentation and would like me to put it up, I would be more than happy to do so.

His Kid, Your Kid

Word of the Weekend

DoubleHeadphoning v. to use two or more pairs of headphones at once to listen to two or more sources of audio
ex: I was doubleheadphoning last night so I could watch the Feist music video while also keeping up with the Emmys.