That woke 'em up!

So the LDEP listserver, which has been about as active as a termite in a teddy bear (don't ask), has sprung to life. Lazarus should have been so sprightly. Mostly people agree with me, but I'm guessing that it just takes longer to write up a note of disagreement. I'll wait till the weekend, then I'll summarize what's been said and see if we can make anything out of it. Not to sound impatient, but my guess is that if we don't do anything now—anything really meaningful, that is—we never will. I'll try, anyhow. I'm sanguine about making at least some difference.

Curiously enough, one person did come forth in favor of not knocking postmodernists on face. I didn't, I don't think; I mean, yeah, I knock them all the time, but I didn't say we should ban them. They sort of ban themselves (and teammembers can read my handy how-to-beat-pomo diatribe in the files section of our private db) by virtue of never providing empirical links to reality. But I do feel that the materials are generally inappropriate for the high school curriculum, and it is unlikely that many educators would disagree, regardless of their opinion of the material per se. Still, even I venture forth with the occasional pomo discussion; I didn't spend all that time on Caveman for nothing, after all. Much modern theory is fun; some is perhaps true: critical theory arguments, for example, although they are merely restatements of other arguments. We didn't need people devising Critical Race Theory, for instance, to recognize the lack of Civil Rights in the country since the early 17th Century. We don't need legal theory to know that US law has been in the hands of a White elite, or queer theory to know that homosexuals are not always treated fairly. These academic theories sum up the obvious, so the fact that what they're talking about is true is where their relevance lies; their existence as academic analyses is almost beside the point.

Anyhow, last night's meeting was a bust, if I do say so myself. Midterms have mown down much of the usual assembled multitude, including taking away their seats (all of which had been moved to the gymnasium). Plus there was some disciplinary breach at the school resulting in a minor lock-down, although they let in the Speech and Debate Banditos; no real threat, I guess. We talked a bit about IPR, which I find an inappropriate argument for Neg in this topic (I'd already sent out a good essay on same), then we played the odd game of CX resulting in the distribution of some crappy prizes, then I bloviated about some meaningless general nonsense for a while. I need a better plan for next week. Something with more meat. A glimmer of the new topic would be nice, but it's allegedly not released till Wednesday. Oh well, I'll come up with something.

And one last thing. I haven't complained about O'C for a long time here. He's been keeping pretty clean lately. Maybe he just knows that I find the new WTF website so confusing that I've about given up on it. (Before I had given up on it for content; now for form. It does keep me guessing.) The site keeps spawning; the next thing you know it's going to pop out of my stomach and run down the hallway some day. Where is Ellen Ripley when you really need her?