Bono has been given an honorary degree by Trinity College in Dublin:
· Mr. Paul Hewson (Bono) LL.D. (Doctor in Laws)
Lead singer of internationally acclaimed rock group, U2, Bono is an outspoken fundraiser for Third World problems. Founder of DATA (Debt, Aid, Trade for Africa), a non-profit debt-relief advocacy group, he has been instrumental in the Drop the Dept campaign which wiped out millions of dollars of international debt owed by Third World governments. He has lobbied world leaders to encourage them to contribute more aid relief to developing countries. He has been nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.
What does the man himself say about this? I know you're all dying to know:
(Bono)... was so delighted at the award that he declined to put on his mortar board, in case it didn't fit. "My head has swollen such is the treatment I have got from the college," he said.
(Well, at least he is honest. Heh...)
Pretty good for a guy who never actually went to any classes at any university AFAIK. Let's see, he's forty-three, I'm forty... I'll still get my degree in less time so nyah!
Heh. Look at what they're up to at UCF:
A plan by a student group to install hundreds of American flags at the University of Central Florida is provoking a debate over whether the idea is an exercise in patriotism or political intimidation.Members of Rebuilding On a Conservative Kornerstone, or ROCK, have received the blessing of President John Hitt to spend up to $7,500 in student-government fees to place flags in every lab, classroom and auditorium on campus.
And to think that I am not taking any summer classes, so I get to miss all the fun. Of course, it doesn't help "ROCK's" cause when their members say dumb things like this:
"Anyone who says they don't want the flag in the classroom runs the risk of being anti-American," said UCF ROCK member Jered Beaird, 21, a junior nursing student from Vero Beach. "You don't want to be seen as antipatriotic."
Way to be an ass, dude. In any case, UCF is a somewhat more conservative campus than that of other universities in the state. It may be "conservative" by default -- a lot of the students there are transient, many of them only taking a semester or two there and then returning to Florida State or UF or someplace like that. Most of the students here aren't particularly attached to the campus, and even its football team has nowhere near the reputation as the Hurricanes (the University of Miami), the Gators (UF), or the Seminoles (Florida State). And that suits me just fine...
(Via Joanne Jacobs.)
These, my friends, my darling souls
They are, they are the frozen ones...*
Then again, it could be even worse. I could have someone like this oxygen-wasting asscake to look forward to seeing behind the lectern two or three times a week. Imagine going to class knowing that your professor thinks you should die because you are a citizen of the country that has given him a home. Or perhaps even birthed him -- I have no idea where this De Genova character comes from -- Mordor? Uranus? Mongo? -- nor do I care. His eventual destination is the one that waits for us all so that is some comfort.
I forgot: excellent commentary on Professor Asscake by Diane at Letter from Gotham, Cato the Youngest, and Dipnut. These aren't the only ones who have had their say about Mr. "One Million Mogadishus," just the ones I liked the best so far.
*There's nuthin' like defunct goth bands as a soundtrack for one's pretentious musings.
Some campus group organized an exhibit called "The Tunnel of Oppression," which sounds like a leftist mirror-world version of those haunted-house-like "Hell" exhibits some fundamentalist church groups put up. Anyway, one of the organizers wrote an error-filled, syntax-broken letter of complaint to Erin O'Connor for daring to criticizing his group's endeavor.
Update: whoops -- forgot a sample of the brilliant prose --
This past fall we presented this program and had over 750 students go through this program and impacted each and every one of them. At our annual residence life conferance we had 240 student staff attend this program. What most of you fail to comprehend is that different people expierence situations in different ways. This program is a slymps of how others may have to live on a daily basis.
Um -- what's a "slymps"? I mean, I thought I was stupid not to get a drug reference in a classmate's paper the other day.
One of those would be Mr. Kim Du Toit. An unfortunate example of today's collegiate system had the audacity to write to Mr. Du Toit. He made two mistakes: 1) he used bad grammar and punctuation; and 2) he wrote something stupid. Then again, he signed himself as a "Sophomore Philosophy and Psychology major," so I am not surprised. The only thing worse is a Humanities major taking an English Writing minor.*
*Like me.
Well, I was going to go to UF and get my master's degree. Suddenly that idea looks very unattractive.
Today I had a deadline to upload a story to my web class. (Advanced Fiction Writing.) I went to upload it. The server is down. Now my story is late.
Crap, crap, crap, crap.
Professor Michael Drout has a very good post on the state of academics, how the public perceives them, and especially the humanities. It's a good thing to keep in mind that despite appearances, not all the lunatics are running the asylum yet. Unfortunately the media likes "controversy," noise, radical "out there" spoutings (or statements that can be twisted that way); most scholarship is quiet, tedious, obscure, and not conducive to instant gratification. True, many academics are communist loons who combine ivory tower unworldliness with the arrogant self-regard of the truly stupid. But not all of them are that way. Some of them even have blogs...