If not leave, puke.

[meimichan]

I don't think I've ever taught a lab that went so wrong so quickly. I had 5 or 6 students just not show up, taking today's lab as their dropped score. I had about 19 or so people show up. I think there were maybe 6 or 7 that were actually not breaking the dress code in some way, shape, or form. I told them they had to go get proper attire, and they went down to Dr. Davis's office to complain about me. He chewed them out. Apparently he told the ones with sandals to go change, and the ones with capri pants or shorts to wrap paper towel or something around their legs.

But wait, it gets better.

The experiment today involved peanut combustion to calculate the amount of heat that was contained in a peanut. First of all, we had no matches. It took about 20 minutes to get matches. The peanuts would not ignite. Dr. Davis went to get an alcohol torch. 4 more students left out of frustration, leaving me with 5 students. We tried immolating the damn nuts in the torch. The peanuts wuold not burn AT ALL. The last 5 students were told to just go, as we couldn't do anything.

I am seriously underpaid here.

I tried a new hair-removal cream on my legs yesterday. Yeah, that was a mistake. I'm hoping my thighs will not be puffy and red and bleeding anytime now. Hell, the sooner the better. I fucking hate leg hair removal. I cut myself every freaking time and get irritated skin when I shave, why the hell would this be different?

My plants. Ahh, the subject I LIKE talking about! I had six tomato seedlings, which have now been thinned down to three. I thinnied my parsley down to three, but I should probably go to two. I only had two basil seeds germinate, so no thinning necessary. Still no green pepper sprouts. Grow, dammit! I thinned my chives down to three plants. That thinning was fun, as I just plucked out the slow seedling and ate it. First chive...yummy.

I have an exam tomorrow and a paper to write and work to do.

Must drag ass away from internet...

Whoops. Found a stupid lawsuit article. Apparently someone thinks their free speech rights are being violated by her inability to bash certain minority groups...

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-christians10apr10,0,6596503.story

Comments

[kerstinovich.livejournal.com]

oh poor you! It's been so long since I was in a first-year chem lab that I forgot how much of a stink people throw about the dress code, ESPECIALLY when the weather starts to get nice. Which, in Houghton, really only applied for MAYBE the last lab of spring term anyway ;)

And complaining to the lab supervisor about you for throwing them out for being improperly dressed... Because they can't HONESTLY think the lab supervisor is going to side with them, can they? "Oh, you're right, students, it's sunny and warm today. There's no longer a danger of chemical burns in my lab." MORONS.

[meimichan.livejournal.com]

Holy cow, that cracked me up. :)

[meimichan.livejournal.com]

In other news, this is the last week of labs for the spring term. :p

(frozen)

[jjmtu235.livejournal.com]

That is an interesting article. I think that is one of the worse problems this country faces. I will always beleave censorship is wrong. As soon as we start to censor people speaking there beleifs we become no better then then then middle east when they execute people for their beliefs.

(frozen)

[meimichan.livejournal.com]

Speaking their beliefs is one thing.

Harrassing people because of your beliefs? That's something else entirely. People are entitled to think what they want, but they ARE NOT entitled to harass other people.

Your rights end where mine begin.

(frozen)

[jjmtu235.livejournal.com]

Thats the issue facing this country. Where does harrassment begin and free speech end.

(frozen)

[zoomer69.livejournal.com]

Would you consider the chalkings on campus "free speech" or harassment?

How is the woman in the article any different than the sidewalk chalkers?

Think carefully....

(frozen)

[jjmtu235.livejournal.com]

Neither, They were threats and valdalism

(frozen) *sigh*

[meimichan.livejournal.com]

I take it you've not been harrassed before.

Since you can't seem to comprehend....


"Homosexuality is an evil sin, and all who perform this are condemned to hell." to a general group of people or as random conversation vs. getting up in one person's face all the time and saying "You're an evil bastard because you're gay, that's sick and wrong, you're going to hell."

Get the difference yet? The first one is voicing their views, however intolerant and unnecessary and how disagreable I find them, whereas the other is harrassing a person over their lifestyle.

But hey, you want to talk about people censoring their beliefs? I do NOT think the Christians in this country need to be too concerned about that. They make up 80% of the country. I am barred by some state laws from even running for or holding public office. Because of my beliefs. I've discovered that voicing my beliefs gets me obnoxious invites to church (details available for those interested about this incident). I've been given bibles, just in case I've never heard of one or read one(I've read more of it than most Christians I've come across). So, I can't even voice my beliefs or my lifestyle with people who aren't my close friends, because I get judged almost instantaneously as being an evil worthless human, the same thing that happens to gay people in this country. Homosexuals probably got a good idea of what MTU thinks of them, and the people who wrote those messages probably don't even know any gay people. (anyone in my LJ who wants to point out any inaccuracies with my generalizations, please do. I can only accurately describe the religious slant here.) Do you get what I am saying here at all yet? The majority has had their freedom of speech rights available for quite some time. The minority groups in this country are prevented from voicing anything about their different ideas or lifestyles for fear of retribution. We don't want anything special, really. We just want the same rights as the majority, without fear of retribution, violence, or hate.

Bigotry is typically not a popular point of view. People can voice their discriminatory views, but they get retribution for it. Remember the Dixie Chicks vs. Tim McGraw before we went to Iraq?

From the Christian blogs I read about this article, most of them were of the opinion that Jesus would have wanted his followers to love everyone in spite of their differences, and to help each other. (any Christians, feel free to correct any inaccuracies of mine)

You want to speak of having your beliefs censored, try speaking from a group that actually HAS HAD their beliefs censored for YEARS.

Any more information, I recommend you do some outside reading on your own.
Google is a nice place to start.

(frozen) Re: *sigh*

[jjmtu235.livejournal.com]

First off I am pagan so I am the majority. I am also in no way agreeing with the bible pushers and their view of the world. I actually despise the teachings of the catholic church. All I am saying is this article brings up the point of where does free speech end and harrassment begin. I think the group can talk all they want about getting rid of programs that support gays. That is free speech. Being in the face of someone is harrasement. There are also gray areas.

(frozen) Re: *sigh*

[meimichan.livejournal.com]

Pagan is not the majority, that would also be considered a minority religion.

The article was about suing her school, a public institution partially funded with government money, about the right to publicly harrass homosexual students. She was suing because she does not want to comply with the anti-discrimination policy towards homosexuals.

When people go to school, they have this strange expectation that it will be a safe environment, where they can work or study productively without fear of retribution for their own personal lifestyle choices.

Thanks for explaining the difference between harrassment and free speech to me, I might not have gotten it otherwise. Especially since I believe I have posted it in here a couple times already.

I am quite literally out of ways to try to explain this to you, and it's really just ticking me off more than anything at this point. If you were just going to say that you believed free speech was important to all, but that the line was hard to draw in cases like this, that would have been fine. Say what you mean to say AT THE BEGINNING. You came across as supporting people's right to be intolerant jerks. I don't know if you were trying to be confrontational or attacking, or you just don't express yourself too well by writing, but it's been coming across on this end as you attacking me and other commentors in here.

I am sure that gabbagabbahey77 knows the difference between Christianity and the teachings of Jesus, since she did get that they were somehow connected.

Any more confrontational comments like these and I will block you. My LJ is not a free speech haven, I am the dictator here.

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[zoomer69.livejournal.com]

To be honest, this story is not strictly about free speech. It's also a separation of church and state issue.

To quote: "The religious right aims to overturn a broad range of common tolerance programs: diversity training that promotes acceptance of gays and lesbians, speech codes that ban harsh words against homosexuality, anti-discrimination policies that require college clubs to open their membership to all."

The woman's lawsuit stems in part from hate mail she submitted as a representative of the College Republicans, hate mail that expoused her religious views. The College Republicans receive taxpayer funds. Therefore, the university was well within it's constitutional rights to reprimand her for that mail.

Had the group simply protested in a common area and didn't attmept to push their views on others (via personal contact), AND didn't accept taxpayer funds, they're within their rights. If the College Republicans accept taxpayer funds via the university, it has to abide by the university policies regarding discrimination. Makes sense.

For her display protesting the campus production of "The Vagina Monologues" with a display condemning feminism, she did this on her own and, from what the story portrays, didn't directly accost others. So she was within her rights not to paint over her sign, and the university was not within its rights to protest. It's a public space.

Private property, however, is a whole other ballgame. You do not have "free speech" when you work for an employer. If your speech is causing problems in the workplace, the employer has every right to fire you. This doesn't mean you're not allowed to practice your religion (or, be fired for it), but that only goes as far as to not cause others harm.

If Ms. Malhotra wants to parade around campus wearing a shirt espousing her religious viewpoints, there really isn't much the university can do to stop her, outside of instituting a stricter dress code. If she wishes to protest on campus, fine, as long as she doesn't accost others.

Personally, though, Ms. Malhotra is a major hypocrite. Her quote: "If gays want to be tolerated, they should knock off the political propaganda."

Works both ways, Ms. Malhotra. If you doesn't like the backlash you get from other students or faculty about your views, shut the fuck up!

(frozen)

[gabbagabbahey77.livejournal.com]

Jesus would have wanted his followers to love everyone in spite of their differences, and to help each other

EXACTLY! The teachings of Jesus are about loving your fellow man. Christianity is supposed to be about love and acceptance of others, not going around telling people they're going to hell and all that other bullshit. The fact that there are people out there acting in the name of all Christians, declaring we have a right to discriminate against whomever we choose, breaks my heart. That is not true Christianity.

I could go on about this, but I'll spare you. . .I just loved what you said about the teachings of Jesus. It isn't very often that people get it right these days.

(frozen) *laughs at the irony in here*

[meimichan.livejournal.com]

And I'm an atheist!

(frozen)

[jjmtu235.livejournal.com]

Christianity and the teaching of Jesus are not the same