The inventive minds at freeway blogger have one solution: With some ordinary cardboard (taken from big box retailers' dumpsters, of course), some poster paint, and a bungee cord, you too can reach a captive audience of thousands in the span of a few minutes. In the age of corporately owned…
Here's what MSNBC reports regarding the newly passed bill "to protect the pledge of allegiance." The bill's sponsor, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., said America was a nation of God-given inalienable rights and that's why the country is in a war against "radical Islamists." Democrats wouldn't want to "cut and run"…
It’s been a long week, and it’s only Tuesday.
As my bio indicates, I work at a community college. I teach English and am a writing tutor in our campus learning center, which not only provides help with writing, but with math, science, and foreign languages. We are a multipurpose facility although the individual tutors only work within the areas of their specialization. It is a chaotic place in which to work, not only because of the multiplicity of disciplines represented, but because, while each discipline occupies a specific area of the large room that houses us, there are no walls separating us, and staff are forced to share offices rather than having private spaces to which they can retreat.
Or, at least that is the reason given by some of the staff for the pandemonium. What they say contains a grain of truth, but it is only part of the story, I believe. The real cause of the difficult working conditions, in my opinion, is the lack of respect for boundaries displayed by some of the tutors who behave as though no one else works in the center except themselves. They conduct loud conversations about personal matters wherever and whenever they want, gossip maliciously in front of students, crack jokes and laugh raucously, treat students who come to them for help with something close to contempt, and disrupt the concentration of everyone around them constantly. They seem obdurately oblivious to the needs of those with whom they work, including …
Pouring time into this blog has been deeply satisfying to me. But what is this accomplishing, I sometimes wonder?
After all, there are already numerous writers out there. Technorati.com indicates that it is now tracking 48.5 million sites and 2.7 billion links. Plus, there are numerous traditional sources of information (books, magazines, movies, television) available to anyone who is interested.
I don’t have any illusions about my alleged importance. As Charles De Gaulle famously said, “The cemetery is full of indispensable people.” Nonetheless, I joined the Blogosphere to have a voice and to hopefully present a meaningfully unique voice. This blog is an experiment that will always be provisional and evolving.
This blog grew out of an email relationship between a fellow who lives in Madison (he goes by the name of Grumpypilgrim on this blog) and me. I met “Grumpy” when I provided legal services for a company for whom Grumpy worked. We had emailed our rants and observations back and forth for more than a year. Eventually, I suggested that we exchange our ideas in a public way, in case anyone else might be interested.
Two months later, dangerousintersection.org was designed by Nick Smith of nicksmithdesign.com. I chose the name after looking at a big yellow “Dangerous Intersection” sign I had in my office (I had it around as a novelty) and after considering how that name might generally fit an iconoclastic blog. I took the photo of the intersection used in the site’s logo. Nick made it …
Like so many other complex issues, Americans don’t seem to understand global warming. In a Gallup poll conducted in March, respondents ranked their level of concern regarding several environmental issues. When asked to rank their level of concern over global warming, 36% of Americans claimed that it worried them “a…