1493 (Jan 21, 2009)

(posted to Facebook, January 21, 2009)




...is when Columbus sailed the deep blue sea.

What?

That's about all I have to say about history class. Except that I earned my participation points for the day by answering who was from Genoa. See, the Chinese, during their age of exploration, are said to have gone pretty much everywhere, including the Americas. They also drew up maps, which were said to have been left in Genoa. And who was from Genoa? Why, Columbus, of course, who sailed the deep blue sea in 1493. So, basically, there's quite the conspiracy theory among historians that America was not Columbus' idea.
Now that's my kind of conspiracy theory.

And, aside from participation, 50% of the grade comes from two exams and 40% comes from the final... so, I have it made, I think.





ENG 101

"In a year, more people are killed by domesticated pigs than by sharks."

Proposing logical convictions causes people to close down and shut out any form of logical thought and fight back with fallacies and ad hominem attacks. I think this explains a lot. After all, when you contradict and challenge a person's personal system of beliefs (or convictions), they tend to become extremely defensive and fail to think logically, thus the necessity for ad hominem.

Prof: "What are convictions?"
Me: "Deeply held beliefs."
Prof: "Well stated."

WIN





Aquafresh: Now with active flouride that penetrates the tooth enamel!

Yuck. That's what I call a really deep clean! Ew.





"When there is a motive to be virtuous, there is no virtue." - Lie-zi

"Formerly men studied for self-improvement; today men study for the sake of appearances." - Confucius





Oath of Office

To clarify what I said in "CHOPE" about the Oath of Office and how poorly Mr. Monarch (yes, and the Chief of Justice) stumbled, I was not only referring to the part in the middle where "faithfully" was said in the wrong place. Below is the actual Oath of Office.

"I, [Barack Obama], do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Not only was "faithfully" placed after the first "States," Mr. Monarch jumped his cue.

CoJ: "I, Barack Obama, do..."
M.M: "I, Barack..."
CoJ: "...do solemnly swear"
M.M: "I, Barack Obama, do solemnly swear"

The placement of "faithfully" was a disaster.

CoJ: "that I will execute the office of President of the United States faithfully"
M.M: "that I will..." (pause for correction by CoJ)
CoJ: "that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States"

And then! He said it wrong anyway!

M.M "that I will execute the office of President of the United States faithfully"

So, because he was not officially sworn in between the hours of 11 and 1, he took the oath again in the Map Room shortly afterward. Mr. Monarch was not official until after 1pm on January 20, 2009.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5it4CDiPY7ky9_KP89CZZmjlgtNaQ

The only other part of the oath that was inaccurate was the very last ten words. But that part hasn't been upheld since 1969, with the exception of a short time from 1981-1989.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/