NaNoWriMo Day 22

I am not posting the things I wrote for NaNoWriMo Day 22 because it does absolutely nothing to advance the story. It is nothing more than an author-blocked mish-mosh of half-baked ideas, thoughts, research notes, and excerpts about science fictional space alien conspiracies, most of it copied from half-witted articles on the web. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of original story telling today.

. . .

I find it passing strange that, even in this modern-day enlightened age, when most of the citizens of the civilized countries are supposedly well-educated and (for the most part) sophisticated, there still exists the propensity for book burning.

Brendan O'Neill , in Spiked, writes: "Students are supposed to read books, not burn them. A leading US defender of free speech on campus says things are so bad that some students are now destroying words that offend them."

Here is a short excerpt:

Freedom of thought and speech on campus, he says, which are so essential to the free exchange of ideas and wrestling with knowledge that take place in any university worth its name, are under assault. They’re being beaten up by the massed ranks of self-righteous students allergic to being offended, speech-policing university administrators who see it as their job to remould young people’s belief systems, and even some professors who now monitor what their students say in class and the tone in which they say it. (He tells me of one tutor whose classroom code involved not saying anything offensive about anyone, which ‘pretty much brought to an end any kind of serious academic debate'.)

Some of the stories about how American students have (over)reacted to being offended are enough to make grumpy old men of the best of us, wondering out loud: what the hell is wrong with the young these days? Alongside the Dartmouth flames of shame in response to a cartoon some students didn’t get or like, other students have taken to stealing or destroying student newspapers that dare to publish something that they -- little gods of super-sensitivity that they are -- feel offended by.

The article will make you think...

Maybe.


I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness
--Christopher Hitchens

. . .

This morning as I write this, I am drinking a cup of freshly brewed Double Chocolate Flavored coffee. I decided to take a break from the serious stuff, the Tully's Dark Italian Roast coffee that was unexpectedly sent to me a short while back as a gift from my friend, Anthony V. Toscano. While I am a fan of chocolate, I must say that tomorrow I intend to go back to the delightfully delicious Tully's.

. . .

For those who have never heard of Women Of TED talks, there is a four minute video describing what Women Of TED is. Here is the link:

http://www.tedwomen.aol.com/tasteofted

As a plus, that web page contains a wealth of pictured links to many great TED talks presented by notable women.

. . .

Okay, that's enough of the chit chat. Back I go into the questionable regions of NaNo NaNo land.

__________

Voltaire wrote, "To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered."