Remember my psych final fiasco?

Yeah, I still haven't cleared that up. The email I got for this professor doesn't work. After exhausting all possible variations of the address, I finally ended up resorting to google - and found my professor hiding out on amazon.com.

I can't find him through BC's directory, but I can track down his email (and the profile looks like him) on amazon? Something's not right here.

Hm...

There's no way I could spend money for anybody else's benefit, but we *do* have a ton of wool around the house. If my mom would ever be willing to give some of it up, I could send some up to the school myself, it's not terribly far away.

And then I'd feel all nice and charitable for getting rid of some of this damn wool.

*sighs*

So, I was reading a decent article about how God isn't Santa, and how you can't just ask God for what you want because God gives you what you need, and how it's wrong to just accept reactionary interpretations of the Bible instead of reading it for yourself, and how, yes, giving to the poor is more important than hating gay people.

But I couldn't finish it. One stupid little line, and I can't read the rest of the thing because it's so *wrong*.

He doesn't talk about what you want, perhaps because he recognized there is no end to wants. In fact, Psalm 23:1 instructs, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

Gah!

Anybody with a bit of knowledge should recognize that word "want" as the same one in the proverb "waste not, want not". It doesn't mean "to desire", it means "to need". The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not need. Which is, of course, related to desiring.

Think how often people say "I need" when what they really mean is "I desire". I need a new car, I need to put my journal in my AIM profile, it's urgent. That's no doubt why want meant two things. They're not as different as we'd like them to be.

*shakes her head*

Yahoo is completely right here, the family is wrong. They claim he would have wanted them to have the email, but if that's the case he should have sent them the password. That's what I would do if I wanted my family to have access to any of my accounts in case of death. Which reminds me, I need to put my LJ password in a safe place so Jenn et al. can find it in case of a tragedy and tell youse guys what happened. If something happened.

Really, what's in his email that they think they need to see? For all they know, it could be full of porn, or snarky commentary on their political views, or (most likely) spam. None of this belongs to them.

You know what I hate?

The phrase "politically correct". People use that phrase when they don't like something. Usually, however, the correct phrase for what they don't like is either closer to polite or to stupid than to "politically correct".

You don't like the name a group has picked for themselves? Calling them a name that they consider offensive isn't being un-PC, it's being rude. Call people what they want to be called. There's no crime in ignorance (does this person prefer "handicapped" or "disabled"? Is he black or African-American?) but when somebody tells you "I prefer this term", it's only polite to use that term. And, of course, some things we can guess are rude. Most people will automatically shy away from "crippled" or "nigger" without even thinking.

What about insults? You're so upset because your favorite insult is now a victim of the so-called PC police? You think that you should be able to say "gay means stupid" and "gyp and jew mean stealing"? Yeah, you need to knock it off. First of all, they're insults, they're rude anyway. Secondly, here's something important. Even though *you* think that you're not actually talking about gays or gypsies or Jews, nobody else knows that. Find a better word, one that doesn't imply that gays are stupid, or Jews and gypsies are thieves and stingy.

Some things derided as "politically correct" really *are* stupid, of course. I am too busy to list them, but I'm sure you can think of some. I still hate the term. Just say "that was stupid" not "OMG! THE PC POLICE ARE HERE!!!!" Please? It'll make you sound a lot less reactionary, and possibly more mature.

Course I can't stop you from saying what you will. I can just rant in my journal.

And now... the most dramatic post of the day...

Are you ready?

You sure?

Postive?

Well... okay... I'd better cut this to avoid offending anybody. Hold on...

Okay!

( Prepare for the flames, people.... )