Why do they act that way?

I mentioned “hand-wringing and indignation” in my previous post about a stripper’s allegations of rape against members of the recently disbanded Duke lacrosse team. These two reactions have been among the most common to the still-evolving mess–I say “still-evolving” because the DA seems determined to bolster his “street cred” with Black voters by sending the case to the grand jury despite the absence of DNA or other evidence that an assault actually occurred.

Oddly enough, the stripper apparently can’t identify anyone as an assailant, so without DNA or eye witness evidence, this rape allegation begins to look more and more spurious. I mean, some “unpleasantness” probably occurred, probably characterized by some racism and angry words, but this is starting to appear like an attempt to bend the legal system to the designs of a few interested parties–the DA and the stripper, most likely.

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PC Minefield at Duke

MinefieldThose of us who live in Durham, NC, seldom experience the glow of the national spotlight. We have become accustomed to seeing references to the Research Triangle area in the sports pages, but apparently not much else happens here that is worthy of notice by the rest of the country. Maybe that is what has led to the disequilibrium around here, especially among the usually confident voices of the university set who now find a bit of difficulty in hitting their marks and saying their lines in the case of the recent rape accusations against members of the Duke University lacrosse team.

Perhaps people have also been put off balance by the complex convergence of factors required to put Durham in the news. Attracting national attention has required a story combining the popular theme of sports and something else newsworthy–or prurient–enough to attract the notice of the national press. In this case it was that a young African American woman is the accuser and the accused are generally privileged white college athletes who have become rather notorious in the area for their rowdiness and run-ins with the law.

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More on Dogs

Or is that Moron Dogs?

Naw, it’s not the dogs’ fault if they cause problems, is it? It’s those silly, silly owners, right? Of course, it is.

Here’s another little behavior of theirs that makes me wonder: In this aforementioned neighborhood with its aforementioned network of walking trails, dog walking is something of a national sport. Thing is, most of these dog walkers seem to think it is proper for them to walk on the left.

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Dogs – Gotta love ’em (or do we?)

shhhh.jpgI live in Woodcroft subdivision in Durham, NC. This little blurb appears at the bottom of a long page in the Homeowners Association Web site’s “Neighborhood News” section.

PET PEEVES
Dog owners please remember the walking trails are often located very close to your neighbors yards and are used extensively by non-pet owners as well. Please take a plastic bag and clean up any “accidents” that your pet may leave along the trail. The same consideration is appreciated in all of the common areas, traffic circles etc. Thank you in advance for being a considerate Woodcroft neighbor!”

Well, let’s just say that if anybody actually sees the blurb, not many abide by it. It’s a shame, too. This great neighborhood is made less appealing by the large amount of dog waste scattered everywhere. I mean, you can smell it driving through the subdivision. It just brings up the issue of why people have so many dogs anyway, and once they have them, why they don’t keep in mind the effect of their dogs on other people.
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Thank You, Ibiblio!

This is just a quick post thanking the folks at Ibiblio.org for the great service they have done for me and many others by allowing us to host our various resources here. If you check out Ibiblio’s main page, you will see that the resources span quite a gamut. They call themselves “The Public’s Library,” and it is indeed true.

I first became aware of Ibiblio back when it was called Sunsite. It was a big download repository for Linux and other software back then (and it still is). It became Metalab for a few years, and then, with an expanded mission and vision, it became Ibiblio.

This organization has remained true to some outstanding, egalitarian principles over the years. While most of America seems devoted to enriching itself or to consumption of resources of one kind or another, Ibiblio has busied itself providing resources for free. By hosting sites such as Creative Commons, they have contributed to the expansion of the vision of sharing and given it an organizing principle.

Paul Jones has been at the helm for much of this time and doubtless deserves credit for maintaining the purity of Ibiblio’s vision. Kudos on a great organization! We all appreciate it a lot!

Greetings, etc.

This is the first post on this blog. As such I suppose I should lay out my purpose in initiating this project in the first place. As much as anything, it is an experiment, a proof-of concept sort of thing. I am enrolled in a class on 21st Century technologies, and our professor has encouraged the class to see what new technologies await us out there. What better way to “kick the tires on the 21st Century” than to start a blog of my own?

Now, many blogs have a central purpose, a raison d’etre, as it were. This one is way more random than that. The only organizing principle at work here is that it’s all spilling out of my mind. Well, whose mind is this, anyway? Not to identify myself too completely (and take the risk of identity theft), I’ll just frame myself as a world-weary boomer, an educator, and a person with lots of hobbies.

There. I think I’m safe from that identity theft bugaboo now. I mean, who wants to be that guy?

But my life as a public high school teacher has offered me the opportunity to observe quite a bit of what we’ll cal “human behavior,” for lack of a better word. A public high school is one of the best places there is for observing our culture, popular and otherwise, and how it affects us whether we like to admit it or not. Experience in that environment put one in touch with how we Americans raise our children and how we put value on the various aspects of our lives, and that is a big part of who we are.

Beyond cultural commentary, as an educator, I might have something to say about education from time to time. I have a two-year-old child, so I might talk about him a little. (I’ll try not to go on and on about him, though; I know how tedious that can be.) I spend a good bit of time outside, too–fishing, gardening, running, that sort of thing–so topics like that might find their way into the mix.

As I have said, though, I also spend time observing my fellow man (and woman). I find myself constantly amazed at what we are capable of, both the bad and the good, but mostly the odd and incomprehensible. When I can’t figure out why folks do the wacky stuff they do, I might just ask for input from the the world of blog readers. They seem to be a pretty literate bunch; they might offer some worthwhile insights for us to consider.

Oh, yeah. The name of the blog. With a name like mine, you’d think I would have gotten a lot of teasing growing up. Not so much, really, even when I found myself on the same soccer team as a guy named Sellers. Hey, that team won two high school state championships. Maybe that had a way of deflecting criticism, I don’t know. Anyway, when I Googled the phrase, nothing came up except misspellings of the more familiar term. It’s fair game! I nailed it down first!

Hey, big deal. Get over yourself.