Releasing the Politics of Irrelevant Obsolescence

Hat tip to Levois at Illinoize

Why is someone like myself is more likely to back Barack Obama than someone else?

From the Huffington Post:

Nash McCabe is the voter from Wednesday night’s presidential debate who noted that Barack Obama doesn’t usually wear a flag pin and asked, “I want to know if you believe in the American flag.” [...]

ABC, which hosted the debate, had tracked her down after she was quoted in a New York Times story about white voters in small-town Latrobe, Pa., revealing her as 52, out of work and against Obama.

But to understand why Obama rubs McCabe wrong is to go beyond the question of what a flag pin has to do with patriotism — it’s not really about the flag pin, she said in a telephone interview Thursday — and consider McCabe’s life. It’s no Hawaiian prep school and Ivy League story, unlike Obama’s. It’s a slice of working-class Pennsylvania, the core of Hillary Clinton’s support there.

McCabe met her husband, Lloyd, in April 1983 at a dance. They married two months later. Six months after that, she says, he was injured in a coal mine accident. He hasn’t worked since.

“I was a nurse’s aide, a cashier,” McCabe said. “From 1996 to 2000, I was a manager of a cleaning company. I started out as secretary and worked my way up to manager, and then the company decided to close. It took me almost two-and-a-half years to find a job that I got laid off from recently” as a clerk-typist. She has a high school diploma.

Sometimes the McCabes borrow money from her parents, who are in their 70s. She has a request in to the local food bank to see if she and her husband qualify.

Ok, that is a bit of her background. Now let’s get to what she doesn’t like about Obama:

But she sees a difference between the two. In Clinton, she sees someone who has struggled for years, just like her, and has earned the right to be president. In Obama, she sees someone who rose like a rocket, always has a smooth explanation for everything — whether it’s about his former preacher or the flag pin — and who makes it all look too easy.

“That’s what upsets me about Barack Obama,” she says. “He takes everything so nonchalantly.”

Ok, now let’s take a look at myself. Yes, I was raised blue-collar. But, due to some lucky breaks (e. g., my not getting horrible diseases, not getting hit by a drunk driver, killed or wounded in a war, etc.) I was able to get an education and to find safe, steady employment.

But, think about what I do: I am a mathematics professor. In my profession, merit counts more than anything else. An 18 year old who just got a Ph. D. from MIT would be considered for top math jobs; were I to apply for those and talk about my “experience” I’d be laughed at.

I can accept that the top positions aren’t awarded by “oh, it is so-and-so’s turn; I am entirely comfortable with someone new coming along who is, to be blunt, more talented and skilled than I. “Fairness”? Give me a break. This isn’t fair. This isn’t fair. This too, isn’t fair.
But the idea that someone has waited their turn and is now therefore entitled to a top position is a complete joke, at least to me.

(note: this article is quite good, but is off topic)

So, I am more than comfortable with going along with the “upstart” who, in my opinion, has run a better campaign, has superior judgment, is smarter and is more creative.

Fortunately, some of the old guard agrees; witness some of the recent high profile endorsements.

Obama for President

The formal act of endorsing a candidate is generally (and properly)limited to editorial pages and elected officials whose constituents might be influenced by their choice. The rest of us shouldn’t assume anyone cares. My avoidance of offering a formal endorsement until now has also been affected by the pull of old friendships and my reluctance as a teacher and commentator to be openly partisan. But my conscience won’t let me be silent any longer.

I believe that Barack Obama should be elected President of the United States.

Although Hillary Clinton has offered solid and sensible policy proposals, Obama’s strike me as even more so. His plans for reforming Social Security and health care have a better chance of succeeding. His approaches to the housing crisis and the failures of our financial markets are sounder than hers. His ideas for improving our public schools and confronting the problems of poverty and inequality are more coherent and compelling. He has put forward the more enlightened foreign policy and the more thoughtful plan for controlling global warming.

He also presents the best chance of creating a new politics in which citizens become active participants rather than cynical spectators. He has energized many who had given up on politics. He has engaged young people to an extent not seen in decades. He has spoken about the most difficult problems our society faces, such as race, without spinning or simplifying. He has rightly identified the armies of lawyers and lobbyists that have commandeered our democracy, and pointed the way toward taking it back. [...]

Yes, this is Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor for Bill Clinton.

But, well, change is at times, painful, and no one really wants to be put out to pasture, and there are some who simply haven’t bowed out gracefully, such as former Democrat “Holy” Joe Lieberman, who has endorsed John McCain:

Some who are acerbic and bitter, such as Geraldine “Imperial Wizard” Ferraro:

Paul “I can’t believe I am now Irrelevant” Krugman:

(psst: the New Republic actually got it right)

Paul Krugman has written a number of pieces that are highly critical of Barack Obama. Krugman is a distinguished economist as well as an exceptional writer, and on issues of substance, he raises reasonable questions and offers plausible objections. But as many people have noticed, the tone and intensity of Krugman’s pieces are puzzling. It seems almost personal–a kind of campaign.

What accounts for this?

I don’t know the full answer, but here’s a significant part of it: Krugman and Obama have different approaches to political disagreement. Krugman likes partisanship, and Obama does not. In a revealing column in January 2007, Krugman cited Obama’s lament that “politics has become so bitter and partisan,” and rejected the Senator’s suggestion that we have to become less partisan in order to solve our problems. In Krugman’s view, we need an FDR, not a consensus-seeking Eisenhower. Politicians have “to tackle the big problems despite bitter partisan opposition.”

Rejecting Obama’s claim that we should begin with a new period of bipartisanship, Krugman quoted, with evident admiration, FDR’s famous statement, in 1936, “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.”

Krugman insisted that politicians who seek “a new New Deal” should welcome the hatred of the right. Obama doesn’t hate those who disagree with him, and he does not welcome people’s hatred. Krugman seems to hate that.

And of course, the first couple of irrelevancy:

And yes, others are catching on to this.

[...]“It was just heartbreaking,” said Mrs. Larson, a Democratic National Committee member from Minnesota and more to the point, a superdelegate who had initially pledged herself to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. This was last Saturday, after the former first daughter learned that Mrs. Larson would be shifting her allegiance to Senator Barack Obama.

“She is a delightful young woman who loves her mother very much,” Mrs. Larson said. “She was really pushing me. She kept asking me why I was doing this. She just kept asking, ‘Why? Why?’ ”

It is a question many in the Clinton camp are asking these days, sometimes in conversations far less civil than that one. After nearly two decades building relationships with a generation of Democrats, Mrs. Clinton has recently suffered a steady erosion of support for her presidential campaign from the party stalwarts that once formed the basis of her perceived juggernaut of “inevitability.”

Some of it is just business, practical politicians putting aside ties to the Clintons to follow the will of the voters in their states or making a calculation about who seems best positioned to win.

The immediate fallout, with the Pennsylvania primary only two days away, is electoral. Mrs. Clinton has been losing potential endorsers and superdelegate backing from grass-roots activists like Mrs. Larson as well as elected officials, party luminaries and former Clinton White House aides (the most recent being former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who endorsed Mr. Obama on Friday). It is the constituency that provided Mrs. Clinton with an early lead among superdelegates, one she retains although by a narrowing margin.

But there is something more wrenching at work as well, a reckoning of whether the Clintons, on balance, have been good or bad for the party. It has the feel of a very personal testing of loyalties to a former president who once always seemed to be adding to the “Friends of Bill” list, and to a sitting senator who, if not so driven as her husband to win over everyone, used her fame to help elect other Democrats. [...]

So, yeah, this is a party-purge year of sorts. But I suppose that the old guard has to ask themselves: do they want to go the way of “Holy Joe”, do they want to become dignified elder statespeople, or do they want to get with the new program? The choice is theirs; they no longer call the shots.

Wet Saturday

Workout notes 20+ mile walk in 4:50. This was a bit weird; first I walked out to Moss and back (about 1 mile) and changed pants; it was in the high 40s and raining. My windpants were soaked so I changed to double layered bike tights under some shorts. That did the trick, but, of course, the weather heated up to 60 or so, and we even got a tiny bit of sun.

The rest of the walk took me into West Peoria (lunch course) with a loop in the Cemetery (big hill), followed by two Bradley Park Cornstalk loops, out Columbia Terrace to Broadway, McClure, Bootz, Bigalow, Forrest Hill, Glen Oak Park, past Woodruff to the Rivertrail and on home the standard way.

I maintained a steady 14 minute per mile pace throughout; the last 3 were in 42 minutes (uphill).
Only the last 2 miles or so were tough.

A few observations:

1. Since it was raining, there were earth worms all over the road. I avoided them, but of course cars didn’t; hence there was a slimy “worm paste” on the roads at times.

2. I noticed that during these long walks, I always start to get rocks in my shoes at about 2-2:30 into it. For walks of 10 miles or less, this is almost never a problem. I found out why: my shoes tend to loosen up as I go; when I tied my shoes tighter at 3 hours, I stopped having “rock in the shoe” problems. The problem is almost always more pronounced in my right foot, which pronates more than my left foot.

3. I usually do some thinking while doing these walks, and to be quite frank, the ideas that I come up with are usually pretty lousy.

McNaughton
A couple of photos from the race; here I am crossing Lick Creek at 3.3 miles into the second loop (13.3 miles into the trail race)

The definition of a lack of grace:

Midway:

End of the Semsester Blues

Workout notes: I hope to go 20 miles after my coffee does its work; it is a bit wet outside and hence my walk might be a “half and half” (half inside, half outside).

Speaking of training, this little outing seems like it was a blast. No, my swimming isn’t up to snuff; I wouldn’t have been able to handle the swim. Still, this sounds like the type of thing that I’d love! Here are a couple of hotlinked photos to tease you to the story:

As well as the first paragraph:

From that point on, I just couldn’t let it go. As I became more accustomed to the fierce wind patterns on the lake and had time to examine possible routes up Cecil itself, two things became clear…I would need a calm day and I would need a whole day. I spent the next couple of months discouraged by the lack of windless days and the realization that the combination of a windless day and a day off may be too tall of an order. There was also the minor question of how to get hiking gear safely across the lake.

Enjoy!

A McNaughton Report: I linked to Julie Berg’s report; she won the women’s 100 mile division and was the second human across the finish line in that race. Here is the second place male 150 miler report; it is written by Ryan Dexter. Note: Ryan is the kind of guy who looks great even when he has been hammering for 12-18 hours straight; when he runs ultras he looks as if he is really running.

Having completed the 150 mile race in 2007. I really felt nothing more to
prove. But McNaughton has a way of calling me back. McNaughton has a way of
bringing me and my friends together – giving us a common goal. Just as in
life, we are not alone. Last year I could say that we covered 150 miles.
This year I can say that we ran it. Having never run that distance before in
2007, everything was new. There was a small fear of the unknown. I knew we
were going to finish the race this year – there was no fear of the distance.
But there is no denying the distance is long and the course is hard.
Information on the race course can be found at:
www.mcnaughtonparktrailruns.com

My friend David Goggins and I have been talking strategy for a while. There
is strength in numbers and we were planning on maintaining a 2:00 hour pace
(10 miles) the entire time. If we could rip the 100 mile mark in 20 hours
and keep going we could finish in 30 hours and be done before nightfall and
get some dinner and only lose one night’s sleep. Every mile I have done
since last year’s race has been in preparation for this race. The only way
to truly prepare for the 150 mile distance is to run a lot of miles. I think
it takes years of cumulative miles to be prepared to run this race. This is
not something you can train for in a few months. This is also not something
that I could do on my own. My crew was first class – they deserved this
victory more than I. I am amazed with their sacrifice. Although I still
needed to cover the distance, this would have been impossible without all of
you. The race started at 12 noon central time on Friday, April 11. The
following are what I remember:

Lap 1 (Miles 0-10): 1:45:30 (10:33 min/mile): David and I ran together but
right from the start it felt like he had just a little bit extra – almost
like an extra gear than I had that day. We remained together until Mile 30.
Our hope was to run in the back and maybe be around 10th place after the
first lap. 10th place I believe would have been around a 2:01:00 lap – so we
were a little fast out the gate. I very much enjoy spending time with David
and wished that we lived closer to hang out more. Last night we talked and
he asked me to help crew/pace him at Badwater this summer.

Lap 2 (Miles 11-20): 1:46:53 (10:41 min/mile): Still feeling good – felt
like we were holding back and taking it easy – which is extremely important
in such a race. We were building a little cushion for the 30 hour goal. The
course was surprisingly in great shape – very runnable. But, that would
change.

Lap 3 (Miles 21-30): 1:48:38 (10:52 min/mile): Another well paced lap. At
this point, I think David and I were running 3rd and 4th in the race.
Actually, one of the 50 mile runners Brian Gaines was at the start/finish
area and captured the 30 mile mark with his video camera:

As you can see in the video, my friend Demah met me and told me to walk with
him. He was telling me to let David go and for me to run my race. That was
the last David and I saw each other until very much later. But his wife
Aleeza kept me informed.

Lap 4 (Miles 31-40): 2:11:15 (13:08 min/mile): This is the only lap I ran
alone and was probably the only point in the race that I had a mental
breakdown of sorts. I realized that my game plan was not going to workout
and for a short while I worried about that. David gained about 25 minutes on
me with this lap. During this lap I asked myself OK Ryan 2:00 per lap is
just not in the cards today as the course was beginning to get a little
sloppy. What pace do you think you can maintain for the long haul. This had
yet to be decided.

Lap 5 (Miles 41-50): 2:33:41 (15:22 min/mile): My friend Steve Cabler had
driven up from St. Louis and picked up my friend John Gruber up at the
airport. John flew down from Detroit for the weekend to run a couple laps
with me a hang out. It was great to see some new faces in addition to my
crew that drove down from the Madison area with me – CJ Werley, Demah
Nuertey, and Mike Younglove. Steve and John joined me on this lap and
although it was my slowest lap – it didn’t feel slow. My pace was starting
to slow down – although we were still a little under 10 hours for the first
50 miles. Steve and John told me I was 1/3rd the way done. I liked the sound
of that.

Lap 6 (Miles 51-60): 2:36:40 (15:40 min/mile): This was now around 10 PM of
the first night. I usually go to bed around 9, so my body is tired. CJ
joined me on this lap and kept me motivated and going strong. We didn’t slow
up too much – but I didn’t like how long the laps were taking. This was a
turning point in the race. We needed to stop slowing down and pick up the
pace.

Lap 7 (Miles 61-70): 2:35:54 (15:35 min/mile): Now around 12:30 AM Saturday
morning, Mike joined me for a lap. He kept me going great. My whole crew was
awesome – keeping me going – keeping our eyes on the prize. I knew that once
the sun came up and the other runners started the 100/50 mile races at 6 AM
I would get another kick of energy. We actually ran this lap faster than the
one before. We were moving in the right direction.

Lap 8 (Miles 71-80): 2:25:11 (14:31 min/mile): Demah took over at this lap
with the intention of running the next 3 (yes 30 miles) with me and getting
me into a rhythm and start chopping down the lead that David and Paul Stofko
had on me. As you can see from the pace, we were speeding up. Demah stayed
with me from around 3 AM until 10:30 AM Saturday morning. We decided that
2:20 – 2:30 would be the new goal to maintain. And maintaining that to
perfection is just what my crew and I did.

This is a race photo of Demah and I running probably at the end of this lap.

Lap 9 (Miles 81-90): 2:22:49 (14:17 min/mile): Faster, Faster, Faster. Stay
in the zone. I was hurting but we worked through the pain. This was a
breakthrough performance for me in that I learned that I could still run
even though my muscles ached. We ran this lap 7 minutes faster than David. I
knew were weren’t going to catch him but thought maybe Paul could be caught.
Aleeza had told us that he was slowing down a bit. We passed though the
start/finish area a little before the other races started at 6 AM.

Lap 10 (Miles 91-100): 2:28:32 (14:51 min/mile): Demah brought me through
the night and we finished the first 100 miles around 22 1/2 hours.

This is a race photo of me running through the start/finish area at night
probably at the end of this lap. As you an see, I had a lot of clothes on
pretty much throughout the race. My crew kept me dry constantly changing me
into dry clothes. I think I had at least 3 upper layers on at all times
throughout the race.

Lap 11 (Miles 101-110): 2:25:59 (14:36 min/mile): It was around 10:30
Saturday morning at the start of this lap. There were a lot of runners out
on the course and it was very slippery. Mike and another friend Stacy
Langenecker ran with me this lap. We ran it a little faster and realizing
that we were more than 2/3rd the way done was pretty awesome. This was only
the second time I had been beyond 100 miles.

A race photo from around this time.

Lap 12 (Miles 111-120): 2:24:38 (14:28 min/mile): CJ joined me around 1:00
PM for the start of the lap. We were always really quick in the transition
areas- not trying to waste any unnecessary time. In a race of this distance
minutes add up quick. I calculated that I spent about 20 second each and
every time I urinated- which occurred about 3 times a lap. This equated to
more than 15 minutes of ‘extra’ time on the bottom line. David and many
other ultrarunners have learned to pee on the run. A skill that I have yet
to faster but think I might begin to practice in the future. At the end of
120 miles we had put together an impressive string of ten mile laps with not
much slow down.

Lap 13 (Miles 121-130): 2:31:41 (15:10 min/mile): John and Steve joined me
again around 3:30 PM Saturday afternoon. Also, my friend Jay Edgar drove
down from Madison and ran with me. He does an awesome job describing the lap
on his blog: http://blog.jayedgar.com/2008/04/mcnaughton-10.html I quote
from some of his entry: ‘…We were all falling down. Steve fell right on
his rear end at one point; luckily he didn’t hurt himself. Ryan fell down
eight times in my time with him. At about mile 8 he fell on a grassy, muddy
hill and just lay there for a moment. Finally he said quite simply, and
perhaps a bit weakly, ‘That hurt.’…’ It was great running with these guys.
We ended up catching Paul at the end of this lap. I stopped and shook his
hand and kept running. We were now in 2nd place.

Lap 14 (Miles 131-140): 2:54:42 (17:28 min/mile): My friend Randy Steiner
had driven down from Madison Saturday morning and had been out there all day
cheering me on and helping me. I was really looking forward to running with
him. He even gave me the shirt off his back when the one I was wearing began
to chaff my nipples. The course was very slopping and it would be getting
dark on this lap. We passed Sherpa John on this lap and he was with Tracy
Thomas. It was great seeing both of them.

Lap 15 (Miles 141-150): 3:41:14 (22:07 min/mile): We started this lap around
9 PM and finished around 12:30 AM Sunday morning. There was no longer any
urgency. I knew Paul wasn’t going to catch us and David was just about
finished. Who cares if we finished in 35 or 36 hours? My body was shutting
down and this was now survival. It is funny how things can change so quickly
when you let your mind get the best of you. Mike, CJ, and Demah helped bring
me home in 36 hours 33 minutes and 17 seconds. Which was an over 4 hour
better performance from last year’s finish. Final results are available at:
www.timetorun.net/Results/McNaughton%20Park/MPTR2008.HTM

My quads began feeling normal again probably on Tuesday. Yesterday was the
first day that I could see the veins and bones in my feet as the swelling is
now down. I ran for the first time this afternoon since the race and it felt
good to get back out there. I love to run and I love the fact that it can
bring so many of us closer together. Since returning home from Madison, Jay
Edgar has signed up to run the Madison 1/2 Marathon in May. I have spoken to
my friend Jerry Davison who was there cheering us on all day about the
possibility of running the 50 miler at McNaughton next year. The bottom line
is – there are no limits.

Thanks to my lovely wife Christina, my Mother and many distance friends who
kept me in their constant prayers during the race. You in addition to my
amazing crew gave me the strength to carry on. I look forward to telling my
sons Chase, Cruz, and Dash about this adventure in more detail when they are
older. Maybe someday the Dexter boys will come back to McNaughton and
capture the top four spots . Thanks to Andy Weinberg for always running
a great race. Congratulations to my friends Darren Fortney and Julie Berg
for winning the 100 mile race. Well done. It was great seeing you both out
there. It was comforting to me to know that by the time you started at 6 AM
Saturday you had more miles to run than me. To all the runners that toed
the starting line, you are winners. That course is tough. To the warriors
that finished – enjoy the accomplishment.

In Christ,

Ryan Dexter

Science: A nice list of common misconceptions on evolution: it lists some all-too-common misconceptions, some of which are had by those who think that they understand it. From New Scientist and linked to by the Richard Dawkins site.

Elections:
Keith Olberman blasts the last debate. He interviews Kossack Greg Mitchel.

Obama’s response: sets off a video online wave. What many of us didn’t know is that Obama’s “brushing off” motion is a well known part of a hip-hop song!

The speech:

Two brief related mash-ups of this; these are funny!

Obama talking about hip-hop; yes, this “brush off” move didn’t resonate with the song by accident.

Hillary Clinton: Not so pleased with MoveOn.org; she was ok with them until they endorsed Obama.

Yes, some of those who are sticking with her aren’t MoveOn types to be sure. But this is looking more and more like D E S P E R A T I O N.

Howard Dean (DNC chair) wants it over soon:

End of the semester blues My favorite and least favorite time of the year. My favorite: it is almost over!!! My least favorite: here is where we have students who have more or less blown off the course for the last month start to panic when they see how poorly they did on the last “in class” exam.

Here is the problem: one can’t even begin to do a calculus application problem (even something as simple as finding the maximum and minimum value of a differential function over a closed interval) unless one knows the basic rules of differentiation and if one has some rudimentary understanding of what the concepts mean. One can’t blow off learning the concepts and then study all night the night before the exam and have any chance of success.

But alas, there are always a few who just have to learn this the hard way.

Speaking of such topics, , there was an interesting exchange between two professors in Rate Your Students:

Here is what started the exchange:

[...]Two items in my always-overstuffed email inbox caught my eye this morning. One offered me the glorious opportunity of coming in on my day off to listen to a speaker discuss ways we can reach our students through Facebook and MySpace. The other asked whether I was intrigued by the possibilities of using Second Life (a “Virtual World”) as an instructional tool. I’m sorry, but I am not intrigued, nor am I planning on spending my off-time listening to someone telling me how to reach out to students who can’t be troubled to reach out to the alarm clock each night to be sure that they get up in time to attend my class. When is this shit going to end?

When did it become my responsibility to meet students half-way, let alone going all the way over to their turf, to keep them interested in my class?[...]

Check out the graphic with this story.

This prompted a reply:

His attitude parallels that of the student who is convinced he already understands calculus because had one shitty course in high school. Ernie thinks he already understands teaching, but Ernie sucks at teaching. How do I know? Because he does not deign to consider alternative educational approaches, and he doesn’t want to hear about ways to generate greater interest in his subject.

The best teaching is entertainment, and vice versa. Technology is not a gimmick if you use it properly to achieve and illustrate topics which are naturally dynamic or experimental or interactive.

Which elicited this counter response:

You seem to think I’m resistant to new and powerful teaching tools. MySpace and Facebook are teaching tools now? And here I was thinking they were places where students fucked around for hours every day instead of actually learning something. You see, that’s where I don’t get your point. How is it that my refusal to let my students “learn” by doing whatever they damned well please INSTEAD OF the actual work for the class is a sign of my laziness? Do tell. To me, it seems like coddling.

Your comparisons are ludicrous. I refuse to adopt as a pedagogical tool whatever flash-in-the-pan technological distraction catches my core classroom demographic’s frequently wandering interest. And that is somehow similar to a student who doesn’t want to learn more about calculus? I wish you were around when this old fart was an undergraduate. You could have let me play Tetris in class to learn about geometry. And I’m sure I would have applauded you, like any good drone from “the other site” for offering classes that aren’t overly challenging, and which show how cool you are. I don’t think I’m the lazy one here, and the violence of your response suggests that I hit a nerve.

Did you even read what I posted? Did I say anything about being anti-technology? “You’ll be the one using computers?” What the fuck? You think I’m using writing slates and primers? Get over it. I use technologies that have an application in the classroom. Facebook has no place in the classroom.[...]

So you see, we disagree at times. No, I am not going to put up a “Professor Ollie’s calculus class” site at facebook. The bottom line: if they don’t internalize the basics, they will have no chance at learning the material, much less how to apply it.

Learning mathematics is a bit like learning to play the piano or learning to swim: there is no shortcut to having the individual practice enough to internalize the techniques.

A bit more from the blog: assorted professor pain ; here is a snippet:

Summer’s not long enough for one student. We have our final on May 2nd, but her trip to Europe starts on on April 26th. I’m sorry, did you miss the notice about semester dates? Your dad is going to “lose his mind” if he has to rebook tickets for you? And why do I care? And, Europe? What are you going to do there? Oh, first visit is Amsterdam? Sure, I can see that. You must be a big windmill fan, or perhaps you want to see the new baby tigers at the Artis Zoo. Sorry, sunshine. We’ve still got work to do here on Responsibility Planet.

And one other post:

Everyone knows you’re lusting after the guy who sits next to you, but please stop giggling maniacally at everything he says and put the ass-crack away. No one wants to see your thong at 9 am and your cackling makes me fear that a den of witches is going to descend upon the classroom at any moment. Plus it’s distracting. So stop it.

But even funnier, check out the images that come with the above snippets: