A Positive Note on Western Kentucky

I wanted to post something positive about my area and my alma mater, Murray State University.  After my Ben Stein post, I’m sure some readers are saying to themselves, “Why the hell doesn’t she just move?”  If my job hunt moves me out of the Western Kentucky area, so be it.  If it keeps me here, that’s ok too.  I’m not picky at this point, and Western KY isn’t a bad place.  There are some educational issues and critical thinking failings, but that happens everywhere.  

So, I thought I’d post some interesting links highlighting the area’s good points.  First up is one of my absolute favorite places, LBL.  That’s Land Between the Lakes to you non-locals.  The US Forest Service has authority over it now.  It’s a piece of land located between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.  I’ve lived on one or the other of those lakes throughout much of my life.  My father worked for the Ky State Park System while I was growing up, so I’m a park brat.  Most of our time was spent in Western Kentucky on the lakes.  My mother’s house overlooks the Kentucky Lake side of LBL, which makes for a lovely view.

LBL and the parks offer a lot of interesting educational and recreational opportunities.  I love hiking in LBL and fossil hunting (mostly crinoids and other Mississippian fossils).  My husband and I also spent most of our dates (many many moons ago) in LBL and go back as often as we can.  We’re planning on taking my mother fossil hunting when the weather warms up.  It’s also a great place to take your pets.

Land is also not outrageously priced in parts of Western Ky, so if we end up staying around here I plan on buying several acres and gardening to my heart’s content.  It is a decent area for gardening and fishing and sitting on your porch drinking a beer.  The humidity kills in the summer, but we don’t get the crazy winters the Northern states are experiencing at the moment (most of the time).      

We also have a couple skeptic groups popping up in Western KY (including one at Murray State University), which makes me a very happy monkey. 

Ben Stein at Murray State University in Kentucky

I know it’s been about a month since this happened, but I have to say something.  It’s been eating at me, and I can’t keep my mouth shut.  Ben Stein gave a lecture in early February at Murray State University.  I have two degrees from MSU, so this invitation for Stein to speak was disappointing.  Stein is the idiot who gave us this anti-science propaganda.  He likes to blame the Holocaust on science and scientists.  What’s funny is that Ben Stein kind of promoted science and math in the talk he gave at MSU.  And none of the advertising for his appearance mentions his rather screwy views.  I think Professor William Zingrone, a psychology prof at MSU, sums up what I was thinking in this article written for the MSU newspaper.

What really gets me is how Stein points out the lack of motivation students have in the present day United States.  My first thought on this topic is as follows:

How dare Ben Stein talk about motivation being a problem in students.  If anything he should be apologizing for it.  He denigrates scientists and other intellectuals, he condemns science as anti-human, he promotes falsehoods and lies and attempts to steal away the wonder from science-all the advances our species has made, the discoveries, the medical treatments, and more-and then, the bastard has the audacity to discuss motivation as a problem.  He’s one of the people creating that problem in students.  He should apologize for attempting to ruin American education.  I could go on, but, you know what?  I don’t want to waste any more time on this jerk.  So I’ll just sum up.

Ben Stein, Fuck You!

Friday Fallacy-Argumentum ad antiquitatem

In English, that’s the argument from antiquity or tradition.  This one is easy.  Just think back to a time when you asked why something was done in your family or community.  If the person you asked responded with, “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it,” you got smacked with the argument from tradition.  This is what people respond with when they don’t know the reasons or history behind an activity or ritual or whatnot.  Instead of researching and finding out why something is done, people just go with the flow. 

Tradition may not necessarily be a bad thing.  There are lots of community and family traditions that bring people together and provide social value and sometimes entertainment value. 

However, it can become a problem when a tradition becomes outdated, dangerous, or detrimental to the progress of a people.  There are many examples I can think of involving gender roles or the traditional roles of women in our society.  Once upon a time, it was traditional for a woman to stay at home and make babies.  Women were also not expected to be as educated as men.  These are obviously traditions that can infringe on a woman’s ability to live her life the way she sees fit.  Many folks still use these traditions as a means to keep women oppressed or at least to make women feel bad for not following these traditions. 

It can also be a problem when people assume a long-standing tradition when there is none.  The first example that comes to mind is the American Pledge of Allegiance.  Nearly every person I come across assumes the pledge has always been stated as it is now.  However, the original pledge was different and has been altered many times, the most recent alteration occurring in the 1950s. 

Here are a couple lists that include this fallacy:

From csun.edu

On the Secular Web

From Wikipedia

Book Review on Salon

This is one of the best book reviews I've ever read.  It kept me from wasting time and money on David Brooks.  I'm sighing with relief since I was thinking about checking out his recent book, The Social Animal.  I'm so glad I read this first.

What would we do without book reviews?

Random Friday Thoughts

Screwy Kentucky weather.  One day it’s forty, then it’s seventy; one night it’s thirty, the next night it’s sixty-something.  Grrrrr.  It literally gives me a headache and makes me want to stay under the covers all day.  Even on the warm days, we get gloominess-rain and clouds.   I don’t mind any of that except when it’s all happening within a 48 hour period.  Then, I get aggravated.  And the corgi-pup gets aggravated by the thunder.  She’s in my lap right now, which makes it uber difficult to type. 

I need to find a job in a tropical paradise or at least near a beach- I loves me some ocean.

Speaking of jobs, I’m still looking.  I don’t mind rejection as much as I mind the non-communication that’s become commonplace in job seeking.  I applied for a job back in November of last year, sent follow-up emails and have yet to hear back.  It’s kind of like a big “Fuck you!  You’re not even worth a rejection email.”  Seriously, people would rather get rejection notices than not hear anything at all.  It forces me to move on to the next round of job applications instead of pining away, hoping to hear something.

Anyone recently graduated from library school understands my frustration.  Library Journal has talked about the job market for new librarians, and I’ve run across a few posts on librarian blogs about it.  It’s taking anywhere from a year or two for new graduates to find work.  In my geographic area it’s much worse.  There are few libraries and fewer positions.  Factor into that high unemployment and retirement postponement by current librarians, and the well gets bone dry around here.

Sorry for the rant.  I’m sure I’ll find something.  I’ve got some awesome experience as far as instruction goes (which I should probably be blogging about), and that helps when looking for reference and instruction positions.  I’ve also got some mad research and reference skills.  I got so many compliments from the staff and students at my library gig (and sometimes hugs, which is so cool).    And of course, I’m damned determined to end up in a place where I can drive home the importance of information literacy and critical thinking skills.  We need more critical thinkers on this planet!

I’m going to be sending off another round of applications soon.  Wish me luck! 

Friday Fallacy will be up later tonight.