My Lost Youth. Oh, what is a youth?

Came across this Longfellow poem, while reading something way less profound, and the wonderful lines there:

A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts

Advance to 1:16, if you are not patient enough, for a verse from the poem:

There are things of which I may not speak;

      There are dreams that cannot die;

There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,

And bring a pallor into the cheek,

      And a mist before the eye.

            And the words of that fatal song

            Come over me like a chill:

      "A boy's will is the wind's will,

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 

So, how about wrapping it up with this:

Academia is only one step away from a degree in basket-weaving!

A few years ago, when enrollment was beginning to rapidly increase at the university where I work, my fellow faculty got excited enough to begin to offer bizarre courses, and academic majors and minors.  After I realized that the "process" to review proposals was nothing more than "you scratch my back, and I will yours," and more so after learning the hard way that raising questions only made me the enemy, I started disconnecting, as much as possible, from the campus committee processes.

A tragic contrast to such an approach to crazy curriculum?  Way back, when I was still involved in the committee "process," I argued that we needed to offer courses for students to understand Islam and the Middle East.  We had practically nothing on these, even a couple of years after the events of 9/11 and the wars we had launched.  One would think that these topics are far more important than "sports management."  Yet, "sports management" sailed through, while my proposal was severely criticized and shot down even within the Social Science Division!   

If one is willing to overlook the ideological framework of the host-source, then it will be difficult to disagree with the following comments:

Degrees in sports administration and pop culture? Higher education seems to have drifted so far from its fundamental charge that, today, apparently anything can qualify for degree status.

What an injustice this is to students, who innocently believe that if a university thinks a subject important enough to make it into a degree, then they will be well-served by enrolling in it. There are those who blame such students for their bad choices. I am not one of them. I taught in universities for many years and I know the deference paid by most students to the standards articulated by their institution. After all, these are still kids, for the most part; offering them degrees in “pop culture” is perilously close to child abuse. Any academic or administrator who truly believes in both the employability and intellectual respectability of a degree in pop culture is both deceived and deceiving.

There was a time, not that long ago, when universities had a proper reverence for the life of the mind, a reverence that would have made them ashamed to offer such empty-headed degree programs to their students.

Apparently, that time has passed.

Faculty, who are in charge of the curriculum, cook up whatever fancies them, and most administrators do not care to raise tough questions as long as there is enrollment.  Nobody cares whether any of these shenanigans serves the cause of educating students.  For way too long, students have come to be treated as ATMs, and finally the public is beginning to wake up.  The unfortunate part though: as far as I can see from the inside, well, it is business as usual :(

Drones, Defense, and Deficit--Part II of the alliteration

As I take a break from events that have taken over my life, I bet I could have spent those moments on plenty of things better than catching up on news, which included this:

A drone missile struck a house in the Shawal Valley where militants were reported to be hiding in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
"Two missiles were fired on a house. Eight militants were killed," said a local intelligence official.
Several of the men killed were loyal to Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a top militant leader in North Waziristan, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Bahadur, a commander who is believed to be allied with the Haqqani network and to support attacks against NATO forces in Afghanistan, is said to have an unofficial non-aggression pact with the Pakistani military.
Last week, Bahadur's group said it would act against anyone conducting polio vaccinations in its area, a direct threat to Pakistanis who collaborate with the United States.

The phenomenally expanded drones program fuels the anti-American feelings in countries where the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, President Barack Obama, seems to zealously use them.  Should we, therefore, be surprised to read that drone attacks are equated to terrorism?

Terming the US drone attacks terrorism, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has called for sharing with the nation the number of terrorists killed in the unmanned plane bombings.
“There is no difference between terrorism and drone attacks because both are killing innocent people and the nation must be told about the number of terrorists killed so far in the US campaign,” the chief minister said while addressing the distribution ceremony of E-Bars documents among the Punjab bar associations at Alhamra Hall on Saturday.
“We have to give up the habit of getting charity from foreigners and break beggar’s bowl to get such drone attacks seized,” Shahbaz maintained.

So, in adding to this earlier post, here is more to think about:

or, how about this:

 Hail to the Nobel Peace Prize recipient Warrior-in-Chief :(