Cliff's Notes for Dummies!

Let's face it - no one reads anymore.  In fact, if you do you hide it.  It's embarrassing to admit you still do it - kind of like admitting you still use MySpace, for example.

In fact, even knowing how to read marks you as perhaps one of the dreaded out of touch "elites."

Aside from the social stigma of being a literate reader, there's just the fact that when you're part of "Real America," the part that's not out of touch, you sure don't have time to read, or to learn to read.

Sure, in school they still attempt to teach it, but like algebra, when are you ever going to use it in practically in real life?  And, heaven knows, if it can't be used practically, then what good is it?

Unfortunately, there are still some schools and universities and even a few employers who are still elitist enough to expect you to know how to read, and to know a few things about books.  Fortunately, this won't last much longer, but for now, some classes, teachers, etc. want you to know about some books written a zillion years ago by weirdo dorks who thought they were better than us just because they could do this thing called "critical thinking" or had "creative literary skill," or could invent some silly thing called the "theory of relativity," - like who did they think they were anyway, Einstein? Regardless, for now, at least, while people like Obama (elitist professor) are still in charge, it could be to your advantage to play along.  Of course, no one expects you to really do it, but just fake it.

That's where we come in- we provide a product called "Cliff's Notes for Dummies". (Note we have already resolved the intellectual property lawsuit regarding this since Cliff's Notes are much different than our product - they are just as much of a waste of time and hard to read as the book itself anyway).

We can give you a short synapsis of a book, or a biography of a writer or thinker, etc. - enough for you to fake knowing not only how to read and write a sentence but actually what the thing means.

The good thing is, standards in college are so low now that just by reading these you will impress your professor so much that you'll ace the class and probably be known as the smartest in the class.  Of course, that could be a liability (and will be soon) but not yet.  But at the very least, you could win trivia games.

Of course, it's embarrassing to admit, or let others think, that you're actually READING.  So this is strictly confidential.  The only ones who will know you can read (or think you can) will be profs, elitists, etc., that you have to play the game for....the best thing is, these Notes will NOT clutter your mind with knowledge or take up valuable space your brain should be using spending it on video games and "social" interaction in front of a computer in your dark basement with strangers in Thailand.

They are written for "dummies," but even dummies don't need to understand them.  You just need to be able to transfer, or, like, copy, the notes- no understanding or memorizing necessary, and they will do the trick.

For example, you may be asked, "Who was Karl Marx?"  To gain bonus points, the Notes teach you to say, "the 4th Marx brother" - if your prof is REALLY old- but then, to seriously say, "The guy we want to take our country back from - see "Barack Obama."

We realize that you have to be able to read somewhat since you're reading this, but we've got this whole thing on audio.  So actually you can listen to our sales pitch and our Notes without having to read a thing. Not only that but in our next version we will have microchips that can be directly installed into your brain so that you don't even have to listen to the audio.  (This version will be much more expensive, obviously.)

The Notes even teach you how to write out answers in English to written exams, etc., through a crude shorthand that does not even require you to know the alphabet.  How's that?

Thankfully society is progressing fast enough that probably within a decade, all books will have been burned (because they will all have been transferred to Google), and then Google will crash and lose all those darn books.  Then problem solved.  Then there won't be no book learning going on anymore by them elitist smarty-pantses out there.

So this is just a stop-gap measure to help you get along until that age arrives.  Further on down the road, once there are no books and thus no reading, quite possibly language will go the way of the horse and buggy too, thus reducing us to the level of chimpanzees, the way nature intended.  (There is a Note explaining "horse and buggy.")

Then without words, without language, here will be no more miscommunication, and therefore peace and utopia will reign.

Until then use "Cliff's Notes for Dummies."

Someone apparently hijacked this blog to post things about how they got a new job or won the lottery or a new apartment, I don't have any clue why they would want to choose this obscure place to advertise!  But I removed what I think is all there is, and hope to revive this blog with real material ASAP.

Obama's Secret Law in the Patriot Act | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary

Obama's Secret Law in the Patriot Act | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary


I'm posting this because I absolutely love Nat Henthoff!  He is right on about almost everything in my mind.  (at least, for the most part!)  I think he's in his 80s now- he co-founded the Village Voice and has always been concerned about our civil rights.  But I think that he's like the voice crying in the wilderness.   Or rather, the boy crying wolf- because nobody is listening to him!!

Honestly, he is a consistent critic of any and all who mess with the Constitution!  He protested about Bush, and now he's on Obama!  And the thing is, it appears that Obama's administration is even more clandestine and cavalier with our rights than the Bush one was, if that's possible.

Like in the paper today, Obama's administration being sued for refusing to follow the War Powers Act regarding our involvement with NATO in Libya.  Granted, many presidents have disregarded this law - but weren't we supposed to expect more from Obama? I mean, he seemed like the "anti-war" candidate, and he was a Harvard constitutional law professor previously.  But as if still being in Iraq and Afghanistan weren't enough, he wants to spend millions on Libya, which certainly is not a threat to us?  What's next, the rest of the Middle East?
Anyway, I digress about Obama and his blatant disregard for the Constitution....more on that another time.

What I wanted to write today relates to Nat Hentoff's column- about the importance of education regarding the constitution.
Democracy (or a representative democracy, a Republic, which is what the US has), is one of those things, like communism, that in theory seems great.  But it, like communism, holds an optimistic view of humanity that is not warranted by factual reality and history.
Instead, as the founding fathers called it, it is an experiment.  And experiment that fails if the presumption is incorrect- namelt, that the average person (American) is capable of engaging in, and being knowledgeable about, holding up their end of the social contract.  THis presumes a basic level of intelligence, education, critical thinking, reasoning, intellectual curiosity, knowledge of not only history and civics but also of current events.
A basic level that is truly no longer basic.  It is now almost astonising if a person has those abilities, or admits to them.

The rules of the "game" of this experiment require peope to be able to (literally) read them and get them.  Otherwise it's like a toddler trying to play monopoly.

Both assume the "proletariat" is apable of rule -or even of meaningful participation.  Both assume the soile reason for their position in loife is factors such as oppression, or the "cultural elite" --That Joe 6-Pack, as well as a peasant worker, are no different in leadership, etc. ability than the