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The Goddard Experience: A Progressive Program of Study at Goddard College Offers a FIRST RATE EDUCATION

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Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont, with John Dewey Inset _____________________ “Though the [Goddard College] residency only lasts a week each semester, the heart of the program leaves with you...As much as you become a part of the program at Goddard, the program becomes part of you.” – Sarah CedeƱo, MFA in Creative Writing ( From Goddard’s Quotes Page ) “Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is , not a preparation for life; education is life itself.” – John Dewey  (1859-1952), American philosopher, psychologist, educational reformer, and practitioner of progressive education ________________________ In the past two days, I have criticized Goddard College for honoring a convicted killer by inviting him to speak at commencement on October 5, 2014: Here  and here On that matter, I stand by my words, and I am still angry and disappointed, BUT let it be known that I will always love Goddard College for providing me with not only an

Povus.com: Povus, POV U.S., or POV US – The POV Company?

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Povus.com -- Povus The POV Company ____________________ “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” – Thomas Jefferson The opinion pieces on this site have now been labeled (in search terms) as “Povus.”  How I acquired Povus.com: I like perusing expiring domain name auction lists. Most of the time, I don’t bid; too many of the domains are head scratchers, and their pending expiration is no surprise. (This is not to say that all expiring domains are crap; sometimes owners become ill, inattentive, and even die, allowing stunning domains to expire – but that’s another story for another day.) Today, an interesting domain popped out: Povme [dot] com, so I placed it on my watch list. I could see that the name would be garnering some bids, so I decided that it wasn’t worth it (to me). I was right: it closed at low $$$. Sorry. I would have been interested at the $25 range, but “no”

Maureen Faulkner, Widow of Officer Daniel Faulkner, Responds to Goddard College’s Choice of Commencement Speaker

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Where Was Maureen Faulkner's Voice At Goddard College's Commencement (2014)? ______________________________________ In Goddard College’s great tradition of giving voice to victims and as a Goddard graduate (MFA, 1994), I republish Maureen Faulkner’s statement in full, although I do not agree 100% with what she says: Once again, my family and I find ourselves being assaulted by the obscenity that is Mumia Abu-Jamal. On Sunday October 5th, my husband’s killer will once again air his voice from what masquerades as a prison, and spew his thoughts and ideas at another college commencement. Mumia Abu-Jamal will be heard and honored as a victim and a hero by a pack of adolescent sycophants at Goddard College in Vermont. Despite the fact that 33 years ago, he loaded his gun with special high-velocity ammunition designed to kill in the most devastating fashion, then used that gun to rip my husband’s freedom from him – today, Mumia Abu-Jamal will be lauded as a freedom fight

A Goddard College Alumna Responds to the Mumia Abu-Jamal Commencement Address

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Haybarn Theatre: Goddard Commencment 2014 ____________________ “I shot the motherfucker and I hope the motherfucker dies.” -- Mumia Abu-Jamal, shortly after his arrest for the murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner and as heard by several witnesses ( Philly.com ) As a Goddard Alum, I posted, on October 4, 2014, the following message on Goddard’s MFA Facebook page: I am a Goddard graduate, and I protest the commencement speaker who is cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal. He killed a man in absolute cold blood (the killer was stopped for a traffic violation) and should not be extolled by a college that embraces peace and love. While I agree that no one should be executed and am glad that execution for Jamal was taken off the table, I believe this man should spend the rest of his life in prison. I am disappointed that the college I love would choose a cold-blooded killer to be a commencement speaker. Therefore, I will be withholding future donations until further notice. S

I Write Essays For Money!!!! (What I Discovered in My Email This Morning)

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Original photo: Wikipedia Public Domain *Consider the rhetorical question posed at the end of this post. _____________________ “I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.” – Sophocles ____________________ Fellow bloggers: don’t you just love when hysterical content falls right into your lap? This morning, I received a breathless email, offering, for a price, to write papers for me – in other words, to facilitate me in plagiarizing my college research papers. The problem: I’m a card-carrying member of the other side, a retired adjunct professor, a cheater’s worst nightmare. Talk about lack of audience analysis! This dumb cluck simply mass spams and hopes to hit his target. This time, he hit the wrong target. I decided to offer this numpty a taste of his own medicine by “plagiarizing” his email  (with snarky interior commentary) , totally without attribution – He won’t mind, now will he? After all, isn’t that what he and his stable of writer

Don’t Worry, Dotcom! No Need to Move Over – Not Just Yet, Anyway!

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Original Image: Ingemar Johansson v. Floyd Pattersson 1959 Wikipedia: Public Domain Photo ________________ “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T. S. Eliot _________________ Okay, it’s time to weigh in once again on the new gTLDs (pro) and gTLDs (con) , and the preliminary numbers aren’t pretty. As of today, just a smidge over 1,000,000 new G’s have been registered for the 200 + released thus far, and some of those are a result of padding (also known as papering the house , as defined by veteran domainer Ron Jackson of DNJournal.com ), via registrations “gifted” to often unknowing .com registrants. (See also Domain Incite .) I’m not going into this ethical lapse here, because in the long run, I don’t think it will matter in terms of overall success or failure, although it always matters when a business or individual sets out to deceive potential customers into buying a questionable product. If you are not already fam

The Human Race: Its Inevitable Extinction?

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Extreme Weather Life is a Brand Meme ______________ If extreme weather is a punishment from God, then why does most of it  occur in the Bible belt? – Life is a Brand meme _____________________________ Climate change deniers would insist that climate change does not exist; instead, when extreme weather hits, such as the recent tornadoes down south, they play the “God as punisher” card. Quite frankly, if God exists, I don’t think she really cares about our transgressions. She’s too busy being omniscient and creating other messes, uh, universes, trying to perfect that “In Her Image” stuff. (Note: she hasn’t succeeded yet.) Honestly, I don’t know if the recent storms are climate-change related or just a temporary force of nature – I’ll leave that to the scientists who have the tools to extrapolate weather patterns. I do believe that we are rapidly destroying ourselves as a human race, and I’m not sure we can do much, if anything, about it. I see our downward spir

Does the Internet Spell the End of Journalism as We Once Knew It?

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By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. – Oscar Wilde ________________________ (Note: This article, in a slightly different form, was originally posted on JI , July 11, 2009.)   On a typical day, as I check my Facebook timeline, I am served up a menu of human interest stories, hard news; selfies; memes (political, comic, inspirational); videos of dancing cats; links to sites, most of them biased toward my point of view; family news; mild cheesecake photos shared by one friend; inspirational shares by friends and acquaintances; and comments by friends. I have noticed that the outrageous, the extreme scenarios, seem to rule as breathless memes shout out the latest stupid and outrageous politician remark (on my timeline, Sarah Palin seems to be the most popular former-politician celebrity to deride). Then there are the blogs I visit, some offering industry news and others pushing their own product

Move Over, Dotcom: Here Comes the New .Whatever! The Ongoing gTLD “Debate”! And Let’s Go Viral!

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Public Domain Photo (Remixed) Wikipedia -- Royal Navy Official Photographer ______________________ He who frames the question wins the debate. – Randall Terry __________________ This post has been divided into three parts, targeted to the following readers: 1. End users and casual internet surfers 2. Domain industry investors 3. The gTLD registries, both new and established 1. For Readers NOT Involved in the Domaining Business: If you are not in the domaining business, you are probably not yet aware of the internet disruption coming your way: the proliferation of the new gTLDs (generic top level domains), the dot-anything revolution. Eventually – perhaps sooner than you might think – you will start seeing websites that look like this: www.Sioux.land (Disclaimer: this is mine) No .com, .net, or .org. Instead, the extension (gTLD) itself is a dictionary word or branded term, often focused on a niche product area (.shoes and .land), specific bran

Memoir Madness: Driven to Involuntary Commitment