It's Time to Change Political Debates

Question:  Are you fed up with candidates who dodge debate questions, have a two-minute allotment for answering a panelist's question, and spend 110 seconds of that 120 by telling you how stupid/out-of-the-mainstream/socialist/reactionary their opponent is? No? You mean you like the way political debates are done?

Didn't think so.

Yes, debate season is about to open and we will soon be treated to more flips and spins than the Olympics ever gave us. We know how it goes:  Panelist (or audience member, in those trendy "town hall"-style debates) asks question, Candidate A acknowledges question has been asked, goes to talking point, Candidate B goes to own talking point, Candidate A gets the last word in--all in 3 or 4 minutes. Viewers are left with the knowledge that neither candidate has really said anything new or substantial; we've heard these soundbites before. They serve two purposes: Make the target look foolish, and keep the speaker on safe ground.

The one purpose they do not serve is answering the question.

THIS. MUST. CHANGE!

I hereby put forth a modest proposal to change the format and, I hope, usefulness of political debates. I want one simple change. Just one. Such a little thing. Ready? Here it goes.

Right after all this question/response/rebuttal/final response stuff, the moderator turns to the questioner and asks:  "Are you satisfied that your question has been answered?" The questioner must give a clear, concise response:  "Yes; as I understand it, Candidate A thinks we should do such and such, while Candidate B says we should do such and such instead." Or the questioner can answer:  "No. I have no clear idea what one (or either) candidate would do about this issue."

In most debates, candidates don't give specific actions. They attack. They tell us why their opponents are evil. They talk about their own selflessness and Compassion for the American People, and how their opponent has none of that (the cad!); but they say precious little about what they will do. Answering a question is no more than opening a can and dumping its contents out in front of the audience; and there's a big stock of cans in the cupboard for each candidate to draw on. They get away with it because, in most debates, nobody has the time or authority to point out that the question hasn't been answered. We cannot have substantive debate when candidates do this; and Heaven knows we need substantive debate now.

Related articles

• Mark Your Calendars: The Presidential Debate Schedule Is Here!
• Viewpoints: A quixotic quest for meaningful debates
• Dems want debate question barred

Why “Worldview” isn’t enough

Okay, so “worldview” is and has been the buzzword in conservative Christian circles for a while now. It’s all about worldview, you see. In the great American culture wars, presenting and converting people to your worldview is the key to victory. Or so you’d think, considering all the noise you’ll hear about worldview.

Here’s just one example. Someone I know well and deeply respect recently made this statement:  “The biggest failure of the Church today is its failure to pass on a Christian worldview to our children.” He meant by this that the church, at least in America, was losing teens and young adults because they were being secularized. Their parents, pastors, and youth leaders weren’t teaching them to think in a Christian way, and this was why they were either leaving their churches or straying while staying (staying in the pews but straying from the church’s teachings).

As I said, people I deeply respect are the ones saying these things. I don’t intend to mock or ridicule those who think this way, but I respectfully disagree with the emphasis on worldview. The first problem with worldview is this:  Worldviews are effect, not cause. You hold the worldview you have because you’ve seen certain things from a certain perspective. It’s more than what you’ve been taught; worldview is as much emotional as rational. It’s not rational, for example, to root for the underdog. How you felt about your mom and dad (or church, if you attended one) likely played as big a part in taking or rejecting their values as any rational breakdown of those values
.

The second problem with the worldview argument is that it’s not, in fact, the biggest failure of the Church (or church) today. Our biggest failure has really been the same all along. It’s not a muddled worldview but a simple failure to live up to Christ Jesus. We say all these things about him; we talk about being disciples; we call him “Lord,” and are left in the same place as the disciples to whom Jesus said:  “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46, ESV)

Intellectual arguments are attractive. Obedience issues are not. Framing arguments to influence worldviews will be much more fun than giving food to a beggar or holding our tongues when we’re angry. And, let’s admit it, there’s something convenient about blaming apostasy on something besides the mere fact that we aren’t all that much like the Jesus we call Lord. I respectfully suggest that it is time to work on seeing Christ Jesus as he says we are supposed to see him. Then we can work on how we see the world.

Technorati Tags: worldview,Christianity,apostasy

Could This Change Higher Ed?

I first heard about the OpenStax College project a few months back, when Apple made news with its book-publishing app. Some reporter (wish I could credit him/her) mentioned that the OpenStax project was already working towards making FREE, yes, FREE college e-texts available. So I looked into the project and signed on for updates.
And now, the OpenStax Introduction to Sociololgy text is available for download. It comes in a PDF, epub, or “Web View” format. PDFs can be printed or read on a computer (and on many e-readers, including the Kindle); epub files are open-source ebook files (think Nook, NOT Kindle). “Web View” simply means reading the textbook online, with color images and linked footnotes and references.
So what makes OpenStax digital texts different? Mostly, the fact that they’re free. Rice University in Houston is the main driver behind OpenStax College; the Rice imprimatur will carry weight. The texts (there is currently a complete College Physics book as well) are “peer-reviewed” and “meet most scope and sequence requirements.” The available formats ought to cover any tablet/e-reader on the market.
The vision behind OpenStax is to cut the cost of a college education—a worthy goal, of course. I finished two college courses in the fall semester of 2011, and the texts for those classes ran over $240. That’s not unusual for college textbooks. But what if free, or low-cost, books really can catch on? How would they change self-study, and distance-learning, and continuing education? If you could download a quality text—not a study guide, not notes, but a full textbook—that cost you nothing, would you be more likely to resume/enroll in college? How would it affect your children’s education? Would you prep them if you had the chance? If enough free texts covering enough subjects became available, would community colleges expand their offerings? Would employers do more to fund post-secondary education for their workers?
Online schooling already has begun to change the way people are educated. Could OpenStax texts take online colleges to a higher level?
Related articles

• Guest Post: Marc Sher on the Nonprofit Textbook Movement (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
• Another Tip That Education Is Changing: Open Stax Textbooks (madisonian.net)

Technorati Tags: OpenStax,education,e-readers,college,ebooks,electronic textbooks

Never Again, Dell

Do I like Dell? Uh-uh. Nope. Sorry, I don't.

Do I like Dell people?

Well, the guy who came to my house to fix my wife's laptop was pretty nice. He took my conversation on Linux and Macs in stride. Pointed out the advantages (and there are some) of Windows and mentioned that Macs are pricey. But then, he wasn't fixing the iMac. He was fixing the Dell XPS, which the iMac had made obsolete for my wife.

Of course, Dell had already made it obsolete for my wife by making it a poor product. She'd long coveted a Mac anyway. She works as a graphic designer, uses a Mac at work, and had been using a Mac in her college classes for the last year. The XPS, when we had bought it, was going to be her go-to graphics laptop. We'd outfitted it with the best discrete graphics card we could afford. It had HDMI and a TV card and it was a pretty nice system for $1500 and change. REALLY nice, for the year we bought it (2008). It was the first year Dell put out the XPS, which was meant to capitalize on the Alienware line that Dell had just picked up.

Four years later, here's the summary:

• Hard drive replaced twice;
• Motherboard replaced;
• Power cord is loose on the connector;
• System has not charged the battery or recognized the ANY adapter for a year and a half (this includes both the OEM battery & adapter and non-OEM replacements)

And when she decided to upgrade to Windows 7, with the laptop just over a year old, Dell provided no support, no updated drivers, no Knowledge Base articles. The Dell website did not list the XPS as able to be upgraded. This was a 1-year-old model, for goodness' sake, that clearly had the hardware to run 7.

My family has owned 3 Dells, because my workplace qualifies for Dell's employee-purchase plan and I can buy a Dell interest-free with installments taken right out of my paycheck for a year. We loved the first one, a desktop that is now 8 years old and which my oldest daughter could still fire up if she weren't so in love with her MacBook. The XPS was the second; well, you know about that. The third is almost a year old--a desktop, purchased with my artist-in-waiting daughter in mind. It's already showing signs of being . . . balky. I'm not sure how much of that is rough usage and how much is the product. Because of our experience with the XPS, I'm having a hard time giving Dell the benefit of the doubt. But it's got a 4-year warranty and I'm pretty sure I'm soon gonna see the little guy who had such a pleasant conversation with me on Macs and Ubuntu.

Tux, the Linux penguin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yeah, that'll be nice. Thanks, Dell.

Related articles

• Again, Apple gets all the attention

  ---