Saturday, March 25, 2006

In brief

Blogging takes a backseat to sport as the Comm Games winds down. But just quickly...

Mutilating young minds
The Australian gives a well deserved drubbing to critical literacy, an appalling educational trend in West Ozzy schools where grammar, syntax, spelling & punctuation are neglected in favour of political advocacy. Students are encouraged to examine texts in order to identify & reject the underlying racism, sexism, homophobia etc.
"Critical theories of literacy derive from critical social theory & its interest in matters of class, gender and ethnicity.. Critical pedagogy [is] designed to oppose the dominant ideologies, social institutions & material conditions that maintain socio-economic inequality"
This rubbish, no doubt, is coming to a school near you. Another reason to homeschool if you don't want your kids brainwashed by idiot leftists & their pet grudges.

What liberation?
My girlfriend, Michelle Malkin, in her inimitable hand grenade lobbing style, blasts Everybody for their ineptitude, blindness & hypocrisy over the Abdul Rahman case, the Afghan man facing execution because he converted to Christianity. Sing it, sister! The coalition forces overthrew the Taliban only to have a brutally repressive theocracy fill the power void.

Gold!
Nick Willis wins the 1500 metres at the Comms! Woohoo! Our first track victory since 1982. Young lad hails from Lower Hutt, which makes him practically a Wellingtonian :-P I was screaming & stomping & whooping so much during the race, my near permanently comatose cat woke up (briefly). A lump in throat & dewey eyes as they played our anthem during the medal ceremony.

Update: From the Herald
"The University of Michigan runner created history with tonight's win as no New Zealander has won over the distance at the Games"

2 comments:

fm said...

Wasn't that the one where the Aussie favourite fell over?

Phil said...

Ahem! For the benefit of the ill-informed, the unenlightened & the slow learners amongst us, both here in Kiwi Paradise & across the Tasman in Desert Island (and I'm NOT trying to single out anyone in particular here - so please, don't feel I'm being unkind), allow me to explain. I'll speak slowly and won't use any big words.

The Magnificent Kiwi was indeed, the pre-race Favourite. His closest rival - widely tipped to take the SILVER medal - unfortunately was unable to remain upright for the entirety of the race. Alas, losing one's balance & falling over is NEVER a good race tactic. Heck, you would've thought that with all the gazillions of $$$ they pumped into the Oz Institute of Sport, they could have at least hired an athletics coach to point this out.