OH, THE INANITY!
Every Friday, starting today, I will post this open thread for a little weekend competition: what was the most inane thing you read in the Crimson, Indy, Salient, etc. this week? It can be anything, a news piece, an OpEd, a feature, anything.I know, this is kind of mean. The people at all of those fine publications work harder and for longer than any coffee drinking, underwear wearing blogger, but still, inane is inane. So, we at Cambridge Common love you campus publications. We love you enough to mock you mercilessly.
So let's get to it, what was the most inane thing you read this week?
Have a good weekend!
posted by andrew golis @ 3:39 PM
5 Comments:
hands down, Lurie's column that you pointed out. SO inane.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=507199
NO WAY, at least that provoked a conversation. It was dumb, not inane. No, this one was inane: http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=507252
The big news: " Faculty of Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) announced yesterday that, as of July 5, 2005, all students, faculty, and staff using the FAS system will be required to use SSL encryption with their e-mail clients."
SHIT, STOP THE FUCKING PRESSES!!!
This is easy:
Most inane of the MONTH:
The IOP guy who announced based on the results of his "opinion" survey that "College students are nervous about Social Security." What he meant was quite simply that "College students are IGNORANT about Social Security," and the IOP (and the Crimson) are part of the problem instead of the solution when they do things like this.
This is so inane it transcends inanity. I defy anyone to defend the presence of this question ("Will SS benefits be there when you retire?") on what is ostensibly a survey about opinions. The question is akin to "Will there be a Presidential election in 2008?" or "Is Puerto Rico a state?" -- a FACTUAL question to which no person is entitled to a personalized answer.
Jim
PS. Of course such a question could appear on a survey about misinformation and ignorance -- akin to asking recent college graduates whether the seasons are caused by variable distance of Earth from sun (some insane number say yes [and incidentally some insane number of people reading this think SS is in crisis, and are equally wrong as a matter of FACT]). But that's a very different kind of survey, and I'd be very surprised if any other questions on the survey invited people to give answers that are absolutely COUNTERFACTUAL by the standards of an expert profession like that of actuaries.
Not everything is up for vote! This ain't American Idol! Shame on the IOP folks -- and on the Crimson for failing to correct the record. Being 'nervous' about SS is simply not an opinion to which one is entitled (unless one understands fully how close Congress came in December to initiating a process of phasing the program out).
The best gaffe of the week in the Crimson is, I think, the ed page's use of "dost" instead of "doth" in their staff editorial "HRC Dost Protest Too Much" (Wed, 20 April, 2005). Kind of makes you want to bang your head against a wall, really. The whole news/editorial division really just means more spelling errors.
Also, the confusion of Brandon Terry--will they at least get his name and middle initial right? Ugh.
Of course, with the late hours they keep, Shakespeare starts to sound a lot like the nonsense one might spew at the average HSF meeting...
hey now! harshness...
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