This forum is crawling.

[MelissaB]

I just can't stand it!

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[knowbody0]

1. we are in the eye of the storm

be ready. trust no one. question everything

[BayouBengal07]

2. *Scuffles out of view*

I've got a final exam tomorrow, I better crawl away...

[MelissaB]

3. You could hang out here and nobody would ever know...

[justinsb]

4. In case you missed it yesterday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4058435&mesg_id=4058435

[MelissaB]

6. No, I didn't miss it, but thanks

for the link.

[applegrove]

5. Could it be that because real news is suddenly on the news we have

lost a few regulars? I hope the MSM take note!

[Bill Bored]

7. Could it be that a lot of us are just on VACATION? nt

[Land Shark]

8. For some reason it wasn't easy for me to find this place, then

figuring out how to put it in my forums. Now I can visit.

Many people are in mourning right now.

[Bill Bored]

11. Traffic had been dropping off even before Andy passed away.

And this forum was not even notified about that in a timely manner, which is also sad. But I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted us to stop doin' what we're doin' here!

Good to see you on the board Jaws.

[Melissa G]

15. Combinations of vacations, deep mourning, overwork

and a maybe just dab of burnout that will pass...Holiday weeks are often when we go slow around here. Easter and memorial day were down to a crawl. It will kick back up as the truth comes out! Articles and books will be coming out to turn up the heat!

[Kip Humphrey]

9. We are in mourning...

But soon, it is time to act from our sadness and come together to fight smarter, better, and in solidarity.

[EFerrari]

10. Give me a few days. This is was my first home forum

and I'm ready to come back home.

:hug:

[Kip Humphrey]

12. Welcome home!

:grouphug: :pals: :loveya:

[FogerRox]

13. I think its going to be a tumultious summer in NJ

If 1/2 of what we're working on comes to fruition---

Look the fuck out--- stuff will be falling from the sky.
If one item in particular works out--- A Lawyer told me it would have National implications----

>wink<
:kick:

[MelissaB]

16. Geez...GOOD LUCK!

Whatever it is sounds promising. Go get 'em!

[anaxarchos]

14. Someone has decided....

...that this little tin-foil central of ours makes the whole joint "look bad".

What the hell kinda Jacobin club is this, anyway?

"Better 100 false conspiracies than 1 real one missed..." Marat.

[johnmilton]

17. How would you teach this subject to college students?

If there is dead space let me ask a question:
assume you are going to include a unit on * and the 04 election,
in a college (or AP) class, how would you present it?
how would you frame it?

I'll be more specific: I will be teaching it as part of a Freshman
composition class. The global theme of the class will be conspiracy theory; you can get away with this, because teaching
comp is really about learning how to write and research, the tools, and so the content is really open so long as you make it
flexible and open ended enough to appeal to students. We will be reading Freud on paranoia, Orwell's 1984, watch X-Files and
Alias and then end with you guessed it, the Conyers report and the 04 election with some other stuff thrown in.

The only thing I know at this point is that I have to teach it
because I have to know how other people react to this issue.

I would appreciate feedback from DU'ers, if any of you
have the time to do it.

[MelissaB]

18. That sounds like a wonderful class!

Will the students be doing a research paper or only essays?

[MelissaB]

19. Also, I'd suggest you post a few more times and start a thread in this

forum with this question. I think you'd get a lot of feedback.

I can't remember the number of posts you must have to start a thread, but I think you are close to it. :)

[johnmilton]

33. essays vs. research papers

In the world of comp, the usual arrangement is to have
101 where you focus on transitioning to reading and writing in a literate world, so not research but more essays in the vein of memoirs and opinions.

In 102 you have a research component.

This class will be a 102 so there will be a research component,
but it won't be a mandatory one on the election issue, just that
they pick a "text"--book, movie, tv show, whatever, find 5 sources, and write a paper using proper documentation. I find that
there is not enough time to do full blown research work when
you have to spend time teaching so much else. But everybody does it different.

[Melissa G]

20. Hi johnmilton, if you can't start a thread, post here and i'll do it

for you. happy to help! welcome to DU!:hi:

[MelissaB]

21. Oops! Forgot my manners again. Welcome to DU, JohnMilton!

:hi:

[johnmilton]

30. yes, please start a thread for me

I have been lurking on DU since shortly after nov 2 04, but I have
only recently started posting, in part because I am frustrated that
there is no place I know of where people like me who can teach
this issue (as well as others) can ORGANIZE to do what we
can to make the campus a place of DISSENT.

Please, if you could start a thread, maybe we can start
building a critical mass of teachers committed to teaching
democracy issues NOW.

Hope that make sense!

And thanks for the welcome.

[Melissa G]

34. post what you want in the thread in a reply to this message

and I will start a thread for you. If someone offers to do something for you, it is good to reply to them so it comes up in their 'my posts'

[zoids]

23. I need some clarification.

It's sounds as if you're teaching that the Conyers report and the 04 election issues are conspiracy theories. If so, I'm interested in what ways you see them as such. Thanks!

[johnmilton]

31. election 04 and conspiracy theory

Yes I will introduce the Conyers report and the fraud/election issue as a conspiracy theory.

I will be doing this for several reasons, the first being that it is my
pedagogy (boring word, that) when teaching composition to
select a theme that is broad and engages students and allows them to select a research topic that they like. I have taught
conspiracy theory in the past and its a winner. Remember I am not teaching a class where the announced subject is how
Bush destroyed American democracy or election issues.
This is a way to smuggle this content into a class that is the only
required class for all students in the college and that is where I want to go--to force an encounter with this stuff at that point of contact.

Second, simply because I identify the subject as a conspiracy theory doesn't mean I think it is not true. This is the key point that
Freud long ago hit upon as to why he didn't treat paranoid individuals (generally speaking)--he found it very difficult to cure them because the line between the illness and what he considered to be normal is the thinnest when it comes to paranoia, that in an odd way paranoia is indeed normal except. . . (read the Rat Man case).

Third, conflicted postmodernist that i am, I have a tortured relation to the notion of truth, though that is something that is probably dangerous to say on this forum. Last semester i told
my students that i was a postmodern democrat in that if you
got me started about fox news and the rest of American Pravda,
I would tell you * won the election fair and square through propoganda; but if you wound me up on the polls and Ohio, I would tell you he stole it. This aligns with the polls that say that over in the Arab world if you ask them if Israel was behind 9-11, you get a lot of people saying yes, but if you ask them what they think of Osama bin Laden, they say he is the Hero of 9-11. So welcome to the postmodern world, a world beyond truth.

I know that doesn't answer your question directly but it gives you something to chew on.

[Amaryllis]

24. Show the flim "Electile Dysfunction". Link here:

http://www.electile-dysfunction.com/
It's compelling and isn't just talking heads.

HAs good graphics and music and they will love the play on words in the title.

[johnmilton]

32. course content

Thanks, I haven't seen it; will check it out!

[starmaker]

22. Maybe we need a thread on GDpolitics

Just to direct people here
We could probably keep it on front page
with a little concerted effort

[Time for change]

35. I think that may be a good idea

Maybe one on GD also.

[hunter]

25. Candles in the Rain

A song by Melanie.

Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown

We were so close there was no room
We bled inside each other's wounds
We all had caught the same disease
And we all sang the songs of peace

Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile up
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown

So raise candles high 'cause if you don't
We could stay black against the night
Oh raise them higher again
And if you do we could stay dry against the rain

That's where my sig comes from.

[byronius]

26. I'm here. Everyday.

[Nightjock]

27. Me too.

It's the most important topic in Amerika

[Nightjock]

28. Here is Mr Skinners explanation

of why he buried this forum.

"I do not consider the issues in that forum to be "wild speculation" so please do not put words in my mouth. The 2004 forum is being treated in exactly the same way we treat the forums for all the other issues. The "Admin picks" section was never intended to be permanent. After eight months where that forum had prime placement in our "Admin Picks" section, we felt it was time to put something else there."

[nashville_brook]

29. i've been away for too long --

i have no excuse.