Americans have been brainwashed, Tep. This is the only explanation I can come up with.

You've seen this, right?

So if you didn't know, science began in the 19th century. We didn't know much before that, apparently.

Heh. Reductionism: that great, longstanding tradition in which humanities/social science people indulge because they can't be bothered to read up on science even as far back as the Enlightenment. Otherwise, sounds like you're enjoying your courses so far, Shir. Nice one.

Steph, I have no idea how to respond to the crazy that is your friends and their ideology of healthcare, but at least you and your liberal friend were there. Maybe the other two will pick something up by osmosis. (I'd try hoping that they find themselves in a situation where they realise that health isn't always - or even often - a case of simple personal responsibility, but one of them's a doctor. Those particular Temporarily Able-Bodied types aren't going to have any trouble affording resources for independent living when they get older, and no one's going to threaten them with a sudden end to all their health coverage when they have the stress-related heart problems. Ah, money.)

Reductionism: that great, longstanding tradition in which humanities/social science people indulge because they can't be bothered to read up on science even as far back as the Enlightenment

From my experience, it's only in social science. In history we're expected to read 20-50 pages per class each week, most of the times in English. In sociology, if it's more than 5 pages in Hebrew (and sometimes there's no reading), they'll apologize.

My professor for the late modern era gave us over 2000 pages of mandatory bibliography (3 books and a bunch of articles) for a class of 14 meetings. I'm proud to say I read about 1200 to 1350 of these books and articles. He never apologized for that, even though most of us expected him to.

I just don't get it. You came to the university to get some education. You didn't expect it to jump suddenly into your brain without doing anything, have you?

Yeah, I think some people do, actually, Shir. I think it's lame of them, but...

Temporarily Able-Bodied

I meant to include that in my litany of Die, Privilege, Die: white, male, cis*-, hetero, upper-middle class, over-educated, temporarily able-bodied privilege can SUCK IT.

In the pursuit of getting my anger out: 2 loads of laundry are in progress, sinkful of dishes is washed, stovetop is scrubbed to within an inch of its life, coupons are cut out and organized, zucchini is grated to make bread later (we have no eggs, d'oh!). I'm going to hop in the shower and then go to the pharmacy and grocery store, and then come back and make zucchini bread and continue the laundry process. And watch some Simpsons Treehouse of Horror later.

Unrelated to healthcare reform -- to my utter shame, I just realized how easy and cheap it is to make beer bread from scratch (I had been buying TJ's beer bread mix for $1.99, which *is* inexpensive for a prepackaged bread mix). Out of curiosity, I googled "beer bread recipe," and came back full of shame.

3 cups self-rising flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 bottle/can beer

That's it. SO much cheaper than a mix (even a $1.99 mix). Sheesh. I'm going to make MOUNTAINS of that shit.

Hmm. Maybe my experience is unusual, but I've done far, far more reading for my sociology M.A. than I ever did for my Eng Lit B.A. But I thought both subjects had a tendency to neglect historical background - among some professors. Not all. My disability studies professor is probably the most learned person I have ever met, and he expects a lot from his students. (It's near-impossible to have a debate with him. He knows too much.)

Edited: I should have pointed out that I was addressing that to Shir.

Edited: I should have pointed out that I was addressing that to Shir.

I was pretty sure it wasn't a commentary on beer bread. (There would be a winky emoticon here if I used them.)

I was pretty sure it wasn't a commentary on beer bread.

You don't know. It could have been. Maybe I made a lot of beer bread during my B.A. and all that reading got in the way.

Or something.

Beer bread has a long and rich history, that's for sure.

I'm not familiar with beer bread; what's it like?