The proponents of social justice are throwing a party tonight. Why you may ask? Because UCLA will have more black students next year! Woo Hoo!

You might remember that last year I brought up this very important issue right here on The Blarg. I’m glad to report that my efforts have been successful, and UCLA is more black this year. You might think intelligence or academics would be a more important basis for evaluating a person than their skin color, but you’re wrong! The color of a person’s skin far outways anything like personal responsibility or hardwork.

Unfortunately our job is not done. It is my goal to make sure that by 2015 every single student at UCLA will be black. There are some who might cry foul at such a suggestion, but those people are evil and mean (and probably asian and white). No black person would ever want to be judged by the content of their character, but only by the color of their skin. This was of course Martin Luther King Jr.’s motto.

Please join me in this uphill battle of making sure that everyone at UCLA is black, and that the discrimination of considering things like talent and skill are done away with. No person should have to be judged because of who they are as a person, but solely by the color of their skin. Together, we can make a difference.

The following is an original short story by the blarg. Love it, hate it, or be confused, but I think you’ll enjoy it. If you like the first paragraph click down for the rest.

Update: Sorry for the lack of resolution in the first edition. The wife was making me hurry to come downstairs to watch TV.

    Rich Nguyen was closing up shop for the night. His parents owned the place, but this "responsibility" as they called it, was usually his. Even at twelve years old, when they’d decided to buy the store, Rich had known that "Good Market" was a stupid name. Like most parents they didn’t listen to him though, and now a sophomore in college, he was stuck with the late shift at Good Market.

continue reading…

The Governor last night in the State of the State address made a reference to people that have health insurance coverage and end up paying for the uninsured:

I’m lucky enough to have health insurance? My six years of schooling and hardwork was luck? The Governor is out of his mind. People that save their money and buy private health insurance are not lucky. They work hard and make decisions about how they spend their money. Illegal immigrants that walk into our emergency rooms without health insurance are not unlucky. Gang bangers that get shot up and incur thousands of dollars in ER bills only to be patched up and put back on the street are not unlucky.

Liberal ideals are the single greatest cause of declining personal responsibility in our country.

Below are several character traits or states of mind that people may find worth striving for in this life. The idea behind this exercise is that you are to rank the following traits for yourself, from most important to least important.

This is supposed to be done privately, so don’t think you have to post your final ordering in your comments. Hopefully you’ve never done this, and I will deliver the "punchline" after everyone has had an opportunity to rank their most desired qualities, and maybe a good discussion will follow. The qualities up for ranking are:

1) Money
2) Happiness
3) Integrity
4) Power
5) Hardwork
6) Selflessness

I’ve purposely excluded a quality such as "loving God," because while it is important, that love should be manifested in tangible ways. If there are any glaring qualities I have omitted that you cannot have meaning without, feel free to let me know. This exercise was performed in Mr. Bradbury’s chemistry class when I was in 11th grade.

I encourage everyone to at least think about those five qualities and have an idea which are most important to you, and which are least important. And while you may not need an update from me to understand the significance of your ranking, I will be back to give it to you. Post if you’ve thought about these so I know people are reading.

Update: I’ve added selflessness to the list of traits at the suggestion of Mike (servanthood seemed restricted to religious meanings, so I thougth selflessness was a little more broad). Selflessness seemed different enough from the rest. This is not the "moral of the story" update, so keep thinking about your rankings.

Update 2: I think Amy actually touched on the whole point of the exercise in her comment. The point this is trying to make is really a matter of priorities, and that when push comes to shove, the way you value the above traits will impact the decisions you make. For example, if you were to come across a lost wallet with $100 in it, the qualities about money and integrity would come into play. The point Mr. Bradbury was making is that if you truly value integrity more than money, you would turn the wallet in. The "big idea" is that your choices are driven not only by the qualities you value, but the order in which you value them. I would say that you cannot place equal priority to all the above traits, because at some point or another in your life one will conflict with another. When that happens the trait that you value more will win.

Are these actual traits or desired traits like Amy posed? I think it can be both. While we can have a desired priority for our values in life, always living up to them is a tall order. I think when I took this "test" I put down happiness as my number one, and I can see how my life has been impacted by valuing that above other things like money and power. I think it impacted the career path I finally chose. There are flaws in this of course (money and power CAN have an impact on one’s happiness), but pitting the values against each other really makes me think about what’s most important to me in life, and the choices I will make because of them.

So was it everything you hoped for? Curious to hear why people picked what they did, if you’d change your choices, and whether or not your life has been impacted by the values most important to you.

People in France are protesting yet again. Last time it was angry Muslim youths, and this time it’s all youths. What are they upset about? If you’re under 26, your employer can FIRE YOU! Gasp!

I don’t know the laws of France, but I assume that the opposite is currently true (companies can’t fire their employers or something like that). This is the danger of socialism…people start expecting things. Forget hardwork and personal responsibility, the government should give you everything.

That’s why America is so great. You get what you earn (mostly) and that’s what has made us the country we are now.

It’s been a year and a half since I had a routine school schedule, and it’s weird getting back into the swing of things. Going to school two nights a week, doing homework, and having tests. It all seems so foreign, but at the same time welcome. I feel like I’m finally on my way to being a teacher and closer to having a career. Now to just bare down and get all the hardwork done so I can get there. Bring it on.