Wolf,

Anybody that has seen Antena 3 news throughout the afternoon in Spanish tv yesterday heard reported that the person in charge of informing about military operations of the American Army reported that they did not know that journalist were in the Palestine hotel. Antena 3 is one of the main tv channels in Spanish tv and they have not been specially critical against the war, so Cristobo did not have go go too far to find that information or look for it in some obscure Antiamerican left wing site...I heard the journalist report twice and in the same way I did other people may have done it and other channels may have broadcast it.

I agree with you that education (college or otherwise) should be free from bias and all positions presented so that students can make up their minds, have their own opinion and learn to form it through the tools, we educators give them. At the same time ducators are allowed to express their opinion and justify their options. I have been dealing with something in my class lately that I absolutely do not agree with, but I have presented all sides of the issue and finally once I presented it, explained my opinion, my reasons to think the way I do and my students did the same. Some agreed with me, others didn't, but as long as their argument was justified, I was fine with it, in the same way my opinion was respected because I gave reasons from it. I can handle somebody who does not agree with me in the same way my students can do so, in the end we are supposed to be civil and intelligent adults.

As I mentioned in another post, the problem is that ideology has gotten so much into academia that we have come to see academics making defences of different ideologies rather than intellectually honest and scientific work. This does not have to do with politics, but I wonder why hardly anybody in academia speaks out loud against extreme feminists in academia, I am surprised we dont see a huge crowd of males, white in particular, raging against them...many academics despise them in private but would not dare to do so in public...I guess we criticize radicalism when it is convenient and politically correct...

Thijs,

It is great to find somebody who thinks of college students as beings who can talk aand think for themselves, it is the trend to treat them like babies and I believe it is not the case.

I can only give my opinion as somebody from outside the US, but agree with you that Clinton did good things for the US and the change in the administration has brought some changes into the country, even noticeable by a foreigner who travels there every few months. these days, I have heard some of my American friends who are republicans say that never thought they could miss Clinton!!! At the same time, I am surprised because I know so many people who think the way you do there, but it is not that we have seen them represented in this forum...why do you think it is that people who are against the war do not speak their minds? Is it a general trend or has it happened in this forum by chance?

Gazpacho,

Believe me, I hate paying taxes as much as you do, especially when my salary is ridiculous, but I guess it is necessary. When I talked about unexpected life circumstances, I did not mean the loss of a job, that would be harder to fix in Spain, not so much in your country and in that you are very fortunate. I meant, what if all of a sudden someone gets a disabling illness and this person can hardly get out of bed to go to work and the insurance does not cover the proper treatment? I am not making anything up or being dramatic, I have more then one case like this in my circle of friends.That is the type of cases from which solutions should be found...I understand your frustration about your taxes being paid and still things not working, that calls for a change in the system because it obviously does not work.

I dont want you to think I was calling for all of us paying for those who do not want to work or those who benefit from the system when they should not do so. I have been educated to work hard and I value it greatly, but at the same time I am sensitive to social matters. Believe me, despite being for a reform of welfare system and a coverage of basic needs, I am no radical and not everybody is like that, I am not a communist and do not justify violence, it is never a good way.

lastly...Booklady, I checked Cristobo's posts that you told me about. I dont interpret it the way you do. They both deal with the same source, in the first one he presents it and in the second he justifies it mas 'MY source', to me it is thet he made a mistake in using his nick, if he was trying to legitimize the first post, the would have written 'the source'. That is how I see it, just my interpretation....