Odracirys

My mindset appears to be in a void where few other minds venture.  Knowing people with similar mindsets on Google+ is comforting, but I am still aware that my way of thinking is extremely rare. You see, in many ways, I am a super-liberal.  I am a vegetarian, an environmentalist, and an atheist, among other things.  I support marriage equality and of course women's equality.  So far, so good.  However, there are some things that mark me as very different from many liberals.  I call things as I see them.  I am objective and do not tailor my response to somebody based on that person's race, sex, or class.  I glorify mockery when it is warranted.  I am respectful towards things that are not worthy of ridicule, but I am not politically correct simply for the sake of it. I am definitely not on the conservative side of the spectrum, but there are times when I agree with some conservatives over some liberals.  And the kinds of liberals who a...

For a while now, I have been wanting to correct some things I said on one of  's posts a while back on Google+.  Most of what I said in the comments of that post were correct, and I stand by them, but the following is something I would like to revise.  I wrote the following to Heather and  : "Many Japanese people actually admire American students, because they can (both regulation-wise and culturally) ask questions.  In Japan, teachers prepare full lectures (which is probably what a lot of that time is used for) and basically just read the lesson out, and the students take notes.  It is rote memorization.  They are excellent at it, and if it involves memorization (including of math concepts), they can beat nearly anyone else in the world.  However, if they are asked to go outside the script, they stumble.  For example, ask what year a war started, and they will know it (for the test, at least...then forget later on), but ask why the war ...