Don't trust your professors, kids.

Man. I almost lost a paper, nine pages in length, that is due on Tuesday. That would have really sucked. I have two ten pagers due that day. Man, fucking twenty credit semester.

Anyway, I got a paper back the other day from a (ugh) literature teacher who criticized an argument that I made in a history paper. I argued in one part that a large amount of Russian serfs, several hundered thousand or million in number were recruited into the Russian military over the time in which conscription was prevalent, and I made this argument in a way that left a lot of room for error since the evidence is not at all conclusive since the historians don't agree about the Russian population during that period. My professor didn't like the argument appearently because he first refuted it by stating that I didn't need all the information that I put into the argument. He then said that he felt that I "just didn't have enough information to do such a statistical analysis." And, to wrap it up, he stated that I should have just assumed the conclusion that I came to at the end of the argument anyway. So I'm sure you're thinking now the same thing that I was. "WHAT THE FUCK? HOW IS THIS GUY A PROFESSOR???" Let me just spell it out one more time. 1. I do not have enough information to make an argument in which I admit that there is not enough evidence to come to any definitive conclusion, but only a likely conclusion. 2. I don't need to put in argument all of the information that I concluded. 3. I shouldn't have made this argument in the first place, in which there is barely enough evidence to come to a definitive conclusion, and I should have just assumed the conclusions of this analysis anyway. Ergo, (using the Latin to sound haughty) I should next time assume something instead of cluttering up my paper with all sorts of evidence and other crap. And even if the evidence for belief is not definitely conclusive when argued, I should still abandon the examination of the conclusion, and just go ahead and believe it. So, when there is bearly enough evidence to believe something, it is tautalogical. This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I should and get some logic professors to go down there and kick his ass around. So stupid. I have spoken with others who have had trouble with this professor. I don't think that he has any principles that guide his judgement of papers. Its pretty fucked up to see that some people who can't really judge things that well go off and get doctoral degrees.

This isn't the first time that this has happened either. I think that this is one of the most blatent marks of stupidity that I have seen from one of my professors, though. I had a professor one time that wrote a book, a hagiography (book about a saint) of sorts. The saint saw a vision of Jesus' mother Mary. He argued that the vision of Mary was actually seen by him, and we know this because he was drowning at the time, and he called out for Christ to save him. He saw Mary, not Christ, therefore, he didn't imagine it. Now, my account of this may be somewhat characatured, but not by much.

Idunno. I'm just appauled by the shit I hear sometimes. I rely on these peole for grades, and ultimately, whether or not I get into graduate school. That is pretty fucked up. I have to argue with these people some times to show them that my points are valid. I mean, it would seem that they might not be if I have to argue with them, but I do win most of those arguments. Meh. Well, they're not all bad, but there really are a few shitty professors. Well, enough for now. Time for some hard core drugs and liquor. test