I haven't been able to force myself to blog lately due to acute ass and brain fatigue. I've been spending 8 hours a day in a classroom environment. The prolonged periods of attentiveness and concentration are, of course, mentally draining, but it's all the chair time that is really taking a toll on me. Even if there are are any blog-worthy ideas percolating through the mush inside my head, my entire body aches so much at the end of every day that the mere thought of sitting down in this vinyl and chrome atrocity of a chair in front of my computer is torture.

Another contributing factor to my overall weariness is the fact that I made the significant tactical error of outing myself to my classmates and instructors far too early in this 15-week course as a lefty (the only one in the crowd, as usual) and an atheist (maybe the only one in the whole fucking state of Oklahoma). Now, when we take a ten minute break from instruction, I get to spend it beating down bullshit arguments ranging from the ridiculous to the puerile. Here are some samples of actual conversations I've had over the past few weeks. There's this:

Classmate: {explaining how income tax cuts actually increase government revenue, voice dripping with contempt for my stupidity} It's very simple. 17% of this {holds hands cupped in a circle about the size of a softball} is always going to be smaller than 15% of this {moves hands out to about the size of a basketball}.

Me: Well that's certainly true, but how does your tax cut translate to your raise? I don't understand that part.

Classmate: What do you mean?

Me: Okay, say you make $100,000 and your income tax rate is 17%. You pay $17,000 in taxes. If your tax rate is lowered to 15%, you then pay $15,000 in taxes because your income never changed. That's a decrease in government revenue. Since a tax cut is not a raise, your argument is essentially that decreasing government revenue increases government revenue.

Classmate: {walks away frowning and shaking head}


And this:

Instructor: Hey liberal, have you ever heard of the Fair Tax?

Me: Yes, it's a national sales tax that is anything but fair. It ends up being a huge tax cut for the wealthy and a huge tax increase for the poor.

Instructor: {snickering} I bet you read a lot, don't you? You know what you need to do? You need to read two books; The Fair Tax Book and Fair Tax: Answering the Critics.

Me: You want me to read a book about taxes written by two guys who aren't economists that got trashed so badly by real economists that they had to write another book for damage control?

Instructor: {walks away with a weird little smile on his face}

This one is my favorite:

Classmate: Do you believe we came from monkeys?

Me: I believe monkeys and humans evolved from a common ancestor.

Classmate: That doesn't make sense to me. I just have real trouble believing that intelligent life could come from nothing.

Me: You have trouble believing that life, including intelligent life, could evolve through natural processes over billions of years, but you're okay believing that the invisible cloud-daddy made it all in 6 days with magic?

Classmate: Well if you analyze anything enough, you can make it sound ridiculous.

Me: Yep, I guess so.

This goes on day after day. They try to beat me into submission with bible verses and talking points pulled from the internet and hate radio and seemingly right out of their asses. As I said, it's very tiring, but now that the battle has been joined, my bone-headed pride won't allow me to cede even the most minor of points. I refuse to be silenced. I'm challenging everything from the tired old lie that Al Gore claimed he invented the internet to the newer ones about Obama being a closet Muslim who will institute Sharia law if he gets elected. I'm a rock of rationality, standing tall in a sea of ignorance, undaunted by the waves of stupidity crashing over me.