It was AP US History (APUSH, as we called it), so junior year of high school, not junior high (I was like 17).

I think the theory was that somehow we already knew all about Hitler, the Holocaust, Stalingrad from all the "other" courses. Part of the problem is that the course teaches to the AP exam and the exam itself is explicitly focused on cultural history and COMPLETELY excludes military history.

Basically every history teacher I've ever had has taken the attitude that most of the commenters here have taken, "Well, of COURSE I can ignore the 'dead white guys' history because they've already learned that stuff over and over again." Which my generation never has, because all of our teachers have this attitude--remembered from their own education, perhaps?

One commenter said that HIStory is "men's studies", and all I have to say is maybe that was true in the past, but it sure ain't anymore. I was taught all about the Zoot Suit Riots, the Tuskegee Institute, the Trail of Tears, but I had to learn on my own what the Battle of the Bulge was, or where the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" comes from.

All I'm saying is we need some balance. The sad fact is that for most of world history women and minorities were largely excluded from participating in important parts of public life. That doesn't mean that the things the white guys were doing in the meantime (when they weren't busy with all the oppressing) are incidental in history.

Gay rights activists are going to regret pushing so hard for acceptance that being gay is the result of "biology" (i.e. nature, not nurture). As soon as being gay becomes accepted as a biological condition, not a moral one, you're going to start seeing "cures" for homosexuality. And I mean real ones, ones that actually work, not bogus behavior-modification camps.

A lot of the best science today suggests that in-utero hormone levels probably play a significant role in determining sexuality. We're going to start seeing hormone treatments for women to prevent their children from turning out gay. Well-meaning parents will justify it to themselves by figuring they'll spare their child the social stigma of being gay; more biased parents (or more honest ones?) will simply say that they're curing their child of a "sickness".

The "-trix" is by far my favorite Latinate suffix! Shame on anyone who criticizes it.

My feeling on gendered nouns has always been that if there's only one, and it's male, then it's discriminatory and should be changed. Examples: fireman to fire fighter, mailman to letter carrier.

But if there's two perfectly good gendered nouns, I don't have a problem: actor and actress, waiter and waitress, aviator and aviatrix (especially awesome).

"However, what sickens me is the idea that "hotness" could somehow persuade voters to support a ticket whose platform I find truly, genuinely odious. That hotness is hoodwinking people, because my fear about our great country is just that: Hotness is hoodwinking people, everywhere."

Hotness has been hoodwinking people everywhere since the beginning of time. Attractive people are more successful at life. Hot women (and to a lesser extent, men) get all kinds of free stuff, better service, general perks, and in some cases, votes. Were you somehow unaware of this?

Hi, welcome to the party.

Now please fuck off.

We knocked on doors in the freezing snows of Iowa, in the scorching heat of Nevada, we had racial epithets shouted at us in Georgia and Indiana. We made phone calls and organized rallies and held fundraisers. We pestered our parents, our grandparents, our friends, anyone who would listen. We missed exams to go to swing states and campaign.

Now, you show up at the victory speech and you "finally understand"?

Well, fuck you. You're too late for this party.

Sincerely,

The Millennial Generation

"Get the smartest people you can find and get on with it."

I couldn't possibly agree more.

I think a lot of people on the left voted for Obama because they found him "inspirational" or they wanted to advance minorities, or they thought he'd move the Democratic party further toward the anti-war left.

I voted for Obama for one very simple reason: competence.

In case you forgot, Clinton ran up that debt sliming Obama long after it was mathematically impossible for her to win.

I'll be damned if I'm going to reward that kind of behavior by paying off her debt. She and Bill can write another book or go give speaking engagements.

From the D.H. Onion Center For Figuring Out Really Obvious Things: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38603

Well done, Broadsheet. Continue picking the lowest of low-hanging fruit.

The effect of the economic crisis on tampon purchases!

Seriously, did they get this article from some sort "The effect of the economic crisis on X" article-generating software? How many more of these "Serious crisis affects trivial issue" articles will we have to read?

I can haz real jornalizms plz?