This is VERY irritating..

[Karin L]

I copied this off another forum, thought this is pretty important not only for farmers but us homesteaders as well...it's sad, and yet it's pretty maddening at the same time. I could write a fair bit on what and why it makes me mad, but I'll let you read this and see what you think.


I am writing you in concern to an article that was published in the University of Missouri Columbia's student newspaper that is funded by our tax dollars. This article is being read by the generation of people that are making decisions for the future and I am concerned that when this type of negative coverage gets out to the wrong people it is going to cause a big problem for the future. This affects Missouri's Number 1 Industry Agriculture. I personally am offended to be a student at Mizzou when they allow this type of stuff to be printed. I encourage everyone to take a look at this and see why it is so important that we form together to give a positive message about agriculture. Please read the following article. Thanks Gary Animal Science Major


Message: Friesen: 'I can service a horse.'
By Dan Friesen, Columnist; Dfriesen@themaneater.com. Posted February 27, 2007.
This weekend, I learned that there are going to be some changes in funding for a few departments at the university, and I must say I couldn’t be happier.

Money and funding is the university’s way of telling groups and departments exactly where they stand. You want to know how important you are? Find out how much money you’re getting, there’s your answer.

I recently found out that I am not making the $10,000 per semester I demanded after Winter Semester 2006 but am in fact still making exactly what Lacey Hanson made semesters ago: $10 a week. And she didn’t even go in for rounds of negotiations like I did.

Maybe I’m closed-minded, but I think that some majors and paths of study are more, dare I say, noble than others.

You know what I mean. People with certain specializations, like journalism or textile and apparel management, can do more to improve society than others.

That’s why I was glad to read in Friday’s issue of this rag that not only was $1.6 million in federal money cut from the agriculture school budget, but $1.4 million was also added to the journalism school’s budget for construction.

Now, I know a lot of you out there are saying, “But Dan, you’re totally biased. You’re a journalist, therefore your opinion on the matter isn’t pure.” Hogwash, I say. The fact that I, Dan Friesen, am a journalist really serves to prove my argument.

Plus, we all know that “bias” is just a buzzword thrown around by the liberal, secular progressive media establishment to bork rational, right-thinking Supreme Court appointees who happen to think that fetuses are people and gays aren’t.

You see, one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that the print media is the most powerful and influential force in the free world. What we do is tell the world what’s going on. We observe things and we write about them, so all the busy people in the world don’t have to find things out for themselves. We tell the truth to the masses.

Seriously, what do you agriculture people do? Drive a plow and jerk off livestock? Yeah, real important. I assure you, I can drive stick, and if the situation came to it, I could service a horse.

Can you farmers dig through all the daily events and weave a coherent yarn explaining why any of it matters? No way. I’ve read the papers that come out of the country. They have headlines like “O’Flannigan Cow Farts.”

Nice try. Tell you what: You stick to the bovine handjobs, we’ll stick to the important work of print.

We aspire to live in big cities, writing for important, high-social impact papers. You aspire to spread manure for a living.

We pass the time playing Scrabble or Taboo to expand our minds. You play horseshoes. We like a nice classy scotch after a long day’s work. You drink bathtub gin.

We need fancy equipment to ensure a good layout. We need everything to be state-of-the-art. There’s not a piece of farm equipment on this Earth that isn’t covered in rust.

We need, and let’s not forget deserve, the increased funding. We’re making a difference. We’re important.

Now, how am I going to wet my beak in that $1.4 million? Stokes, time for another round of negotiations.



When articles like this are published and nothing is done it is a step in the wrong direction for agriculture education of the public, because some uninformed people who read it will believe it, and that is WRONG.

Opinions on this are warmly welcomed.

[MELOC]

i think we are witnessing the end of what probably wasn't all that promising of a career in journalism.

let him eat newsprint...

[booklover]

I wrote this to him:

"Independent of the very offensive tone of your article, I have to say that I am glad you are still in school. Your writing is so poor and your style so awkward that it made reading your article almost torturous. Stop falling asleep in class and listen up... you need to hear what your professors are saying if you are ever going to write anything people will enjoy reading.

If you are so offended by farmers, then son, stop eating. You are a hypocrite to eat the food farmers put on your table and with the same mouth criticize them."

[nehimama]

His tone is arrogant and self-serving. I think that alone will turn many people against his argument about how important the "social impact" careers are. His narrow-mindedness will probably not sway many folks to his side. I wouldn't worry too much about this fellow influencing a whole lot of people.

NeHi

[Hammer4]

Personally I read it as a sarcastic slam on the powers in charge for cutting the ag budget and boosting journalism.....his comment on how print papers rule the world was funny, obviously he is aware in the rapid decline of print newspaper readers and circulation do to the internet and cable news channels.

This statement right here is obviously very tongue-in-cheek:

"You know what I mean. People with certain specializations, like journalism or textile and apparel management, can do more to improve society than others. "

Comparing journalism with fashion design, etc, seems more like a put down then anything else to me......(No offense to fashion designers, everbody needs clothes, well, most everybody anyhow. )

[fin29]

I agree with Hammer--his self-deprecating humor indicates his intelligence, and people who take his article literally would probably be well-advised to borrow some from him...

[Boleyz]

That guy STILL ain't gonna get more than $10 a week.

[ajaxlucy]

I think the tone of that piece is ironic; the writer OPPOSES the agricultural budget cuts. Remember Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal"?

[anniew]

yep. Let's censure everyone so that you never get a glimpse of the truth. I thought the piece was quite funny myself.
A student newspaper is a way for students to express different ideas and explore their writing capabilities. Because he made his points in a fashion not acceptable to your standards does not make it a sin. I can just imagine how you'd look at the "lies" offered by politicians. How would you censure them when journalists are reporting their lies?
If you take everything literally, you are missing out on a lot.

[foxtrapper]

Pure tongue-in-cheek, and sarcastic. If you'd have written a witty tongue-in-cheek reply, he'd have probably put it in the newspaper or his column. Something like "Horseshoes, the official game of the Republican party", or "rust is a beautiful color".

Getting onto the hobby-horse of censorship, in the name of "our tax dollars"...

[heather]

I also took it as tongue-in-cheek

Lord, I hope it was!

[booklover]

Gosh, I didn't take it as tongue-in-cheek. He seemed honestly happy that they took money from ag and gave it to journalism... and that he thought he might get a raise because of it.

I certainly don't believe in censorship and he has a right to his opinion, but I also think that even in jest, it's over the top rude to use phrases like "bovine handjobs". I thought it was very poorly written, too. As a linguistics major in undergrad, I feel that the poor boy butchered the language and doesn't deserve to call himself "journalist".

[Wolf mom]

Juvenile - either as tongue-in-cheek or as reality.

Let him eat cake.....

[caryatid]

He needs to work on his writing style. If it was meant sarcasticly, he didn't convery that message well enough. It it was meant seriously, then I have a feeling he will be flipping burgers when he graduates.

I read the article thinking...He can't possibly be serious...No one is this stupid...But wait, I've known people this stupid...

[Ross]

Giving him the benefit of doubt I think he was hoping to come across as witty and sarcastic. Didn't work, because he was rude and unproffesional. He'll either learn from it or find a new path in his schooling. Television likely, he can do more damage there. How it got past the editor is a mystery too, perhaps there's deeper trouble in the journalistic world than I've thought. Or not, saddly.

[jross]

If I have learned at least one thing over my many years, it is that no matter how important you think what you do is, what you do is only a cog in the gears of the world, and that all those teeth mesh together to support our very lives. Now and then a tooth falls off.

[fin29]

Originally Posted by caryatid

If it was meant sarcasticly, he didn't convery that message well enough...

The Washington Post ran a contest a while back inviting people to create new definitions for misspelled words:

Sarchasm: the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the recipient who doesn't get it

[Tricky Grama]

velochic-

I loved your reply to him! You go girl.

Patty

PS- I don't think it was tongue-in-cheek. I think he's a young, IGNORANT college student.

[danoon]

Hope he likes eating lawn clippings with his class of scotch.. He is not from the real world and will find that out the hard way I think.

[texican]

I was raised on a farm, most of my relatives are farmers........... and for the life of me, I never ever heard of a bovine handjob, is that a pun on 'cow hands'? Or is it some derogatory reference made my idjits who think you can actually 'tip a cow'... that us 'rubes' out in the sticks like to give 'bovine handjobs' to our cows.............

wait, sorry.....I 'get's' it now!!!! I have given many many bovine handjobs... each time I milk a cow!!! Whew, I was thinking weird things there for a while...

btw...think it was a tongue in cheek article.