See this FoxNews story.. Also, this KARE11 story. These stories each excerpt from a longer statement that was read by polisci grad student, Isaac Kamola. Here’s an earlier draft (written by the umn student strike solidarity group):

We, the students, are here today to express our frustration at the inaccessibility of the administration at our University. We are here to say “no” to the silence and exclusion from the decision making process that affects our whole university community.

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I keep trying to write a post about it. But I don’t know how to approach it. Read comments on slashdot every once in a while. In the world of tech a lot of people think that we live in a meritocracy. That poor people are poor because they are lazy and stupid. If people just worked harder they too could be successful software engineers.

This is clearly not true, but how do you explain that to someone who’s world view depends on this belief?

Anti-libertarian FAQ

Today I was talking to coworkers, one of whom is a Libertarian. He started complaining about the people in New Orleans who “won’t take a job” because they are getting FEMA money. “Our Money”. I actually just had to get up and walk away before I lost it on the guy.

I don’t like movement conservatives and I am afraid of their authoritarian, subsidize the rich and squash the poor philosophy. But Libertarians make me angry and offended. It is an actual ideology of selfishness. FEMA screwed up. A lot of money was scammed away because FEMA was too incompetent to manage the thing. When I hear that I think it is a shame that FEMA was being run by incompetent political hacks. When a Libertarian hears it they get righteously indignant that anyone got free money from the government. As if hurricane victims deserve what they got. Its a political philosophy built around assuming people with less money are stupider than you.