Spatula City

Christian "The Bionic Stark" Barnett, the new AP econ teacher, is so charming...

Bustling crowed: HOW CHARMING IS HE?

He's so charming, I'm a big fan, despite all the reasons why I shouldn't be.

He's an outspoken conservitive. Earlier in the year, he bragged constantly in class about the football team of Ohio State University, often engaging in protracted posturing with a student who supported the rival Michigan Wolverines. He has a ridiculous, clip-arty poster of GWB on his wall. In any discussion of economics in the real world, be it present day or historical, he is resolutely, amazingly, stupfyingly pro-American. Allow me to outline a few illuminating examples:
Stimulus: The Japanese economy is mentioned in a positive light.
Response: Japan was "almost wholly an American creation."

Stimulus: America's huge trade deficit.
Response: This makes for cheap goods, and the higher spending they trigger is actually a net positive for the economy.

Stimulus: The current reccession.
Response: The economy is recovering at record pace and more jobs have been created in the past 4 years than ever before, or something.

Stimulus: Unparalleled American growth in the 1990s.
Response: Ronald Regan was great.

So he's got all that going against him, and you know what? I like him. Whenever he trips up on a subject or has a mistake on a test (which are both perfectly understandable, considering how he's making the curriculum and writing the tests as we go along), I'm rooting for him. I watch Chris Dens and Logan bring up valid points when questioning Barnett's logic, and I just think "Man, shut up and roll with it."

Perhaps this is what George W. Bush is like in person. I think that would explain quite a bit of his success.

P.S.: I think that this example reflects a general shift in my attitude away from caring about politics.

P.P.S.: Nice picture from my aunt Sarah. Because nothing says "I love you" like used motel furniture.