[Vision2020] They're just jealous.

[ben merkle]

Rose and the Visionistas,
Rose is on to something with Nate. She asks if his Masters is from the St.
John of the great books fame. This is awkward. Actually, it was St. John's
Hardware and Implement. Don't you know, all of our degrees are fake.
    I'm sorry, but this whole thing has gotten so ridiculous that how can we
respond with anything but snorts and wheezes? Nate did get his degree from
St. John at Annapolis. This is odd. How ever did he get in? His
undergraduate was from NSA and that's not a real school. How would a school
like St. John have ever let him in? Our paradigm is shaken. But we push on.
Now you mentioned that you were looking to interlibrary loan Nate's thesis
because you knew that the St. John program required one. Once more, a swing
and a miss. St. John didn't require it. The online research fails again.
    But Google on. I'm sure you'll find that chink in the credentials. Try
Dr. Leithart. He got his degree from a British University (glorified
homeschooling I say). But maybe we should widen the net. What about this Mr.
Leon and where did he learn to cut hair? Is there even really a Mr. Leon?
    Now Rose tells us why she has been sniffing around all of our degrees.
It's really because she's concerned about our academic envy. That appears to
be the only explanation for why we would criticize Drs Quinlan and Ramsey
and other celebrated PhDs. Cough, choke, wheeze, sputter. If we rewind the
tape a bit, we will recall that the subject of my degree came up because
Rose and her internet browser thought that they had discovered that my PhD
studies were a sham. Further research has discovered that they aren't a
sham. But Rose is undaunted and brilliantly counters with the time honored
"you're just jealous." I misjudged her. I had been expecting her to respond
with the classic "I'm rubber and you're glue."
     I really wanted to bow out of this thread a while back, but the humor
of it all continues to suck me back in. For instance, NSA is currently being
investigated to determine whether we really should be offering degrees by a
woman who does her investigation via the internet. I'm sorry, but we have
had visits from real accrediting agencies and their research methods were a
little different. Rose is even looking for Nate's mythical thesis in order
to double check the work of those instructors at St. John. Things have
gotten so funny of late. Local liberals have begun tut tutting the
Confederation of Reformed Evangelicals because suddenly our Intoleristas are
authorities on what a "real" Presbyterian believes. All of this is about as
comic as Nick Gier setting himself up as an authority on the Trinity.
    Why all this attention? Why all this scrutiny? I shall follow Rose's
example and attribute it all to jealousy.

Ben Merkle
ps. I bet Mr. Leon isn't really a man.