Fall break has come and gone, meaning it's the last half of the last semester of college. Weird.
As far as things going, here's the story. Three times last week I went to Ritter's, a frozen custard place in Mishawaka that is half off for Notre Dame students. What a bargain. I got large, delicious treats because it is so damn cheap. I guess the law of demand holds.
Thursday/Friday I worked on my thesis (a little). Friday at 3PM I loaded up the car (almost) and took off from South Bend. About an hour and fifteen minutes (~75 miles) later, I realized I forgot my suit. This was a crucial element of the voyage, for I was going to a wedding. Whoops. I promptly turned around the car and headed back to Notre Dame. I was a little annoyed, but oh well.
The drive was crappy, as the weather has been crappy around here for about a week. Yesterday, for example, it snowed. I forgot to take pictures.
Anyhow, the wedding was great, and we didn't really take too many pictures. The pictures we did take did not turn out. Including the pictures that we took for Christmas cards. Doubt me? Click here.
It was great seeing the Suchaneks and all. It was in the northern suburbs of Detroit (our hotel was a minute's drive from the Silverdome, and I saw the Palace of Auburn Hills for the first time). The reception was fantastic. Our family was really awkward out on the dance floor. Hooray for white people. I did miss the Notre Dame-Washington game, which I hope is the last time in my life I miss an entire ND game. Probably not, considering I aspire to be a lawyer, but you never know. Note to self: definitely NOT getting married on a Saturday in the fall.
Sunday morning Tim and I took off to come back to ND. We stopped at Angelo's in Ann Arbor, which is a great place to get deep fried French toast (that's right... yummy). We came back to ND, hung out in Dillon, went to Subway dinner (a Sunday tradition unlike any other) with Packy, and came back and I did some homework while tim did too. Poor kid, working over fall break. Monday morning we went to the American Pancake House, that amazing diner north of campus. Tim had the apple pancake, and I had the corned beef hash skillet. I barely even felt full. You know why? I'm getting fat fat fat. I've put on 10 pounds since I got back to school, and I broke 150 in weight for the first time in three years at some point in the last few weeks (I weighed 152 today). At this point, I'm just living it up this semester. For example, I had two pieces of pecan pie tonight. After weighing myself and feeling like a fatass. I plan on becoming bulimic after Christmas; I gotta enjoy the holidays too.
The rest of yesterday was class and a gym trip with the tim tim. The people at the Rockne gym were cool and let him in. This morning I worked and then took tim to the airport. This afternoon was spent at the gym and then blowing off my thesis. I'm supposed to have a first draft completed by this time next week. Maybe, but maybe not.
Anyhow, here are some pictures if you missed the link the first time around.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Fall break
So it's Fall Break. I have been working on my thesis a lot over the break, watching soccer and football, and enjoying life. Weather's been okay, but it rained yesterday. Nothing terribly exciting. I'm back on campus, and nobody is here. Quiet, quiet, quiet.
What inspired me to post is that I wrote a really long email and I figured I ought to keep it, as it explains why I couldn't vote for Obama (or McCain). Since many people in my generation probably find it inconceivable that somebody my age couldn't vote for Barack (heh - the google spell checker doesn't recognize Barack), I can direct them to this little ditty. It began with an email that my mom sent that illustrated who pays the federal income tax and people whining about how "unfair" tax cuts are there.
This is slightly disingenuous... this is only the federal income tax, not all taxes.
They've tried to do studies on taxes paid as a percentage of income earned, and almost across the board people pay a little more than 25 percent of their income in taxes w/ sales taxes, local income tax, property taxes, corporate income, payroll, etc.
For example, if one makes $90000 all of your income is subject to the ~6% payroll tax (plus there's the hidden payroll tax "your employer" pays - actually, the vast majority of the payroll tax the employer pays ultimately comes out of the paycheck of the employee, but that's another subject), so about 6% of that person's income is paid in payroll taxes.
Compare that with somebody who makes $900000. only the first ~$90000 is subject to the payroll tax, so less than 1% of his/her income is taxed under the payroll tax. The rich guy also will pay a smaller percentage of income in sales taxes, cigarette taxes, gas taxes, etc. because, while that person may spend more and may pay more taxes in an absolute sense, that person will not pay a proportionate amount of taxes than an average/poor earner.
Sooo, having said all that, Obama saying that 95% of Americans will get a "tax cut" under his plan is even more disingenuous. Considering that 40+% of Americans do not pay any federal income taxes, it's hard to see where the "cut" for them comes from. Ultimately that plan is tricked up welfare, a new New Deal which provides only an income effect (which will lead people who get these "cuts" to work less) while raising marginal tax rates on everybody (which provides a substitution effect away from work as well).
Essentially, it will shrink the tax base to pay for a growing number of people on the dole to some degree or another. As a trend, it's entirely unsustainable over the long term, which is a significant part of why I couldn't bring myself to vote for a pretty cool dude whose foreign policy I entirely agree with and who is on the right (or right-er) side of many social issues (gay rights, drug decriminalization/legalization, removing the embargo of Cuba). He has been pretty even keel, but his party's demogogary on economic issues (Two Americas, opposing free trade, THEY TOOK OUR JERBS- google that if you don't get it, etc) is pretty unforgivable. I will never vote Democratic as long as they continue that crap. Even when a 40something smooth guy with a much better temperment to be president is running against a geriatric "American greatness" conservative who the neo-cons liked over Bush in 2000 who picked somebody for vice president who appears to be a dumber, less qualified version of George W. Bush.
So it's a great year to do a write-in! I would have voted for Bob Barr, but the dude was a religious nut who attempted to crucify Clinton and wrote the Defense of Marriage Act. Write-in! Viva la revolucion!
Son #1
By the way, I wrote in Mike Munger, a Duke political science and economics professor who is running for governor of NC on the libertarian ticket. I honestly believe that he would do a better job governing than just about anyone in the country, so I don't feel I threw away my vote at all, despite my occasional crack that I threw away my very valuable vote (NC is a swing state this year). And, in my own little way, I did protest- I want to be a Republican, but the party has lost it's way since 1995 after the government shutdown. Goddamn Bill Clinton and his inexplicable desire to have sex with ugly interns. He riled up too many religious nutjobs.
What inspired me to post is that I wrote a really long email and I figured I ought to keep it, as it explains why I couldn't vote for Obama (or McCain). Since many people in my generation probably find it inconceivable that somebody my age couldn't vote for Barack (heh - the google spell checker doesn't recognize Barack), I can direct them to this little ditty. It began with an email that my mom sent that illustrated who pays the federal income tax and people whining about how "unfair" tax cuts are there.
This is slightly disingenuous... this is only the federal income tax, not all taxes.
They've tried to do studies on taxes paid as a percentage of income earned, and almost across the board people pay a little more than 25 percent of their income in taxes w/ sales taxes, local income tax, property taxes, corporate income, payroll, etc.
For example, if one makes $90000 all of your income is subject to the ~6% payroll tax (plus there's the hidden payroll tax "your employer" pays - actually, the vast majority of the payroll tax the employer pays ultimately comes out of the paycheck of the employee, but that's another subject), so about 6% of that person's income is paid in payroll taxes.
Compare that with somebody who makes $900000. only the first ~$90000 is subject to the payroll tax, so less than 1% of his/her income is taxed under the payroll tax. The rich guy also will pay a smaller percentage of income in sales taxes, cigarette taxes, gas taxes, etc. because, while that person may spend more and may pay more taxes in an absolute sense, that person will not pay a proportionate amount of taxes than an average/poor earner.
Sooo, having said all that, Obama saying that 95% of Americans will get a "tax cut" under his plan is even more disingenuous. Considering that 40+% of Americans do not pay any federal income taxes, it's hard to see where the "cut" for them comes from. Ultimately that plan is tricked up welfare, a new New Deal which provides only an income effect (which will lead people who get these "cuts" to work less) while raising marginal tax rates on everybody (which provides a substitution effect away from work as well).
Essentially, it will shrink the tax base to pay for a growing number of people on the dole to some degree or another. As a trend, it's entirely unsustainable over the long term, which is a significant part of why I couldn't bring myself to vote for a pretty cool dude whose foreign policy I entirely agree with and who is on the right (or right-er) side of many social issues (gay rights, drug decriminalization/legalization, removing the embargo of Cuba). He has been pretty even keel, but his party's demogogary on economic issues (Two Americas, opposing free trade, THEY TOOK OUR JERBS- google that if you don't get it, etc) is pretty unforgivable. I will never vote Democratic as long as they continue that crap. Even when a 40something smooth guy with a much better temperment to be president is running against a geriatric "American greatness" conservative who the neo-cons liked over Bush in 2000 who picked somebody for vice president who appears to be a dumber, less qualified version of George W. Bush.
So it's a great year to do a write-in! I would have voted for Bob Barr, but the dude was a religious nut who attempted to crucify Clinton and wrote the Defense of Marriage Act. Write-in! Viva la revolucion!
Son #1
By the way, I wrote in Mike Munger, a Duke political science and economics professor who is running for governor of NC on the libertarian ticket. I honestly believe that he would do a better job governing than just about anyone in the country, so I don't feel I threw away my vote at all, despite my occasional crack that I threw away my very valuable vote (NC is a swing state this year). And, in my own little way, I did protest- I want to be a Republican, but the party has lost it's way since 1995 after the government shutdown. Goddamn Bill Clinton and his inexplicable desire to have sex with ugly interns. He riled up too many religious nutjobs.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Lost to UNC
The past week flew by without too many highlights. Then yesterday happened.
I got up at about 7:45, watched an episode of the daily show and an episode of colbert, then hung out some for a little while until me, Drew, Packy, and Charles went to the American pancake house. I went there 2x with my parents when they were here over the Michigan weekend, and the place is delicious. I got the apple pancake again, which is massive and sugary and delicious. It was the only real food I had all day (we'll get to that later).
We came back and the Texas-Oklahoma game was on. It was pretty exciting, but in the second half Drew and I were just cheering for the game to go fast so the ND-UNC game wouldn't get preempted. We missed only one drive, which was good, and we saw the first ND drive where they went right down and scored a touchdown.
And things kind of went downhill from there. Jimmy Clausen looked pretty good, but he also made 3 killer turnovers, and we lost by five. It was sad. I'm not going to hear the last of that one.
So after the game we drank beer and listened to emo for a couple hours. We then smoked a un-victory cigar outside of Dillon. And then we realized it was only about 10PM and there was still plenty of time for something to happen, so we went out to the Backer, which totally sucks. It was full of creepy, old townies. Some cougars tried to hit on me and Drew, but we weren't really having any of that. We left after about an hour and a half of people watching, because it was starting to get dull.
This morning the loss still hurt a little.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
On War test #1
I got a B+ on a test I barely studied for. I'm taking the class pass/fail. I almost feel bad for not helping the curve on that. The best news of all this is the "barely studied for" part on the next test will shift to "didn't study for."
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
John Jenkins, ND's president, spoke in Dillon for more than an hour tonight. The dude is smart, and he really cares about Notre Dame. He didn't really say anything terribly interesting, except that he essentially said that he wants to be a religious Princeton. He actually did name Princeton, which was neato with Tim Tim there and all.
He is a lot more interesting when he's not talking to a group of parents with their kids. He cracked some jokes, was thoughtful, and didn't speak in platitudes, which was great and somewhat surprising.
Some highlights with my opinion:
-ND isn't going to be adding students any time soon (we'll see)
-There are enough smart Catholic people that we can hire more Catholics and still keep up the academics (yeah maybe. we're going to have to pay new profs more if that's the idea. It'd probably be worth it)
-Picking a political candidate isn't a one-issue deal (duh. Except some people do vote that way.)
-He believes strongly in the b-school, because business runs the world. He wants principled businesspeople who act according to conscience, and thinks ND produces those types (absolutely)
-We need better engineering and social sciences (yeah, probably)
-Not for dropping the drinking age to 21, because of the statistics of more 18-21 auto accidents (well, there are trade offs to everything. GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH)
-Although he didn't explicitly say it, he is going to crack down on a-hole NDSP cops who are giving kids a lot of crap at football games. There has been a lot on the internets about these cops recently, and there have already been results. The number of arrests last weekend at the game dropped to 9 from 31 at the previous game (good for him)
Well, there was more, but I forgot. I feel good about the future of ND
He is a lot more interesting when he's not talking to a group of parents with their kids. He cracked some jokes, was thoughtful, and didn't speak in platitudes, which was great and somewhat surprising.
Some highlights with my opinion:
-ND isn't going to be adding students any time soon (we'll see)
-There are enough smart Catholic people that we can hire more Catholics and still keep up the academics (yeah maybe. we're going to have to pay new profs more if that's the idea. It'd probably be worth it)
-Picking a political candidate isn't a one-issue deal (duh. Except some people do vote that way.)
-He believes strongly in the b-school, because business runs the world. He wants principled businesspeople who act according to conscience, and thinks ND produces those types (absolutely)
-We need better engineering and social sciences (yeah, probably)
-Not for dropping the drinking age to 21, because of the statistics of more 18-21 auto accidents (well, there are trade offs to everything. GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH)
-Although he didn't explicitly say it, he is going to crack down on a-hole NDSP cops who are giving kids a lot of crap at football games. There has been a lot on the internets about these cops recently, and there have already been results. The number of arrests last weekend at the game dropped to 9 from 31 at the previous game (good for him)
Well, there was more, but I forgot. I feel good about the future of ND
Sunday, October 5, 2008
another fast week
I'm not keeping up with this as much as I thought I would. It's amazing how much free time I had in Italy to be able to blog like I did. Anyhow, this was a pretty nondescript week. I'm looking at my calendar/scheduler to go through what I did today
On Monday afternoon I went to a "Pizza, Pop, and Politics" forum about energy in the US. It's put on by NDVotes, which is the nonpartisan ND political group trying to get out the vote of ND students. Notre Dame is an amazing nonpolitical campus (one issue: abortion), but the fora that the group has been putting on for the last few weeks have been pretty well-attended, so that's good.
On Tuesday I worked in the morning, then I had some Peer advising meetings in the afternoon. I also went to a review for my exam for "On War" that I took on Wednesday. The test was easy, and all I have to do is get a D in the class as I am taking it pass/fail.
Wednesday also had some other interesting notes. I met with B. Patrick Bauer, the Speaker of the House for the state of Indiana to talk about Indiana's gambling legalization. He represents the district which has ND in it and he was really involved with the legalization process, so that's interesting. I'm not sure how exactly that interview will work into the paper, but I'll try to make it work. Finally, late that night there was a Reilly Weekend dinner for all the Reilly kids over all classes. It was sad; that's my last Reilly dinner. They talked about all the opportunities at ND, and I got kind of sad. I can't believe that in a month and a half I'll be all done. Weird.
The next day I met with the prelaw Dean. She liked my personal statement, which is great. I also got my last recommendation lined up, so that's good. That night we had a meeting entitled "What I wish I knew about law school before applying." It made me more sure that I'm doing the right thing.
Friday I worked, and Saturday was gameday. That's pretty much that. Michael Floyd scored again. He's ridiculously good.
On Monday afternoon I went to a "Pizza, Pop, and Politics" forum about energy in the US. It's put on by NDVotes, which is the nonpartisan ND political group trying to get out the vote of ND students. Notre Dame is an amazing nonpolitical campus (one issue: abortion), but the fora that the group has been putting on for the last few weeks have been pretty well-attended, so that's good.
On Tuesday I worked in the morning, then I had some Peer advising meetings in the afternoon. I also went to a review for my exam for "On War" that I took on Wednesday. The test was easy, and all I have to do is get a D in the class as I am taking it pass/fail.
Wednesday also had some other interesting notes. I met with B. Patrick Bauer, the Speaker of the House for the state of Indiana to talk about Indiana's gambling legalization. He represents the district which has ND in it and he was really involved with the legalization process, so that's interesting. I'm not sure how exactly that interview will work into the paper, but I'll try to make it work. Finally, late that night there was a Reilly Weekend dinner for all the Reilly kids over all classes. It was sad; that's my last Reilly dinner. They talked about all the opportunities at ND, and I got kind of sad. I can't believe that in a month and a half I'll be all done. Weird.
The next day I met with the prelaw Dean. She liked my personal statement, which is great. I also got my last recommendation lined up, so that's good. That night we had a meeting entitled "What I wish I knew about law school before applying." It made me more sure that I'm doing the right thing.
Friday I worked, and Saturday was gameday. That's pretty much that. Michael Floyd scored again. He's ridiculously good.
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