Cute picture time!


Not much to report here. I am trying to get a good bit of homework done, as I have spent this semester in a blissful state of relative non-work (1L is going to suuuuuck) and it is beginning to catch up with me. Kind of. I'm working on a paper that's due in 10 days. What can I say; I'm an overachiever now. Kind of.

Thanksgiving was great, as usual. Delicious food abounded, although we did not fry a turkey to my (minor) dismay. It's probably for the best, as that may have caused stomach bursting for many consumers. The whole family was there this year, so hooray for that. No major highlights to speak of though; perfect as usual.

I'm less than 3 weeks from being done with school. Yikes.

I haven't posted recently. Not much exciting to speak about. The football team nearly lost to Navy after beating them badly for most of the game, and then today we lost to Syracuse, who was arguably one of the 10 worst teams in the country. Fantastic. I hope we fire the coach. The last game of my student career didn't really seem too emotional. I wasn't even that mad we lost.

We did have an epic class-wide marshmallow fight, and it was kind of fun going to a game today when it was fricking freezing (mid 20s). I dressed up... kind of. I wore a bow tie. And my jacket. And pjs. And my warm shoes, but I wore no socks so my toes felt frozen at the end of the game. Good times.

As far as real life goes, it keeps chugging along. I got a full ride to Texas Law school, so yay for free money. Thanksgiving, my favorite day of the year, is this week, and I'm pumped to go to the hall for the yearly gorging. Rumor has it that we're frying turkeys. That will be a first. Yay for clogging arteries!

So I guess it was a pretty big week

Oh, yeah: I finished the first full draft of my thesis and I got into Texas Law School. Hook 'em horns.

The big news this week, obviously, is that Barack Obama got elected. My political positions are such that I probably will never get too excited about any national politician ever again in my lifetime. It would pretty much require a 1980-like election where a Democratic president making no apologies for clearly failing big government economic policies was running against a president who reads Reason magazine. As it was, this election was a Democratic president with soon to-be-failing big government economic policies against a geriatric Republican who appears to be more interested in military intervention than George W. Bush. Needless to say, I voted for neither candidate (I wrote in the name of the libertarian candidate for governor in North Carolina. I'm not terribly fond of the libertarian who ran for president).

There are a variety of reasons for people like me to be happy about this election. First and foremost, the Republican Party needs a massive makeover. Make no mistake about it, the last eight years have been a big government era. From the expansion of power in the executive (signing statements, domestic/international spying and wiretapping, new "interrogation" tactics) to the biggest expansion of government spending by percentage of GDP since Lyndon Johnson, there are a variety of really good reasons to be angry at the Republican Party. They deserved to lose, and got what they deserved. If the party wants to become the party of George W. Bush and Sarah Palin, fine. Just don't expect people like me to ever vote for them.

Secondly, it's pretty cool a black guy got elected president. I'd be hard to deny that. Unless you're a racist, it's undeniably touching to see Ebenezer Baptist Church erupting in joy after the results were in. It's great to hear Martin Luther King's speech and to think: Holy hell, this majority white nation just elected a minority. It's hard for people outside this country to say we're an oppressive nation when a guy named Barack Hussein Obama is in charge. Still, I couldn't vote for the guy because of the racial component. I'm opposed to affirmative action for public sphere employment, and voting for a dude for president in part because he is black would be hypocritical, to say the least.

I will not deny, however, that I am ageist. All other things being equal, it's way better that a 47-year-old is running the country than a 72-year-old.

Thirdly, I think Barack Obama's election is the death of public financing of federal elections. Yes, the dude was a huge liar for changing his position on it and privately funding his general campaign. So what? He came to the right side in the end. Baby steps, baby steps. Hooray for free speech.

Fourthly, and perhaps importantly, maybe Barack Obama is the right guy to improve the biggest injustice in America today, schooling in the inner city. This might be the Nixon to China moment for domestic policy: a Democratic president standing up to the teachers union and saying "you are a the biggest part of one of the greatest problems in America. I will not follow your agenda. It is time to install competition among schools and institute a progressive system of school vouchers." Well, this probably won't happen, as the teacher's union is the most powerful lobby in the country, in my opinion. But a boy can dream.

Well, there are a few other issues where I'm sure I'll be happy Barack won this election. But those are my initial thoughts. I'll just grin and bear it when they pass a cap-and-trade program (read: tax) without offsetting the revenues through a payroll tax cut and give handouts to preferred businesses. Ugh, I'm getting sick thinking about policies that Democratic members of Congress support. Also, Rahm Emmanuel, Barack's chief of staff, supports a mandatory service program for all Americans under 25. Like a commenter on Reason online said: it'd be pretty ironic if the first black president instituted a 21st century version of slavery.

Stand up to them, Barack. You're our only hope (well, that and the Republican filibuster).

So I'm sitting in the library after the football team lost to Pittsburg in quadruple overtime (field goals all around in overtime. Except we missed one at a really inopportune time). I am quite disappointed. Losing isn't fun, but the worst part is that there is a solid chance that the team will go 7-5, which means we do not go to the bowl game in Jacksonville, FL, which means I am not driving to the game. The other options are the Cotton Bowl in Dallas (really unlikely) or the Sun Bowl in El Paso (7-5 nearly guarantees that one). ARGARGARG ANRGY. This means we have to beat both BC and Navy on the road. Something tells me that is unlikely. ARG ARG ARG

So yesterday was fun, though, as it was halloween. I dressed up as three hole punch Jim from the Office, and it went over okay. I have no pictures, unfortunately. Drew dressed up as a character from Doug, and everyone loved that. We went to a party at an apartment in the Fisher graduate residences (the host is a masters of accounting that I didn't/don't really know, but he seems like a good guy). We had a pretty good time. Immediately after walking in the door the host, dressed as Michael Phelps (compression shorts and 8 fake gold medals around his neck) says HEY GUYS. WANNA FORTY? and proceeds to give me, charles, drew, and ilse 40 ounce Coors Lights. I've never seen these things. They're quite massive and hilarious. Charles actually drank two, plus played some beer pong. It's rather incredible what the human liver can take.

Anyways, at the party there was a funny and then not so funny situation involving Drew and a member of the "class of 2009." When Drew asked her what her major was, she goes "Ummm, I'm in high school." That's right, Drew was hitting on a seventeen year old high school senior. Hilarious, right? So we go and make fun of Drew and poke fun at the girl, but for some reason half an hour later she goes to Ilse and tells her that she made out with Charles. This is bad for two reasons: one, Old Testament God said not to lie on the Ten Commandments, and Old Testament God can get mighty angry at sinners. And two: Ilse is Charles's girlfriend (we don't know if the potential statutory rape victim was aware of this). Major drama. That pretty much ended the otherwise quite enjoyable party for us.

Today was good, until the fourth overtime of the football game. Lots of sitting around watching football, then the game was fun. I did pushups on our last touchdown, which is pretty impressive for the people lifting me up. Also, Bon Jovi and Jeff Samardzija were on the sidelines, so that's cool. But losing and ruining my potential trip to Jacksonville: not cool.