too many of our poll-driven, toxically partisan, cable-TV-addicted, money-corrupted political class are more interested in what keeps them in power than what would again make America powerful, more interested in defeating each other than saving the country.
[...]
For democracy to be effective and deliver the policies and infrastructure our societies need requires the political center to be focused, united and energized. That means electing candidates who will do what is right for the country not just for their ideological wing or whoever comes with the biggest bag of money. For democracies to address big problems — and that’s all we have these days — requires a lot of people pulling in the same direction, and that is precisely what we’re lacking.

- from a NYT Article

American political system is such a joke, I can hardly stand thinking about it. Grody.

The Hmuan Mnid

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I clouod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuanmnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deson't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deosnot raed ervey lteter by istelf, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Pterty Ferkain' Amzanig!!!

This song changed my life

That Time in Vegas

Tacitus, do you remember that time in Vegas when we lost a ton of money. Yeah, that sucked. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Because it's been a while since there has been some activity on this blag, I will compose a photo-essay for y'alls enjoyment. However, before I do so, I suppose I should contribute some sort of political rant/opinion, since that seems like the thing to do these days.

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina: WHAT THE HELL?
A question to ponder: Does politics attract idiots, or does it create them? This, I believe is the classic "nature vs. nurture" argument. Surely not everyone who goes into politics is borderline retarded. However, it would seem, these days, that many, if not the majority, of politicians are borderline retarded. So, does politics take on more good people and turn them into morons? Or, does politics just attract those who are morons already? Mark Sanford has shot himself in the foot. I'm so embarrassed that I just became a South Carolina resident. Long live Tennessee.

Now, back to vegas:

Hey guys! I've got an idea! Let's go to Las Vegas for a frisbee tournament! YAAAYY!
We made it to our shabby yet mostly sweet hotel where there were tons of other chotchy, weirdo frisbee players. But, for the most part they were cool. This guy was kind of a douche, but he grew on us over the course of the weekend.
We went to some buffets and shit. There was a ton of food, and a ton of fat people. Imagine that. Here is a photo of one of the larger individuals we observed (the guy on the right).
We met this guy named Cliff Stuudwell (pronounced "stoodwell", who the hell nows how to make an umlat or whatever). He was a german professor or some shit. Anyway, he was baller.
We did some gambling, and Fitz started out HOTT. Fitz kept having these feelings, and he followed them. However, not long after we started, Fitz's feelings became sour, and we quickly went into the hole. Our sentiments toward vegas may be summed up in the following image, and in our newly addopted tagline for the trip, "Fuck Vegas."
Well, we played some frisbee, had a hey-ho good time, and returned home with much lighter wallets. It turns out, Vegas wasn't so bad. Sure, it took many of our moneys, but I would do it again.

Back in Business...sort of

Yo Yo Yo
After being done with the first year of school, I went dumb for a while. Mustering up enough energy and brainpower to speak elementary english was enough. writing on here required much more gray matter than I possessed.

Many thanks to the slugs for getting the posts rolling. Hopefully we will get a bit more active soon.

So, I start my first day of working for the public defender in Baton Rouge today and he immediately asks me if I would be opposed to viewing a trial. I obviously said "of course not." It turned out not to be just any trial.

The trial was for the famous N0-Limit Rapper who famous uttered the follow "haiku"

B**** I'm down with No Limit, I'll ride for the cause
I'm the n***a on the tank with the big f***in balls
And if anybody f**k with Snoop Doggy Dogg
I'ma make these n*****s put his name on the wall
And everywhere I go I got Mr. Magic here
Because I know that n***a don't care
He'll have that red shit pourin out your hair
N***a, any f****n time n***a, any f****n where
Make 'em bleed is the motto that, I live by
If you f**k with me it's a must you die
Them n****s might goin run but them n****s can't hide
It's like shootin yourself, it's a - suicide
KLC rock the beat, hittin hard like burt
N****s in the Nolia know him as Big Hurt
Just like Soulja Slim he'll put you in the dirt
And have your picture on front of a t-shirt
And when I make moves I got a hundred n****s with me
Just incase a n***a out there tryin 'a get me
All my n****s is down to squeeze the trigger
That's why I'm down for my motherf***in n****s

Yes, none other than the younger brother of Master P, older brother of Silkk the Shocker, and uncle of Lil' Romeo, Corey Miller. Betterknown as C-Murder.
And I bet you can't guess what type of charges he is facing. ATTEMPTED MURDER. I know he didn't quite live up to his name. Well, at least not in East Baton Rouge Parish. He is facing Murder charges in Jefferson Parish.
So I sat in on the Jury selection portion of the trial this afternoon which was actually very exciting. It is hard to find an unbiased jury around here, because everyone knows who he is and they either love his music or think all rappers are criminals.

More developments to come tomorrow, hopefully they will finish with the jury by the afternoon.
What is going on in Canada, France, South Carolina, and Shittsburgh?

THE GREAT BASKET DROP

Beaux, did you know about this?

Also. GOOD Magazine. Fodder for your brainsies.

JUST SO YOU KNOW

EVERYTHING.

Hilarious

So, I am supposed to be studying, but this was just too funny not to post. I swear to you this did not come to me via some stupid forwarded email, it is from a friend who goes to LSU Dental School in New Orleans. This cake was ordered for a dental student on her 27th birthday a few days ago. Her friends thought that it would be a clever touch to have a tooth drawn on the cake. Well, the rest of the story plays itself out in pixels. Enjoy.....

Why Cutting Weapons Programs Won’t Be Easy

By Ken Silverstein

Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s recent decision to cut big ticket weapons systems (even as he was increasing defense spending by four percent overall) was met with predictable howls of outrage from members of Congress. Those protests, needless to say, have nothing to do with concern about protecting the country– unless you’re dumb enough to believe that the Pentagon can build a workable missile defense system– and everything to do with protecting the defense companies who provide so much money to members of Congress.

Here’s an interesting small-scale example of how the system works, involving Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, and General Dynamics:

Step 1, April 23, 2008: General Dynamics makes a $4,000 contribution to Wasserman’s personal Leadership PAC, Democrats Win Seats (and it kicks in another $1,500 in early 2009).

Step 2, May 22, 2008: General Dynamics opens a small office in Wasserman’s district.

Step 3, September 20, 2008: General Dynamics makes a $5,000 PAC contribution to Wasserman.

Step 4, Wasserman announces her fiscal year 2010 appropriations requests, which includes $9.7 million for a General Dynamics project at the company’s new Florida office.

Multiply that process 535 times and you get a defense budget.

(via HARPER'S)

we live in a fake empire.

Where's Sousa?

Has one seen J.P. Sousa?- Not the ole chap who is opposed to the talking machines, but our good compadre in the confederacy of dunces? Every once in a while, I get a text message from him, but that is it. I understand that he has a real job and a polish girlfriend, but I have this terrible feeling that we have been neglected.

Where are you Joder? Come out come out wherever you are!

Please report any sightings to the blog

Ideas Worth Spreading

I apologize that my posts have been reduced to merely adding a link that I find interesting, but things are kicking into high gear. 23 days until my Obligations exam.
Anyway, it is worth your time to check out this website. It is a collection of hundreds of talks from the TED (Technology, entertainment, and Design) conference. http://www.ted.com/index.php/
I recommend the ones with Ueli Gegenschatz Michael Pollan and Saul Griffith
There are some really amazing ideas coming out of these talks. If we all peak around on it, we can make sure that we don't miss any of them.

Keep up with the whole country

This is a pretty sweet site if I must say so myself.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/

Breathing Knowledge of Michael Pollan

I'm super pumped the cosortium is beginning to gain some momentum again. (Though perhaps we should call it The Consortium of Derelicts.) I've been as lax as anyone else and so I must provide a perfuctory apology. I'm sorry.

To be honest, however, I think it not a necessarily bad thing we have hit barren blogging season. Most of us have been busy--law school assignments, graduate school applications, etc, ad nauseum--and sleep-deprived. Not to mention it is winter and who the hell has anything to really talk about when it's below freezing and all one wants to do is stay indoors (other than it's below freezing and all one wants to do is stay indoors). But with the spring showers and may(be) flowers, one thing can be sure: it is time for girls to come out of their winter hibernation and begin again to wear scantly-clad outfits. No, no, what I meant to say was: it is time for the members of the consortium to plow the blogged field, prepare the interweb's digibits to plant, and make ritualistic spring sacrifices in the form of purging our inboxes to the demi-god Bill Gates.

Actually the farming metaphor is a convenient tie into my first blog back. And that is: the genius of Michael Pollan. If you haven't heard of Pollan and you are in any way interested in your diet, well-being, or future health prospects, I'd recommend The Omnivore's Dilemma. Before you read any news article or diet book, begin with this one. It's a bear of a read (350+ pages), but it is presented in such a way that Pollan brings you on his themepark ride into the important questions of our foodstuff:

Where does my [fast-food] burger come from? In what ways am I connected to it ("it" used in the strictest sense), the animal and corn from which it came, and the land from which those came.
What does it mean to buy USDA "organic," free-range eggs (the answer surprised me)? Who regulates the newest "organic" title andin what ways does it live up (or live down) to its name?
Beyond simply diet, what are the ethical and political issues that stem from purchasing food from say a Food Lion, Whole Foods, or Farmer's Market?
What is the omnivore's dilemma as he defines it?

The writing is gripping and so the book flows fairly well. The topic, however, is eye-opening (at least to those of us whom have remained within Plato's cave).

The distinguished Berkley journalism professor just came out with a new book, In Defense of Food. Though I think it more the spark notes version of his previous bestseller, TOD, it is worth buying for that person in your life who just cannot stand reading books (non-fiction nonetheless). It incapsulates the main themes of TOD's attack and Upton Sinclair-esque expose of the industrial food economy (corn + soybean) and takes a fuller examination into why such a diet (the Western diet) is so terrible for the environment and our bodies. Simply put: Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity, and Cancers stem directly from the Western diet and the culture in which many of have grown up in. The good news is that, as the very first words reveal, we can change it (Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants).


For my own self, this was a wake up call. Have I sworn off red meat? No. Then have a I sworn off processed foods entirely? No. Have I even given up ALL fast food? No. This sounds like I didn't take anything valuable away from Pollan, but in fact I have. Even though I'll indulge in a Wendy's JBC every one in a while (jr. bacon cheeseburger for all you non-wendyophiles), I've cut those types of foodstuffs from my diet almost entirely. I've been chewing on greens of all shades, and orange, and blue, and purple a whole lot more than I ever have; meat has become a side dish rather than an whole dish; and I've avoided high fructose corn syrup like it's the plague. I've begun to buy local organics which is killing my pocket, but pleasing my stomach and even started researching farmer's markets in Pittsburgh (apparently, surpringly, some of the best on the east coast) beginning next month.

It feels good to blog again and even better to hear from you guys. Hopefully I'll see you soon.