how about...supreme court! Yeah, that's the ticket.

What's up, party people? I have been woefully inadequate of late, not only as a blogger, but as a man, citizen, patriot, and entity. My sorrowful regret is only bounded by the limitations of the human psyche. My absence from the blogosphere for so long a period is a neglect so egregious that shame shall surely follow my seed for generations upon generations.

Let's see...what else is there?

The Supreme Court gutting McCain-Feingold even further. I'm so happy...I've always thought that rich people deserve more influence in politics. It's not enough that Bloomburg can buy his way into a presidential race...he needs to be able to buy other elections too! (not to pick on bloomburg..just the first billionaire to come to mind).

Just because you can't buy votes in a literal sense doesn't mean that you can't buy an election. Advertising can impact the outcome of elections. Money can buy advertising. Rich people have money. EREGO: Rich people can impact the outcome of elections.

I'm generally all for free speech (bong hits 4 jesus? sure!) but when it comes to elections, I say clamp it down! By capping donations from entities (individuals, PACS, Party committees, etc) McCain-Feingold tries to ensure that financial support for a candidate is at least somewhat loosely tied to popular support. Which is, I think, a good and democra-friendly idea.

Rich people are completely free to buy lots of things...cars, boats, houses, companies, buildings, hookers, islands, and robots. It's not such a burden to say that they can't buy an election.

office space

Ok, folks. I've decided to go ahead and finish school next fall. Regardless of whether I have this job, a different job, or no job, I'm going to get my degree over with.

I'm thinking that I'd like to eventually try my hand in the government world, doing some kind of analysis. I want my job to be intellectually challenging. Although I just saw on Craigslist that two area nonprofits are hiring, one for Executive Director, and one for fundraising manager. I'm not exactly qualified for those jobs, but I'm not ridiculously underqualified either. Those might be nonprofit jobs that I enjoy a little more than this one...this one could be classified as "administrative." I want one that's either analytical or managerial.

I'm also sort of contemplating staying in school to get a phd. It's definitely intellectually challenging. The downside is that I don't really get to choose where I work...sort of have to take what's available. And it's really fucking hard to get one. But the ivory tower seems more appealing now than it did when I was a wee bit younger. I think I'm losing my desire to be a big "player" in the world of policy...I think I'm starting to want something slightly less ambitious...an interesting job that pays a decent salary.

New Guru

ok, staring at this screen. Surely I have something to say. hmmm....

My friend turned me on to this folk singer named Michael Hurley. This guy is a fantastic songwriter. Apparently, he's been playing and recording for a long, long time, like since the 60's, but somehow he slipped past my radar.

I like all kinds of music, but for some reason, I'm drawn most strongly to guys with acoustic guitars singing poetic lyrics that they've written. I like it stripped down and dirty (insert joke here). So, this early Michael Hurley record that my friend gave me definitely fits that category.

His songs are already changing the way I write. Even though the songs are pretty simple (3, 4, maybe 5 chords), he uses really interesting rythms, which is not something you hear that much in folk music. He sings a lot of long, drawn out notes and fairly loose rhthms, which makes the songs really unpredictable (at least for a person like me who's understanding of the technical aspects of music is very limited).

He's got some wonderful lyrics, too. Here's one of my favorite lines from The Werewolf Song (it's about a werewolf):

Once I saw him in the moonlight when the bats were a flyin
All alone I saw the werewolf and the werewolf was cryin

Cryin nobody, nobody, nobody knows
How much I love the maiden as I tear off her clothes
Cryin nobody, nobody, knows of my pain
When I see it has risen that full moon again

What a wonderful grappling with the relationship between good and evil inside all of us. "How much I love the maiden as I tear off her clothes." Wow.

He's got another awesome song about drinking tea...called The Tea Song, I think:

"Before old Buddha turned into stone
That's why I drink tea alone
Buddha's made of stone and his eyes are rubies
But his thoughts and dreams are distilled in the tea"

(this is much more potent if you can hear him sing it)

The Tea Song affected me very deeply when I heard it last week for the first time. It has a very potent zen melancholy quality that helped me feel at peace with the world just when I was feeling particularly not at-peace with it. So, thanks Michael Hurley!