I missed this post on coming up with names for groups of people a while back. My favorite is "A categorizing by species is artificial, and degrading to the uniqueness and authenticity of each individual, and therefore this entire excercise is empty and moot of deconstructionists."

Now this is just cool.

New York unveiling new WTC proposals. I don't know, none of them really grab me. I think they're all a bit too modern for my taste. And where are the memorials?

I put up a hit counter on the site a little while ago and I seem to be doing much better than I thought. I don't think I could quite get up to where I am thanks only to my sister and my parents. So thanks to all of you that aren't obligated to read this for checking out what I have to say. I'm taking my last final in half an hour (what, I should be studying you say? Nah.) so I should have more time to waste on this little project over winter break. Hope you all keep coming back. It's great to have you here.

Check out how popular your name is, compliments of the Social Security Agency. Apparently Hanah and Dahlia aren't in the top 1,000, while Hannah seems to have peaked from 1992-1994. Though, personally, I think originality in baby names is a good thing. Props to my parents for their imagination.

(Link via The Agitator)

I know you've all been wondering what happened to Al, Tim Allen's sidekick on Home Imporvement. No? Well, honestly, neither was I, until I came home one day and my roommate was watching Family Feud. He's the new host and the show is definitely more addictive than I remember. Just what I need to distract me during finals time.

Geologists discover worlds oldest rocks

The Kitchen Cabinet is reporting that U.S. currency will be getting colorful next year. I'd link to the actual article, but it requires registration and I'm too lazy for that right now.

FOUND magazine. Fascinating. My favorite are the notes. I could look at them all day. Must remember to try and find a hard copy the next time I'm in Boston. (Link via The Agitator)

Jesus doesn't want you to drive an SUV.

Jesus doesn't want you to drive an SUV.

Radley Balko is postulating on the attraction of women to Sam Waterston. I'm not quite sure what it is either, but it's definately there. I've been watching the show on and off since junior year of high school and even back then my friends and I agreed it was all about Waterston.

Best sun picture ever.

Student rally supporting war with Iraq. Wow. That's nice to see. Feels like I should be doing more here. (Link via David Hogberg via Instapundit)

So there's a teach-in against the war on Iraq tonight and fliers have been showing up on the dining hall tables titled '9 Reasons Why the US should NOT Go to WAR with IRAQ'. First of all, love the liberal use of capitalization rules. But let's get to the actual reasons.

1. An attack would be against International Law.
Um. How, exactly? The UN has passed a resolution calling on Iraq to allow weapons inspectors in or face military consequences. Is it violating internationial law to enforce international reglations?

2. Going to war without justification would only lead to more terrorist attacks against the United States.
First, we do have justification. Second, sitting back and doing nothing is exactly what will stop terrorist attacks. I'm sure of it.

3. Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter has stated that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that the US had no right to go to war.
I didn't pay to much attentiont to this at the time, but I remember a while back reading something (specifically at Instapundit and Live from the WTC) about Ritter doing a complete about-face and his position on this not being too trustworthy. More information would be appreciated.

4. Iraq has never used chemical or biological weapons when it was an enemy of the US, only when it was our ally. The massive military capabilities of the US haver served as a successful deterrent.
Didn't Iraq use chemical weapons during the Gulf War? We were allies with them during that?

5. Thousands of US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians would die.
Thousands of US and Israeli citizens will die if we do nothing. We cannot know how many civilians will die in this war. Far fewer died in Afghanistan that was predicted by anti-war folks then. I believe we can hope for the same in Iraq.

6. There is no evidence that Iraq supports terrorism.
Can't refute this one off the top of my head. Help, please?

7. Sanctions have already killed over 1 million people in Iraq since the end of the Gulf War. We cannot jusitfy any more deaths caused by US policy.
Sanctions have hurt the people because Saddam Hussein steals the food and money that is supposed to go to civilians to pay for his palaces and Republican Guard. By going to war with Iraq we can take Hussein out of power and allow for normal with relations Iraq once again which will make life better for all civilians. Just as we did in Afghanistan.

8. An attack on Iraq would disrupt the region, leading to a greater war with multiple nations involved.

9. We should concentrate on human needs and stop spending more than $400 billion on the military.
If we do not keep our nation and citizens safe we will not be able to help others. And wasn't it this massive military capability that was deterring Iraq in reason 4?

This was all done very quickly and off the top of my head. Comments, criticisms, etc. are greatly appreciated.

Woah! Megan McArdle has made a massive sight redesign. Still the same great posts, though.

The Onion | Marxists' Apartment A Microcosm Of Why Marxism Doesn't Work

CNN.com - Van owner 'confesses' to planting Bali bomb What are those quote marks for? Are they trying to say it wasn't a true confession? Or were they just unnecessarily excerpting one word from a longer quote?

A nice round up of the Massachusettes election over at Hub Blog.

His quote from Howie Carr about classroom elections reminded me of my first political experience. As a kindergardener in Texas, I had no idea that my parent's Jewish, liberal, Democratic views weren't shared by everyone until we held a mock 1988 Presidential election and I think I was one of 3 student to vote for Dukakis. As forshadowing for my later attitude in poltical discussions, however, I was completely convinced that I was right and everyone else was wrong.

After an hour and a half reading election coverage, it was a nice break to read today's Lileks. It's a rather long one today, but totally worth it. I laughed out loud at least three separate times.

I just got back from my first ever time voting. It was quite exciting. Though I was surprised to see such old technology used. Still, it felt good to actually be able to do something to add to the political process besides rant in my own little world no matter how little it actually counts.

Quite a fun reminder of how amazing a world we live in.

This article is quite pessimistic about today's college students and their interest in international policy. Apparently because there aren't as many protests against the war as there were during Vietnam, students don't care what happens. Maybe they would have found something different if they'd gone beyond Lehigh University. My favorite part, though, is this quote:

''We keep our students desperate just trying to keep up with what they're asked to do,'' [Dave Amidon, director of Lehigh's Urban Studies program] said. ''My students are too wise to waste time on something they can't do much about. They don't squander their time.''

Amen. If they want us to be more activist, maybe they should stop giving us so much work to do!

A little while ago Stephen Green said he was going to do less linking and more long, opinion posts. I, for one, am enjoying it immensely. Go. Read. Enjoy.

A Political-Type Meme

Which Founding Father Are You?

A long and thoughtful post by Radley Balko regarding war with Iraq.

Jehuda Reinharz, president of Brandeis University, co-authored an anti-intimidation pledge signed by other university presidents and published in the New York Times. It was written mainly in response to events at Concordia University and SFSU where Jewish students were harrassed and attacked by pro-Palestinian protestors. The student newspaper here published an interview with him on the subject this week.

It's really disappointing that what started out as being a wonderful opportunity to educate the student body about events happening across the country (how many people here really know what happened at Concordia? 2 our of 6 people I ate dinner with last night I can tell you) ended up with Reinharz backtracking and becoming defensive. The subject of some anti-Arab flyers put up around campus was brought up and Reinharz advocates throwing these students off campus? Putting up fliers around campus, however biased the opinions on them are, is nothing like having mobs of students yell anti-Semetic comments and vandalize school property. It encourages discussion, it doesn't stifle it. If Reinharz could make his position consistent I'd be a lot prouder to have him as my unveristy president.

As a hard-core Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan I really wanted to check out Joss Whedon's new creation Firefly. I've only been able to see 2 episodes due to the extremely bad time slot the show has (Friday nights at 8 on Fox), but what is really interesting is the official website for the show. Normally network websites are quite low on content and you have to go to fan-run sites for all the fun, juicey details like spoilers and epiosde recaps. But Firefly has the most in-depth network website I've ever seen. There's the obligatory message boards, but also a spoiler sections with pages from next week's script, interviews with the cast and crew, and even a blog by a production assistant on the set. Dig around and you can even find coveted footage of everyone's hero Joss Whedon. It's almost more fun than the show itself!

They've caught the guy who made the Bali bomb. This one's hitting a little too close to home as well. My roommate's friend from home is studying abroad in Australia this semester and was supposed to go to Bali at some point. My roommate e-mailed her after we heard the news about the bombing and she hasn't heard back in 4 days.

UPDATE: My roommate got an e-mail from her friend in Australia and all is well. Thanks for all your concern.

They've called in the military to help find the D.C. sniper. I really hope they find him soon. Especially because my Aunt lives about 20 minutes away from where most of the shootings take place. And also because I'm supposed to be in D.C. in two weeks to perform with my dance group. Nine killed, 2 injured, it's been almost 2 weeks and they still haven't found him. What is taking so long?

Wow. My Con Law professor reads blogs. He sent us an e-mail this morning about a case the Supreme Court heard (Eldred - about copyrights) and said
"Blog coverage at:
http://www.corante.com/copyfight/
http://allafrica.com/staff/kwindla/eldred.txt
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=392
Media coverage at:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55684,00.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961467.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/10/business/10BIZC.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3508-2002Oct9.html
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/4251014.htm"

Blog coverage! I wonder how many other people in the class undertand what that means. And the third post on the first link is to the Volokhs. Maybe I can go impress my professor with my close family connection there. :-)

For once Instapundit is behind the curve! I posted news of Seventeen Magazine's coolest college rankings weeks ago.

Instapundit points us poor college students to this item on why not to buy used textbooks. This is what I've been saying for years! It's also why I was upset at the begining of the year when there weren't any new books in the bookstore for one of my courses. If there's anything we've learned today it's this: Never trust idiot with highlighters.

He's back! Yes, Stephen Green is back from a week-long vacation with his usual wonderful content. Seems he spent the week playing computer games and enjoying newly-married life. My lull in blogging, however, hasn't been for quite so fun reasons. Let's hear it for midterms!

Professor quote: "It's good to have people who follow things through to their logical conclusions. It's good to have these kinds of extremists. Like libertarians."

What? Libertarians are extremists? Oh yes, I keep forgetting.

Supreme Court won't intervene in New Jersey case. My constitutional law professor brought this case up in class this morning by asking, "Is anyone here from New Jersey?" As if the only people who would have heard about or cared about this issue were from the state. Well, I know a few people from Washington DC, New York, and Tennessee who know a thing or two about it.

My sister has a very interesting post about college students' views on the war with Iraq. Now Brandeis, as opposed to Bryn Mawr, is quite a politically active campus. Just say you're having a protest and you'll get loads of people showing up, probably without even having to tell them what it's about (though the wonderfully vauge topics like 'peace' and 'tolerance' will bring out the most). But I think that the last paragraph of her post sums up the ideas that all of these activist students have. 'If we could only get everyone to sit down and talk about what's bothering them we could easily come up with a solution.' They cannot imagine a situation when this strategy would not work. They can't believe that everyone can't just get along. You cannot convince them otherwise. That is why they are dangerous.

Supreme Court won't intervene in New Jersey case. My consitutional law professor brought this case up in class this morning. He asked if anyone knew anything about it by asking "Is anyone here from New Jersey?" As if the only people who would have heard about this or cared about it were those from the state. Well, I know of some people from New York,

a

How to watch sports with guys. Turns out I've been doing it all wrong. I do wish I could still impress guys with my knowledge of sports, but the truth is I haven't had time to really follow anything since, well, since I started college. Damn classes getting in the way of my flirting.

(Link via The Agitator)

I'd been wondering how many Brandeis students had attended the protest in D.C. this weekend and how many were arrested. Well, now that it's Tuesday, my trusty school newspaper, The Justice, has come out and let me know. 30 went, none arrested. How disappointing.

While I suppose it's pointless to fisk a school newspaper article, there was one line that just make be laugh out loud:

Radical Students Association (RSA) member, Lee Tusman '04, said that the WTO acts to help finance projects in developing nations, but as a condition, they dictate restructuring of the economy, opening of markets, and a weakening of government social services.
The countries that get financing loans must pay them back.


Horror of horrors! Countries that get loans have to pay them back? Who would have thought? I mean, you would think that the word loan no longer meant the same thing as gift.

I usually enjoy reading Lileks every morning while I'm eating breakfast, but Jess Ventura is "a dead pinky toe that will fall off some day, and we won’t even notice until we shake it out of our shoe"? Ew.

Some thoughts on how to be happy. Seems like I've got a pretty good start. Born female: check. Go to church (well, synogogue): check. Country dancing: As soon as Nissa gets back from Scotland we're going again. Now I just have to work on that pesky marriage thing.
(Link via Quare)

Megan McArdle is appalled at the amount of cheating that goes on in public high schools today. I suppose we all should be, but the article she points to is a completely accurate reflection of what went on in my high school. Two years before I graduated, one of the valedictorians (yes, we had several) was caught cheating a month or so before graduation. She remained valedictorian.

With all the talk of bloggers running for president (here's two potential candidates I'd support) I was wondering. Are there any politicans with blogs out there? It would be a wonderful way for them to keep in touch with their constituents and publish their thoughts and views about issues. It would also help prove that they're actually doing something and allow them to easily get input from the people they represent. On the other hand it would mean that they'd have to be honest about what they thought and take definite positions. So maybe there's a good reason there aren't any politicians in the blogosphere.

I am, with rare exception, neither eloquent nor persuasive. Luckily, I have a blogosphere out there to learn from. This post by Stephen Green puts beautifully one of the many things I wish I could get across to my fellow students. This country has done things badly, yes, but we have also done many, many things well. Our past failures must be studied and examined and we must always question, but don't let mistakes of the past tie our hands in what we need to do today.

Buffy Blog Burst!


I am a come-lately Buffy fan, but I try to make up for that by being overly obsessed. I had seen bits and pieces of the show before, but come on: Buffy the Vampire Slayer? How can a show with that name not be stupid.


It all started last October when I sprained my ankle at dance practice on Thursday night and was hence unable to go to NYU and visit a friend as I had planned. I was rather depressed about this and so spent all of Friday night lying on the couch in the common room and watching TV. After the first-ever US episode of Iron Chef, hosted by William Shatner, a rerun of the musical episode of Buffy came on. I had heard a bit about it and I love musicals so I gave it a try. Instantly I was hooked. Even without knowing anything about the plot and very little about the characters I could tell that this show was something special. Luckily for me, at the time FX was showing two episodes a day so by January I had pretty much caught up on most of the show's backstory and mythology. I now own seasons 1 and 2 on DVD (I can't belive season 3 doesn't come out until January!) and am a regular reader of (though I have yet to post on) many online discussion forums.


Buffy is a show that infinitely rewards devoted fans and repeated viewings. The dialogue is always witty and intelligent and the amount of continuity throughout the show's seasons is amazing. It is a show that allows its characters to grow, evolve, and change like few other shows do. It allows you to escape into a fully formed world of demons, magic, and super heroes every week. And an all new season starts in just 3 hours!

Vodkapundit asks: 'Do they not teach economics in college anymore?' I can tell you, yes they do and even at a liberal institution like Brandeis the economics department is amazingly sane. I think the problem is that most students haven't had an introduction to basic economics. Most high schools require economics to graduate, but we all know how well the public school system is doing there. I learned more in 2 weeks of college econ than I did in an entire semester in high school. I would dearly love to have Introduction to Economics be a requirement for graduation. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but learning a bit about how the economy and markets actually work might combat some of the huge anti-free-market bias that exists in many of the social science departments(*cough*sociology*cough) and make for some less isolated, more realistic students. And maybe it would stop those damn hippies from trying to take away my EZMac!

Well, to go along with my post below about U.S. News and World Report's college rankings, apparently Seventeen magazine has ranked the top 100 coolest colleges. And surprise: Brandeis is number 77. Although this time there's no contest with the sister as Bryn Mawr is infinitely cooler at 32. A bit of home-town pride in here, though: Rice University, which is about 45 minutes from my house is number 1!

Yesterday there was a 24-hour peace vigil and "think-in" here on campus. This means that a bunch of wanna-be hippies get a chance to sleep outside for a night and think they're doing something important. Because by sitting outside and really thinking one of them is bound to come upon a hither-to-unrealized idea to achieve world peace. They had a piece of poster board set up where people could write their thoughts about peace. I wrote up a quote that friend of mine had told me once: "We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us." ~Golda Meir. Yay for the little subversions. As I walked away I noticed the people at the think-in, who had been chatting when I first walked up, had gone silent and were reading what I'd written. I hope I really gave them something to think about.

The always controversial U.S. News college rankings have been released. My beloved Brandeis University is number 31. Unfortunately, I can't say if I'm better than my sister because Brandeis and Bryn Mawr are rated on different lists! One interesting point: University of Texas at Austin is number 47 this year. I knew it was a good school, I just didn't realize it was that good.

So, should I give credit to my blog parents? I think there are too many. Of course, Instapundit. Two others I should mention are Quare and The Agitator. Thanks guys, for inspiring me to create a new way to slack off on my work.

Possible explanation for out-of-body experiences. One day we'll have the explanation for everything. You know, if I had the patience for it I'd really like to do brain research. That kind of things always interested me in my pyschology classes, but there's no way I could through the hell of science labs and med school. I'll just have to marvel at it from afar.