The Observer's Blog

Abortions, Creationism, and Government Classes

After 30 comments on Eric's blog about whether or not women should kill the people that live inside them, a goodly number on Andy's about whether some website about Creationsts is real and should they be allowed to live if so, I decided to introduce an equally controversial topics: required government courses.

Anyone who goes through college has to some form of inconvenience at the hands of the government department. Most people are forced to take courses in which they learn nothing, or are at the very least indoctrinated in some philosophy they hadn't been persuaded into before. And as a physics major, I find it insulting that I am forced to take 6 hours of government, but government majors are not made to take any physics. Why! Why! If I were not forced to take the class I am currently in, I could be using those 3 hours to take a class that I'd find much more interesting and that I'd actually learn something in. I also wouldn't have to come to school MWF. Instead I sit in a class where a girl named Racquel wears a feminist t-shirt, makes uninformed comments multi-daily about historical figures such as MLK, Jr. that she thinks will be favorable to our flat-chested instructor that uses her vocabulary like a scared boy with Down's syndrome would use an AK-47 in the dark (no offense to those who lack a 21st chromosome).

I'm So Bored That I'm Following Politics

That's right, after a week of being sick and having nothing to do, I am an expert on the current political scene. In case you didn't know, I'm traditionally a conservative Republican, but lately I've been leaning toward libertarianism. That has nothing to do with what I'm abotu to say though, just a bit of background. After watching the debates and the various interviews, I have developed a visceral reaction against Edwards, Clark, and Kerry. Especially Edwards. After all this however I think that the candidate that best represents the Democrats' ideal and the only candidate I really respect is Dean. But for whatever reason, it seems that people care what some uppity Yankees from Iowa think and Dean may be losing his shot. After the reaction to a strange noise being emitted by Dean's vocal chords, I went back and re-learned civics but I am still at a loss as to why such an event shoudl cause people to loose faith in his political abilities.

Oddly enough, I think if Dean were nominated I might vote for him, thoguh I'm not exactly sure why yet. Maybe it's so I could get rid of a crappy democratic party that seems to have lost its identity without Bill Clinton. I'm sure this rant is very uniteresting and unentertaining, I will try to get back with more stories of mirth later.

YCT and Me

Today I learned that the instructor (it wouldn't be right ot call her a professor since she's a grad student) for the government class I'm forced to take is on YCT's Watch List. YCT is what is also known as the Young Conservatives of Texas, and last semester they decided to put out a list of the Top Ten Bad Professors. These are professors who use their position to promote an ideology, and the list includes some guys that seem justified like a journalism professor who for some reason spends most of his classes talking about politics and an economics professor who teaches only the good things about a free market economy. My instructor, Jennifer Suchland, is criticized for assigning readings that are not optimistic enough (http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/yct/images/YCT_Watch_List_Spring2004.pdf).

I've always thought myself a conservative, and so organizations like YCT don't bother me, and I'd even thought of participating in their Straight Pride event (because I am proud that I like girls). Other people call the YCT Nazis. As Shepard Smith says, you decide!

The only other contact I've had with this group is when I was going out with a girl who worked for YCT and also headed the pro-life group. I once went with her to hear the lawyer who won Roe v. Wade (who is on our faculty) speak to Voices for Choice and I soon found myself in a very uncomfortable situation as Anne who was sitting next to me got into a shouting/insult match with the speaker. Of course Anne would also go to crazy Brazilian parties and not let me look at the pictures she took at them on her cell phone. I took Anne to see Ben Harper, and her favorite song was "Burn One Down" which encourages marijuana use and she even wanted to smoke a J right then and there. She also lives in Minnesota and all of her friends are Hispanic. My point is that Anne is a girl of contradiction and clearly has many problems, and maybe that's why she transferred away from Texas. I'm sure she will sorely be missed at YCT (which she often claimed was the only reason why she stayed in Texas as long as she did, she loved her job with them so much).

10000% of My Vitamin C

Well I got sick this weekend. And classes started today. This is the most fun I've had in a while. No seriously, I really do like being sick. All I ever get is a respiratory cold/flu thing and it's kinda fun to have tons of phlegm and much more colorful snot than usual. Plus I get to take Robitussin type stuff, which is not only 10% alcohol, but also the active ingredient is psychoactive. So when I take my medicine I can always slip a little bit extra into the cup and hallucinate my way out of a fever. I once took two doses by accident and shortly afterward I began watching the news on the war in Iraq. They had a live broadcast of Saddam Hussein giving a speech and I was actually able to understand what he was saying (even though he was supposedly speaking in Arabic!), except he was talking about stupid stuff that didn't make any sense.

I've been told that taking 5 or 6 Vitamin C pills over the course of a day can stop a cold dead in its tracks, and so I will experiment with this starting tonight.

Back In Austin

Since I know that Andy is checking this every few hours I figure I should post something if only to appease him. Here's all that has happenned to me in the last few days (also this list should be seen as why I have no real reason to post):

0) I finished grad school applications!

1) I took down the Christmas lights.

1.5) Remained completely straight while watching the rather boring Hedwig and the Angry Inch movie.

2) I went to the dentist.

3) I deepened my addiction to Mariokart.

4) I got 4 DVDs worth of albums in mp3 format. 10 of these I burned for my journey back to Austin.

4.5) Cleaned my bathroom and bought a ticket to see Travis.

5) On the first night I partied with friends. On the second night I went on this date (which I think pretty much killed my chances to go shopping with the same girl today, which would have been more useful).

6) Talked on AIM a lot to some cool folks.

The Sky above Shreveport

For my first official entry, I submit this photograph taken outside my house in Shreveport, Louisiana a few hours ago. It's the Big Dipper if you're stupid. This is a shout out to my friend, the Big Bear, Mr. R. Shane "Bobby Shay" Bussmann (the first person who will probably read this).