Interlude

1 exam and 1 paper down, a crapload of exams and 1 paper to go. Here's a summary of my thoughts this week:
-Damn
-Damn
-Damn
-Damn
-Crap
-That Arizona immigration law is really oppressive and racist.
-Damn
-Mother fuc***
-Sh**
-Rousseau is a douchebag.

Aside from that, my dad forwarded me an interesting quote from Noam Chomsky that I found to be a bit...foreboding.
“I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime,” Chomsky added.
“I am old enough to remember the 1930s. My whole family was
unemployed. There were far more desperate conditions than today. But
it was hopeful. People had hope. The CIO was organizing. No one wants
to say it anymore but the Communist Party was the spearhead for labor
and civil rights organizing. Even things like giving my unemployed
seamstress aunt a week in the country. It was a life. There is nothing
like that now. The mood of the country is frightening. The level of
anger, frustration and hatred of institutions is not organized in a
constructive way. It is going off into self-destructive fantasies.”

That's all for now,
Das Flüg

Crünch Time

My schedule for the upcoming week:

2 exams on consecutive days (April 26th and 27th, I think);
Final exam May 3rd;
2 research papers due soon after May 3rd, each 8-15 pages;
Final exams galore until May 11th.

If I could, I would have an android clone do all of this work for me while I would sit around and enjoy being a lazy bastard. Unfortunately, I haven't finished his programming yet. Sigh.

Zoon Politikon

For those of you who don't know, the Polish president died in a plane crash over the weekend. What I didn't realize was how much it affected those not even living in Poland.

A woman who works at the dining hall is originally Polish, obviously living in the US now. I was talking to her today, and I asked how her weekend was. She said that it was difficult for her because of the death of the president, and what I found was astounding was that she really felt anguish because of his death. I saw that as soon as she brought up the president, her demeanor became suddenly sadder. This was fascinating to me.

To me, the notion of someone grieving over the death of a political figure that one does not have to perfunctorily follow is alien. The US has been racked by overzealous partisanship and extreme polarization, mostly culminating in the fact that if, for example, President Obama were to suddenly die, many people would be glad. Sarah Palin, for one, would likely be ecstatic that he was gone, though she obviously wouldn't make the fact explicit. Even I would have been glad to see Dick Cheney keel over during his tenure in office, though we all know that he technically can't die because he doesn't have a heart. This raises an alarming question for me: are we, as the Greeks described, still the political animal, or have we become the intransigent animal? Even more, have we reduced the actual act of politics to one's religious and/or social beliefs to the point where a politician's actions no longer truly matter?

To end on a somewhat lighter note, here's a good bit of Germany philosophy vs. Greek philosophy:


That's all for now,
Das Flüg

I rate this as "LOL"

http://www.dscc.org/pt?petition_KEY=260&track=SEM-G-C-limbaugh-limbaugh

It's a petition to send Rush Limbaugh a boarding pass to Costa Rica now that health care reform has passed. Since Rush promised to do so if health care reform were to be passed, I suppose that it is not entirely unreasonable to ask him to vamoose. I'm sure that he wouldn't want to renege on a promise.

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Spring has sprung and pounced on an antelope...

Damn. Just damn. It seems like the weather is diametrically opposed to what it was last week. I think that people with seasonal depression will be so shocked to feel the warm weather and see actual leaves that they may just faint or, even better, stop being depressed.

Ah, Spring. For college students, it is somewhat of an annoyance and a hindrance for two reasons: 1. It reminds us that there is very little time left in the semester, essentially creating a latent sense of giddiness akin to being a kid in kindergarten. I, for instance, am writing in my blog instead of doing my god damn physics labs, which, god damn it, I will do (eventually). 2. Girls. You know what I mean.

Anyway, for my generic diatribe on politics...eh, screw it, I'm going to go run outside like a crazy kid. Enjoy some new music from the Flobots off of their new album, Survival Story.



That's all for now,
Das Flüg

Chück

A clip from my favorite show, Chuck. The band is called Jeffster (the members are named Jeff and Lester). They are officially the best worst band ever. Watch the show; it's more awesome than Chuck Norris kicking so fast that time flows backwards. Yeah.



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