Zadroga Bill

The Zadroga Bill was intended to provide assistance to the first responders (firefighters et al.) to the 9/11 attacks. It was filibustered by the G.O.P. I know Jon Stewart is a humorist, and not the most reliable source for unbiased news, but the underlying truth to this video actually sickened me more than it made me laugh.

Some people...

Sunday Funday

Whew. So today I stepped my game up and did some intense nose-to-the-grindstone homework. 14 hours later, I'm proud to say that I have made flash cards for and (mostly) memorized 150 terms and chapters from the Old Testament for my Religion 321 final tomorrow, in addition to knocking out 3, 3-page essays for US Foreign Policy that are due tomorrow. Granted, I basically took a poo on 9 sheets of 20#, 92 bright, 30% recycled 8.5x11" paper, but it's done! Enjoy it, Dr. Pirro! Can't wait to see you next semester in European Politics!

Doomtree

Last weekend I, along with 6 other friends, went to a free Doomtree concert at Grinnell College. For those out of the loop, Doomtree is a hip-hop group consisting of producers Lazerbeak and Paper Tiger, along with emcees Cecil Otter, Mike Mictlan, Dessa, P.O.S., and Sims (in order of appearance in the following video). I'm not crazy into hip-hop, but Twin Cities underground holds a special place in my heart. Lazerbeak and Paper Tiger know how to make some dope beats, and all 5 emcees are extremely versatile and talented. Plus their lyrics are smart and down-to-earth. This was one of the most fun shows I've ever been to. As usual, I was able to talk to the band/help them load out afterwards. Nice folks. Except P.O.S. (my personal favorite emcee) was kind of awkward.

Anyways, someone at the show invited us to a house party across the street afterwards, so naturally we went to party with a ton of people none of us knew. Half the people there thought we were students at Iowa State, and the other half thought we were the band. I'm not sure how we managed to convince them of both, and I wonder if those two halves ever talked afterwards...oh well! Good times anyways!

This is not about aardvarks.

It was around this time last year that I wrote a post called "Being Great." It was all about positivity and doing anything and everything as best as you can. A good example would be the Pittsburgh Penguins right meow--12 game win streak!--at least one of my teams is winning.

I must confess that I have been having a lot of trouble being great lately. I can't even write this post without getting up and walking away from the computer multiple times. Just as a point, it has so far taken me about an hour to write these first five sentences. I can't focus on anything, yet I'm thinking about everything. Earlier today, I spent seven hours working on a take-home final, and have two sentences typed up to show for it. I can't tell if, at this point in the semester, I'm way too distracted or way too disinterested. What I do know is that final is worth 30% of my grade and I can't seem to care enough about it. Nothing ever gets done.

I am swimming in a sea of unrelated thoughts right now, but I don't think I'll add more to this post. The longer I type, the less interested the reader gets, especially when my thoughts become inevitably disjointed.

One last thing: I gotta give an ad hoc greatness award to Lauren Mason for her recent engagement. Yeah gurl!

The Compromise

The Bush tax cuts were extended for two years this week, plus a generous estate tax break was added*, unemployment benefits extended, and payroll tax cuts added. I could have sworn I wrote about this a few months ago, but that must have been the post that I remember writing for a really long time and then abruptly deleting everything. So it goes.

Anyways, I won't go into the details of the plan; there are stories all over about it. Basically taxes won't increase next year, which is good for taxpayers and bad for our deficit, if you happen to care about that as much as the incoming Republican class does.

The most striking thing about all of this to me can be summed up well by this paragraph from this article by EJ Dionne Jr.:

"And at least these negotiations have had the benefit of proving conclusively that the only people for whom conservative Republicans will go to the mat are the country's best-off citizens—and deficits be damned."

Politics frustrate me.

*I'm going to add a footnote that the 2010 rate for estates over $1 million is 0, but is due to revert to its pre-Bush levels of 55% next year. The number agreed upon is now 35%, which some (mostly the Right) consider a tax hike (which it is, relative to the current 0%), while most consider it a tax cut, since it will only jump to 35% instead of 55% next year, as it would have if the bill hadn't passed.

Music 2010

2010 is quickly drawing to a close (OMG), so I thought I would look back and create a top list of my favorite albums released this year. The problem is that this was a particularly good year, so I'm just going to give my tentative top 5, plus a shout out to some other notable albums that this year produced, in no particular order of preference. Maybe I'll try to go back and rate them later, but as you may have noticed, I'm not so good at doing the things I say I'm going to do on here.

5: Gorilla Manor -- Local Natives

4: In Medias Res -- PMToday

3: American Ghetto -- Portugal. The Man

2: Infinite Arms -- Band of Horses

1: The World We Know -- I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business

Also noteworthy:

• My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy -- Kanye West
• Would it Kill You -- Hellogoodbye
• Big Echo -- The Morning Benders
• Steel Train -- Steel Train
• Treats -- Sleigh Bells
• Enemy of the World -- Four Year Strong
• The Upsides -- The Wonder Years
• Of Men and Angels -- The Rocket Summer
• My Dinosaur Life -- Motion City Soundtrack
• Of the Blue Colour of the Sky -- OK Go
• This Is Happening -- LCD Soundsystem
• Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty -- Big Boi
• Teenage Dream -- Katy Perry

...and many more. Please add suggestions to my list. Kthx.