It's been so long...

... since last we beat UConn.  About a year, to be precise.  Here's hoping we can pull it off tonight.

Merry Christmas!

Man, I'm so hype right now

One semester down!  

Act Globally, Ignore Locally

Vox Populi reports on downsizing at Whitman-Walker Clinic, one of the oldest and most prominent HIV/AIDS clinics in DC, a city particularly impacted by the epidemic.  

Bush deserves credit for expanding AIDS initiatives in Africa.  But before someone like Rick Warren goes and gives out another "PEACE" award to #43, let's remember that the global crisis of HIV/AIDS includes the United States, as well--especially the Nation's Capitol.

Been There, Done That

Barack Obama is named Time's Person of the Year, for the second time.  

Yawn.  Who hasn't?

Prayers

This past weekend, I mentioned to many people that if the worst thing going in my life is that I have to read, study, and memorize a lot of material, I have it pretty darn easy.  Reading this this morning only reinforced that feeling.

Can't You Smell That Smell?

The Washington Post can.  That explains the unpleasant smells on the walk from the Law Center to Judiciary Square.  

The Star-Spangled Banner

Courtesy of Marvin Gaye.  Can someone please perform the Anthem like this at a Georgetown game? 

Instant Holiday Classic

John Legend and Stephen Colbert, "Nutmeg" (slightly risqué):

Cognitive Dissonance

My head is spinning.  I'm watching NFL Live, as Trey Wingo, Mike Golic, and some old dude in a 3 piece suit talk about the gun culture in the NFL.  Sportscasters (especially football), by tone and by training (talk radio ) give off a conservative vibe, but they just spent 3 minutes saying that players "don't need to be carrying guns" and that "it would be a scary world if every other person were packing."  When did these guys turn into gun control advocates?  Also, I've seen it out there before, but it made me think: where is the NRA coming to Plax's support? Dude may have violated a law, but why isn't the NRA taking up his case, challenging the constitutionality of the gun ban? 

Things started making more sense when Trey Wingo fixated on someone who said that Burres needed a gun because he was wearing bling.  Things become clear when white guys get to cluck their tongues about black guys and the "culture."  Emphasized when Trey Wingo just read a transcript from Clinton Portis, unedited for grammatical errors, then finished with a Clinton Portis impression.  

(Cringe)

Rahm: not whistleblower

Oh well.

Rahm: Whistleblower?

According to Huffington Post's Sam Stein, local news reports out of Chicago are pointing to Rahm Emanuel as the whistleblower who alerted the Feds to the auction Blagojevich was holding for Obama's vacated Senate seat.   If true, I imagine this will be added to Rahmfacts.com.

Blagojevich Arrested

Illinois' governor, Rod Blagojevich, has been arrested on corruption charges.  Apparently, it's connected to filling the Senate seat that President-elect Barack Obama is vacating.  Probably not the kind of story Obama wants to have floating around...

3 year investigation for white-collar crime culminating in arrest, not surrender, is unusual, Jeffrey Toobin points out.  Either the charges are that big, or there's the off-chance that this is a trumped-up, politically motivated investigation.  I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but we've seen it happen before with a state governor.   

Roll: Slowed

As the decreased posting rate demonstrates, it is Finals Season.  Speaking of finals, I could go for this introduction playing as we started our test:

Anyway, outlines and practice exams increasingly dominate my world, but I will do my best to stay plugged in, probably with quick-hit posts of songs, clips, and stories that are keeping me going during the busy season.  Feel free to post your own favorite motivational material in comments.

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Politico awards a Certificate of Completion to the McCain campaign for "stretching its dollars" and "staying competitive" against the Obama campaign.

The figures also demonstrate how successfully McCain was able to stretch his $85 million general election allotment into a much richer campaign kitty that could stay competitive with Obama’s fundraising apparatus. 

Meanwhile, President-Elect Barack Obama is preparing his Inaugural Address.  Which is exactly how voters--and the millions of donors to the Obama campaign--wanted it.

Organizing Man

This Washington Post piece is chock full of glowing quotes about "revolutionizing" the presidency and channeling the tech-savviness of the campaign into governing.  But what's really radical about this approach (and that nobody seems to mention) is that, before Obama takes the oath of office, he's already showing how he's going to govern: like a community organizer.  Listening to people; soliciting their opinions; marshaling their passions and energies into the political process: Obama didn't need to be the head of Harvard Law Review to practice those things, as articles often emphasize (though I'm sure it didn't hurt).  Rather, those tools--seemingly innocuous, but also profoundly important to a democratic society.  And that's revolutionary.

Out of the ivory tower

And into the community.  A unique take on community involvement up at Middlebury.  It will be interesting to see what comes of this project, and if it can serve as a model for other schools in similar town/gown situations.  If I'm not mistaken, some of the sociology professors at Georgetown organized similar projects with DC residents, but the rural context of the Middlebury project caught my eye.

Developing communities--just in the plain meaning of that phrase--is more than just subdivisions, office complexes, and retail spaces.  It also means exactly what is going on in the article: having members of towns, burgs, villages, and cities speak up and talk about what direction in which they'd like to see their area head.   Showing up at public environmental impact/aesthetics/zoning meetings is one way, but in terms of an inclusive, proactive process, this method seems to have a unique advantage--and one that, with current technologies, is easy to facilitate.

Henry Hudson: your thoughts?

Matthew Yglesias passes along news of the first known trip through the Northwest Passage, the shortcut to Asia that Henry Hudson so desperately sought.  

My initial reaction is that this completely changes the narrative of 4th grade social studies in New York, where Hudson and his failed trips "over the top" of North America.  The whole idea of Hudson as a tragic hero, trapped by the ignorance of his era.  When kids grow up in an era where people can sail through the Arctic, does Hudson then turn into a visionary? How does this shape young people's views of ice cap melting?

It's time to start the music

Design your own Muppet.  Awesome.

Two related notes: First,  Jill and I went to see the Jim Henson exhibition that came to the Smithsonian over the summer.  In an 8th grade project modeled after Time's "People of the Century," I selected Jim Henson as my entertainer of the century; the exhibition confirmed that 8-year-old hunch, and also made a fairly strong case for his mention on lists of great inventors and entrepreneurs.  

Second, here's a great primer on the Muppets' potential comeback.  Nothing can top "A Christmas Together: John Denver and the Muppets," but it's worth a shot.

Writing on the Wall

Posted everywhere.  Obama, following through on a campaign promise:

Note the Dow above 13,000.