It's official

I know, two posts in one day, wtf mate?! This one is short though. I got my first response from a law school .... *drum roll* .... I got in! The University of Akron has accpeted me. This was a fallback school of sorts, since Akron doesn't seem all that exciting, but it was free to apply and they have a good IP center. It is nice to know that I got in somewhere, and it is a barometer for my pending admission to other schools, since, contrary to what I said in an earlier post, their admission standards slightly higher than LSU's and DePaul's. For all that care to know, they received over 2000 applications for 183 entering students

Theocracy in action

To keep all those interested informed, the CCCC proposal mentioned on this blog a few posts ago has passed, and will become active when Mayor-President "Kip" Holden signs the law. Bar owners and their representatives, however, were able to score further compromises. The ordinance originally called for specials to end at 8pm, now they have to end at 10pm. Also, they are still permitted to sell drinks up to 60% off the retail price and restaurants are not affected. This means that pint night at Fox and Hound should not be affected, nor will 2 for 1's at Chili's, which are the drink specials I take advantage of most often.

This does not mean, however, that I am not angry with this decision by the metro council. I am all for democracy, and people pushing initiatves that they think will make their community a better place. This ordinance, however, will have no affect. The CCCC in their effort to push this through, reaffirmed every single issue I have with faith-based groups. They typically use views based on the Christian faith, which they have every right to present, but they present no empirical evidence on how they are valid, not to mention say anything regarding the Constitutionality of their views. I guess the Bible is their Constitution. In their initial campaign, the CCCC used nothing more than emotional, anecdotal evidence to support their proposal, and their allies in this fight, MADD, did little better, by providing broad, extremely flawed statistics, all of which gathered internally by the two groups themselves. Essentially both groups used fear. On the other hand, bar owners and business rights groups provided solid, statistically valid evidence, conducted by third parties, that showed that the proposal, if passed, would not accomplish its desired goals, limiting the number of drunk driving incidents in the parish.

In the end, this really affects the crowd of folks who like to hit up Reggie's, Fred's, and the like for late night $1 shots. It does suck that their fun, not my particular brand, has been pissed on. Also, I'm not against government regulation in areas such as this, it's just that it's the burden is on the government to prove that the regulation in question will have a nominal impact on public safety. This was not shown in this case, so in my and many other legal historians' minds, the government has, via the lovely American Theocracy, coerced people without just reasoning. In the words of Jed Bartlett, "God Bless America, since God is an American."

Liberal is not a four letter word

The past couple of days I've been bored (and trying to avoid raeading) and have gone back to watch a few of my favorite West Wing episodes (I know Loni, I should be watching Firefly). In last year's season finale, Congressman Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) gives an impassioned speech at the party convention about what it means to be a liberal. Speeches like this make me love the show.

Liberals/progressives (I like to use them interchangeably, since at one point in history they were called progressives) have been at the forefront of every major social and/or legal change in this country, especially after the Civil War. It was a liberal Congress that forced the South to ratify the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which respectively abolished slavery, gave everyone the equal protection of the law and citizenship, and prohibited the vote from being denied on the basis of color, the 14th Amendment being the most important and fundamental to our freedom of all of these. A few decades later, liberals (now under the moniker of Progressives) stabilized our goverment's income through the income tax (16th Amendment), gave people the direct vote of Senators (17th Amendment) and gave women the right to vote (19th Amendment). In the 1960s (perhaps the greatest decade in American history), liberals finally secured the rights promised to minorites in the 14th and 15th Amendments by passing the 24th Amendment, abolishment of poll taxes, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which promised everyone equal access to society through a number of provisions. Some of these provisions were embodied in the Civil Rights Act of 1870, but it was struck down under the pressure of the newly restored Southern Congressmen.

I know a lot of this sounds like a civics lecture, but to me knowledge of our nation's laws as embodied in the Constitution and Bill of Rights and the history behind them is paramount to citizenship. As a proudly-admitted liberal, I see the Constitution as the contract which preserves our freedoms and guarantees oppurtunity for all, and anything which seeks to strike it down needs to be met with equal if not greater force. Therefore, as proud liberals, we should resist the moral fundamentalism which is slowly taking over our country, which seeks to, among other things, take away a woman's right to choose and tell a gay couple that they cannot enjoy the same civil rights as other married couples. Others may disagree, and I welcome the discussions of those whose disagreements are based on a different interpretation of the law of the land. It's those who disagree out of blind devotion to their faiths, not law, that aggrevate me beyond control. I am proud to be a liberal, and those who seek to throw the label at my feet will see me pick it up and wear as a badge of honor.

St. Paddy's Day

Along with New Year's and Cinco de Mayo, 17 March is my favorite holiday. Admittedly, it does give both burpose and theme to my drinking, which is always fun. They also serve as really good excuses to go out and/or have parties. Not that I've ever needed a reason, but more people get involved due to the occasion. Tonight, Kellie and I are headed to New Orleans to take place in its brand of revelry, but we are also going so that I can see a couple of visitors from out of town: my cousin Brian and my friend Adam who is home from Iraq. Should make for a fun night.

Tomorrow, back in Baton Rouge, we get our first taste of crawfish. I've heard that this season won't be the best, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. Also tomorrow, LSU plays its second-round game of the NCAA tournament. They play Texax A&M. I hate A&M. LSU MUST WIN! And you all should watch. Anyway, feel free to share your St. Paddy's plans and happenings, and everyone feel bad for Chris since he has to spend the weekend in Shreveport (aka Jesusland).

Beware the Ides of March

So, while my theatre instructor goes over our ridiculously simple midterm, I'll make a quick post regarding this highly historic day. As per the title of the post, today is the Ides of March, also known as the day the Conspirators murdered Julius Caesar. Ironically enough, we are continuing our discussion of his campaign in Gaul and his dictatorship today in military history.

As a quick background, Julius Caesar came from a prominent royal family, and actually claimed descendancy to Aeneas himself, the son of a Goddess according to legend and myth. His family, however, stood opposed to the aristocratic policies of the Senate and showed greater concern for the poorer masses. Caesar, as he rose through military and political ranks (constitutionally tied in Rome), echoed these concerns, and when he was dictator, he implemented a number of popular reforms. The Senate, because they were all patricians (aristocrats), disagreed with the redistribution of their wealth for the aid of the masses, and thus conspired with Cassius and Brutus to assasinate Caesar. They used as a pretext for this, however, that Caesar sought to be named king, which, in fact, he had denied.

For those of you who have studied Louisiana History, you may notice a great deal of parallel between Caesar and Huey Long, which only continues with more detailed studied. They both came from relatively affluent origins (and both actually played these down for political gain at some point), ascended the political ranks through mostly talent, and championed popular causes. Most obviously, both were assasinated, on the steps of their respective Senate houses no less.

There's my Ides of March tribute for the year. If you feel nerdy, and bold, be sure to share some of this infomation with friends and coworkers to showoff your obscure knowledge of things past. I have to know this stuff as a History major, though it's nice to share.

More birthday wishes and a hard choice

In yet another March birthday, happy birthday, Allyson. I hear she got to see Ben Folds (so jealous!), so I can't think of a much better way to spend your birthday. Though, Stephen's night in Chattanooga sounded like fun, so hit up his blog (link to the right) to read about it. Speaking of other people's blogs, Jess and Stefan seriously need to update. I mean, I know it's about their trip to Brazil which does not begin for another two days, but omgupdate!

As for the hard choice portion of this entry, it refers to my pending decision for law school. Now, I may be premature in this weighing of options, because I've yet to hear back from any of the schools to which I applied. To recap, these are LSU, DePaul and the University of Akron as a last minute, and free, application, which also serves as a fallback since their standards for admission are nominally lower than LSU's and DePaul's. That being said, my scores and grades for LSU and DePaul are pretty much median or better, so I'm fairly confident about getting into both.

Here's the case for LSU. I love LSU, even though there are several things I dislike about Baton Rouge and campus, I still love it here. Everything from the beauty of the campus, to the sports, to the Chimes and other excellent hangouts. Those of you who have been here know what I am talking about. Also, I am very intrigued by the law school. The program is a dual degree in both civil and common law, based on the unique tradition of Louisiana law. There are no certificate programs to speak of, but there are enough courses in Intellectual Property (what I want to pursue) to certainly make it a specialty here. Big positive for LSU is that as a public school, it's < $12k a year to attend, and it's really cheap to live here, so money won't be nearly as worrisome. Even though I love my home of LA, I'm still not sure I want to live here my whole life, and going to law school here all but makes that certain.

Now for DePaul. I've never been to Chicago, though from what I've heard, read, and seen on TV (mostly via Cubs games) I think I'd really like it. Couple of huge problems though, it's hella expensive to live there and tuition is 30 large a year. They did, however, send me a letter about prelminarily qualifying for a $20k/year scholarship, so if that pans out, at least one of these would be taken care of. What drew me to DePaul was its IP program, it has a true certificate program, IP center, and dedicated faculty. There's also an interesting dual degree program with a J.D. and M.A. in Computer Science, which does not have a specific bachelor's degree requirement, though that's four years instead of three. Also, I would love to live in a big city, Chicago certainly qualifies. There's also this part of me which says, "Get out and do something different and new." There's no doubt that the life experience would be substantial, though I'm not sure how much I'll be able to actually do given both the time and monetary constraints of law school, since I am not allowed to work at all for the first year. Graduating from a private school with a less specified education (since it's just common law) would allow me to move whereever I wanted after graduation.

I put this here to get your input. Some of you have braved the experience of moving to a brand new place for whatever reason. Is it what you expected? What has hardest about it? Some of you have spent a large amount of time at LSU, and those who have left, what do you miss? I should hear back from these schools within a few weeks and will only have another couple after that to make up my mind.

Birthday wishes and booze in peril

Quick break from studying to give a quick shout out to Jess, Happy Birthday. And, in case I can't post tomorrow, Happy Birthday Stephen.

In some Baton Rouge news, the Campus Coalition for Community Change (or some shit, their abbreviation is CCCC) has submitted a proposal that all bars in East Baton Rouge parish be prohibited from offering special prices on drinks after 8 pm, so businessmen can get hammered for cheap and drive home, but not students, what a deal! The Metro Council yesterday (funny that it was scheduled yesterday, IN THE MIDDLE OF MIDTERM WEEK!) voted to postpone the vote, again, after doing so in December as well. They claim that by doing away with drink specials, they will lower the number of DUIs and related accidents. This is of course horse shit. People will either pay more to drink just as much, drink more at home before going out so they drive to and from bars drunk, or go out to Livingston or West Baton Rouge parish for bar specials, which already happens on Sundays, so they drive further while drunk. These people, who are a Christian-based group, have used pretty much all anecdotal, emotional, and correlative evidence instead of real, emperical data to make their case (this sounds a lot like the Evolution vs. Creationism/Intelligent Design arguement).

In the last version of the proposal, there was a section which made the sections of the law seperate and severable, which means each of the sections would have to be struck down individually. How is this not admitting that our law is unconstitutional? First and foremost, it is overreaching in terms of governing commerce. The burden of proof has always been on the government when it has tried to govern local commerce, to prove that there is a very large, vested public interest in the law. As said above, they've yet to come up with real data to show how this would help the public. Currently the CCCC and MADD are negotiating with representatives of the local bar owners to change some of the language of the proposal before the next metro council meeting in two weeks. Hopefully they come up with something fundamentally different, or the council comes to its senses and throws this shit out the window. Otherwise, we'll have a long fight in getting all this overturned in court.

I've got a not-so-golden ticket

Quick note to share that Kellie's and my Death Cab for Cutie and Franz Ferdinand tickets came in the mail today. I am hella pumped for this show, and even though seeing it will require driving to Houston and back in one night, it will be totally worth it. Besides, I've done it before ... alone ... and much further.

In an entirely different vein, I really enjoyed this year's Oscars. It's not that they were particularly exciting, but the movies this year were really good, and to me that makes the show. Plus, Jon Stewart was funny as hell. I got a chance to see all five films nominated for Best Picture, and each of them was deserving of the award. My personal favorite was Good Night, and Good Luck, but Crash was also an amazing movie. Check your local video stores for it, and be sure to check the others out as well. Two winning movies that I did not have a chance to see are The Constant Gardener and Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the Were Rabbit. If anyone has seen either, let me know what you thought.

My Religion (or lack thereof)

As some of you may know, a recent development in my life, albeit very personal, has been my complete and total denouncement of all things religious. Having been raised Catholic, I think it absurd to meet the demands of ridiculous, arbitrary dogma, about which I know more than many practicing Catholics. Beyond this, however, I simply do not believe in any sort of supernatural being. There is simply no emperical evidence of its existence. While I do not make it any sort of life ambition to preach my atheism, I have admitted to it when asked about religion, and more often than not I receive a reaction of shock and dismay, though there have been a couple of understanding if not genuinely interested reactions. In an effort to avoid confrontation in these situations, I give a couple of superficial reasons behind my views and try to end the conversation as quickly as possible. Through my Intellectual History class, however, I have found minds much more brilliant that me that more aptly elucidate said reasonings.

Nietzsche from his Genealogy of Morals - religion originated from the slave morality, that is the morals of the common people, who sought to subjugate the nobles of master morality. Without going into further detail about the two moralities, suffice it to say that through the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, because they were unable to act out directly, the slave morality imposed its own morals on the ruling class, the Romans. Enter the Roman Catholic Church.

Freud from his Civilization and its Discontents - in his pursuit to ease suffering, man can seek to completely disconnect himself from reality. This hermit life, however, is but a delusion. Religion is simply another example of this delusion. I whole-heartedly agree that it is a form of mass delusion, put in place by those who do not have the courage to act out for their own. As Freud suggests, religion is an artificial creation which calls for man to act contrary to his constitution, because it limits the ways by which he can satisfy his instinctual desires.

Einstein from Religion and Science - religion was initially an effort by which man attempted to escape fear: fear of famine, fear of beasts, fear of death. He created artifical beings which represented this things and gave them tribute in exchange for their blessing. Later religion became a product of morality in which man created and anthropomorphic being, God, though it still had many elements of fear. Morality, however, need not derive from a fear of punishment or a hope for reward after death, and this notion runs contrary to the action of men since it is simply a product of external and internal forces.

To me, Einstein says it best, I do not need God, or religion, to tell me what is right or wrong. I know something is wrong not because doing it will land me in Hell, but because it is simply wrong. The sentiments of Freud and Nietzsche can be best seen in those who act only within the confines of their belief structures; they are simply unable and/or unwilling to think and act on their own. I've spent my fair share of time at Baptist services to see a veritable horde of sheep "caught in the spirit." Some of this may surprise some of you, and you may think this is far from the best way to reveal these thoughts. On the contrary, this is exactly why I started this.

He wrote the fucking book

Of course, I've never been capable of an original thought in my entire life, rather it's just an ongoing series of allusions. This one, of course, like so many others, to everyone's favorite Vermont rockers, Phish. This blog, however, will not be a memorial to perhaps the greatest jam band ever (though, I am sure there are plenty out there), rather it will be a place where I will put my own musings and experiences, hopefully which are all more or less orginal. I can only hope that they are able to keep the six of you who may read this interested.

I must credit Stefan and Jess (http://omgbrazil.blogspot.com) for inspring me to do this, or at the very least providing me with the service to do so. I am lazy, so do not want to create my own web page, and so you all must deal with the trappings of a free service. At this very moment, I am killing time before I have to leave for work and taking a break from studying for my upcoming week of hell, six midterms in five days. So for now, I will leave you with this, but fear not, more is sure to follow.