harrassment...?

A couple of stories of CNN.com caught my eye, one, because I didn't have to read anything, and two, they were kind of interesting. The first video I found was about a 14 year old girl who had a cartoonish like poster up on her myspace page with the caption that said "kill bush" who was pulled out of class by the secret service... If upon finding out that the 'threat' was made by a 14 year old horse loving, braces wearing opinion loving good american girl, one would imagine that the CIA would likely think, "gee, no threat here," and go on hunting people with too much time on their hands. But not in the great US of A! They actually berated her in her school's hallway! One word: Stupid.

The second story of interest was about a guy with a suicide-bomber T-shirt, and selling them on terrorshirt.com. In a place like Victoria, I could see the humor in it. In a city like New York, with the persistant paranoia... I would say not so much. Anyway, class is calling.

And so it continues

Welcome to my week: Today, an outline of the 4000+ word paper for Poli414 Domestic Politics in the European Union; tomorrow, a mid-term for Poli320 Constitution of Canada (covering an abridged version of the what was the British North America Act of 1867); and Thursday, a mid-term in Hist365b History of Europe between 1850 and 1914. Luckily work has been considerably cut-back in favour of studying and other more fun activities, which has resulted in a relatively stress-reduced mid-term session. There is, of course, the fact that this is the last 'mid-term' session I'll ever have to stress through, which could be contributing to the near serenity I'm experiencing...


On a more serious issue (in that I'm not the only one who's concerned about it), is there anything to be done about North Korea that won't result in an all out and possibly nuclear war? I wish I could see in to the heads of those surrounding Kim Jong Il and figure out if it's fear or adoration that holds their obedience... And what of the international community? What can be running through their heads? Is there some thing to be gained from this exercise other than an inflamed blemish on the face of Asia? Does the real fear lie with to whom Kim will sell his new nukes, or are we genuinely concerned about what he'll do with them? I think that if it can be said that there is something good that could come out of this worrisome state of affairs (Jokers [Kim et al] to the left of me and clowns [The taliban and muslim extremists] to the right) is that the US might have to realize that they're stuck in the middle with someone (ie. us and the rest of the occidental world) and not all alone like Conan in the wild... ok, weird analogy, but you get the picture.
That'll do it for now, but how do you like my fancy new picture know-how!??!

holy hallelujah... or however it's spelled

ok, I've got 15 minutes to give you a dissertation on how frustrating it is to be taking a 300 level "Politics of the Canadian Constitution" class taught by a professor who is trained to teach illiterate adults. Yup, that's right kids, for a bargain price of $450, you can go to class for a little more than 3 months and hear (in the most condecending voice imaginable to man) everything you just read in your assigned readings with NO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR INSIGHT from the same quality of educator that can be found in your local community centre for $20 per 6 week 'session.'
I might not be so furious if this class had not come on the heels of 2 classes (also at the 300 level) with one of the most brilliant individuals I've ever come across, who challenged and intrigued us all...

ooh, I've got to go print something. Happy October everyone!