The greening of the green
I'm way overdue to update this, I guess.
So I've got a lot to re-cap.
One of the kids who interviewed me in the whole UGA selection process (thats like an RA at any other campus) said I'm one of the better ones he's done in the past couple years, and thats good because
1. UGAs are paid $1000 a term
2. It kind of cancels out my disciplinary record...in a way
And its bad because i won't live with my friends next year, but thats okay.
The Xiu Xiu show is tomorrow, and so I guess its good that, just in time, I changed my mind. I thought they were so far gone into the realm of pretention and avant-garde cacophany that they sucked ass, but its actually got some appeal now.
I started my rock climbing class yesterday, and Hil is in it with me, which is good. We will conquer all. And barbecue post-climb.
My econ class just sucks. I hate the topic, the prof can't really overcome the language barrier, and blah. Besides, I might not be able to major in Econ after all.
You see, last monday, there was this panel discussion, what american jews should do about israel. A few people spoke, about the history, about jewish identity, and then this fucking Econ prof went on this rant calling all leftists anti-semitic and equating them to nazis. He had lots of other bullshit. I got pretty harsh in my response, which was roughly based on
these notes:
equating fringe elements with an entire diverse and well-founded political movement opposed to the constraining nature of islam (and religion in general)
its not racism to criticize israeli policy, the human rights groups that have questioned treatment of palestinians are not leftist
you think PC is neomarxist? ironic, the way you wield anti-semitism to discredit diseenting opinions is the very criticism of PC speech
your very inability to differentiate criticism with racial bias discredits much of the pro-israeli camp
criticizing curfew laws, civilan deaths in missile attacks (which you can't justify by saying hezbollah kills innocents), expanding settlements into disputed territory, uneccesary restriction of palestinian civil liberties, possibly playing arole in continuing escalation of violence that hinders achieving peace, and supporting american foreign policy which in general recieves wide criticism - these are the arguments of the left, the democrats, and human rights groups there is nothing anti-semitic and i think its detestable, offensive, and either disingenuous or ignorant to say so
I think if americans, jewish or not, who support israel's right to exist, if there is any school of thought they should divorce themselves from, its whichever one you subscribe to
anyway, I went to DC last week, basically on wednesday. 1100 miles in 30 hours. We left in this little hyundai accent, tuesday afternoon. Slept in jersey (home!) for 4 hours. Drove to DC. Did the Sudan senate lobbying thing with the Genocide Intervention Fund (which sucked because the Swarthmore kids who put it on were ridiculoulsy inept and disorganized, and they discredited the entire thing by sending uninformed kids out to lobby senators), but the actually lobbying process is interesting, i guess. Sununu is a dick. Also, we almost died 3 times on the way back as I drove (I learned how to drive a stick on the beltway) but we made it back in under 7 hours, which is insane. So was getting run off the road, on an overpass, by an 18wheeler at 75mph.
I think we'll get dartmouth to divest Sudan in the upcoming weeks, I am confident. By the way, harvard, which is rolling in masturbatory self-congratulation, did not divest - they divested from PetroChina, one company, which regardless of Sudan involvement is an egregious human rights violator. But, its better than nothing.
There are anarchists at dartmouth, I have found out. There are radicals here. But they are hesitant to come out as radicals, for all the ridicule and uselessness of it. But its interesting to know that.
I've been getting drunk a little too often, and been getting a little too drunk.
I'm still going out with Val, and things are still going well.
I talk to the kids from home every now and then.
I'm surprised by how much snow is still in the woods. I peed my name in the snow yesterday.
I've been biking more, and I'll have a custom made skateboard in a week or two. So thats good.
I don't do much work, but I should be doing work now.
So I will.
there's more to be said but this will suffice.
oh yeah, and
we're winning.
whatever that means.
(and i got my ass kicked in a dodgeball tournament last friday)
So I've got a lot to re-cap.
One of the kids who interviewed me in the whole UGA selection process (thats like an RA at any other campus) said I'm one of the better ones he's done in the past couple years, and thats good because
1. UGAs are paid $1000 a term
2. It kind of cancels out my disciplinary record...in a way
And its bad because i won't live with my friends next year, but thats okay.
The Xiu Xiu show is tomorrow, and so I guess its good that, just in time, I changed my mind. I thought they were so far gone into the realm of pretention and avant-garde cacophany that they sucked ass, but its actually got some appeal now.
I started my rock climbing class yesterday, and Hil is in it with me, which is good. We will conquer all. And barbecue post-climb.
My econ class just sucks. I hate the topic, the prof can't really overcome the language barrier, and blah. Besides, I might not be able to major in Econ after all.
You see, last monday, there was this panel discussion, what american jews should do about israel. A few people spoke, about the history, about jewish identity, and then this fucking Econ prof went on this rant calling all leftists anti-semitic and equating them to nazis. He had lots of other bullshit. I got pretty harsh in my response, which was roughly based on
these notes:
equating fringe elements with an entire diverse and well-founded political movement opposed to the constraining nature of islam (and religion in general)
its not racism to criticize israeli policy, the human rights groups that have questioned treatment of palestinians are not leftist
you think PC is neomarxist? ironic, the way you wield anti-semitism to discredit diseenting opinions is the very criticism of PC speech
your very inability to differentiate criticism with racial bias discredits much of the pro-israeli camp
criticizing curfew laws, civilan deaths in missile attacks (which you can't justify by saying hezbollah kills innocents), expanding settlements into disputed territory, uneccesary restriction of palestinian civil liberties, possibly playing arole in continuing escalation of violence that hinders achieving peace, and supporting american foreign policy which in general recieves wide criticism - these are the arguments of the left, the democrats, and human rights groups there is nothing anti-semitic and i think its detestable, offensive, and either disingenuous or ignorant to say so
I think if americans, jewish or not, who support israel's right to exist, if there is any school of thought they should divorce themselves from, its whichever one you subscribe to
anyway, I went to DC last week, basically on wednesday. 1100 miles in 30 hours. We left in this little hyundai accent, tuesday afternoon. Slept in jersey (home!) for 4 hours. Drove to DC. Did the Sudan senate lobbying thing with the Genocide Intervention Fund (which sucked because the Swarthmore kids who put it on were ridiculoulsy inept and disorganized, and they discredited the entire thing by sending uninformed kids out to lobby senators), but the actually lobbying process is interesting, i guess. Sununu is a dick. Also, we almost died 3 times on the way back as I drove (I learned how to drive a stick on the beltway) but we made it back in under 7 hours, which is insane. So was getting run off the road, on an overpass, by an 18wheeler at 75mph.
I think we'll get dartmouth to divest Sudan in the upcoming weeks, I am confident. By the way, harvard, which is rolling in masturbatory self-congratulation, did not divest - they divested from PetroChina, one company, which regardless of Sudan involvement is an egregious human rights violator. But, its better than nothing.
There are anarchists at dartmouth, I have found out. There are radicals here. But they are hesitant to come out as radicals, for all the ridicule and uselessness of it. But its interesting to know that.
I've been getting drunk a little too often, and been getting a little too drunk.
I'm still going out with Val, and things are still going well.
I talk to the kids from home every now and then.
I'm surprised by how much snow is still in the woods. I peed my name in the snow yesterday.
I've been biking more, and I'll have a custom made skateboard in a week or two. So thats good.
I don't do much work, but I should be doing work now.
So I will.
there's more to be said but this will suffice.
oh yeah, and
we're winning.
whatever that means.
(and i got my ass kicked in a dodgeball tournament last friday)