Pragmatism... not Idealism

(still doing NYC stories)

During the day we met these two guys from Australia. They had been traveling the US for quite some time and figured they'd visit the New Year's capitol of the world. Now at that time the Crocodile Hunter was really popular and i thought Steve Irwin was the friggin man. And so when I met them, I asked the if they had heard of Steve Irwin. The dialogue went something like this.

Aussies "Who?
Me "You know, the Crocodile Hunter"
Aussies- "Who the f*** is that guy and why does everyone keep asking us about him?"

Apparently no one had heard of Steve Irwin in Australia while he was all the rage in America. Go figure.

(I'm still doing sequence of the Y2K Times Square stories. Hopefully these are somewhat interesting for you all to read)

Jeff and I managed to slowly squirm our way to the front of the crowd over a few hours. We finally got up pretty close to the fence. Eventually this rude woman shoved her way all the way to the front. She wasn't like a normal person though. She never said excuse me as she shoved me out of the way, and to be honest I didn't want to be in her way for long anyhow- she really stunk. I'm pretty sure she was either homeless or just really poor because she was clothed in the kind of things one wouldn't even find sold at Goodwill. Apparently she had a cold because her nose was running like crazy and she rarely wiped it with a tissue.

Once she got up to the fence, she unfurled a large American flag. This was the kind of flag that should have been burned according to every rule in the rule book. It had coffee stains all over, it's edges were tattered and there were holes in it. Also, she kept letting it touch the ground much to my annoyance.

Everyone in my group (my brother managed to meet quite a few people that day) was really peeved about the whole situation. What we didn't expect was the reporters. Bringing American flags to big events just attracts the cameras. We had one freelance reporter interview her and a few others in my group. Apparently she was writing a story hoping to sell it and her pictures to newspapers around the country. So who knows, maybe my mug was on the front-page of some podunk newspaper somewhere in Wyoming.

We met many, many interesting people in Times Square. There was a group of crack heads (or just heroine addicts, I forget) that were a riot to be around. They had a poster they wanted a bunch of cops to sign. Some of the cops were amenable, but one was not - Ferraro. The one girl who had the poster (I’ll call her cracky from now on) kept begging him to sign it, but he just wouldn't budge.

So whenever someone saw Ferraro walking by, someone would alway yell, "there's that jerk Ferraro, and a group of 50+ people would boo at him yelling curse words and telling him just to sign the poor girls poster. Every time we did it though, he always got really cocky and ate up the attention. This went on for about 8(?) hours until he got off his shift. He tried to get away towards the end of his shift when all the cops he was on duty with walked in rows. Luckily I saw him and yelled "there's that jerk Ferraro!" Everyone booed and all the cops around him started cracking up.

Speaking of NYC cops, we were able to flag one down nicknamed Selena. She was called that because she was a Hispanic woman who looked like Jennifer Lopez. Needless to say, the guys around me loved talking to this officer of the peace. One guy in our group who came a bit late into the game kept hitting on her and she didn't seem to mind all that much. He looked like a pimp of sorts. He was wearing a chocolate leather suite and actually did seem to have money. He claimed he was a successful clothing designer working on a new clothing line called "She Got Game." Selena stopped by our area a few more times and actually did sign Cracky's poster.

Let's see, I was 16 when the millennium came around. I know it wasn't the real millennium, but I don't care. I'll call it that anyhow. My family told me I was stupid for going out there. My sisters all thought there was going to be a terrorist attack or the lights would go out and I'd be screwed. I didn't put much stock in the millennium bug thing and I figured if it was going to be the end of the world, I might as well have some fun. Besides, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

My brother and I left that morning for the big apple. We got in to the city around 10 and started towards Times Square. We couldn't get to the square because they were all closed with cops guarding the blocks. Apparently the square was already packed even though the ball was going to drop for another 13+ hours.

Thankfully my brother has little respect for roadblocks. He saw a parking garage we could cut through, and so we all cut through and came out behind the please. We snuck to the end of the block hoping they wouldn't see us. We cut around another unmanned roadblock and came out at the sweetest place possible.

We were really close to the ball and we were right in front of this stage that would be used by everyone during the day. If any of you are familiar with NYC, we were right across from Virgin Records and right down the road from the MTV studio. We looked around and by that time the crowd was already massive. If we had followed the roadblocks, we would have been blocks and blocks away. Our view would have stunk and it probably would have been the most boring day ever.

It's almost New Year's. I'm amazed at how excited New Year's gets me. I know that it's a day like any other, and that it's only special because some guy a long time ago thought it would be a good day on which to start his calendar. Still, it seems like there's a new page turning who's story can be different than all the ones before.

The millennium especially got me going. I got so excited about it I decided to go to the world capital of New Year's celebrations in 2000. I bought (yes, I spent money) a plane ticket on Priceline.com and everything, but then I just ended up getting a ride out there with my brother (he lives in New Jersey near the big city).

So much happened on that day. I think I'll take the next couple days on this blog telling as many stories as I can remember from that day, in part so that I don't forget them.

You know how every once and a while you hear something you can't quite believe? I just found out a friend of mine for almost 15 years is now married and his wife is pregnant. I went to school with him in kindergarten and we became friends then. During elementary school and junior high, we used to fish together and stay up all night playing video games together.

One night he was playing Play Station along with my other friend John. All of a sudden he jumped up and ran in slow motion right into the wall. Then (still in slow motion) he started to stumble backwards and which point he lost his balance and fell on my friend's playstation. My friend was ticked off because he thought Jordan did it on purpose. The thing was Jordan hadn't slept for about two days and he had been playing video games the whole time (we really liked our Crash Bandicoot and FIFA). It became apparent that he didn't do it on purpose when he started shaking and foaming at the mouth. Apparently that whole thing about kids getting seizures in Japan was true. John (my other friend) ran into his parent's room and told them something was wrong with Jordan. His Dad replied, "Yeah, what's new?" The rest of the story is too hilarious to try and tell on this blog.

It just seems so strange that he's married and has a kiddo on the way. He's only 19-years-old for pete's sake. And yet unfortunately it's not all that uncommon.

also, we aren't suing for much. We basically just want to get enough money to cover lawyer fees and little something for the pain and hassles they've sent us through. I think we're suing for 10k, much of which will be taken by the lawyer. Part of the settlement (once we get there) is that the hospital will have to do x-rays on all outgoing patients to make sure they don't leave any more little surprises in there.

i forgot to mention, the sponge was 8" by 8". that's freaking huge

My Dad is getting a colonoscopy done today. That where they shove something down your throat until it wiggles all through your intestines. He's already had surgery to get the cancer out and he's done with radiation and chemo treatment finally. They just want to make sure everything’s gone now.

Speaking of which, I should tell the story about his surgery. After he got out of surgery he was really wasted. They ended up having to do a colostomy, which he didn't expect at all. Because of that he had stitches on his rear end as well as his stomach. They were giving him morphine like crazy because he was in so much pain. As a few days went by, his bowels still hadn't been used. After surgeries like his you have to get up and get moving or else you run the chance of your bowels freezing up permanently.

He couldn't get up at all though. They wanted him to sit in his chair but he had stitches there and sitting down just caused the gash to expand. Every time he tried anything he'd have to sleep for hours afterwards. The nurses got ticked off at him and labeled him a trouble patient. Because of this they tried "tough love" if you can call it that. They wouldn't tell my mom what was going on (she wanted to know about some of his bacteria levels and such since she's a nurse). Everything that was going on was strange. We all thought that he was going to die.

My Dad has diabetes and so that made the road to recovery even harder. The hospital doctor wasn't coordinating with my Dad's diabetes doctor very well and so my Dad wasn't getting the insulin and medications he needed (also, the types of food he needed to eat).

My Dad's condition did not change for two weeks which really angered the hospital. Apparently they expected my Dad to be running around the halls two weeks after the surgery. They eventually just sent him home and my mom had to care for him. He slept downstairs, or at least he tried to. Frequently he'd be so cold that he'd where a sweater, winter coat, pants, thick socks, and gloves to bed. The bed would usually have 3-4 comforters also. Even then he would be freezing to the point of visibly shaking.

One night he got up and went into the kitchen. His stitches had come undone and he was bleeding everywhere. My mom got ticked off that he was staying n the kitchen though. I guess the whole blood thing didn't faze her too much.

Also, there's always the times when he nearly went into insulin shock. His blood sugar levels were incredibly low. If I remember right, they were well below 50, but I'm not where exactly. In fact, the one night he did almost die, but my mom stayed up all night feeding him sugar to keep his levels up

By this point she had enough. She went into the hospital and demanded they figure out what in the world was going on. They did another MRI. The doctor called them in all serious like and said he had bad news. They left a sponge in him. That’s when they started treating him better. They rushed him into surgery, got the sucker out, and he got a lot better

But the story isn’t over yet thanks to the hospital administration. Here’s the thing, we have 1 year to file a lawsuit against the hospital for malpractice and they have 5 years to bill us for the surgeries. Now my parents weren’t interested in suing at all. They just wanted the surgeries to be paid for and they would be on their way. But no, the freaking hospital is playing games and not sending out something that says they won’t charge us.

So my parents got a lawyer and they’re going to sue now. Good thinking there hospital admin. It’s going to be a pretty easy case for the lawyer. All he has to say is “they left a friggin sponge in him,” and the case will be over. If we don’t file a lawsuit then the hospital will just bill us as soon as we can’t sue anymore and then we’d have to take a loan out against the house or something to pay for it. That’s not an option.

My Christmas wish list:



I can wish, right?

I've got some news for you! My cousin got out of jail today after spending 6 weeks in the slammer. Actually that was news for me too considering I didn't even know she was in jail until just now. My family doesn't tell me anything when I'm in the Grove City bubble. My Grandma had a major stoke and no one thought to tell me until I came home for the next break.

I try to stay away from boring posts about mundane details of my life, but I don't have anything that good to say, and I feel like I should post something anyway.

I went to Church today which was fairly enjoyable. It's sort of strange when you come back and see people you know you should know but don't. A woman whose face I recognized came up to me and gave me a big hug, but I had no clue who she was. That tends to happen a lot though (the not remembering names thing, not the hugs).

Also, the church has lost its mystique. I've gone to the same church since I was five years old. I remember back then everything seemed so dang mysterious. When I would enter the church, I had this sort of awe, if that makes sense. All the adults were busy socializing and when I'd get to the service, the pastor would talk about things I really did not understand. The church just seemed so big and important.

When I was really young, I read something about the Holy of Holies (for Matt, that's a special place in the Jewish tabernacle where the high priest would go once a year- It's also where the ark of the covenant was). In my mind I conflated the church and the jewish tabernacle. I thought for whatever reason that my pastor was a pseudo high-priest and that we had our own Holy of Holies. I searched every single room of the church, explored every single storage space, looked around the attic, searched the parsonage basement and could not find the friggin Holy of Holies. Then I tried knocking on the walls all around the church to see if there was some sort of secret passage. I snuck into the pastor's office to see if one of his book cases would be some sort of hidden door. Man that was frustrating. Of course there's that whole thing about going into the Holy of Holies and dying if you aren't clean, but I didn't think that far ahead.

Also, I took everything the adults said for granted. Of course, as time went on this changed a bit and I could see the nuts and bolts of the operation. Every time I would go back to church on break, I'd get annoyed at how poorly the service is run. Every mistake that could happen usually does. Also, I'm analyzing everything people say and occasionally ripping it to shreds in my mind, but not always. That mystery just isn't there anymore. I know that's not the point of going to church, but I'd like to go back to the days when everything seemed so important.

I'm not sure what my point is, but that's what was on my mind.

I'm in the stacks of buhl library trying to write a paper while listening to the Magnetic Field's 69 love songs, a 3 volume collection of 69 original songs on love. I can hardly keep from laughing at the lyrics of these songs. The guy is hilarious. For example, listen to "Love is Like Jazz." Good stuff. I'm almost up to 5,000 words on this paper (18 pages) so I should finally be done with it in the next few hours at which point i will start writing another paper. Woo haaa

I fell asleep while studying last night. While I was seeping, I dreamt that I was in a car driving down a two lane road at night. All of a sudden I started to lean over because I was so incredibly tired. I knew I was about to fall asleep in a matter of second. I tried to maintain control of my vehicle. However, everything became elongated and I couldn’t tell where I was going because everything was moving. In a last ditch effort I tried slamming on my breaks before I fell completely asleep and ran into a ditch or something.
I finally fell asleep in my dream and woke up in real life.

I’ve never fallen asleep in a dream quite like that before. I have dreamed in a dream which was especially confusing.

Hey guys. Here are some of my presuppositions with their logical conclusions. If you disagree with one of them, leave a comment and give a reasoned answer why. To be honest, I don't like where this train of thought has led me so again I'd like someone to show me why I'm wrong.

*God created me.
*God made me in His own image and values me so I have the right to life unless He decides otherwise.
*I also have the right to property since God gave us temporary control over His property (the earth). (I'm to subdue the earth and all that is in it, also I'm to be a wise steward of what has been lent to me).
*I have no right to violate the rights of another by forcing them to behave a certain way or give me some of their property since this would involve coercion (My neighbor would do as I said because of some threat of violence, clearly immoral) and my neighbor would have every right to defend himself and his property from intervention.
*Therefore, no mortal human being has an intrinsic right to lord over another human being since this involves the violation of property rights unless God through direct intervention gives him that right. Remember there's no place in the Bible that says you have to have a government.
*It doesn't matter if a group of 40 people got together and tried to force someone to behave a certain way since this is still coercion and they have don’t have this right.
*Because of these things, we shouldn’t have a society where the government can coercively force people to do certain things

To restate the argument, we have the right to full control over our own property. We do not have the right to tell others what to do using the government’s coercive power since this violates property rights. However, the logical conclusion of this argument is anarchism.

Here’s some ways you could disagree with me.
*We don’t have the rights mentioned (life and property rights)
*We aren't free
*God doesn’t exist
*Coercion on a mass scale is ok because a lot of people say it’s ok (i.e. democracy)
*Government intervention doesn’t really constitute a violation of private property rights. (Warning, I can take down this argument pretty easily)

Here's some arguments I'm considering (some not too seriously).
*Rights be darned, all that matters is what's best for everyone. This doesn't jive too well with me. Who determines what's best? How do you know that it's the best? Can you truly foresee all the consequences of your actions?
*property rights don't exist- When does something become your property? You could say when you buy it but that doesn't help us out too much. If you follow everything back to it's original source, all goods come from land and labor. I can see how someone says that they own themselves, but how do you own something you didn't create? You could say that since we didn't create ourselves we don't own ourselves but the Bible still support the idea of property rights. Can you just claim to own something and then it's yours? When Noah and his sons stepped off the ark, it's not like they owned the entire world. So do we get our property rights by homesteading, by mixing our labor with the land? There still seems to be somthing problematic about this.
*The lesser of two evils argument- this is the idea that a somewhat free society is better than a free society. Evil would be compounded in a system with no government and so we should therefore violate rights to lessen evil. My reservation here is that I don’t know where you would end. What do we define as evil? All sins? This could be used to justify a totalitarian form of government where ANY form of sin is not tolerated (i.e. Calvin’s Geneva). Part of liberty is being free to get it wrong.
*Is anarchism truly a society without order? Israelite society was fairly anarchic before they rejected God and requested a human King, and yet it doesn’t sound like there was mass chaos. Would private defense agencies be effective in protecting property rights? It’s all pretty ify since it’s never been done before (at least to my knowledge).

Everything is related. Say you want to get involved in politics. You need several things to formulate the proper role of the government: an ethical system, economic knowledge, and a correct philosophy. To have a correct philosophy one needs to know about science, human nature, and ultimate reality. To come to correct conclusions on economics, one needs a correct philosophy, ethical system, and a firm understanding on how and why human's act. Even a correct ethical system is impossible to prove per se. So to come to a truly accurate conclusion on something, a person has to know everything about evey other area of life.

I don't know how someone could be a politician. I don't think I could ever say that whatever policy I push for was actualy correct and so if I were to push for a policy, it could very well be based on a faulty premise. What if I'm lacking just one critical piece of information? If your thoughts rely on a false axiom then you could be wrong about everything.

So how then should we act? I tend to think of nearly all actions as being either moral or immoral especially when it comes to the government. I've tried to bypass this intellectual road block before but I just can't get over it. Am i just supposed to act by faith in the public square? This seems woefully inadequate because I'm sure my understanding of the Bible is incorrect in some fundamental ways.

And why is it that people always make declarative statements about the way things should be. Don't they know how complex this all is? Maybe I should stop trying to rationalize things and just work. I shouldn't bother with utopias, but rather just try and improve what we have. As they say, "You must cultivate your own garden, for no one is going to do it for you." But this is inadequate solution. I don't want to tend some garden whose fruits will just end up being irrelevant or even worse harmful.

I don't know how to get past this. Maybe you guys out there in the blogosphere could give me some advice. I'm always willing to consider other people's arguments.

In a few days I will have 129 credits meaning i could have graduated by now if I hadn't transferred, and yet I still have 3 semesters to go. Ugh. You know how people get senioritis? They usually get that once they hit 96 credits. My point? It's exam time and I have no willpower anymore.

I know this blog has no focus but I noticed that I haven't written anything about music yet. This seems remarkable since much of my time is spent trying to find new artists.

I first listened to The Wrens over Thanksgiving break and I sort of liked the album. I came here without any of the MP3s because my burner back home doesn't work. Luckily Paul saw on my blog that I had asked Neil to download the album and so he downloaded it just to be safe. Speaking of which, Neil (if you're reading) the meadowlands album that you downloaded isn't the right one. I think it was the preview album they gave to their record company before they really polished the songs over and cut out the chaff. The final release only has 13 tracks on it. Your version has quite a few more.

Anyhow, this album is blowing my mind. Every once in a while an album will make me go bonkers, and I'll listen to it over and over and over again. This happened to me with Pink Floyd's The Wall, everything Radiohead, NIN's Fragile (yeah, I was angst filled in my teenage years), Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Notwist's Neon Golden. Embarrisingly I even went nuts over Korn's Follow the leader but I was just a young foolish rebelious youth then. These are the albums I actually learn the words to. Anyhow the album is just amazing. Here's why:

Happy: As one of the first tracks on the album, this song initially sounded emo to me. Yes, I said it. Emo. I don't know about you but I really hate emo. I may risk offending someone out there but emo by definition sucks. Look it up in the dictionary. It says "overly emotional music made by people with the poetry skills of some angst filled teenager who enjoys despair for despairs sake, and the music sucks, especially if it's written by Chris Carraba." If you disagree with Webster here, I point to the lyrics of Remember to Breath, a song written by Carraba of Dashboard Confessional. If one defines emo as emotional music then I suppose all music at its core is emo.

The song starts as the wrens guy sings about how some girl ripped out his heart and destroyed it beyond recognition with a meat cleaver. The song slowly builds up pressure. You just want to scream, "Let it out, she didn't deserve you anyway!" the first time I heard the song I just wanted to skip forward because I couldn't stand the tension building up. Eventually he let's go and the song burst into this happy little melody whereby the track got its name.

I don't have time to review the other tracks I love though. If you just want to listen to them, their names are Hopeless, Boy's You Won't Remember, 13 grand, 13 months in 6 minutes. Actually, there all 13 tracks are worth listening to. The album is just choc full of stunning chord progressions and heart wrenching lyrics.

Attractive women made to make men bonkers
Really?

I guess the cat is out of the bag now. If you read Cole's blog, you know I'm now an assistant to the director of pagan music of WSAJ. I'm also the propaganda minister now (otherwise known as a news director). Apparently I will be spewing out some college propoganda and announcements for local church's potlucks and such. The cool thing is that I'm actually going to be paid for getting news stories together. I wasn't expecting that at all but it's nice even though it's not that much. It should be a lot of fun though. I'd like to add a music news section for obscure bands and the occasional stories of pop stars. Also, a concert announcement section might be in order. What would be really cool is if we got free tickets to go to shows if we promote them on the air. I doubt that would happen but it would be cool. All the students down the road are going to get the cool stuff once the radio station is established and people actually know we are here.

So it looks like it's going to be really busy next semester. I'm involved with New Life and MGB (interactive technology guy). I'm also the co-publicity chair for Extravaganza. Hopefully I'll be on the air with a radio show also. That's where the action is. You get to talk to (never meet) prankster stalkers and play your music for lots of people to hear.

Maybe I should join OB too. That way I could make sure I never have time to study.

This is a repeat post from the very beginning of my blog when I was home for our first break. The song in question keeps hitting me across the head with its brutal honesty:

I was watching MTV at 4am this morning when a realization hit me like an anvil while watching The Stars video "Elevator Love Letter." My generation is growing up! Gone are the days of sugary pop that would make you want to vomit if you consumed too much one sitting. We're finding ourselves. Actually we're probably realizing that we're not finding ourselves. We're asking more questions and becoming more sophisticated. In a day when bands like the strokes, hives, flaming lips, and wilco can get played on MTV, things in the music world are pretty exciting. Perhaps the best thing for my generation's music tastes was the recession. It seems like it always happens- the economy goes bad and music gets better. Reading new music reviews is so exciting. There's so much happening right now. There's so much innovation, I can't come close to following it all. I've been watching MTV a lot for the past 24 hours in an almost an academic fashion. Most of the programming is crap, but there is something happening. I'm not seeing the revolting over-sentimentality that we had during the late 90s. People realize the backstreet boys and n'sync were full of crap. The music's message still isnt overly positive but it is honest. But that's great; I don't want to listen to positive music. As Tweedy croons, "I won't cry on roads that are paved by men who behave like they know where they're going." They're full of crap and I don't want to listen to them. Face it, we all have questions and doubts we don't tell anyone. Take the song that caused this revelation (I hope time proves me right.)


I'm so hard for a rich girl.
My heels are high, my eyes cast low
And I don't know how to love.
I get too tired after mid-day, lately.
I take it out on my good friends,
but the worst stays in or where would I begin?

My office glows all night long.
It's a nuclear show and the stars are gone.
Elevator, elevator, take me home.

I'm so hard for the rich girl,
her heels are high and my hopes so low,
'cause I don't know how to love.
I'll take her home after midnight
and if she likes, I'll tell her lies
of how we'll fall in love by the morning.
I don't think she'll know that I'm saying goodbye...

Sure, they're still lusting and fornicating, but they're dealing with it honestly and searching for answers. It seems like she’s saying that commercialism/materialismf aint doin it for her. She can find no joy in what is going on about her (eyes cast low.) She doesn’t know how to love. Why? She can’t even find herself. How the heck is someone supposed to love her for who she is when she doesn’t even know. Because of her distaste for life, she takes it out on her friends. They have no idea about the darker side of her. She wants to reveal herself, but where the heck would she start. Even things which universally represent hope for a brighter future (stars) have faded. That's my theory anyway. Gone are the days of her youth when it seemed like anything was possible. She has become entrenched in life. She doesn't have many options and all that stuff about her being able have what she wants in life just isn't true. I never figured MTV would have the cahones to play stuff like this. Hopefully they stick with it.

Dang it Stars! I like the ___ girl, she looks great when doing whatever around campus, but she, like every other dang person in my life is so mysterious. I take it out on my friends but my dark side I try to hide from even myself. I dont want to tell her lies either, but how can you be honestly present yourself to someone when you dont even know yourself? Stuff like this makes me happy because someone shares my confusion and yet still despair at the same time because it seems like no end is in sight. Stuff like this is what keeps me up until 4 in the morning.

OK, I have to do it. Beware of a political rant in store. I tried to hold back but I just couldn't. If you’ll get offended by a strong dose of what people call anti-Americanism (I prefer to call it self criticism). I’d also like to add that I put my humanity before my nationality. I don’t value and American’s life more than a French, German, Iraqi, Hindu or Buddhist persons life.

Why is it that the United States has to attack people all the time? We've been attacked once by a foreign nation in this century and yet over and over again we attack other countries. I just don't get, at all. I just want us to mind my own business and not kill people. I just watched Bowling for Columbine, a movie made by the hyper-liberal Michael Moore. He does make some excellent points. Why are we afraid of everything? Why do we have to get involved in all these wars just because it's in our "national interest"? Our “national interest” isn't a good enough reason to go to war in my book. If someone attacks you, defend yourself. That's how I'd go about it. Look at Switzerland. They stay out of everything. That's awesome!

So why do we go around attacking countries? I'm not going to say something cheesy like why can't we all just get along. Why can't we just take out those who actually attack us? Think about the wonderful US interventions in the past. We put Pinochet into power in Chile and he went on to commit many human rights violations. We gave money and weapons to Hussein. The CIA helped train Bin Laden and his fellow freedom fighters in Afghanistan. Those are just a few examples. The US doesn't just have blood on its hands. We have blood over our heads. It's all seems like madness when you just step back. Why did we have to put economic restrictions on Iraq? According to UN estimates, 500,000 Iraqi children have died from US sanctions and bombings. Maybe these estimates are overblown but you cannot escape the fact that many Iraqi children have died because they could not get the necessities they needed.

Why did we bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I seriously want to believe with all my heart that those bombings were justified. My grandfather made the detonator to the bombs and I don’t want him to be implicated in an act of mass murder. But how can you justify it? Was it truly just our last resort? I doubt it. I’m not sure how true it is but it has been said that Japan was trying to sue for peace before we dropped the bombs. Step back and look at it. It's all madness. Some people in our world are insane and our governments have just served to project the insanity many fold.

Why can't we just stop invading other countries, killing civilians, and putting economic restrictions on every dictator who we deem as war criminals? Granted these are bad men but lets not return evil with evil (ie the sanctions). I wonder how many people in Cuba have died because of our embargo. Can we honestly say it has worked?

You might say I'm being too simplistic. At one time I was a power loving republican too. I thought we needed this gargantuan military to protect us from the world. Most of the world doesn’t want to screw around with us though. They just want to trade and build up their economies. That could launch me on another tangent but I’ll refrain for once. Atrocity after atrocity has convinced me we are doing something very wrong. I think all this power projection is just a load of crap. Something is fundamentally wrong with the way we do things. It’s time to change.

the father of funk baby

I'm going to imitate Nick and Mike's Paris Hilton experiment. According to google press center the top 10 gaining queries are: snow, average joe, abercrombie and fitch, jessica alba, bcs, christmas, lord of the rings, battlestar galactica, nicole richie, toys r us.

I was in the TLC today printing out some things for philosophy and I saw a girl I sort of know. She's extremely attractive, and whenever I'm around her I tend to stumble over words and second-guess everything I want to say. She is really nice though and we talked for a bit. I have problems looking at girls when we talk unless I know them pretty well and so I normally don't notice too many things about their physical appearance. For whatever reason, I looked into and around her eyes briefly before I started nervously glancing around the room. She had glittery sparkle things all around her eyes. Also, I could see that her blush was covering up some freckles. Normally I wouldn't even notice that sort of thing but tonight I did.

Which leads me to this- why would you want to cover up freckles? I sort of like them. I never realized it until just now but freckles are pretty cool. Perhaps this goes back to my childhood. When I was young, I was best-friends with a girl named Carry Fencil. She was a few years my senior but we hung out all the time. We both lived in the country and so we ran around the woods together, climbed trees and played pretend. My family didn't own a TV back then so whenever I was invited over to her house, I'd go over there and just soak everything in. Without her I would have been totally culturally ignorant about everything during grade school.

Strangely enough, I was thinking about her today in Microeconomics too. Dr. Ritenour was making the point that laborers would like to work for a million dollars an hour but that wouldn't be feasible and the demand for labor at that price would be non-existent. One time Carry and I tried our own little entrepreneurial effort. We got all out possessions and wheeled them out to my front yard where we then set up shop and tried to sell them to people passing by. We made a little sign and tried to flag down cars going by at 55 mph on a country road. As you might guess, it didn't work too well. Part of our wares up for sale included a drawing by Carry and I. We set the price for it at 1 million dollars figuring if just one person bought from us we'd be set for life.

Finally a neighbor of ours was passing by on his dirt bike. He drove by, pulled into the neighbor's driveway and came back. As he started to look over my toys, the He-Man action figure I was trying to sell looked 10 times more valuable than it did before. I was just hoping he wouldn't buy any of my toys because I hadn't really thought about how it would stink if I actually sold them. Anyhow, he ended up buying one of our drawings for $1. I felt like Ali Baba stumbling onto the 40 thieves treasure. Untold riches could be had in this picture business.

Anyhow, back to the freckles. Carry had them. I guess you could say she was my first crush. I liked her a lot. One time when she was over at my house I tried kissing her on the lips since that was what you did when you liked someone. She totally freaked out. She ran away screaming telling everyone to keep me away. I was devastated. I think from then on I was scared of girls and what they might do if I liked one of them.

One day my Mom told me that Carry was moving. Since we were best friends I couldn't believe that this was happening. Her parents got divorced and she was moving about 15 minutes away. Unfortunately I never stayed in touch with her after that. I let a close friend of 4-5 years go just because I didn't want to intrude and be annoying. I think I just figured she didn't really care about me anymore anyhow.

Carry died in a car accident a year ago right around now. I still think about her now and again (quite obviously you're thinking). I wish I knew more about what happened to her after we parted ways though. Hopefully life was kind to her despite her parent's break-up.

Oh, and if Miss Anonymous reads this blog, I listened to what Pinback I could get my hands on. I like what I've heard so far but they only have 3 songs on the network. :(

Oh, and for the person who reads this and thinks it would be really witty to leave a message pretending to be her, it's really not that funny. My nephew could think of something funnier than that. Actually my nephew is a pretty funny guy. Ok, Robin Williams could think of something funnier. That guy is so annoying. Did anyone really like Mrs. Doubtfire? I don't think so.

Truth is most definitely stranger than fiction.

I know I like a strange breed of music. I tried to play some of my more experimental music that seemed to have popular appeal throughout the semester on my radio show with Paul and Smay. Generally people just said they didn't really like what we played but still listened just because they were our friends.

Then came the show yesterday. A girl (I presume it was a girl rather than a guy imitating a girl's voice) called in and made a request. I forget what song she wanted but she asked for The Shins and some other groups I really like. I know this may not seem like a big deal but hardly anyone on this campus likes the type of music I do. We eventually agreed upon "Do you realize" by the Flaming Lips. I kept asking who it was but she wouldn't say who.

Then came today. I checked my mail box which is something I do once every 1-2 weeks and got the mass of papers that were waiting for me. In them was a card addressed to jon roth (the name was spelled right and everything). It looked like a normal card. In it were listed the names of 45 bands or artists most of whom I know and like. It is a little freaky that I have a pseudo-stalker, freaking awesome that is.

If this is just a practical joke, it is the best practical joke I have ever heard of. When I talked to her, it was obvious she was quite familiar with the bands I knew. I asked if she liked the Flaming Lips and she immediately started talking about the content of their songs lyrically. Pretty freaking cool I'd say. And then this card she sent me was amazing. She did spell Yo La Tengo wrong (she wrote Lo not La, a pretty minor mistake though). It's pretty clear she knows a lot more about music than I do. She even has the Wrens limited edition CD. Who the heck would know that they even had a limited edition? Either this is the most well-researched practical joke ever or it's for real.

This school's getting to my roommate. Tonight while he was sleeping he said: "here, six, sick. [something] public policy, just as I voted."

Who votes in their dreams?

I'll try to stop the political ranting. I know it's probably annoying but don't worry, I'm quickly moving back towards disillusionment and apathy. Meanwhile you're thinking wait, where were you at before? It just bugs me when people make public policy issues out to be black and white. They're much more complicated then we all know.

This is what irks at my mind. By nature I like to question everything I believe. I'm always nagged at by this belief that everything I believe is wrong because I missed some vital fact that would have made a huge difference. To borrow from Rumsfeld, there are known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns. I would add that there are also unknown knowns. By this he means that you know you know some things, you know you don't know some things, and you don't know that you don't know certain things. I think that there are many times when we don't truly know what we think we know. Three of these get me the most: the unknown unknowns, known unknowns and the unknown knowns.

Ive become convinced that many of our thoughts are things we think we know but arent really true or at the very least lack any sort of basis. People constantly make claims about things that they have no clue about. Issues are much more complicated than they seem. For example, to come to a conclusion on proper monetary policy, one has to come to ethical, political and philosophical conclusions. If you think you can do this then you might be able to teach the greatest philosophers of our day a thing or two.

But people frequently dont see just how complicated things truly are. They make moral claims and push for policy decisions and use the governments coercive power to force their opinions on other when they really dont what they are talking about. This is the problem of democracy. Churchill said the best argument against democracy was a five minute conversation with the average voter.

Then you have the unknown unknowns. This is what tends to nag at me. You can never know everything. However, if you dont know everything, how can you act? I talked to Dr. Smith and he basically made an existentialist argument much to my surprise. You can never know everything so you just have to act and hope you are correct. This doesnt seem adequate to me. Theres that chance that something I believe was wrong and that I could cause massive human suffering by pushing for a policy based on incomplete information.

Also you have the known unknowns, the things you know you have no clue about. Science isnt my thing. I dont know too much about philosophy so much of what I believe doesnt have too strong of a foundation. I cant explain why God allows evil in the world without making the anti-intellectual argument that we have to totally trust him and that he has a reason for allowing things like the holocaust to occur. This is fine on a personal level, but when you try to use the governments coercive force, it seems like your decisions are just based on faith. Perhaps this is why I tend to believe that you should try and provide people with as much liberty as possible.

All these things make it difficult to settle on any ideas, and yet people in my Spec Mind class always make these claims and try to make things nice and tidy. And yes, I know that was a ridiculous post.

I went to the doctor today to get a bruise on my leg checked out. The thing is I've had it for for a year and a month. Last year I bruised my leg hardcore playing indoor soccer. The swelling went down but I still have discoloration. The doctor hadn't seen anything like it. I guess I bruised my bone or something.

Now that I think about it, how the heck does a bone bruise anyhow?

In response to Dave's comment:
cmere jonny... i'll show you some compassionate conservatism

Does this mean you're going to take rapidly increasing portions of my non-existent income? These spending increases have to be paid for sometime.

In response to Frugia's comment:

Just one comment on the difference between H.Rodham going to Afghanistan and Bush to Iraq:

Bush is Commander-in-Chief...he actually had a right to be in Iraq due to the fact that his decisions had a lot do with the soldiers being there in the first place. Hillary, on the other
hand, is certainly allowed in Afghanistan, but it's not like she really matters to their daily existence unless the whole Senate decides to do something.

I'm not saying that photo-ops equal good policy, but in an image-driven society...such things become rather important. I think it's scary that we've become so cynical that we don't
think anyone would do what Bush did out of the goodness of their hearts. Isn't that [going out of good intentions] a possibilty? Then again, maybe I'm being blindly optimistic...


Hillary Clinton is on the Senate Armed Services Committee. She is also a member of the organization authorizing Bush to go to war. She has just as much right to be there as Bush. I'm going to call a spade a spade. They were both just using it has a photo op. Politics is just the show business of the real world. Everything’s image; everything’s calculated. Actually, I'll take that back. The emotional response after Sept. 11 that Bush elicited did seem genuine. What person was not moved though? The times when politicians are genuine are few and far between so I think it’s safe to take everything with a boulder of salt.

So I leave with this question: What if Clinton were in office and he carved the Turkey in Iraq? Do you think conservatives might have been cynical?

In response to Jordan's comment:

After being called a historical bigot, I thought I would clear something up. Bush started his march towards war arguing that the Iraqi government was in cahoots with Al Qaeda. The only problems was that he had no proof except that there was a supposed Al Qaeda camp in northern Iraq. However Europeans did not buy this at all. So he tried to make an argument with international law saying that because Hussein still obtained WMDs and would not co-operate with UN investigators, we could legally invade Iraq. As the time for war approached, the new argument became that we needed to go in and liberate the Iraqis from a horrible dictator. Of course the humanitarian argument could have easily been made from the get-go but it wasn't made strongly by the administration. My guess was that he had to prove it was in our national interests. My point- the arguments changed and I'm guessing it was for a very good reason.

Why do I say it was for a good reason? Because Karl Rove is extremely good at what he does. Coming off of 9/11 and the overwhelming victory in Afghanistan, the easiest way to sell the war was as an extension of the war against terror. To do this, a connection between Al Qaeda needed to be established. After it became apparent a connection could not be proven. Of course everyone knew Hussein had WMDs. That could not be denied because he had already used them. An easy argument could be made in the UN but the French, Germans and Russian just were not playing ball. As a side note an argument for war based on UN resolutions and international law is meaningless to me. The UN does not have any legitimacy because it lacks enough coercive power over member nations.

Now this is where my theory begins. It's completely unsubstantiated so you could easily ignore it (unlike politicians I try not to BS). I think weaknesses of our intelligence became apparent heading into the war. It was too late to call it off and I'm guessing Bush believed Hussein did have the weapons somewhere so he just went with his belief. I'm done theorizing now. Wars need some sort of moral and stake to be sustainable. WWI began as a morally void war. By this I mean all the actions taken were just calculated power moves. Germany was afraid that France and Russia would beat it in the arms race they were in so they tried to quickly knock out France and deal with Russia who they really feared. According to the plan they were going to give back most of France's territory once the conflict was over. They just wanted Alsace and Lorraine. My point- everything the nations did were just calculated power moves. Most everyone thought it would be a quick enjoyable war.

Then the German offensive failed and they became embroiled in a bloody quagmire. To keep a sustained war effort, some sort of moral needed to be at stake. That higher purpose became democracy and peace. This was the war to save democracy; the war to end all wars. It's much easier to fight for something like peace or liberty than national interest.

Let's face it. As a soldier fighting to a war to confiscate WMDs is not nearly as cool as fighting a war to liberate Iraqis from a tyrannical dictator. If it was just a war for some national interest than the war would have the same feel as Vietnam. Really, what higher thing was at stake in the Vietnam War? The war based on the domino theory just does not cut it for many people.

So the point remains and I stand by my post. The only point you could get me on is when i said "wait a second, our intelligence sucked. Hmmm I mean we come to liberate." I will even stand by that.

Hero- A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life.

This term is being said more than Pittsburgh sucks at a Browns home game. I think especially of Private Lynch. What the heck did she do that made her a hero? She got ambushed after the group she was in got lost. She was made a prisoner of war, a lot of crap happened to her, and then she was taken to a hospital and given care. Now she is a hero. WTF(rick)? Remember WWII? If a soldier got captured and sent to a hospital, he might have gotten a medal or something like that, but I doubt that. Anyone could get captured. It doesnt take too much effort.

Remember Audie Murphy? He told his men to retreat and took on 250 Nazis by himself with a phone for artillery support and a 50 caliber machine gun on a burning tank that was about to blow up. He single-handedly repelled 250 men and a couple tanks by himself. Thats a freaking hero.

Other heroes would include people who rescue complete strangers from burning buildings at great peril to their own life and such.

So back to Lynch. She didnt do anything hard-core and she didnt rescue anyone. Therefore she is not a hero.

Attack 2- Cancer heroes. Last year I went to the Relay for life and they had this special cancer heroes lap where we all clapped for their hard work in staying alive. Jon, you might say, you cant talk about cancer survivors. They worked hard in staying alive, etc. However, you would be wrong. Since my Dad got cancer a whole new field to explore was opened to me without sounding politically incorrect. I can now officially comment on this cancer business. Cancer survivors arent heroes unless they rescue children from fires while doing chemo or repel a bunch of Nazis. According to that sort of logic, anyone who is struggling to stay alive could be considered a hero. That would make most of the world heroic since many people struggle from day to day to just feed themselves and their families.

So lets not throw around this term so much. It is getting annoying.

I was looking through some old e-mails and I found this one from my sister Janine. I thought you all might like it.

"Figured everyone could probably use a good laugh. I have one of my typical "kid" stories. Kent [my nephew] is fascinated with guns, swords, etc. He is constantly walking around with them sticking out of his pockets, pants, etc. Well, he doesn't always use swords. The other day he was using a kids white plastic coat hanger as a sword. His pants didn't have pockets so he had it stuffed down his pants. He came into our bedroom very distressed. His hanger was stuck. He kept tugging it upward but it wouldn't come out. Thinking it was probably hooked on his pants, Pat [her husband] went to investigate. He had a little bit of difficulty actually helping him b/c he was laughing hysterically when he realized that the "sword" was actually hooked to Kent's "sac!" :) :) :) Needless to say, Kent has become aware of his "manly-hood" now and made a point of asking why Caryn [my niece] doesn't have one of "these!"

I remember when Bush ran as a compassionate conservative. That's why you cannot trust politicians ever. Let's dissect this a little bit.

Compassionate: Feeling or showing deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it. God is compassionate. Bush is not. Compassionate people do not start pointless wars that only result in the deaths of many, many innocents. I think my Bush loving friends could find this point objectionable. I've already written on why he's not compassionate but that doesn't seem to matter.

Conservative: can he even claim to be conservative? I seriously doubt anyone could contest this point. Discretionary spending NOT associated with the military is up 24%. Military spending is up 25% (i think). This does not include the war with Iraq though.

Introducing talking head top gun Bushy. Press the button and hear to your chagrin one of many hilarious Bush quotes like:

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
"They misunderestimated me."
"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?"
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
"I think we agree, the past is over."
“They misunderestimated me."
“Cough cough, friggin pretzel cough…”
“Hussein is on the close to getting nukes”
“We arent invading, we are liberating”

and funniest of all;

“I am a compassionate conservative”

Today President Bush signed a bill to invest $3.7 billion into nano technology. That’s the science of building electronic circuits and devices from single atoms and single molecules. Bush said he did it to help small businesses.

-borrowed from Leno

Stay away Ken! This is no Barbie who effortlessly combines ridiculous curves with whatever career catches her fancy that particular week. No, this is Ann Coulter- hero to war-happy conservatives everywhere.


I walked into Dr. Tilford's office yesterday to get my schedule approved for next semester. Low and behold, what did my eye spy? A freaking Ann Coulter doll on his stinking desk. WTF(rick)? you might ask if you were a reasonable person. These neo-conservative dolls have been proliferating faster than blogs as of late. Look at the expression on the Coulter doll's face. She looks really pissed off. I think that's the look that gradually appears on one's face as they think of the rest of the world as an enemy. That's my opinion at least. You can have your own but just remember that I am always right.

So anyhow, I was sitting here reading the article I posted below and another conservative doll (in this case I refuse to call them action figures since I associate action in that sense as a person moving towards a more just society or something to that effect) popped up. It was Top Gun G.W. clothed fully in his media stunt clothing, er I mean his jump suit. Man conservatives eat that stuff up. My mom thought it was freaking awesome that el presidente served some turkey to the soldiers in Iraq. Oh, it was to boost moral she said. I’ve heard that same stuff from other conservatives. Hillary Clinton in the meantime was cutting up her own bird over in Afghanistan. I’m willing to beat a trillion dollars (mostly because there’s no risk in losing) that if Top Gun Bushy hadn’t gone to his media stunt in Afghanistan conservatives everywhere would have decried the Hillary stunt as a political ploy for her immanent presidential campaign.

My point is that they are all politicians and I would not trust them if my life depended on it. Everything to them is show business and we just eat it up. Heck, even cable news has become as banal as MTV. In my opinion the Daily Show with Jon Stewart is the most reliable news source on television. At least there’s a blatant disregard for quality journalism there unlike of the special effects laden “quality journalism” of McNews cable television.

I’m sure I’m going to be harping on this action figure junk a few more times before the weekend is through.

I just got back from orchesis. It was flipping awesome. I didn't go there expecting a whole lot but it was great. This one song that they did was funny though. The dancing was good, but the song just cracked me up. It was some hardcore techno song about the truth setting me free. It sounded like the truth was going to set me free and give me a beat down in the process. The feeling I got from the song was akin to Rammstein singing the words to "It's a beautiful day" to their song Du Hast.

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall kick the crap out of you."

Speaking of which, I tried to find the song to no avail so I could relieve the moment. Instead I found some DC Talk song about the truth. In it the guy said, "What the world really needs is truth." No, Mr. DC Talk guy. I think what this world really needs is more lies.

Bush- We just want to keep Al Queda from getting nukes. Oh wait, Europe didnt buy it. I mean we just want to keep Saddam from getting nukes. Wait a second, out intelligence (if you can call it that) sucked. Hmm, I mean we come to liberate! Yeah, that's the ticket! They'll buy that for sure! Oh yeah, war is Peace, ignorance is strength and slavery is freedom.

I especially like the comments of Capt. Todd Brown. "You have to understand the Arab mind. The only thing they understand is force- force, pride and saving face." Really captain? That's remarkable considering we wouldn't even have some of the greatest philosophy texts ever created if those dang Arabs who only understand force had not preserved them. I guess that does not matter because Captain Brown is evidently a psychologist with a deep understanding of the Muslim mind. I don't mean to sound disingenuous; wait, I do actually.

Writing in a blog about the trivial details in my everyday life seems a bit narcissistic at times. Why would anyone out there really care that much anyhow? It seems like I just want everyone to look at me and my life to gain a greater understanding of me. Wrapped up in this whole concept is this utter concentration on the self. Self reflection does have its place but when done overly much it seems vain. It's like a conversation with yourself about yourself.

I like to argue ideas and such. I love it when someone totally makes me rethink everything I think I know. However, when I discuss with others about their different beliefs, I accidentally say things I don't quite mean because I can't find the words express my true ideas or I just don't think of a good point at the time which would have been important in the conversation. That's what I like about blogging. You can sit down and think about what exactly you want to say before you put it out there. If you don't like it, so what? You can do what you could never do in a conversation: edit or delete.

That being said, I had one of those moments of self-proclaimed semi-genius. What if two people did a blog together and just debated each other? You would be challenged intellectually every day. Since our views are never consistent, the other person (presuming they're intellectually capable) could pick apart at all the weaknesses we never see in ourselves. It would be ideal if an atheist and a Christian or a communist and an anarchist/libertarian just got together and duked it out every day. Even if they don't change their viewpoints dramatically, they'd at least come away enriched. It could just be one sustained debate that stretched for years. The other person could help you question all your presuppositions so that you could then know what you know (at least to the extent one can in this life).

Also, what if my brother and I, or for that matter, my entire family did a blog together. It would be one constant dialogue: a collection of stories (some funny, other's heartfelt, even mundane details are nice to read) and candid opinions on daily tribulations. If my family did this, they'd know so much more about what was going on in my life and they wouldn't feel like a stranger is returning home twice a semester. Also, it would be like one huge history of our family. Say someday 30 years from now my nephew wanted to read about what he did when he was a teen. He'd only have to go back in the archives to find out. It would be sweet!

Anyhow, I think this would help me feel less narcisistic about blogging. Atl least then I'd be engaged in a conversation that would be mutually beneficial.

So I'm in microecon, minding my own business while Rittenour was handing out the tests we took 3+ weeks ago. A guy in front of me got his test back and didn't seem too pleased with his grade. Next thing I know, he undid his belt buckle and dropped his drawers (while still sitting). Apparently he had some shorts on underneath. However, his shorts dropped down with his pants and stayed around his knees so in reality, he was just in his boxers. The wierd thing was that he just stayed like that for a minute. He didn't even care. Eventually he got his shorts back up before Rittenour got to that side of the room.

Warning to one and all- the post that follows is disgusting and contains swearing. You were forewarned so don't complain.

My room is connected directly to the suite bathroom. This past Sunday our urinal exploded. I had to question my faith in God after I caught a wiff of that truly evil stench. How can an all-powerful, all loving God allow such evil in the world? Either He's capable and not willing to eliminate such evil which infers He's not good, or He's willing and not able which means he's not all-powerful.

The head resident cleaned up the puddle in the bathroom Sunday night and so he kept opening the door to get in and out. The smell was straight from hell. We opened up all the windows in the suite. Then the temperature dropped to 55 degrees, but still, It was better having to smell what was coming out of the bathroom.

After the piss-water got mopped up I thought we had seen the end of it. Oh I was wrong. The smell kept seeping in through the cracks of the doors. Paul and I had some worries that the water would spill into our room overnight. Obviously that would suck so I found some duct-tape and sealed the bottom of the door. Paul decided it would be a good idea to seal the entire perimeter of the door with tape so as to keep the smell from creeping in.

While he was taping away my brain started turning. I figured the guys in my suite would keep wanting to get their stuff out of the bathroom which would make our room reek again. So I locked the door and covered the lock with exorbitant amounts of duct-tape. Then I made a sign saying: You open it, you die. Next to the words was a dead man made of duct-tape with the word YOU! underneath. Then I thought you know the plumber is going to be here tomorrow and he's going to prop our door open. That would really make our room stink to high heaven so I papered the door so as to create a boundary that the plumber wouldn't feel like negotiating.

I totally forgot about the whole thing and went to bed. Around 9 in the morning someone entered my room. What the HELL is this SHIT!, he asked. Apparently the plumber didnt like the duct-tape man. What the hell is this, he asked again. I tried responding but i couldn't think of how to explain it. All that came out of my mouth was uuhhhhhhh. What's that, he said. UUUUhhh, eh? I'll go around to the other side THIS time, get this shit off the door (meanwhile I was thinking what, are you planning on visiting often?)

So the plumber went to the other side of the suite and propped up the other guy's door. That's what I wanted in the first place so I was happy.

I got the TA for my antics. The TA is the turtle award, named after some Rho who did a bunch of stupid stuff a long time ago. We give it out every week during our Rho meeting. For those of you confused right now, I'm in a housing group (not a frat, there is a difference) called the Rhos.