My Life's Major Comedic Technique? Irony.

Nice title, right? I hope everyone is doing well and having a fantastic day. Just a note as well, the political part is at the beginning and middle rather than the end this time so if you are a bit squeamish about real political thought rather than 24-hour news network, demagogic econobabble, just skip closer to the end.
So, about the title--I am working on my Master's of ARTS degree in Political SCIENCE. Ooh, and I have been thinking of getting my Doctorate in the art of empirical research. What the hell is wrong here? I understand that my undergraduate degree is in Political Science as well but every thought or comment I made in class or a reaction paper was not pushed toward the notion of "how can we study this with research?" To be certain, I do not intend to learn the ways of the economist or how to get myself published. I want to become a better politician--better at rhetoric (which is not a negative thing, media), better at forming arguments, better at influencing other individuals through constructive argument and rebuilding my relationships and arguments each day in the moment.
My fear is that the students of politics and the art of it in America will go the way of NASA. Once a beacon of creativity, exploration, and, to no minor extent, excitement for children and adults around the world. It emphasized reaching and pushing the frontier. John Kennedy challenged it to go to the moon in ten years rather than thirty and through this creativity and excitement they did it! Now, the focus is on research. Can spiders mate in zero gravity?! Wow! Would that not be really cool to study?! Maybe*, but it is not offering much for the citizenry it once inspired.
Political Science students in America now are testing and developing aspirations of testing the effect on factor A on voting in city council elections in moderately-sized, Midwestern cities with less than 4% of a minority population and if factors B, C, and D are causing a spurious relationship. Good for them. If their research makes them happy and gets them published in The Journal of the Moderately-Sized, Midwestern American City** which brings them a bit of money and recognition, that is fine. My interest lies in practicing the art of politics. Possibly going to the moderately-sized, Midwestern city*** and conversing with its people. Rather than researching the tendencies of its people, entertaining and, hopefully, affecting their individual ideas. I have no interest in whether a greater percent of Protestants in said city vote for a candidate of their own religious persuasion; I would like to argue with individuals without grouping them into voting blocs and telling them that they are a Protestant so they will vote accordingly. You may be able to understand my inclination towards working with and helping people rather than digging for my fame in scholarly journals and survey data.
Whew...that feels much better. Thanks for that.
Next thing that has bothered me lately--the idea that if Hillary Clinton should not be elected president because Bill Clinton has no place there. I understand that I was eight years old when the latter was elected and sixteen at the end of his second term, but I have looked at this time period in American politics. Considering Bill Clinton's record, he had policy successes across the board and enjoyed a high approval rating even when his personal horse (analogy) was drug into the public arena and beaten (again, analogy) well past its death. Does anyone know his largest disappointment in policy? The health care initiative he campaigned on. Does anyone know who was in charge of his health care initiative? Hillary Clinton. I am not arguing that Hillary Clinton makes a bad candidate (actually her current health care plan looks much better than the afore mentioned) or that she is stronger because of her husband. I am arguing that people stop paying attention to Fox News and The View**** to get their world view and to read (something, anything!), watch, and listen to news sources that have some sort of integrity.

Thanks for holding on this far. Just a bit about music and television.
So the albums that I am really big on right now and that I think you would all enjoy as well: The Stage Names by Okkervil River, Kala by M.I.A., Mo' Mega by Mr. Lif, The Warning by Hot Chip, The Body, The Blood, The Machine by The Thermals (who I will be seeing at the M-Shop on November 8th), Hell Hath No Fury by Clipse, and, last and the opposite of least, Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem. All are beautiful.
As for television, it is something that I largely lack here because the bunny ears are not particularly strong at picking up television signals. So there is that but I have done my best to find television on the internet lately and there is a relatively large amount, especially from the three major networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS. Most of it I am staying far away from*****
but there are some gems--NBC has full lengths of Conan O'Brien for about the last week and the entire first season of 30 Rock which I have found to be quite hilarious. Of course, there is also the Daily Show and Colbert Report on Comedy Central's website and the Adult Swim Fix which has featured the new season of Frisky Dingo, of which I am a huge fan.

Thanks everybody. Have a great day.





*Watching anything mate is pretty entertaining to most people but I cannot say it is particularly inspirational.
**Not a real journal, but there is probably one that is pretty close.
***My sights are set closer to the national political environment but you understand my point.
****Expresses views but does not have views, much less "The" view.
*****Friday Night Lights, Raines, Miss Teen USA 2007, etc.

23

To catch anyone up that only knows what I am up to through this blog, I am now a graduate student at Northern Illinois University in American government, as of yesterday I am 23 years old, Rachel and I are better than ever, aaaaaaand that is about all of the basic updates.I really like being at a new school because it is really interesting arguing and conversing with a new group of faculty and students in a sphere that is completely different for me. Not that all Iowa State students and professors are the same, but I knew who was who and what arguments were worth pursuing. There is now a bit more excitement in addition to what comes regularly with classes. I do miss Iowa State. It is an adjustment and Northern Illinois is not nearly as beautiful of a campus. Also, and high ranking, is the M-Shop. I am planning on going to see The Thermals on November 8, but I still will be feeling a bit of withdrawal from not attending one concert at least every two weeks. I will get over it.One concert I was able to go to was Lollapalooza for the second year. I was able to see some pretty cool bands, for example: My Morning Jacket, LCD Soundsystem, Spoon, Daft Punk, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Tapes n Tapes, TV on the Radio, Elvis Perkins, Iggy and the Stooges, M.I.A. and many more. Best show award--LCD Soundsystem was just so well played and so exciting that it ranks very high. Honorable mention--My Morning Jacket, Spoon, Daft Punk. Best guest award--My Morning Jacket played with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and it was beautiful. Honorable mention--Pearl Jam invited all of the VIPs on stage during Rockin in the Free World and Dennis Rodman was one of them.

Best visual show award--Daft Punk hands down. Go on youtube and find a live Daft Punk video. They are pretty amazing.

Hustle award--Ted Leo, amidst family illness and cancelled shows because of it, played like a madman. It seems that he was a bid mad (angry) because while soloing during his second song, The Sons of Cain, he fell knocking over his amp's microphone and cutting his had, rather badly. After no help from the techies, he rocked the hell out of the rest of his set. Awesome.

Overall coolest experience award--Spoon and the meeting of bassist Rob Pope and Drummer Jim Eno. WOOOOOOO!

...and just one more cool picture of M.I.A.

So here's the political part. No, I do not know who I would like to see as the top candidates for president of the United States of America. They all have a lot of negatives (especially you Mitt Romney!) and most have positives. I like the ideas of populism that Senator Barak Obama displays and I do not think the claims that he is an ignorant, naive politician are unwarranted. I like the social causes that John Edwards is campaigning on and has worked for since the last election and those who say that social initiatives will do nothing for the country are not seeing the economic booms of nations that have fully accepted nationalistic measures (Norway, Ireland, England, etc.). Also, the idea that a wealthy person cannot help the poor is ignorant to a former president named Franklin Roosevelt. I think that Senator Hillary Clinton's aggressiveness and strength can offer the country some new avenues to make a turnaround but she needs to look out for brashness. Those who say that they do not want another Clinton in the White House repeating what we had in the 1990s probably do not remember the 1990s that well--economic prosperity, small business growth, relative lack of violent conflicts (other than those of Newt Gingrich), and other successes. Then there is Mike Gravel with the staring (watch the whole thing). No, I did not mention much about the Republican candidates, besides Mitt Romney riding high on his stronger military, economy, and families which sounds about like President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 and since...how is that working? We see the same fromMcCain (demagogue), Guliani (except "strong families" but in addition, demagoguery), and something different from Ron Paul (eliminate the Departments of State, Education, Transportation, Energy, Treasury, and everything else that pretains to government except his job). Cool.

So, you know how I feel about it. I hope you feel anything at all about all of this. Go ahead and let me know if you want. Otherwise, I guess you can stay quiet and comfortable--which is ok. Good luck with everything and thanks for checking in.