Today's Round-Up

Given my fondness for lists, I'm thinking of changing the concept of this blog. More on that if I make a decision.

Congress is in recess which makes my job obscenely boring. The perk of this monotony is that I can read a lot of current events/news/gossip/film reviews/fashion magazines (oh, and study for the GRE). Things of note:

I Blame the Patriachy has an EXCELLENT run-down on recent pro-life/anti-abortion measures happening in local governments in the United States. In recent conversations I've had with pro-lifers, they have argued that the differences between pro-lifers and pro-choicers are mainly cultural (ie, religious) and therefore should be left to regional, local governments. The comment I fired back concerned the ridiculousness of this measure: why ban something in one area if the person in question can easily cross state lines? All you're doing is creating (again) an elitist system where only those who can afford the choice have it...and there again continues my ongoing war of elitism vs. feminism, results not yet tallied.

Wikipedia, which we all love and rely on for way too much information and hilarity (thank YOU, Stephen Colbert), has exposed the conspiracy of the corporate culture on information gathering!!! Ah, this reminds me of the lecture a (British) professor gave on Hurricane Katrina where he quoted statistics from Wikipedia, only to have one of the two American students in the class (this was while I was in school in the UK) point out that no one in academia would take a Wikipedia reference seriously.

In case you missed it, there was (another) Democratic presidential debate on Sunday, hosted by George Stephanopoulos as part of This Week. Hillary was a pleasant surprise (I have been a long-avowed Hillary doubter) while Obama seemed nervous (he who I DID love). Biden, always hilarious, and really Kucinich needs to get a reality check. But the overall feeling is that everyone is sick of listening to these people talk already. And I, for one, am very sad that some states are moving their primaries up. February used to be *such* an exciting month during election years.

I'm going to start a new (pseudo-academia) project looking into (mainly domestic) economics in the 80s. Any reading recommendations greatly appreciated.