What the US can learn from the UK

I'm a political junkie. There is no denying this. I spend more time reading political blogs then I spend reading law text books, and my GPA here somewhat reflects this. Luckily, I go to a really good law school and have 0 interest in working for a fancy law firm, so who cares if my GPA is somewhat mediocre, someone posted something new on HuffPo!

Anyway, I was on drudge today and I came across an article from the TimesOnline, aka, a British paper. I LOVE British commentary. It's fun, it's witty, and it's scathing. Yes, Maureen Dowd has earned her nickname, "the Queen of Mean," but that's all. She's mean. Every once in awhile she'll throw in a witty line. Key word being "a." Witty pieces are much more common among the Brits, and I love it. I could read it all day. Anyway, here is one rather well written view of the health care summit.

Also, Prime Minister Question Time. We need to create an American version of this. Let me sum it up, a certain Supreme Court Justice making faces or an over eager Congressmen shouting "you lie" would be considered polite behavior at PMQT. Basically, the Prime Minister has to sit in parliament, justify his/her actions, and be completely abused by the members EVERY WEEK that parliament is in session. In fairness, the PM gets to fire back, enjoy. Good times had by all.

I can't promise that such a plan would promote bipartisanship. Then again, the current system of polite collegiality has failed to produce bipartisanship in recent years. It would be highly entertaining and might even improve c-span's ratings. That would be a win in itself.

Here's a link to a youtube clip of PMQT so you can fully appreciate the cheers, the boos, the cat calls, and the obnoxious/insulting questions. Love it!

Prime Minister Question Time - May 6, 2009

The difference between a lawyer and a life coach

I'm one of those annoying people that has always liked giving advice. I like to help my friends write papers, sort out their love lives, plan for the future, whatever needs doing. I like being the one that people call because they know I'll listen and help.

Sometimes, I think I should have gone to school to be a therapist or a teacher, some career where I could help people develop. Instead, I went to law school. Do you want to know why?

Because sometimes I just like to tell people to suck it up and move on. Sometimes, I'd rather just step in and fix people's problems rather than helping them discover the truth for themselves. Ultimately, lawyers are just really expensive problem solvers...really expensive problem solvers with a reputation for being assholes. That's why I want to be a lawyer. I get to help people and I get to sue their asses. The best of both worlds.

SmowMG

Karma. What is the world trying to tell me? At first, I thought it was that I should go to the gym more often. More often, by the way, means I should go to the gym. The snow accumulations here are pretty impressive. Not really as high as last time, but pretty impressive all the same.

More impressive, is the sheer weight of the snow. One roof in Charlottesville has already caved in. There have already been some power outages in the area (not my place, thankfully), and I would surmise that more outages will happen as the snow/sleet that's piling up starts brining down tree limbs and power cords. Fun times.

Shoveling this stuff is painful, as my back and shoulders keep reminding me. To make it even more fun, having learned from last time, I'm flinging the snow as far as possible. By the time this snow ends, I'm going to run out of places to shovel it into. My options being, shovel snow really far now while I'm only moderately sore or shovel it up and over a massive mound when I'm totally exhausted. So, yes, the world might be telling me that I need to hit the gym more than once a decade (Actually, I went 4 times in the past decade...all thanks to the guilt of living directly across from the gym at GW). Of course, I can't really get to the gym with the mass of snow every where and the idiots trying to navigate in it, so that can't be it.

Then, I had another thought. This is about the billionth time that I've been stopped from bringing a bunch of stuff to the SPCA thrift store. Seriously, I have 3 bags of stuff sitting in the car waiting for a saturday when the roads are actually clear enough to use. Maybe the world hates it when people donate goods to cute fluffy animals.

But that just doesn't seem right. So maybe the world is telling me I need to clean my apartment. If so, the world is right. It's rather disgusting, even by my standards. This paper that I had to write, coupled with being sick, coupled with a general dislike of cleaning has left me with an apartment I would be scared to let a health inspector into. The problem with this theory is that I am still a bit sick, sore from shoveling, and slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of dishes, laundry, and general scrubbing that needs to be done. If the world is trying to tell me to clean, it took a really shitty approach.

So, I've decided. The wold is not telling me to work out, stop donating to charity, or clean. The world, it turns out, is telling me to hurl myself down a hill on a "sled," build a snow fort in my front yard, go swinging and jump of the swing into a pile of snow, and generally do my best to ensure that this cold I have gets worse and last another week. The world, as it turns out, has a thing for germs and viruses. Live and let live, that's what I always say. Anyway, I was talking to the old woman living next door mentioned that we're piling up as much snow this year as back in 1996. I remember 1996, it was awesome. It was the kind of childhood fun you never forget. But, alas, I'm getting old and my memories are cloudy. Clearly it's time for some new winter storm memories. Off to the snow!