Freakonomics

I really need to update you guys on the last week and a half of my life. I have a cold and I'm reading Freakonomics right now before I go to work. I'll get back to you tonight or tomorrow. As always, names will be changed to protect the innocent.

I'll bet you didn't know Norma McCorvey was largely responsible for one of the biggest crime reductions in US history. Fascinating.

Next post - Fear and Loathing in West Virginia: Behind the Scenes

Fear and Loathing in West Virginia

What are you doing, West Virginia? Of the three of these bills, maybe.... MAYBE..... I could deal with the road bill. I wouldn't like it, but I could live with it. You get yourself into a bind and then you have to work your way out of it even if you don't like the means to that end. But extended detainment of citizens?

There are some constitutional concerns that need to be addressed before we proceed.

--House Judiciary Chairman Jon Amores (D-Kanawha)

Ya think!?!?! The bill, proposed by Sen. Evan Jenkins (D-Cabell), "would allow police to detain a person under the reasonable suspicion of committing a crime for up to six hours." Reasonable suspicion, eh? Perhaps now would be a good time to tell you the story of a very good friend of mine who was recently driving home to West Virginia from New York and her unfortunate run-in with Ohio's finest. Here's a quote from her blog:

So, I drove Mitch's car because he was way too tired to drive. Mitch fell asleep. I wasn't even speeding much...like 5 over...and a cop pulls us over. I had to hang up on Adam...poor kid.
Estimated time 11 53pm. Location- Outside of Cleveland. Mitch is awoken by the beauty of sirens. Cop takes licenses and proceeds. Cop makes Mitch get out of car. Cop questions. Cop moves toward carpet and finds some sort of substance he imagines to be "marijuana". Cop questions some more. Cop makes me get out of car. Cop places me in the back of his SUV with Mitch. WE sit. He searches the car. Takes us out of car. Asks us a million times if "we smoke". Finally, we get to get back in car. Ending time 12 34. Nice way to waste an half hour on questioning....nice. I hate cops in OHIO.

These are the people the wonderful legislators of the state of West Virginia wish to empower with an unconstitutional authority to detain anyone they damn well please for SIX HOURS! It's a high-tech, high-speed world. People get sentenced to 24 hours of jail time. Six hours is a long time. Especially considering they don't have to charge you with ANYTHING! The US Supreme Court had a hard time deciding that citizens were required to provide identification to law enforcement when they weren't driving vehicles. If this bill becomes law, I hope a cop tries to detain me for 6 hours without charging me JUST so I can get the media publicity associated with the ensuing FEDERAL LAW SUIT!

Sorry about that rant. I won't go into a rant about this last article. It needs its own post anyway, probably, and I'll leave it up to some of my friends to argue the other side here. I'm referring to the minimum wage law which was passed in West Virginia today. It's bleeding heart liberal short-sighted teary-eyed idiocy, if you ask me. And hey, look at that! You did!

Comments? Concerns? Suggestions? Over the last few months I've been hard at work developing an incredible, revolutionary new piece of software which I've now implemented in my blog. It's called "comments"! The system works thusly: You click where it says "0 comments" (or however many comments there are on any post I've written), then click "add a comment". You then record your thoughts on my post in a text field in your browser. When you're finished, you either log into blogspot or you type in your name (and your website, if you so desire) and then click "Login and publish". It's neat. Then I can read what you think and respond to it, and so can all my other readers! I dare you! I double dog dare you!

Aight, Stop! It's Hammer Time!

Reading C.S. Lewis's essays has made at least one thing abundantly clear to me. If my goal is to devour all the important philosophical, theological, and political literature I can find, I'm going to need to a) stumble upon an alternate dimension like Narnia where I could live a lifetime while 5 minutes passed here, or b) live to be a hundred and seventy. Neither of these seem likely, so I guess I'll just have to aim for the sky and hope to break free of gravity before I fail miserably. At least then I'd be free-floating.

Seriously, the man has read almost every book known to man. A few weeks ago I gave up trying to add his "suggestions" to my reading list online, keeping a notebook beside my bed instead. I've filled up an entire page, three columns, and I'm barely half-way through his writings. I guess studying literature at Oxford will do that for ya, but realizing the sheer volume of reading I want to do is starting to make me look at my plans. I have often said I never wanted to finish college. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I should teach while I do research and earn new degrees. I could always save up a little money and try to start some businesses. Or I could try to become a university president somewhere (those of you who know me best know there are two places above all I'd like to do this right now, but if I did decide to become a professor I would want to teach at different schools across the world, and who knows? I might fall in love with Stanford, or Cambridge, or the University of Stellenbosch or God knows where. Each school has different worlds of knowledge I could leech from while contributing my own brand of sarcastic wit to a bunch of post-adolescent neophytes (somewhat like myself right now...) Plus, you know I'd be the prof that students would love because I would party with them. ;-) I don't know. It's food for thought. A year just isn't enough for this zen road trip. A lifetime isn't enough. Or, better put, all life is is one big zen road trip. My life, anyway.

In other news, I'm officially incredibly healthy. I'm pretty sure I had the flu two weeks ago, but I didn't even realize it until two days in, and it was gone the next day. I had a mild headache (something I'm not used to), I was running a fever the whole time, but I made it to work both days, I stayed on my feet, I didn't even really feel that bad... Didn't really even notice that I might be "sick" and not just hung over 'til the last day. Plus, I'm back to running 3 or 4 times a week, I'm lifting just as much, and I've wrangled my drinking "tendency" into something much more manageable.... even enjoyable! Righteous.

Speaking of which, I'm learning more about God every day. Not that this is at all surprising, but I will never quench my thirst for knowledge about Him. (I haven't yet discovered a brand of knowledge for which I have no thirst. I just feel especially parched when it comes to theology.) More to come when I grow up. Stay posted.


On an unrelated note, I came across two noteworthy blogs in my infinite scouring of the internets this morning. I would've posted them for you this morning, but Blogspot was down. Frustrationation. Oh well.

1) MC Hammer has a blog! He seems to be doing pretty well. Mostly, he talks about his kid and sports and the state of hip hop. I'd surf on over there and check in on the baggy-pants sensation if I were you.


2) Hammertime was the lighter side of my surfing this morning. I did come across a blog of exceptional quality which struck my heart, compelling me to write this post in the first place. The blog belongs to Michael Brown, an unemployed graphic designer in Durham, North Carolina. He writes about his daily life with his wife and his three children, his on-going search for a job, and puts forth some insightful commentary on sociopolitics and theology as they manifest themselves in his life. But wait. That's not all. He maintains his blog from a computer terminal in a public library. Yes, Mr. Brown and his family are homeless. Most of his musings profess to help other homeless people across the country in coping with their predicaments. He gives some practical advice, some philosophical. I haven't had a chance to read through the whole blog, but I've definitely bookmarked this one. You might want to as well. I honestly think somebody should give this guy a book deal, quick. He's a fairly talented writer as far as I can tell. Given his social status, I'd say he can write plenty well enough to earn a buck or two.

As always, but particularly in this last matter, I'm interested in your thoughts. This is my life in the fast lane, folks. Live it. Love it. Learn it.