Internet Reading Binge begets Political Obligation Flashbacks: Where are you, Professor Mokrosinska?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8127461.stm

I went on a run today. Usually when I'm active it gets to my head and I start, what's it called? Oh yeah, thinking. I finally ordered my materials to study for the ACE test, which cost me some 80 dollars. I wasn't thrilled--the things I do to keep myself off my own butt.

I ate some cheese for dinner cuz I went to Chipotle for lunch (hence the run) and felt so gross from eating almost an entire burrito I vowed not to eat a whole meal tonight. Anorexic? Have you ever had a Chipotle burrito? It could feed an entire family. A family of five!

Thomas sent me a link to Auto-Tune the News #5, which I watched. I lol'd. Then I watched the rest of them and came to a stunning realization. It went like this:

"Wow am I politically ignorant!"

I generally prefer walking around this godforsaken country with my eyes closed and my ears plugged because I barely take into account opinions other than my own. This, however, leaves me completely out of touch with the goingson in the world around me. I've been living in Chelsea Land. It's not a bad place, really.

Anyway, some conclusions I've drawn from my quick scan of the last year or so in politics:

1. Sarah Palin is SO DUMB. Like, oh my god, how dumb. And I think her hair is some sort of super-flexible plastic. I wish I could get close enough to find out, but I might be too tempted to slap her.

2. Katie Couric is a good singer. No, not in real life. In Auto-Tune Town. She is, however, making her way in the world. I wonder if she's really that smart or if she's just reading scripts half the time. Did CBS need a pretty face to spew the horrors of reality? Or could she be next term's VP nominee? Katie Couric 2012? 2016? Will we still be around? Oh, those Mayans.

3. The European Union is humble. According to the article I posted at the top of this entry that I've just now gotten around to acknowledging, they've cut out marketing standards for produce on the EU level. They want the individual markets to take over in the decision-making process. In other words, the EU is going to stop hating on ugly foods just cuz they ugly. I wrote a note to myself: "Pass the buck?" I don't know if that works in this situation.


How this all relates to the Political Obligation course I took last Fall in Leiden, The Netherlands begins with my very very basic understanding of government involvement. Some people like a whole lot of government involvement because they think that once they've voted the "right" people into office, they can take it from there and make the proper choices in accordance with everyone's needs and opinions on major (or minor) issues. Well, I don't know what country THEY live in, but my country's leaders probably don't deserve that kind of faith. Lest we forget, they are humans. They may be slightly smarter than the majority, but they mostly got to where they are on a slip n slide of fancy buzzwords and greasy palms. Well, most of them anyway. Then again, I'm biased, too. I am not a robot.

The other group of people (this group includes but is not limited to my dad) wish for limited government involvement in the nation's (whichever nation, this is pretty universal) issues. To what degree and concerning what issues varies depending on a person's political upbringing and financial status, mostly. There are people who believe in scaling back government to the bare minimum (I'm talking John Locke, who doesn't really scale back as much as create from ground zero) and then there's those who which the government didn't have to stick its nose in so many nooks and crannies of every day life. The ugliness of our apricots and carrots is one such issue. The fact that the EU stopped and said, "Hey, you really think this is necessary?" is inspiring. I just wish my own country (I know the EU is not a country) could do the same. However, what led them to that decision? Was the regulation costing too much money and that's how they decided to cut back? It wasn't because they felt like maybe they had their hands on too many radishes and wanted to leave some of these issues to the little guys? (Cuz we have nothing better to do with our lives/markets). I like to hope it was the latter, but I like to bet (euros) it was the former.

Quesiton: Are we obligated to follow the regulations we personally deem unnecessary or wrong?

Question: What did they do with the ugly produce? Donate it to the ugly animals kept caged in the ugly zoo on a small island near Abu Dhabi (see Garfield and Nermal)?

I might pay to see that.

Anyway, those were some midnight ramblings from a political novice...well, what comes before novice?
I hope you're thinking. Maybe, like me, you will start reading the paper seriously and not just looking at the stories with funny headlines like the one I posted above...I may have just lucked out with that one.

No work and no play makes Chelsea schizophrenic.

me: IM MUNNA EACHOO

it gets to be twelve and my brain goes "Ding! Lunch time!"

and my stomach goes "Nuh uh. You're fat. Wait until 1 pm"

and my brain goes "Shut up stomach, you're the fat one, I'm all nerves, stop drinking coffee"

(heh pun)

and my stomach goes "Fine, we'll wait until 12 45, how's taht?"

and my brain goes "You know, I don't know why YOU want to wait, I'm the one who's always thinking about how fat YOU are. You're not even able to think! I'm going to make Chelsea go to the fridge RIGHT NOW and get Thomas' Chinese food and eat it all up."

and stomach goes "Gurgle."

Sent at 12:34 PM on Tuesday

Thomas Kennedy: sorry phone rang

me: that's ok

just pacifying a civil war over here

Types of Parties

Prenatal
Pizza
Puberty
Pool
Procrastinators'
Promiscuity
Pale Ale
Post graduate
Pub
Passivity
Professional
Pinnacle
Prenuptial
Pregnant
Panic
Parental
Past Your Prime
orthPedic
Post partum
Pearly Gates