News that Isn't Swine Flu

If I hear nothing else about swine flu, it will be too soon.

So, to all of my friends out there who don't follow the news but are instead focused merely on panic, here's a brief update on two political events that you probably should have heard about this week:

-Senator Specter (R-PA) switched teams this week. That's right: he's gay. Okay, not really, and I'm sorry I even made that joke...it really is beneath me. Anyway, he did switch teams, making the Senate 57-40-2 (with both Independents caucusing Democrat). Wait, you may be asking yourself, that only adds up to 99. Where's the 100th senator? Remember the parable of the lost lamb? And how that sheperd left the flock of 99 lambs to go find the lost lamb? Well, that's where that senator is, if that lamb were Al Franken, and that lamb was instead wrapped up in a court case, recount, re-recount, another court case, and an appeal that will most likely result in Franken being seated some time this summer. With Franken being seated, Democrats have 60 seats in the Senate (aka a "filibuster-proof" majority). We shall see what happens with this.

-Supreme Court Justice David Souter will retire at the end of the current legislative session. Some people are whining that Obama will pick a liberal justice.

Well...obviously.

Number 1: Souter is a liberal justice. Nominated by HW Bush, this halcyon of conservatism turned out to be pretty blue. So, it doesn't add anything to the liberalism of the court.

Number 2: W Bush nominated two of the most conservative members of the Court. Why shouldn't Obama nominate progressivess?

Number 3: Can we please get another woman? I mean, Ginsberg has got to be lonely.

Other news from my life:

-In six days, I will graduate from Shorter College with a BA in Theatre (Capstone: original work Edgar's Ashes) and a BA in English (Capstone: That's Not What I Wrote, But That's Okay: Film Adaptations of the Work of Tennessee Williams and Its Effect on the American Censorship of Film).

-14 professors of Shorter College will not be returning in the fall. Contact me if you want a full list.

-I'm about to start a new play about how internal duality of religion can destroy someone.

-Words that I had to look up in the dictionary yesterday: Quotidian (occuring everyday), solipsism (belief that the self is the only thing that can be known and reality is an illusion)