Sitting by the docks of the bay, wasting time.

I am currently in the petitioning process for law review.

Most law schools have at least one student-run journal. Although most of the articles are written by professors from various schools (students do contribute some articles), students select which articles they will run and edit those articles.

To get on a law review or journal you must petition. The petitioning process varies from school to school, but it usually includes a writing section and a cite-checking exercise. They gave us two weeks to petition. Mine is due on Monday.

Petitioning really couldn't have come at a worse time. The packets are available the day of our last final. For some reason I thought that I would be really motivated to write on. However, the 300 pages of reading for a slow reader on top of the cite checking exercise deflated most of my motivation.

We will see how this goes. However, all I can think about is Otis Redding singing "sitting on the docks of the bay, wasting time." (emphasis on wasting time).

While you are reading this or doing whatever you are doing, I suggest you enjoy a little Otis Redding.

Neiko Case on auto-tune

"There's technology like auto tune and pitch shifting so you don't have to know how to sing... It's like that taste in diet soda, I can taste it-- and it makes me sick." Neiko Case in a 2006 Pitchfork interview.

http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/6306-neko-case/

Apparently protest is patriotic aka Oh Canada

With the election of Barack Obama I have noticed an interesting trend on Facebook. Many conservatives are leaving messages such as “that’s it I’m moving to Mexico,” “kiss the constitution good bye” and so forth. Now I don’t have any problem with people having their own opinions about the President-elect.

We do live in a democratic country. The constitution does guarantee us certain rights such as the freedom of speech.

The thing that gets me is what happened to the “protest of the war is unpatriotic” crowd? What happened to the “if you don't love America than get out of here” crowd?

If my inference is correct, maybe they no longer love America because all that was "great" about America -- Republican presidents who shot from the hip -- will soon be gone.

Let me define what I think patriotism is or at least should be. To me, patriotism is not a blind love, I think our country has many great things about it. The prescient Framers provided us a constitutional government which has lasted for close to a quarter of a millennium. There are great freedoms enjoyed in this country which most citizens of other countries would dream of (just ask the Chinese or Russians about their freedom of press rights). However, a nation is only as good as its citizens. And I think that we as humans have a long way to go.

To me, a true love of the country is to say yes we can break down barriers of prejudice. Yes we can work with people who may think differently from us. And most importantly, we need to address these issues head on so we can overcome them. That to me is patriotism. It’s not saying America is great and we can’t do anything to spoil that (which seems to me to be what a lot of people say when they approach the war or our international relationships). But just like all the private lives of all the citizens of this country, there are times when we must admit our wrongs and make amends for our mistakes in order to progress.

Thus being said, I find it amusing how fast those against Barack -- who more than likely are in the love it or leave it crowd -- have turned to leaving it. I am not arguing that they don’t have a right to dissent, it just seems like many recently were arguing that I didn’t have a right to dissent.

Take that for what it’s worth.