This Modern Economy

Like, whoa.

NYTimes.com: Treasury Dept. Plan Would Give Fed Wide New Power
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/29regulate.html?ex=1364529600&en=da56dc4e51747775&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
(Sorry, you may have to watch this bloody advertisement before you can read the article. It won't let you skip it. Just cope.)

Does this sound like an extension of federal regulatory power to anyone else? Dude, I thought the guys at the Treasury Department were supposed to be Republicans.
Okay, so Paulson says he's "not suggesting that more regulation is the answer," but that "we should and can have a [regulatory] structure that is designed for the world we live in, one that is more flexible.” Huh? Once we have a wider window onto all the crazy shit the banks and other corporate-financial institutions perpetrate to make money-- or to make bank, and thus be money, as some of us would say-- and assuming the press actually does some investigative reporting on the issue (it's a special occasion), public outrage over any semi-criminal activity would likely (eventually) lead to an expansion of powers of regulation commensurate with the proposed enlargement of powers of oversight.
This pronouncement isn't so remarkable in terms of content as it is for what it shows about the degree to which companies and financial institutions are allowed to occlude their internal activity. Not that economic structure ----> culture (I'm not a Marxist), but it does play a large role in the complex interactions that produce contemporary culture and society. Generally (owing to both corporate obfuscation and old-fashioned nonchalant ignorance), we don't know enough about the way our economy works. The function of the economy is a political issue-- maybe the political issue-- and we need to get educated.
At least, I do.
In the vain of political stuff, I highly recommend Said's essay "Opponents, Audiences, Constituencies and Community."

The Fame of my Hometown

I was born (but don't live) in a town that's known for sunshine and clean water-according to the mayor of Alamosa in her interview on NPR the other day.
If you looked up Alamosa on search engines before last week, you might have discovered that we celebrate being the coldest place in the nation. Not much to celbrate about, but when it's that cold, you'll basically celebrate anything to stay warm and alive.
Now we can proudly say that all the water is undrinkable because of a Salmonella outbreak. The intelligent water resource guys were very clever because they accidentally sliced a sewer line that somehow managed to contaminate one of the storage tanks.
So now, Alamosa will have chlorinated water forever.
I'm happy to say: number one, I don't live in Alamosa; and two, my house has its own well.
Then again, I live 1/4 mile from a contaminated river, so I could go crazy because of the amount of aluminum in the water. But at least I won't be throwing up and other stuff...

Montreal!

So I am currently in Montreal visiting Aurelie, and this will be a joint-post from the both of us. Several anecdotes from our adventures in la belle province:

You know you're from Montreal when...
- it's safer to walk in the middle of the street than on the icy sidewalks.
- random people walk down the streets smoking joints in plain sight.
- the bubble tea slushies are so cold that they give you brain freezes.
- some restaurants have menus only in English, some only in French.
- people play the 3rd movement of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto so fast that the accompanist can't keep up.
- the subways and Chinatown are both clean.
- they make you pay to walk into churches.
- they have rock concerts in churches.

And other random anecdotes:
- we called Dominick on Sunday and talked to him over the speakerphone. We got to hear him urinate. It was memorable.
- Aurelie is the baby (not over 18) so we couldn't get into a bar - and ended up drinking tea with 6 other people at midnight.
- Aurelie's family initiated a debate over artwork that nobody (besides me) had ever seen.
- conversation between us- me: Where did you get your bracelet from? Aurelie: Martinique. me: is that a shop around here? Aurelie: it's an island in the Caribbean...
- Phone call with Valentin- us: Hey Valentin! Are you on break? Valentin: no, I'm in class...
- We try to contact David P. We call his cellphone. It is off. We call his home phone (but we misdial the number): Aurelie: hi, this is Aurelie from the summer program TASP. Is David home? Some random woman: We don't have any David working here... Then we try to redial the number, and we get the message that this phone number does not accept solicitations. Epic fail.

We love you guys.

Let's start writing, guys!

So school starts again tomorrow, and I'm having difficulty going to sleep. For that matter, I'm having difficulty doing anything. I'm supposed to read Invisible Man by tomorrow at around 2:02 PM, and I'm on chapter 10. Chapter 10 starts on page 192, and the book's a little over 500 pages long. I'm pretty much screwed. Especially if I keep not reading and not sleeping, like I'm doing right now.
I really have nothing to say here, but I felt it was important to post on the blog. We seem to have taken a collective hiatus from blog-posting, and it's time that comes to an end. So start posting! Please. I'm bored. And for other, more high-minded reasons, too. Like friendship or for the sake of the written word. Write something better than this pathetic excuse for a blogpost. One that uses actual words, instead of 'blogpost.' Blogger tells me that it's not a word. So start using real ones. Now I'm rambling. I'll see you all sometime before we all die. Or not.

Two posts in a row is maybe ridiculous. I'm maybe ridiculous.

Truman State might be the best place to go to school.
I just heard the big news--

From the Student Activities Board's Upcoming Events:

OMG! Shoes!
A Liam Show with Liam Sullivan
7pm on Wednesday, April 2nd, in Baldwin Auditorium
Tickets free with Student ID, $2 for GA
Warning: This show will contain Explicit Content

Guys, it's that guy. Text Message Breakup Guy is coming to my town. So soon.

You know you want to come visit me. Tickets are just two dollars! We could tell him all about how we combined his work with that of Rabelais, and he'd love us, I bet.

Also, I just got back from Demo Days, Northeast Missouri's favorite political conference.
Our State Auditor is HILARIOUS when she's drunk. And I got to be on TV, because Jay Nixon, the gubernatorial candidate, showed up and had a press conference. So if you were paying attention to Missouri politics today (instead of Wyoming, I guess), you totally could've seen me smiling and nodding at all the right points. He's going to turn this state around.
Mostly because he believes in letting children have doctors. Everyone at the convention really liked that.

Just imagine if this story were about Bloomberg.

I was at a chocolate festival yesterday.

It's a thing my town does every year. I think it's hosted by Planned Parenthood, or it's a fundraiser for them or something, so those who attend are of an overwhelmingly Democratic majority. It's mostly the politics people and the university people. They all know each other.
The way it works is that each person pays five dollars, and lots of people bring in plates full of pieces of different kinds of chocolate foods. Cakes, cookies, truffles, whatever. There's so much chocolate.

I was sitting at a table, and I was a little perturbed, because I had taken little samples of so many different things that I wanted to try. But I didn't really want to eat all of them, because it would've been way too much chocolate. I looked around the room for my friends, and the mayor of my town, who was standing near my table, happened to glance at me at the moment that I was looking in her direction.

It was that eye contact between people who don't really know each other that means they have to say something, some kind of small talk, so that it's not just a "I'm looking at you and you're looking at me" moment. Kirksville's a friendly town.

So she came over and asked me how I was doing, and I said I was fine and asked her how she was doing, and she said she was fine. Then:

Mayor of Kirksville: So did you get all the chocolate you wanted?
Me: Oh, man, yeah, there's way too much. I'm really hoping my friends will come back and share this plate with me, because I just wanted to try this stuff; I didn't want to eat all of it.
Mayor: Well, I admire your restraint. If I get a plate of chocolate in front of me, I just eat it all. Now I don't feel too well.
Me: Oh. (Sympathetically, not indifferently. I'm not a jerk to the mayor.)

And then she moved on. And that's my first conversation with the mayor of Kirksville.