The Stuff, she is interesting.

[silveradept]

So I went and gave blood today, which was good, and then refereed many games of water polo - I want to say about seven or so. Three was evaluation being done this week, too, so I get hit by having taken both shifts. Plus the one I have on Wednesday, so I'm only going ot get more of it. Yarg. But I made significant spending money tonight - maybe by the end of the seasons I'll be able to finance most of my trips. Enough about my story, though - there's plenty else to be interested in.

Like Marines with post-traumatic stress disorder coming back from Iraq. It's a strain on the sanity, it sounds like. The worst part about it is that we're too entrenched at the moment to get out without serious collapse, but the longer we stay, the more time, lives, and money is wasted. As M. Kane Jeeves points out, it looks like the State of the Union is still in the draft stages.

The illegal spying operation hasn't missed a trick, either - vegans are suspected terrorists now. There's also a cute bit about how the confirmation vote got moved without telling anyone to try and forestall a filibuster, and then this wonderful bit - how do you stop someone investigating you? Offer him a place on the federal bench. Bribe? Bah. If tapping domestic citizens isn't a flagrant violation of the law, then one teeny tiny convienent appointment won't be, either. It's just... surreal. Reality has been usurped, and it looks like all the people who could start the Katamari of Dissent rolling are perfectly happy to stay in fantasyland until the gates close.

Beyond politics, there's an interesting opinion piece here that recommends the reduction of the drinking age - so that parents will be more involved in the learning stages of their child's drinking life. Good thought, isn't it? Parents actually being involved with their kids? Madness. *half-snarl* People who have kept with my journal know where that particular rant path leads, and it's not worth trodding it again.

Oh, yeah, and one of my lightbulbs burnt out on me. So today was a good day for me to please everybody else. And save some lives, too.

Comments

[silveradept]

I like the idea of lowering the drinking age because it would give parents the option to get involved. I just don't think there will be too many who will take their kids up on the offer. Raising the driving age to eighteen may not help curb the drinking and driving problem, although it could. (You very well could get fought tooth and nail on that from parents who don't want to have to cart their kids around until they're eighteen.)

[sulcharae.livejournal.com]

the vast amount of kids are in school up until they're 18. Buses are a happy thing.

[greenhornline.livejournal.com]

Busses are the devil and I wasn't 18 until my freshman year of college. I live in a little hick town and if both of my parents worked I would have had no way to get a summer job to even be able to pay for college... i don't feel 18 as a driving age is going to help much, just cause more aggravation. Although lowering the drinking age would be I think.. I've always been under the opinion that if you are old enough to die for your country you might as well be able to drink on your way out.

[sulcharae.livejournal.com]

Perhaps if buses were more necessary, they'd be better and more widespread.
even in your case, i think it'd be worth it.
but i agree with you as far as being able to drink if you're able to be sent off to die.

[silveradept]

In a place like where I grew up, the residential zones are pretty well-removed from the commercial sector of the town - to go where many of the jobs are is at least a thirty-minute drive in either direction. There are very few bus routes, I suspect, that will go that far. So either you find a job in town (pretty difficult, because there aren't really enough people in the town to warrant most people hiring on extra hands) or go without until you can drive. If you're not lucky enough to have parents who will help you pay for things like college, you're in a heap of trouble.

Lots of agreement about lowering the drinking age, though, for that particular reason - if you can be shipped off to die, you should be able to choose the manner of your demise.

[silveradept]

Possibly. School buses can be extensions of all the problems of the schoolyard, including bullying, taunting, and other fun behaviors. That's certainly not a happy thing for the people on the receiving end.