One Quickie

I'm flat out head slamming the table tired right now. I was up to 4 in the morning finishing the paper, which turned out to make some pretty cool connections I hadn't realized. Yesterday I think I did seventeen pages, and it's done and out to the panel. But right now I'm paying the price.

Random day here: highlight of the morning was in Politics of Legal Order, where I had them read the Virginia State Crime Statistics Report for 2003, and then had them read the Book of Genesis and tabulate the number of felonies described. We got into a pretty wild discussion about order, justice and vengeance (the whole passage about the rape of Dinah, and her brothers go in and kill everyone for revenge), stuff like that. The idea was to think about how crime and order are portrayed in foundational narratives, to transition them into later in the week when they are looking at crime and the politics of legal order in fiction (I'm having them read The Godfather as the primary text for the week).

This afternoon was the weekly seminar, which this semester is American Political Development.

One quick link before my head hits the table: Captain Ed interviews Ed Koch, and as they say hilarity ensues. I love Ed Koch--he's one of the figures of my youth, right up there with Evil Kenevel, Ken Stabler and the Oakland Raiders, Muhammad Ali, and Shaft--who amazed me precisely because they were so out of sync with the conservative Roman Catholic/military academy family environment. Anyway, as Koch would be the first to admit, he's a royal pain in the ass, but the sort of pain in the arse you need to have around.

There's some priceless Kerryslams. I think right out of the blocks Captain's Quarters is doing the best job blogging the convention. But it's still early....

Well I got to go before I fall asleeppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp pppppppppppppppppppppppppp ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp