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"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it. - Robert E. Lee."

Well, the war is upon us, and while i detest violence I must say I support this cause. I'd be watching green lights on CNN right now if my roommate and his fiancé weren't talking their way through "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Its much more important to watch DVDs you own than to witness events that will be taught in history classes for years to come. When my kids ask what was it like when we went to war, I'll hate to say that I was cheesed at my roommate because he was watching a DVD instead of CNN. History has no patience. While highlight films will certainly be aired on the news in the morning, the pace, and the emotion of these early hours will be lost. The tension cannot be captured and replayed at convenience. These are moments for a box, but someone else has set my clocks.

What was interesting to me was the strange tension in the air as I walked back from Kent Hale smith. A nice day had given way to typical Cleveland gray, and rain was well on it's way. There was a grim potential in the air, something more concerned and urgent than the typical thoughtless Cleveland weather. Of course, I could be anthropomorphizing the weather, but I'm not sure why I wouldn't have been doing that as I walked to the quad somewhat earlier.

I saw an interesting bit on C-Span today that caught my eye, and was well worth my time. I'm not a C-Span junky by any means, but I happened to surf by after checking out MSNBC's deadline timer (a sensationalist thing) and saw NH senator Judd Gregg speaking. I figured that I would watch the esteemed senator from my state, even though he isn't my senator. The discussion was about budgeting educational funding. Mr. Gregg started his speech off by criticizing the democrats for making outrageous proposals for budgeting that could not be reasonably passed because the burden of making the budget was not on their shoulders. So to expose their ploy, he presented last years budget from the Democrat controlled congress. It was a blank poster. A stark white testimony to either poor efforts, low priority, or general ineptitude. He went further to break down educational spending and budgeting proposals from the Clinton administration and compared them to GW. GW tended to support increases in educational spending at least twice those proposed by Clinton over his 8 year term (and Bush has had just 3). Gregg also made an interesting point about teh budget having a surplus during the latter Clinton years, and that it would have been relatively easy to dedicate additional funds to education, not like now when there's a war, and a poor economy. Gregg did well, but it wasn't the best part. No that honor was reserved for an enraged Ted Kennedy, who was so frustrated that he called the honorable senator from N.H. Craig Gregg. Mr. Kennedy was quite blustery, and belligerent. There was some more wit-mismatching before I turned off the tube to do some homework, and it was very enjoyable. It wasn't quite Canadian or British parliament, but it was the closest I've seen American politics come to that back and forth.

I had a phone interview with Saint-Gobain Abrasives today. I think it went well, but don't have much to judge it against. The position really interests me because it directly applies my research experiences to industry. Hopefully that gig turns out to be as positive as I feel about it.

No one has the answer,
But one thing is true,
You've got to turn on evil,
When it's coming after you,
You've gota face it down,
And when it tries to hide,
You've gota go in after it,
And never be denied,
Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.
-Neil Young

posted by Ben at 11:37 PM