Friday Night In

The last Friday night in I spent in because I had nowhere to go. Tonight, I had like 5 places to go, but just couldn't. Last weekend was like one long bender and I felt it this week. It was difficult to focus, difficult to get my head in the right place. It was borderline overly emotional and the week was a little depressing and defeating. In addition to last weekend, Wednesday was a drunken, random, crazy night that could've measured up to a lot of nights in Athens-certainly not all the nights-but a lot. So, some politics:
This week I went to a discussion about the confirmation of John Roberts and a professor brought up an interesting point. This point seems ridiculous and far fetched. That being said, this professor clerked for Ruth Bader Ginsberg (a Supreme Court Justice) and graduated from Harvard Law, so the guy is pretty fucking smart and knows more about what he's talking about than I ever will. He made a statement at this discussion that I really had never thought of. He said that the Republican's worst nightmare is a Supreme Court ban on abortion. That to me was strange. To me, it seemed like if Republicans accomplished this they would have a great platform to display their success. He went on to say that a large portion of Republican votes-more 3%, the amount they needed to win the Presidential election-turned out to vote because they were concerned about abortion. These votes are people in rural areas in Midwestern and Southern states that are turning out for moral reasons-and more power to them. I love it that people turned out to vote in the election and it's incredibly troubling to the Democratic Party that there was a significant turnout and they still lost. Democratic theory revolved around the notion that, if they could get a big turnout, they would win-that most people sided with Democratic ideals. Well, they were wrong. Regardless, back to this professor's point. He said that if the Supreme Court were to take stances in favor of the Christian Right, mainly on abortion and gay rights, the rural, Christian vote wouldn't turn out. I mean can you really argue with the guy? When exit poles showed that such a large amount of these people turned out for moral reasons it's difficult to say they would turn out in such force in the absence of such moral questions. So, this professor's theory was that President Bush nominated someone with a conservative appearence, but that would never overturn abortion rights. Crazy, huh? And it seems far fetched, it seems crazy and deceiving but it makes so much sense. I honestly wouldn't have believed it four months ago. I wouldn't have believed it (and might still not) had I not spent the last couple months learning how to comprehend the reasoning behind political and legal decisions. It makes sense-and it makes much more sense when you hear it from a group of professors that are incredibly intelligent. I know I need to learn to think for myself in matters such as this, but honestly, they're experienced Supreme Court clerks-I'd be stupid not to believe them.
Quote of the Day:
In lieu of lyrics, a quote or paraphrase from my roommate: "I love fall so much-you know what I did last night? I opened the skylight and let the 45 degree air in, looked at the stars and made it feel like I was camping in the middle of fall. Don't worry, I close the skylights when it gets really really cold."
-I'm not gonna lie, it's lame, but I relate.