signalnoise

I like that the way this quotation sounds, as if it would be cool if Jimmy just came by for some hummus or whatever. You know, because he was in the neighborhood.

Just to note: People who bitch that the upcoming Egyptian elections do not include any one who wants to run are just plain wrong. Sure, I like democracy, and I would *rather* that Egypt hadn't waited decades before holding a proper election, but it's just asinine (to get catty) to ignore context.

Egypt has never elected its leader (and "ever" means in like 7,000 years). On top of that, one of the strongest parties could be the Islamic Brotherhood, an extremist bunch that I personally (and most little-d democrats) would not like to see win much of anything. In the end, no process can stop a democracy from destroying itself if that is what the people want. But, for a democracy still finding it's feet, it seems that slightly different rules to get the process going are not out of the question. [Don't get me wrong - I'm no "flip of the coin = democracy" a la Adam Przeworksi from a few years ago. There ARE more basic standards than that, but they *are* flexible.] Opposition parties, albeit the official ones already in parliament, are allowed - I think that's enough for this time out.

In other news...I sort of freaked out about the exam yesterday. So I bought a lot of books.

Essentially, those of us taking the exam dedicated ourselves to group study. This meant, in part, that folks would read certain areas and report back, sharing notes and memos. Only some of my colleagues have been less than super about holding up their end of the deal. I understand folks are busy and all... but come on?

This has too bad repurcussions:

1. As people are way behind in their reading, when we get together to talk over themes, ideas, and so on - people are *weak.* So, I might offer my take on Cox and McCubbins's Legislative Leviathan ... and no one else has read the book, or anything *else* about Congress. This makes it a bit hard to check each other, and develop meatier arguments.

2. This also means that areas where I'm weak ... well, it means I could be *really* weak as the notes from those areas (like American political development, race and politics, or American political theory) are MIA.

It's not as bad as all that. I've gamed the exam pretty well. The exam is three flights of three questions, and you answer one question from each flight. The first flight is political behavior/public opinion, which I can do. The second flight is institutions. There *will* be a Congress question (Congress is THE institution of political science - as there are lots of members who turn over reglarly, lending it to analysis). I can *do* Congress. The third flight ... that's where it gets tricky. Flight three is race, urban, social movements, political develoment, and political thought - sort of a potpoourri flight. I could nail urban .. but there's no *guarantee* of it. The odds are good - my advisor (the urbanist) was in charge of the exam this year, and he has taught an urban politics seminar the last two years. I've also taken a seminar on social movements. But this is a broad area ... I felt I really needed to beef up on one more area - the area I know will be on there: race and politics. [U of C political science is one of the best departments in the country to come and study race and politics, so you know there will be a question on it on the exam.]

This is hardly a catastrophe. I made sure to cover myself by reading a bit of something from all the aras of the exam: I've done some of the race reading - I just looked at Cathy Cohen's Boundaries of Blackness, a super-smart analysis of the black community's response to AIDS. What it does mean, is that in the next week and a half - instead of working on my seminar paper - I'll be blitzing the race and politics work (a few more books and articles). All will be well. No all-nighters or anything. It's just frustrating, like group work always seems to be eh?

The other downside: I might have to take my first incomplete *ever* to finish this seminar paper. It's for sucks. But not really - I'll hammer it out right at the beginning of summer, and move on. Oh the excitiement.

Further, my JAW hurt yesterday. I think I slept funny, and did something to my neck. I'm not exactly a hypochondriac, but I proceeded to bug my wife with worries about ear infections and an illy defined "bone rot." Today, things are much better.

The weekend is here .... and there are too many movies: Star Wars, Layer Cake, and Dominion (the OTHER Exorcist prequel) all beckon.... I'm sure we'll figure something out...

Have a good one.