I’m sorry. I really am. But I couldn’t help but comment on this.

Various news outlets are reporting that late 80s/early 90s boyband New Kids on the Block are reuniting.

Let that sink in.

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Ok, I’ll admit it- Vogue magazine is my guilty pleasure. So, when I first saw this story about the controversy over the magazine’s lastest issue, I was a little wary. April’s issue features LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen on the cover and some media commentators are objecting to it since perpetuates racial stereotypes. Magazine analyst Samir Husni claimed that the depiction of James in a “gorilla-like pose, baring his teeth” screams King Kong.

When I first saw the cover, I didn’t actually get it. But now, I’ve changed my mind. Look for yourself and tell me that the similarities are simply coincidental.

Behold, the end is near:

[IU] blames the thousands of students… who don’t take early morning or Friday classes — and the professors and deans who let them — for a scheduling crisis that’s resulted in a room shortage.

But before they ask taxpayers to pay for any new classroom buildings, the university is considering what has become almost unthinkable at IU: more students in class at 8 a.m. and on Fridays. Officials are looking at a system of incentives and penalties for professors and departments to make that happen and partly fix the problem.

If you click on the above link to the Star’s original story, I might suggest steering clear of the comments section; some of them are pretty brutal (especially from those goody-goody Boilermakers). 

I’ll admit, last semester I had what I call a “Ferris Beuller” schedule: class from 4-6:45pm on Monday’s and Wednesdays, 9:30-2:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and no class on Fridays. This semester has been considerably less convenient, with class starting at 8am two days a week, 9:05am on two days, and two classes on Fridays. To make things even worse, I have to walk to class barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways. In short, I’m being exploited and abused by the University.

Maybe the recently-elected Kirkwood ticket can put an end to this madness (heh, heh, heh… ahem, excuse me.)

On the other hand, it is getting difficult to register for classes. I’m having a hard time creating a schedule that will even work, let alone trying to avoid Fridays and early mornings. Is anyone else finding this to be true for them as well? Is this just something we’re going to have to embrace?

Why are these students smiling? Because they partied at Sports last night until 2am and slept in til noon.

Q: What’s scarier than an economic downturn?

A: The government’s response to an economic downturn.

I won’t go quite as far as the HDRP in calling for the Federal Reserve to be abolished, but I am very, very hesitant to give them any further regulatory powers than they already have. I mean it’s stuff like this that has even level-headed guys like me thinking about conspiracy theories about small groups of people trying to take over the world through the control of economic systems. The government really over-reacted after Enron by enacting the enormous Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, and they’re over-reacting now that the economy isn’t doing as well as it was a few years ago. Just because we have a little difficulty doesn’t mean that the government needs to get their hands in there and start trying to control things. That’s a recipe for disaster.

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Hey, everyone. Most TV shows are on their way back finally, after they’ve produced a few episodes since coming back to work from the strike. Therefore, the WEEKEND WATCHERS blog should have much more action in the coming weeks.

Additionally, for the next week, I’m going to get people ready for new eps of some of their favorite shows. Each day, I’ll cover a different show: what we’ve seen, what we will see, when it’s back, etc.

Here’s the approximately schedule of programs I’ll be covering in the next few days:

Monday, 3/31: Supernatural
Tuesday, 4/1: House
Wednesday, 4/2: Smallville
Thursday, 4/3: Reaper
Friday, 4/4: LOST
Saturday, 4/5: Scrubs

So please, check out the WEEKEND WATCHERS blog overviews on each of those programs over the next few days! Things are finally going to be awesome on TV yet again. Unless you watch NBC.

Right now [1:49 p.m. on Sunday] CNN’s third story on their political ticker deals primarily with John Kerry.

All I have to say is…WHY?!

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Sadr calls off his militia: This is good news for the people of Basra, but it’s bad news for us. Sadr has shown that he has the power: he can turn chaos on and off like a light switch. Additionally, he has shown that the Iraqi government is no more legitimate than he is. The “Iraqi Army” is just one more Shi’ite militia in Iraq. We just happen to be supporting it.

How to fix the NCAA Tournament: The New Republic and its pals provide some sincere (make the NIT worthwhile) and some not-so-sincere (let every team play in the NCAA Tournament because they all suck anyways). Anyways, it’s a fun read, especially while watching all the Number One seeds advance and watching our brackets crumble. (Screw you, Pitt.) Doesn’t it seem odd, though, that we celebrate March Madness for its “madness” rather than its good basketball? I mean, if you’re watching these games, you see how sloppy the teams are. Let’s not pretend that we watch the tournament for the athletic performance, just like we shouldn’t pretend the players came to college for their educations.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of DC public schooling: Parents can pay to send their kids to a public school outside the district, and when high school rolls around, the decision is clear. Can we dismantle the DC Metro school system yet? Basically, you have to start over. The teachers are bullied, untrained and unsupported; the overhead costs are huge; the administration is dysfunctional. They say that if we institute major changes, we’ll be “hurting the kids.” Well, we can’t hurt them any more than we already are.

Speaking of DC public schools, I’m in the interview process for Teach For America and re-read this article (”How I Joined Teach For America and Got Sued for $20 Million”). Ugh, not quite the picker-upper you’re looking for at a time like this.

Did patriotism cause the Iraq War?: A discussion among prominent bloggers has sprouted up, after the five-year-anniversary hand-wringing by liberal hawks, prompted by this post in CATO Unbound by George Kateb. His argument is essentially that patriotism = bad, and that undying love for your country makes you do really stupid things. I think Kateb confuses “love” and “subservience,” but he raises an unfortunate point about the limits of liberal democracies: it’s hard to question your country if you love and trust it.

I want my future back: Seriously, I was promised domed cities and my one-minute full health report. At least we have all the computers to help us out. Crap. Never mind.

In squid-related news: Scientists try to replicate the hard/soft beak of a squid, which manages to use one of nature’s hardest substances without slicing itself to ribbons. That’s crazy, man. Plus, it makes me appreciate squid sex that much more.

WTF Hideki?: Uh, does this make sense to anyone else? Because it sure doesn’t make sense to me.

Are nuclear physicists going to destroy the world?: Uh, maybe. Of course, the vast Internets believe that this is outrageous and to some extent, it is. A federal judge in Honolulu probably shouldn’t have jurisdiction over Switzerland, and it’s doubtful that he can understand the complexities of the physics surrounding the Large Hadron Collider. Still, I am not wild about the prospect of scientists accidentally collapsing the earth with a mini-black hole. This is, after all, the same mentality that led us to almost blow a hole in Chicago. Trusting scientists is fine; leaving them without safeguards is not.

Here’s one of those feel-good stories about Republicans and Democrats working together to solve the problems that really matter:

U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt has pushed through $1.1 million in federal earmarks for a controversial Cohasset pond clean-up meant to stop flooding in a pricey waterfront neighborhood where his former congressman pal lives, the Herald has learned.

The taxpayer-funded project would convert Treat’s Pond from fresh to salt water but would also alleviate widespread flooding on Atlantic Avenue, where Delahunt’s longtime friend, former U.S. Rep. Amory “Amo” Houghton, 81, lives part time in an a historic estate with his wife, Priscilla.

That’s right, Delahunt, a Democrat, chipped in $1.1 million of his own your money to bail out the house where his Republican buddy lives part time.

Isn’t that special?

Now $1.1 million may not sound like much in the grand scheme of the federal budget, but consider that the average household pays $17,000 per year in federal taxes. Can you think of 65 households who could use an extra $17,000 back if it hadn’t been used to bail out a crony’s luxury home? Can you think of 1100 households who could use an extra $1000 back?

There’s plenty not to like about McCain, but if he’s serious about his promise to end this earmark/pork barrel nonsense (and his record indicates that he is), that’s reason enough to support him over Barack or Hillary.

Could the al-Maliki government be more feckless?: Probably not. Remember yesterday’s 72-hour ultimatum? Well, al-Maliki extended it. And is paying the other side to go along with it. Some ultimatum, huh? At least it’s the Iraqi army doing most of the fighting, right? Oh, crap. As many have pointed out, we are now helping one militia fight another militia, both of whom were probably armed by Iran. Hooray! Good thing things are looking up in Iraq!

Pew study reveals Obama’s supporters and haters: This is the poll everyone’s blogging about today, but one striking thing to me is that national defense concerns are far more important than racial ones (even though the people who dislike Obama have unfortunately backwards views on issues like interracial dating). The non-surprise surprise is that older white people still don’t like black people that much. Still, the bigger story here is that “Fight for U.S. right or wrong” seems to be the biggest divider between those who favor Obama and those who don’t.

Human noses ‘can detect danger’: Wait, what? If you smell one thing and associate it with danger, you will be able to identify that smell as dangerous. The nose knows.

LAT: Oops, that Tupac report was a lie: Remember when I thought I could finally have a more legitimate reason to hate Diddy? Too bad it was a fraud. Silly LA Times, Trix are for less-reputable newspapers!

CNN Pisses Away Final Shred of Integrity with Comedy News Show: Ugh, didn’t they learn from the 1/2 Hour News Hour? Who would have thought that CNN would ever be even more derivative than FoxNews?

The Chinese Weather Control Plan: No joke. They actually want to seed the clouds to alter the weather for the Beijing Olympics. The control exerted by the Chinese government is truly extraordinary and frightening. They control information, and as a result, they can control everything else. Chinese citizens have never seen the lone man standing in front of a tank, nor have they seen their crackdown of Tibetan protesters. At some point, the control-freak mentality of the government is going to screw them over. Could the moment be now?

You gotta wonder.