Oof. What started out as a somewhat quiet night in with the girls turned into me drinking way too much over a period of about 12 hours. Not that I'm complaining. Just, you know, oof.

So I didn't go to bed until around 6 this morning, which meant sleeping way past noon, which means the only thing I did all day was go to the aquarium (yay season pass from Mom and Dad for xmas!). Although I'm not sure it lives completely up to all the hype, I have to say the aquarium is pretty damn impressive, and I'm definitely going back some weekday afternoon to sit and stare at the Beluga whales for hours. I swear, they flirt with the crowd.

Just ordered this semester's textbooks from Amazon:

Law in Public Health Practice

Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint.

Aw Yeah.

(dissertation? who said anything about a dissertation?)

Debate

GA for Democracy just asked me to oppose this bill in my local senate, an updated voter ID bill. GA got a lot of bad publicity for this thing last legislative session, as it was a bad idea and was going to force people without a driver's license (or other acceptable ID for voting) to pay for the right to vote. Which is, you know, a terrible idea. This updated bill requires counties to provide the IDs for free, you just have to get to a DMV or other place that provides them and fill out the paperwork and bring all the supporting documents and blah blah blah. Yes, sure, it's still a pain in the ass...but, it's a free way to get an ID that allows you to vote...I'm having a hard time seeing what's bad about this bill...but I'm also poorly informed when it comes to things like voter IDs. So one of my first questions is, what did people do previously, if they didn't have an acceptable ID? Were they unable to vote? In which case, this is a pretty good thing. What happens to people who can't meet the requirements of the application? i.e. those without a permanent address? It seems to me they were unable to vote previously, so this is a consistent problem rather than one created by this bill...something which will need to be dealt with but perhaps not a reason to oppose this bill...ok. Discuss.

Blech. Milking the free wireless at a coffee shop am confronted with snuggly, PDA-y high school couple on couch across from me...Catholic high school couple. Uniforms.

What he said (Dean on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer):

I was disgusted when I read in the New York Times yesterday that 80 percent of the torso injuries and fatalities in the Marine Corps could have been prevented if the Pentagon, the secretary of defense and the president had supplied them with armor that they already had.

They requested that from the field; the Pentagon refused. You know, I, two years ago, thought Secretary Rumsfeld ought to resign. He ought to resign.

These people are not qualified. They haven't served themselves; they don't know what it takes. They ought to protect our troops. Our troops are doing a hell of a job and they deserve better leadership in Washington than what they're getting.

I was incensed when I saw that story, 80 percent of the torso- based wounds that led to fatalities in the Marine Corps -- surely our Marines are worth something more than that.

(emphasis mine)