Back To School

Well, after dithering for almost but not quite too long, I took the plunge and did several things to get myself on-track for getting my MBA today. I sent in my transcript request to Vassar, got signed up at UC Berkeley for the remedial math, statistics, and accounting classes I need to take, got one of my two letters of recommendation lined up, and started my GMAT prep work. Tomorrow I go over to Berkeley campus to spend an insane amount of $ on the textbooks I need.

I’ve been stressing out quite a lot about this course of action, but it’s a relief to actually make the commitment and be doing something again instead of wallowing in uncertainty. Now I just need to figure out how to get some math to actually stick in my brain. It’s never been my strong suit. And then of course I have to persuade some fine institution to accept my application…..

Carter Smackdown on Zell Miller

Josh Marshall has the text of a letter sent from former President Jimmy Carter to Zell Miller regarding his recent screech — sorry, speech — at the Republican convention. It’s worth a read. Here’s the conclusion.

Zell, I have known you for forty-two years and have, in the past, respected you as a trustworthy political leader and a personal friend. But now, there are many of us loyal Democrats who feel uncomfortable in seeing that you have chosen the rich over the poor, unilateral preemptive war over a strong nation united with others for peace, lies and obfuscation over the truth, and the political technique of personal character assassination as a way to win elections or to garner a few moments of applause. These are not the characteristics of great Democrats whose legacy you and I have inherited.

High Road, Low Road

There’s a strong feeling in some parts of the blogosphere that in this campaign season, Democrats need to pull out all the stops and start smearing Bush with as much mud as is being thrown at Kerry. My own preference is try to stay out of the mud as much as possible (except for the occasional snarky comment. I’m not perfect.)

Why? Some years ago, my mother told me something very wise. We were discussing some personal issues and the temptation to play ‘tit for tat’ with people who are being hurtful to you. She told me that she felt it was important to always take the high road, even if the other person doesn’t, even if you really don’t want to. And she was right.

So in keeping with the high road theme, here’s The Decembrist on Why Bush Must Go:

Consider, for example, the domestic policy proposals that Bush unveiled in his convention acceptance speech. The charges against them were as obvious and as uninteresting as the proposals: They’re recycled. There’s not enough detail. They’re going to be expensive. All true, but not every idea has to be new; I don’t need details; and if Bush really has the will, then maybe he can find the money — he seems to find it for everything else.

What seems to have gone unsaid about this laundry list was that these weren’t proposals that were blocked by a hostile Congress or that he couldn’t find the money to fund. It’s that most of them died as a result of his own incompetence and that of his administration. Could Bush have partially privatized Social Security in his first term? Quite possibly, but the commission he appointed, and the hacks he had working for him, didn’t understand the first thing about it, and treated the serious technical problems they were paid to solve ? mainly the huge transitional costs — as PR problems to be obscured by patently dishonest claims such as that Social Security is a bad deal for African-Americans. His “ownership society” proposals for tax-free accounts for health and retirement were so transparently just cover for another tax cut for the rich that he backed off even offering them in the State of the Union this year. His two domestic accomplishments, No Child Left Behind and the Medicare prescription drug bill, are basically sound ideas marred by profound incompetence in design. Most of those who support or supported the Iraq War now have the same view of that misadventure. And then there’s allowing North Korea and Iran to become nuclear powers. On the macroeconomic front, while a president is not necessarily responsible for every turn of the business cycle that takes place on his watch, Bush is wholly responsible for his total indifference to the distinction between tax cuts and deficit spending that might shorten the recession and generate demand, and those that would not. That indifference is incompetence.

Emphasis added. And the rest of his piece is well worth a read.

Like I said, I am not perfect and I don’t expect other people to be. I know it is very hard to try to hold onto your values when you feel so much is at stake and you’re scared of what might happen if you don’t win. I also think that holding on to your values when the going gets tough is important because it defines what kind of a person you really are. We’re all going to have to live with ourselves after November 2, win or lose.

All this is not to say that Kerry should not fight for the election. Of course he – and we all – should. I’m happy to hear that more of the Clinton team is joining the Kerry campaign. They fought hard but they fought clean – just what we need right now.

What a wonderful idea!

I wish this had been available when I was in college! Sounds like a fantastic idea. Pet-friendly dorm debuts at Missouri college.

Some students are definitely not ready for the responsibility of pet ownership, but for those who are, it’s a great way to give some stability and emotional support in what can be a emotionally trying time of life.

I knew one guy who had a ferret in his dorm room and another who had a rabbit for a while, but like most colleges Vassar did not allow pets in campus facilities. My last year in college I lived in a college-owned townhouse just off campus that did not allow pets either but one roommate and I each had a cat anyway. (She’s old and cranky now but is sleeping on my desk as I type this).