high on caffeine and chocolate cake

the other night i was at arabica in downtown willoughby. the coffee and cake were superb. the locals, not so much. anyway, while i was in chocolate heaven, i got to thinking about politics. i couldn't post this blog right away because i couldn't connect to their wi-fi. now that the stage is set, let's begin...

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so last night i watched the debate. i noticed that when mccain got to talking, i felt as though i was about to fall asleep. here's why: listening to mccain is not unlike listening to a grandfather, but in a much worse sense. grandfathers are very adept at telling stories of old - you know, the ones that begin with "when i was your age..." or "back in my day..." or even, "i can remember a time when..."

normally i enjoy and cherish these stories. indeed, i wish there were more. my grandfather is a living encyclopedia - as long as the topic of interest is one of the following: abysmal first dates, being in the navy but never leaving shore, college days studying chemistry, fixing a broken down car macgyver style on the way to PA, etc.

but these are not the kind of things that i like to hear from the leader of my country, your country, our country - the world's country. mccain focused too much energy on telling tales of old and how he is going to take care of our veterans. now, don't get me wrong, i am forever grateful for all those who have fought on a battlefield, even more so for those who made it back alive from WWII. those who have served our country have every right to free healthcare, pensions, etc. (within reason). it got me wondering about how many people in the US are veterans. now, i need to do some fact checking, but is it greater than the 12.5% who are living below the poverty line? mind you, veterans aren't starving children, women trying to work two jobs to feed and take care of their kids, lacking any form of education. well at least generally they aren't.

i'll admit that my response may be biased, but i can't seem to see how mccain will do even a half-assed job running this country. and don't even get me started about the alaskan idiot who takes liking to her russian landscape outside her bedroom window.

simply put, obama has vision. he doesn't just know what to do, he actually tells us what he is going to to. since when is that a bad thing? - to tell your citizens what you are going to do to help them out.

obama could have been a little stronger though. he was a little too... intelligent. i say intelligent because in order to listen - especially listen to a conflicting viewpoint - you have to be somewhat intelligent. and that's what he did. he listened. he listened to what mccain was saying. he let mccain walk all over him with conservative slander and such. obama wasn't stumped - he was just frustrated. frustrated at mccain's unwillingness to debate but instead attempt to squander the other side.

obama wants to help us - ALL of us. not just the veterans, not just the poor, not just the wealthy. everyone. that right there should be reason enough to win the election.

you might not like obama because he wants to raise taxes. however, $250,000 is a lot of money. my parents house is barely half that much. maybe a little more than half to be fair. i know plenty of people that make $80,000 and they are very well off. so if those who make more than 250-grand need to fork over another grand or two, what's the big deal? did you ever think that it just might help the economy? do you know that over 450 economists (10 of which were nobel laureates in the subject) not only disliked bush's tax cuts, but told him it was a bad idea.

in a recession people don't need money. people need jobs. the unemployment rate in ohio alone is 7.5%. nationwide it's 6.5%. 4% is the porridge that's just right. if businesses keep shipping jobs overseas this will definitely increase. this is where it gets interesting. as our economy heads south, so does the rest of the world. we live in an age of economic globalization, the likes of which we have never seen before.

i wish that people would get rid of the mentality that you need a college education to get a good job. you don't! factory jobs are very respectable. they are integral to the economy. somebody needs to make the stuff that everyone buys. why should that somebody live in china? or india? or jordan? malaysia? mexico? venezuela? indonesia? why not the united states? ha. ha. sorry. i'm joking about that last one... 

Getting the ball rolling

So, it's 5-something in the morning, and I had a recent onset of writers' block while doing some Med School apps (a criminal process, but maybe more on that later), and I thought I might try to get the ball rolling here in the blog. I've never been an avid reader of blogs, save a few medically related ones, and I certainly never contributed much, except for once or twice on Stanek's old site. I'm really excited about this though...we should get some pretty interesting input with our different backgrounds, and it'll give us a chance to keep in touch throughout the year. I guess I'll give everyone a little update as to where I am, what I'm doing, and why I have better than a 33% chance of getting divorced at least once before settling down with a family.

Right now, I'm a senior at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, a private school known for having horrible parties, a zombie-like student body, and a large amount of premed pricks who pretend like they're the shit. Ironically, I don't really like premeds...except for a handful of awesome premed friends, they generally just get on my nerves (maybe more on that later too). I'm majoring in Biology and Medical Anthropology, and currently trying to find a med school that I want/wants me. I'm usually up until 6 in the morning, either playing online poker, studying, or dissecting some poor creature in the lab (or a combination), and four hours of sleep is usually the norm. Life is sweet.

I should probably mention my future goals and whatnot. The plan is to go to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, but this is easier said than done. After this year, I'll have four years of med school, six or seven years of a general surgery residency, and two or three years of a cardiothoracic fellowship. I may even tag on one more year for transplant or pediatric surgery just for fuck's sake. After these 12-15 years, I'll actually be where I want to be. So I'll be about 33-36 before I can really practice cardiothoracic surgery on my own. And they say doctors are in it for the money. Heh. I also want to do some work with Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, or some similar organization...not sure where that'll fit in, but it's gonna get done.

Well, I'm sure we'll all discover new and interesting things about each other, but this should do for a quick update. Like I said, I can't wait for the discussions to start.

Jim

Welcome to the Freedom Speakeasy!

In ye olden days, the tavern was a place for the free exchange of ideas. Philosophies, politics, world views and--of course--booze came together in a free-flowing intellectual back-and-forth in which radicals, reactionaries, and town drunkards rubbed elbows. No topic of discussion was off the table, no patron's reservoir of expertise untapped. Taverns were the epitome of freedom. Or at least that's how they exist in my idealized vision of the past.

In the 1920s, when only outlaws could drink and be merry, the speakeasy was born. The last bastions of lewd liberty in a war-ravaged world, these rough-and-tumble establishments were the after-dinner junk food to the tavern's more nourishing main course. In addition to being the louder, rowdier cousins of the tavern, speakeasies became powerful centers of uncivil disobedience and added a dash of insanity to a nation drunkenly stumbling toward near-total collapse.

It's in the spirit of these two great American institutions that we present the Freedom Speakeasy. Part intellectual meandering of curious citizens of the world, part underground Roaring Twenties self-indulgence, the Freedom Speakeasy unites the free-spirited tavern with the free-wheeling speakeasy. An aspiring Engineer, Doctor, Historian, and Policy Wonk (no, this last one isn't a real profession) reflect on life, the universe, things they know about, and things they don't. Welcome. Start a tab.