The Tedder P. Schoenhopfer Policy Exchange

School mistakes huge burrito for weapon, goes into lockdown

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7683168/

Check out the clinic I got into and will be doing next year:

NY Capital Defender Clinic

The students are staging a filibuster at PU at the Frist Campus Center — named for you-know-who. My friend is going to read, “My Pet Goat” when it’s his turn. This is our state assemblyman, Reed Gusciora filibustering.

article at Daily Kos

Liz and Randy are having a boy and a girl probably around the first of June.

In my death penalty class, I learned an interesting fact recently: 4 out of 5 soldiers in World War II failed to fire their weapons directly at the enemy on the battlefield. The number of “aimers” (those who shot at the enemy) jumped to 95% in Vietnam; not because men had become more bloodthirsty, but because of “the vastly improved psychological manipulation in training methods.” These include desensitization (including the chant, “kill, kill, kill”), learning to shoot reflexively and instantly, and “cultivation of denial,” i.e. instilling a feeling that the enemy is a mere target, not a human being.

The above information is quoted/ paraphrased from Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell, _Who Owns Death?: Capital Punishment, The American Conscience, and the End of Executions_, referring to a book by Dave Grossman called _On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society_. Another great article, “The Last Executioner [in NY],” can be found here. As you may know, the NY State Legislature recently voted not to reinstate capital punishment.

_Who Owns Death?_ is about the psychological toll that executions play on all those involved; many executioners become severely depressed and/or commit suicide. When I read this, I thought back to a moment in Fahrenheit 9/11. It is an interview with young soldiers in Iraq, who talk about what music they listen to on their headphones to get “pumped up” as they’re driving around and shooting people. This was the most powerful moment of the movie for me. At first I thought, “that is despicable, they’re treating this like a video game.” But then I thought: “these are kids, no older than Evvie, who are dealing with the horror of having to kill.”

Just some food for thought. Back to studying for now, but coming soon: a post on the NYU Scalia controversy, and my first bachelorette party. Also mom, I put this in “current events,” but maybe there would be a better category to create?

My computer was going eh-eh-eh and straining, getting slower and slower, and then it got black and gave messages of doom. It was the hard drive. I’m using my desk top, but the other computer, my laptop, is my main computer and it’s really terrible not having it. I fed-exed it to Uncle Mike who might be able to extract crucial files. Then I can probably get a new hard drive because my computer is still under warranty.

In other news, Evvie and I are going up to Burlington, VT Saturday and Sunday to see the University of Vermont, where he’ll probably go in the fall. We’re going with another mother and her daughter, Hilary Gale, who is a friend of Evvie’s. Her brother was in the studio band but I can’t remember his name.

Jon is staying home, relaxing and getting some work done, as well as take care of Tedder.

Ok, I think I did it.

Susan, what was it like when you temped? What did you have to do? I’m suggesting that it might be good for Ricky to apply at a temp agency for the summer but I forget what you did.

Also, Marshall, when you are doing interviews for a geek job, do you talk about being the number one high school jazz trombone player or your high-level Descent rank?

The “smart”unread comments thing doesn’t work very well, but it does notice if you haven’t read a comment so might be worth keeping, even if it tells you over and over you haven’t read the same comment. As you can see, I installed a new comment thingie — which isn’t “smart” in that it doesn’t use cookies, but just displays the last x most recent comments (I put 4). I’m going to leave them both up for a while but let me know if you think.

We had a nice birthday dinner of tacos, Doritos and chocolate cake. Then Evvie and I went to see Sin City. I really liked it. Bruce Willis was perfect and the other two heroes were great– they were more heroic than movie heroes of late — more like heroes of the Romantic period. Also one was very good looking, the one who wasn’t Bruce Willis and wasn’t Mickey Rourke.

It’s official- I’m the chair of the Law Dems next year, and Arastu is the vice chair.

Also, check out my friend Wayne’s toy company, Zoomorphs.

18 years ago Evan made his appearance, at a quite reasonable hour of the morning. Ricky and I got to meet him when he was a few hours old, and we took the picture of the two infant cousins lying on the bed up in the bedroom of the townhouse. I remember that day well!

Happy Birthday, Evvie. I hope you are having a great day.

Love, Aunt Julie

So far, Susan has a job and will be home for the summer, Evvie might have a job and be home for the summer, and Marshall possibly might have a job and be away but might have a job and be home. The question is do you want a CP pool membership?

From the Trenton Times: “Entertainment groups said yesterday they intend to sue hundreds of students - including at least 25 at Princeton University - accused of illegally distributing copyrighted songs and films across college campuses using the private research network, which boasts speeds hundreds of times faster than the Internet.”

Read the whole article: students targetted by RIAA

Susan and Marshall (and Maggie and Randy), do your schools use internet2? Students are getting arrested for stealing copyrighted material!!!