Welcome to the 2nd Annual Patsy Awards: feel free to disagree or add your own thoughts/awards/nominees.

The Oghene "OG" Oyiborhoro Memorial Stealing of SA Money for Something Shitty Award:

• The entire SA (besides Logan) for the $50,000 clusterF#ck that was Unity Ball. Special emphasis goes to Vishal and our newest President Julie Bindelglass for funneling the money from The SA and other student orgs. Leading me to my next award....

The Lamar Thorpe Award for unnecessary ranting and self importance:

• Michael Tapscott for his 20 minute rant/ yelling fit at mostly drunk people Unity Ball. Tapscott was the first of about a dozen or so "Diversity" speakers and dance groups that slowly murdered the buzz at Unity Ball.

The Home Depot Tool of the Year:

• Tie: Between Logan and Steve Glatter
  

Pulitzer-GW :

• The six Hatchet editors who came to one meeting to try and out liveblog us, Apparently The Hatchet fears any sort of competition.

Most likely to kill you as much as look at you:

• Tie: Grad Senator Michelle Tanney, she should have been called Michelle Talon, woman strikes fear into the hearts of many and would claw your heart out if she could and Greta "I will fuckin break you/187" Twombly
  

Best/Worst Person of the Year:
3-way tie: Vishal's Moustache, Greta "Kill Bodies" Twombly and Logan "InsidetheSA" Dobson

Here.

Also the Office of Sustainability celebrated Earth Day by having a Charcoal burning, carbon emitting cook out in Kogan yesterday, oh and we also have dozens of high carbon emitting vehicles at Square 54 building a huge not so small footprint building, not to mention the dozens of University owed/rented Vehicles that are idled for 12 hours a day (looking at you Vern Express)

Me thinks its not just the fact that Thurston is old.

Let's talk pot, shall we?

Prohibition is a dirty word in 21st century America, as it should be! Those in American society who look down their noses at people who drink are seen as infantile or immature or simply no fun. The neo-puritanical view of smoking (cigarettes or cigars) is treated similarly, though it has become increasingly acceptable to push smokers to the fringes of American society.

But today those kids who will be filing legal briefs in 15 years on how smoking in front of a building should be illegal are toking up and flooding CampusFood with orders. Prohibition still exists today in the form of marijuana criminalization (and the criminalization other illegal drugs, for that matter). That we as a society laugh at the silliness of a constitutional amendment banning alcohol yet are unbothered by marijuana prohibition is just another sign of how twisted American political life is today. At least our forefathers cared enough about the Constitution to amend it.

There are a few simple reasons to legalize pot, and no better day than an arbitrary and ridiculous holiday to discuss them. Here they are:

1. Prohibition of marijuana has not lowered drug use. After 75 years of criminalization more people use pot then ever and cannibis is the largest cash crop in America.

2. Marijuana prohibition funnels millions to criminals around the world. Because growing is illegal in America, smuggling is an incredibly lucrative practice. And with smuggling comes violence and police corruption. Instead of pot money going to businessmen or honest growers, far too often it goes to criminals.

3. Marijuana has been shown to be significantly less addictive to many legal substances and not one fatality hs ever, in human history, been attributed to a marijuana overdose. Fairness under law would require lawmakers to be honest with the American people. If not for business interests in alcohol and tobacco, wouldn't they be treated similarly?

4. About 750,000 people are arrested for marijuana possession every year. These crimes, which are wholly victimless and trivial, clog up an already stretched justice system and take valuable manhours from police forces which could be used to stop, i don't know. crimes that have actual victims. As murders and rapes rise in our cities, we're locking up people for smoking reefer, a practice our greatest founding father and the namesake of our school did regularly.

5. Most importantly, it is an issue of liberty. If the government has the right to bar harmless substances from entering my own body at my own choosing, we are allowing the government to control something they have no right controlling. Not to say marijuana has no averse effects, it surely does. But so does ice cream or Cinnabon or, hell, democracy.

So toke up, GW! You might accidentally lighten up and have fun. Maybe you'll discover the greatness of American Beauty. 4/20 may be a dumb novelty, but the best way to get rid of it is to legalize pot.

At this very moment, Logan is arguing his court case against Steve Glatter's Finance Bill that would essentially give grad student orgs a blank check and zero oversight.

We'll keep you updated.

Not really sure what's going on, but sources confirm that the Senate will have an emergency meeting, Tuesday on the Vern. Apparently this has something to do with constitutional changes that Grad Senator Michelle Tanney wants to get done..
More on this as it develops

Will is running for CR Secretary (Go vote for him tomorrow!) and Logan is elsewhere, so there will probably be no Liveblogging tonight!

It’s that time of year again. The College Republicans are holding their executive board election, and it looks like there are going to be a few interesting races. While the it seems that the competition for Chairman and Vice Chair will be most likely be left uncontested, there’s definitely going to be a fight for the Public Relations, Political affairs and Membership Director spots. Judging from the facebook groups that have already formed, the political landscape is shaping up to pit sophomores against freshmen. One such battle – arguably the most hotly contested race - is between current Secretary Andrew Clark and Freshman Representative Conor Rogers over the PR position. Rogers’ grip on the frosh vote is tight, but Clark has the advantage of having been around longer.

Perhaps most importantly though: one of our own – current Patriot Layout Editor and future Managing Editor Will Frey – is running for the Secretary spot. If you’re a CR, go vote for him - he’s going to do great things for the Conservative movement on campus.

We’ll have a more complete idea of who is running when the candidacy submission deadline passes later tonight. The election will be held in the Marv at 7pm on Thursday, for those of you interested in voting.

SR-S09-19

Senate Resolution

“Honoring an Outstanding Student Journalist”

SR-S09-19 Committee: Student Life

Sponsor: Logan Dobson (CCAS-U)

Co-Sponsors:

Purpose: To recognize the service of an important student journalist.

WHEREAS Bill Flanigen was the first student journalist to liveblog a Senate meeting,

WHEREAS He remains the best person to liveblog a Senate meeting,

WHEREAS His investigative work and unique perspective have brought about a new interest in the SA among the general student body,

WHEREAS His work will be missed after his graduation by the student body and student leaders alike.,

AND RECOGNIZING That this is exactly the type of resolutions that Bill Flanigen despises most in the SA,

BE IT RESOLVED that The George Washington University Student Association recognizes Bill Flanigen’s many contributions to student journalism and student government alike, and wishes him well on any future endeavors he may pursue.

Some Senior "unbeliever" is trying to kick God out of GW.
...or at least just out of graduation. This is of course a hot tempered issue, as most issues of religion tend to be. I think when it comes to an issue such as invocation, those crying "God" are mistaken. While an invocation may have its roots in a Judeo-Christian God, the modern "Invocation" is something of a much more open-ended, broad nature, not particularly geared towards any religion or religion in general. But this is an issue that I think should be discussed because there are valid points to both sides.

What do you think?

Billboard Magazine had an article the other day showing that after iTunes introduced variable pricing (pricing songs at 69 cents, 99 cents & $1.29), people have responded by reducing their purchases of the more expensive songs, and increasing their purchases of the lower priced songs. While this may seem like a "no duh" type of conclusion, the thing that is interesting is that iTunes priced the most popular songs at the higher rate. People are responding more to the price of the song rather than the popularity of the song. According to Billboard:

Meredith Madden, GW Law Student and former Patriot contributer has been nominated to the SA Student Court by Vishal.This comes on the heels of the Rules committee rejecting Steve Glatter's nomination to the court.

Congrats Meredith!

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• Green Jobs Myths
• 10 Smart People That Died In Stupid Ways

Sorry about no links today, I've been battling a cold and have been swamped with work.

More than two years have passed since we started this blog (and even longer since I became involved with the Patriot as the "token libertarian" in a band of merry conservatives), and it is finally time for me to say good-bye to all of our loyal and not-so-loyal readers, colleagues, and friends.

It has been a bothersome, bizarre, controversial ride, but it has also been fun, funny, exciting, groundbreaking, and delicious. Now and then, it has even been enlightening. I will miss the Patriot dearly, and I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.

I've gotten to know a lot of great people while writing and blogging here. You know who you are. I can't name you all. I thank you heartily for tolerating my oddness, and I wish you all the best of luck in the future. Do keep in touch.

May the road rise up to meet you, all of you, always.

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• The Nuclear Illusionist
• 20 Overrated Movies

Over at Georgetown, a minor hurricane is whipping around the Hoya, the campus' paper of record, and their annual April Fools Day edition.

We've criticized the Hatchet in the past for "going for the easy joke" in their April Fools writing--a common error among amateurs dabbling comedy, and an error that usually leads to dirty jokes. Often, people struggling to gin up jokes default on the raunchy, the offensive, and the ill-advised. This year, the Hatchet managed to avoid this--mostly. The Hoya, though...well, read for yourself. By turns, the Hoya's articles were disgusting and racist, making light of a diversity initiative, a serial break-in artist/molester, interracial sex, Chinese people, and the (not-so-)Virgin Mary. Yeah, so basically they were imitating the Patriot.

The backlash was quick and fierce. A Facebook group. A Town Hall meeting. A sit-in at the Hoya's office. An angry op-ed.

The Hoya's Editor-in-Chief, Andrew Dwulet, published an apology on April 3:

What we did underscores a broader problem at THE HOYA and at Georgetown. We recognize that we are not as diverse as we can be, and it is something we need to work on. Certain insensitive jokes only further reveal that we are to some extent out of touch with many students’ real-life experiences, and the ways in which these jokes could cause pain.

How to take the measure of this? As a partisan of the free press, I refuse to condemn the Hoya, and I think the "whispers of disciplinary actions" against them are absurd. I have a couple of suggestions, though: first, anger about this isn't to be taken lightly. Complaints levied against jokes like these are as old as the jokes themselves, and represent a serious demand from members of marginalized or "different" groups for social acceptance as more than just figures of fun. Obviously, that doesn't mean that every cry of oppression comes from the lips of persecuted saints, but people who make jokes without considering the offense those jokes could give are not always "brave" and "politically incorrect." Usually, they're just annoying.

Second, shit like this just isn't funny. It doesn't take a lot of creativity or a natural instinct for humor to write 200 words about interracial sex between blacks and whites. There are ways that you could make interracial sex funny, but just writing about it isn't enough to make people laugh. I would argue that less offensive articles would have been funnier in the Hoya. If someone is going to insult me with a joke, it might as well be a good one.

Hey, have you heard the one about the Hoya editor, three midget lesbians, a black guy and an imam? They walk into a bar, and...

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As I celebrate Opening Day and the WFCs run to repeat, I thought I would share a fantastic George Carlin bit about the differences between football and baseball. Enjoy:

Baseball and football are the two most popular spectator sports in this country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something about ourselves and our values.

I enjoy comparing baseball and football:

Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.

Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.

Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park. The baseball park!

Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.

Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.

Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.

In football you wear a helmet.

In baseball you wear a cap.

Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?

Baseball is concerned with ups - who's up?

In football you receive a penalty.

In baseball you make an error.

In football the specialist comes in to kick.

In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.

Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.

Baseball has the sacrifice.

Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...

In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play.

Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.

Football has the two minute warning.

Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra innings.

Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death.

In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness.

In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.

And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!

HT: LRC

A video instead of links today:

• Budget Debate Shows DC Politicians In Denial
• Obama's Losing Bet On Detroit
• What's In The Immediate Future For GM & Chrysler
• Gamble It In Vegas, Or Let Your Family Pay The Taxes
• NAFTA Trade Is Down 27%
• "No Child Left Indoors" Targets Lazy Video Game Playing Kids

• First They Come After The Rich...
• Doubling Down On The Welfare State
• Obama's Recovery Is Not Your Recovery
• The GOP's Alternative Budget
• The G-20's Funny Money
• What Would Bloggers Do For Recovery?