Monday, July 31, 2006

Training Day

Today, in lieu of Real Work, I got to attend the university's mandatory staff orientation, along with about 25 other new hires. Rather surprisingly, this involved being driven around New Haven by Denzel Washington, who had us all smoke marijuana laced with PCP and visit the twisted underworld of cops who make all their own rules. Fun fact: the Latin motto "Lux et Veritas" translates to "King Kong Ain't Got Shit on Me!"

Ha ha, no. . . . That's a woefully inaccurate description. Mostly the day involved eating little danishes while listening to details about the university's 403(b) enrollment. Though there was a bus tour involved too.

I opened a new, local checking account this afternoon, which means that I'm fairly well caught up in the Functioning Citizen department, having already forwarded my mail and registered to vote.

Speaking of the vote, I finally stopped thinking too hard and decided to throw my political influence behind Ned Lamont. Basically I realized that I wouldn't even consider voting for Lieberman if he was a Republican, and therefore don't want to vote for him as a Democrat. I don't hate him the way other lefties around here do, but I never really liked him.

Lamont has very limited political experience, but he appears to be competent enough and I think that's about all you can hope to gather about a guy. I always liked Bloomberg in NYC and for that reason the business-to-politics transition doesn't strike me as a negative.

It's not about Lieberman being a "hawk"; if he was using his hawkish street cred to make the right criticisms about the conduct of this war (even while maintaining his stance on its justification), things would be different. But why carry water for the administration here?

Obviously, whichever way it breaks, this election won't really help anything in Iraq. But, you know, it's good to have something to think about.

Other things that may have subtly helped me make up my mind include Stephen Colbert, the New York Times' endorsement, and a pickup truck driving around New Haven this weekend with a paper-maché sculpture in the back portraying George W. Bush kissing Lieberman. In fairness, it should be said that the actual kiss wasn't on the lips, and I think their mouths were closed.

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