I rock

First and foremost, let me just restate for the record: Dr. Dobson is a radical jackass who has shifted from "psychologist" to evangelical politician. Is he a minister? Who cares. He has self-described "ministries", he routinely preaches to people on his radio show, and he makes no bones about his belief that policy should be shaped by his own particularly narrow brand of religious fervor. While he does explicitly say he is not an "ordained minister" on his website, if it looks like a duck, talks like a duck, and walks like a duck...Either way he's a total jackass and should be continually ridiculed into irrelevance.

Anyway, I normally don't go into the details of my school work because I know that they're not altogether entertaining, but this time I will. As I mentioned, this has been a tough week. Too many things to do, not enough time to do them. But, I got everything done and I was a smashing success. Yesterday was entirely enjoyable.

In our US Foreign Policy class, we have to engage in some role play. Not kinky, in the bedroom, japanese school girl type stuff - instead, we have to act like either Rummy or Condi and brief the Prez on a revelant foreign policy issue currently unfolding and what the US response should be. To go with it is a 1200 word memo (because Bush can't read more than 3 pages at a time) that describes the problem, discusses options, and makes recommendations. I selected Colombia and the FARC (guerilla movement). For obvious reasons I have been interested in Colombia for awhile and I figured this would pretty much be my only chance to study it since my program has zero classes on Latin or South America.

Anyway, the exercise was totally enjoyable because I got to act like Condi. This wasn't me writing a policy memo. This was what I though Condi Rice would say to Bush. And that's a pretty fun exercise because it's not every day you get to act like a neocon. But the real piece dé resistance was that I used my Colombian contacts to get a variety of graphic photographs of violence, cocaine seizure, and things of that nature that I inserted into my powerpoint presentation. It added a certain drama and flair to my brieifing that I never would have had without a few Colombian friends.

Of course, I felt really good about it because I was really only targeting one person with my presentation and that is the Colombian girl in my class. No one else in the class has any clue about Colombia or FARC. To Americans, Colombia is just where the cocaine comes from. To the rest of the world, they barely know that much. But Angela is from Colombia, she's from the ruling class of the educated and mobile, she knows what it's like there. In the end, I got her approval. She said that she thought I would miss a few details (being a "norte americano" and all), but that I hit everything I needed to hit and she was impressed.

The other thing that I really enjoyed is that there is a 15 minute grilling session after each presentation (questions, not sausages). Because I have a penchant to ask the tough questions that people are not prepared for, they always come after me with the most difficult questions they can imagine. I say bring it on. I'm ready. Last night was no different. The Q&A session actually stretched on for 25 minutes and I loved every second. I see it as competition. It's not that I'm necessarily smarter than these people, it's that I have years of experience being asked tough questions, having prepared answers, and having to think on the fly and make stuff up from debate. So they really have no chance. But it's nice to joust with Eurotrash and the South African because their questions are usually pretty good.

So, I'm in a pretty damn good mood today. I worked my ass off this week, I was a smashing success, I got a haircut (and a eurostyle that I had to immediately undo when I got home), and I'm going out with Ms. Colombia tonight. Absent winning the lotto, I'd say things are pretty good right now. Plus, Real World paid me the money she owes me.