>So grad school really sucks the life out of you. Meaning blogging doesn’t happen. And now, because blogging hasn’t happened in a while, I have too much to say. Let’s see how far I get:

First, I’m happy to report that grad school kicks ass. Going back felt like going home. Back to the land of paper writing, arguing with Marxists/Libertarians/Conservatives, and discussing the inner workings of the Just War tradition. Bliss. But holy crap it’s busy. It’s not really the classes that are crazy – although the classes do bend the mind in ways I never thought possible – it’s everything else….the TAing, the RAing, the always-degrading-rarely-rewarding hunt for grad school funding, the conferences, etc. I know people who have social lives but I like to tell myself that they aren’t doing well in class (even though I know that’s not true). I’ve been told it gets easier though so here’s hoping.

Second, and related to the first, I’m back to TAing only this time I’m marking…a lot. And holy hellfire but marking, especially marking first year papers, is one serious test of the sanity. In order to highlight what I’ve had to spend my Saturdays reading, the following is a list of interesting “facts” of which I was not aware before I began marking:

-Osama bin Laden and George W Bush planned the war in Afghanistan years before it actually happened so that the United States would be able to attack China if it had to.

-Africa is not a continent but is, in fact, a country.

-Rwanda has no history after the 19th century.

-Multi-national corporations are socially responsible and are picked on too much.

-the United Nations deserves its own neutral territory and army.

-peace in the Middle East is possible if we just give Jerusalem to the Palestinians.

-the US started the Cold War in 1979.

In actual fact, it’s not the ideas that bug me half as much as the absolutely APPALLING grammar. I mean my good god people. If you are 18 and do not know the difference between there, their, and they’re, we have a problem.

Phew, I knew I would get tired half way into this. I’ll complete this post tomorrow.