(no subject)

In a thread in The Other Place on a topic I'll get to in a moment, one of the usual Tea Party shower said, "if you want to get money out of politics, get government out of our lives."

I replied:

"Yes, get the government out of our lives! I hate having police, firefighters, teachers, sanitation workers, roads, bridges, street lights, libraries, science research, armed forces, crossing guards at schools, low-cost student loans, traffic lights and road signs, safe and discrimination-free workplaces, food that is safe to eat and drugs that do what they say on the label, clean air and clean water, safe skies and airports.

Let's get government out of our lives.

Not."

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.

awesome Stephen Fry

some great comments from an interview in 2009

To me mood is the equivalent of weather. Weather is real. That’s the important thing to remember about weather. It is absolutely real. When
it rains it rains. It is wet. You get wet. There is no question about it. It’s also true about weather that you can’t control it. You can’t say if I wish hard enough it won’t rain and it’s equally true that if the weather is bad one day it will get better and what I had to learn was to treat my moods like the weather. On the one hand denying that they were there and saying I can’t… I’m not really depressed. Why should I be depressed? I’ve got enough money. I’ve got a job. People like me. There is no reason to be depressed. That’s at stupid as saying there is no reason to have asthma or there is no reason to have the measles. You know you’ve got it. It’s there. It’s not about reason. You don’t get depressed because bad things happen to you. That’s getting pissed off and annoyed. That’s reasonable. Someone hits you in the face you go ow, you know that’s… but depression is something that happens like weather to you inside you and it’s not about… It could be triggered by something unfortunate, but it isn’t… You know it’s not enough to talk yourself out of it by saying but I shouldn’t be depressed because I’ve got people who are nice to me, which is frustrating for people outside. They go, “Don’t be depressed.” “Everyone loves you.” “You’re really happy.” “You’ve got a good life.” I know. That is what is so depressing. I can’t help it.

Postgraduate Studies: Round # 274

I've talked to The Archivist and gotten comments and recommendations from him about possible research topics. I've narrowed down the possible topics to, essentially two, reflecting two divergent directions I could go in with my studies.

Topic Area #1--early modern Britain, especially Scotland: the development of structures of political power and authority in Stuart Scotland, either a comparative study with Tudor England or a focused look at the conflict between the centralising movement under James V and his successors and the traditionally independent Lordship of the Isles.

Topic Area #2--the American revolution and the history of the British Army: the integration of non-English officers (especially Germans) in the British Army during the American Revolution. The Archivist is especially excited about this idea, as anyone who knows him will understand. :-)

I had ideas for #3 and #4 and so on (the War for Three Kingdoms, Jacobite politics and espionage, Canadian/Scottish/American experience of WWI), but one has to *narrow down*, not expand, at least at this stage.

The leading contenders for history studies (at least in *my* book) right now are Glasgow (early modern Scotland), Edinburgh (early modern Scotland, American Revolution), Strathclyde (early modern Scotland), Stirling (American Revolution), Leeds (British military history), Birmingham (British military history), and Exeter (British military history). Yes, three universities from South of the Border!

I think the next thing to do, having developed a short list of professors at these institutions who work on topics I'm interested in is to start contacting some of them and see whether they are encouraging or discouraging.

Application deadlines vary among these universities, from March to August (!) for entry in September or October of 2013.

ETA: And the application deadline for this Scotland-only scholarship, is May.