I'm going to shamelessly steal this from Susannah's livejournal

I was absolutely delighted by this excerpt from Susannah Grossman's livejournal (S - I hope you don't mind!!). Context: description of songs, that's pretty much all you need to know.

"4. Dead Kennedys, "Terminal Preppie"

I always use this song's lyrics as an example to John to try and explain what many of my fellow University of Pennsylvania students are like. "My ambition in life/ is too look good on paper/All I want is a slot/in some big corporation! I'm not here to learn/I just want to get drunk! And major in Business/and learn how to fuck!" Also, I love the bits about the empty beer can trophies and idolizing John Belushi, as well as the off-pitch Sousa-marching band motif of the song: the sour trumpets and trombones rapidly punctuating each of Jello's affirmations as if they were touchdowns."

Again, I hope you don't mind Susannah, but it is lovely. Almost as lovely as the baklava at Tchai Ovna, my god, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Give Glasgow a kiss for me!

I Heart Family Guy.

"Santa is Asian."
"How can Santa be Asian, he doesn't drive a sled twenty miles an hour under the speed limit with his blinker on?!"

"You people can kiss the fattest part of my ass."

"Look there's Harvard."
"That's just a barn."
"Ohhh, someone went to Yale!"

Weekend Update.

Willie Nelson/Bob Dylan concert = amazing

Highlights:
On The Road Again
60+ year old couple next to me smoking pot
Visions of Johanna
"Are you trying to relieve yourself son?"
Matt's parents' friends
All Along the Watchtower

I wish I could've spent more time with my folks though. I didn't even do anything (besides a car) for my pops on Father's Day. I'm a horrible daughter. I did get to spend a whole day with Katie though. She's so cool. My mom was telling me that at her softball game yesterday, she pointed to the outfield, all hardcore like, and then hit it way out there! So cool.

Not much has happened here since then. I almost got abducted by a fire engine yesterday, Tash came over and we drank champagne on a Monday ("You know that you only have one more year until that's called alcoholism.") and discussed the Roman statue rule, I've been chatting with Paul for ages, typical stuff. Now I'm watching Becky's Family Guy dvds that I stole. Boring.

In other news, "The Future Freaks Me Out" by Motion City Soundtrack.

Secret to Productivity - Get Mono!!!

I have got to be the strangest person alive. So, I found out I had mono etc. etc. and started to feel a lot better yesterday. Since I had already decided to take off work, I was left with a whole day and nothing to do. Did I rest? Of course not! I hung photos, cleaned my room, decorated, printed out pictures, danced around, and did all of my ironing. Bloody ridiculous stuff. And I am still feeling great (although I did make it to work today). I got a lot done tonight too, although I must admit there was more dancing then actual productivity tonight. Speaking of dancing, Matt was lovely enough to make me a glorious mixed cd that I haven't stopped playing (except to listen to the new Coldplay cd (X & Y) and Belle and Sebastian reissue (Push the Barman to Open Old Wounds) that came in the mail the other day (I love you Amazon!) which are both fantastic) and he put another B&S song on it that I just can't resist shaking my booty to, no matter how hard I try, called Your Cover's Blown. Download it immediately. Like now.

Other than that, life has been pretty ho-hum. We had a fire alarm at work today - not a drill, I think an actual fire. Which was fun because it meant going down five flights only to get caught out in the rain. Good stuff. Oh and I created the door o' narcissism. You'll have to visit my room to see it, but it is priceless. I seriously cannot be left alone without things to do - I get a little too creative with my time.

I think I'm heading back to good ol' Lancaster county this weekend for father's day, some rest and the Bob Dylan / Willie Nelson concert. Should be a splendid time. Oh, and loan consolidation is a pain in the arse. A big one.

I wish I had deeper thoughts to convey, but I don't. My apologies, gentle readers. Do come visit another time. Pleasant dreams.

The minister is my uncle's (and cousin's) friend Ryan, who got ordained online, much like my former housemate Chris, and my cousin Larry, anxiously awaiting his bride. Although he doesn't look very happy, does he? Marriage is a lot like death, in a way.... hee hee.

My Uncle Larry and Aunt Kay (parents of the groom) getting their groove on at sunset. There are a few essentials of a Peachey/Keen family wedding and Aunt Kay's dancing is just one of them. Seriously, my family knows how to have a good time.

My uncle Ralph and friend, Eddie Davis after the ceremony. They loved the kilts.

My mom and my cousin Hunter at the altar of sorts. It was really pretty, as you can probably see.

Uncle Kevin and I at Larry's Wedding. My uncle later made a concoction of various liquors, grape soda and wine and named it "Larry's Wedding" (and forced us all to take shots of it out of a gigantic plastic bottle).

Mommom (kind've out of the pic) and Poppop busting out the moves on our deck at my mom's party.

Katie in her catcher's gear. Man, she is so hardcore! 

Bec and I went to one of Katie's softball games and were completely obnoxious the whole time. This is a great shot of Becky launching fruit snacks at me. 

"I wanted to say something serious, but all I can think about is Trevor MacDonald. I'm thankful for Trevor MacDonald." -Bari

I know I haven't written anything of my own for awhile, so I'm giving it a shot. It turns out that I have mono, so I'm resting up for a couple days before I go back to work. Resting up basically constitutes lying on my ass, drinking Naked juices and watching videos. I watched "Back to School" last night which was awesome, if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. And I watched "Big Fish" this afternoon, which I hadn't seen in awhile, and had forgotten how sad and sentimental it is - I wept like a baby at the end (in a sad-happy way). After that, I got the great idea to watch my videos from the semester in Scotland, and already being in a sentimental state of mind, it was not the cleverest thought. I got super nostalgic and now I'm stuck thinking about how great it was. Not the best thing to be doing when you're imprisoned in a room with nothing but a television and various pills to keep you company.

The videos were great - there were lots of things I had forgotten about. The Thanksgiving day speeches were probably one of the best parts. Although I got some great footage of Paul, Terry and I singing Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" in a bar (Delmonica's). There were lots of gorgeous shots from my trips away as well - St. Andrews, Liverpool, London and Ireland. And of Becky and I's trip to Glen Coe. Super duper triple sigh. Good times.

So I went to my cousin Larry's wedding two weeks ago, which was so down-home country but fabulous. He went with an Irish theme, so everything was green and all the men wore kilts. I'll post a couple pictures of that after this entry. There were crawfish for ages and drinking until 5, typically Peachey family wedding. At one point, the groom even jumped in the river. Classy stuff.

I met Matt and a friend of his for drinks last Thursday. We started out at Monk's where I found a fabulous Belgian lambic beer, raspberry flavored, that doesn't even really taste like beer - which was great, because now I know that even my non-beer-loving friends can join us for nights at Monk's, which is great because that place is really growing on me. We also hit up The Irish Pub (which actually is a sad excuse for an Irish pub, they didn't even have Murphy's!) and a classy little joint called Tria, which girls, we will definitely have to visit in our own time.

I made it out to Phoenixville for my friends' (well really, my uncle Kevin's friends) barbeque, which was really nice. It's so refreshing sometimes to get out of the city. I mean, I loooove the city, but a bit of a break makes you really appreciate things like fresh air, views of the stars at night, etc. Again, it turned out to be another drink-a-thon where I didn't even sleep at all. But it was nice and there was some really good chat.

And then the mono started acting up again (although at the time, I didn't even know it was mono). The symptoms started on Sunday and I called off from work on Monday and somehow dragged my pathetic sick ass to Student Health where I was properly diagnosed and given medications. Things have been looking up since then, I'm feeling much better and might even go in to work tomorrow. We'll see.

So I guess that's me, all caught up. Not much else to report. I hope to finish Sartre's The Wall (a collection of short stories) soon and maybe start working with my Europe videos. I guess I never mentioned it before, but my mom's surprise birthday shindig went really well, she had no idea. The weeks I spent at home before and after my last little jaunt to Scotland were really nice. There are lots of fun photos and my sisters and I being stupid, as well as of my mother. I may post a few of the funnier ones as well. I should be updating this more often now that I don't have a lot of school work to do, but then again, my life's a little less exciting now, so maybe not. I guess we'll see.

Hope everyone else's summers are going swimmingly. Ciao!

Darth Vader's Family Values (New York Times)

By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: May 21, 2005

Wherever you are, Adam Smith, call your agent. Darth Vader is stealing your best stuff.

The new installment of "Star Wars" has set off the usual dreary red-blue squabble, with liberals using the film to attack Republicans, and some conservatives calling for a boycott. But - and I know this is hard to believe for a movie with characters named General Grievous and Count Dooku - there's actually a serious bipartisan lesson about the dark side of politics.

If you can sit through the endless light-saber duels and robotic dialogue, you finally see what turned Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. He set out to become a Jedi knight who will use the Force for good, but he's traumatized, first by the murder of his mother, then by a vision that his wife will die in childbirth.

His fears are manipulated by Chancellor Palpatine, the leader of the Senate (who's being compared to Senator Bill Frist in Moveon.org commercials). When this oily politician extols the power of the dark side of the Force, Anakin at first protests that those who use it think "only of themselves," whereas the Jedi are "selfless" and "only care about others."

He says he could never betray the Jedi because they're his family, but then the chancellor puts the family question in perspective: "Learn to know the dark side of the Force, Anakin, and you will be able to save your wife from certain death." Anakin promptly recognizes the limits of altruism, just as Adam Smith did in the 18th century.

Smith knew that some people professed love for all humanity, but he realized that a man's love for "the members of his own family" is "more precise and determinate, than it can be with the greater part of other people." Hence his famous warning not to rely on the kindness of strangers outside your family: if you want bread, it's better to count on the baker's self-interest rather than his generosity.

This has never been a popular bit of advice because selfishness is not admired in human societies any more than among Jedi knights. We know it exists, but it feels wrong. We are born with an instinct for altruism because we evolved in clans of hunter-gatherers who would not have survived if they hadn't helped one another through hard times.

The result is an enduring political paradox: we no longer live in clans small enough for altruism to be practical, but we still respond to politicians who promise to make us all part of one big selfless community. We want everyone to be bound together with a shared set of values, a yearning that Daniel Klein, an economist, dubs the People's Romance in the summer issue of The Independent Review.

The People's Romance is his explanation for why so many Americans have come to love bigger government over the past century. Their specific objectives in Washington differed - liberals stressed charity and social programs for all, while conservatives promoted patriotism and spending on national security - but they both expanded the government in their quest for a national sense of shared purpose.

The result, though, has not been one happy community because America is not a clan with shared values. It is a huge group of strangers with leaders who are hardly altruists - they have their own families and needs. Tocqueville recognized the inherent problem with the People's Romance when he described citizens' contradictory impulses to be free while also wanting a government that is "unitary, protective and all-powerful."

People try to resolve this contradiction, Tocqueville wrote, by telling themselves that democracy makes them masters of politicians, but they soon find that the Force is not with them, especially if they're in the minority. Republicans used to rail helplessly at Democrats for taxing them for destructive social programs and curtailing their economic liberties; now Democrats complain about the money squandered on the Iraq war and the threat to civil liberties from the Patriot Act.

For those Democrats, the signature line in this "Star Wars" is the one spoken after the chancellor, citing security threats, consolidates his power by declaring that the republic must become an empire. Senator Padmé listens to her colleagues cheer and says, "So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause."

She's disgusted with them, but their enthusiasm is understandable. The chancellor has tapped into their primal desire to unite in one great clan with a shared purpose. They're in the throes of the People's Romance.

For further reading:

“The People’s Romance: Why People Love Government (As Much As They Do)” by Daniel Klein, Santa Clara University (working paper).

The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation by Matt Ridley (Penguin Books, 295 pp., 1998).

The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith.

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

E-mail: tierney@nytimes.com

Atheism

"Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today..."

Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens

1

Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.
She dreams a little, and she feels the dark
Encroachment of that old catastrophe,
As a calm darkens among water-lights.
The pungent oranges and bright, green wings
Seem things in some procession of the dead,
Winding across wide water, without sound.
The day is like wide water, without sound.
Stilled for the passing of her dreaming feet
Over the seas, to silent Palestine,
Dominion of the blood and sepulchre.

2

Why should she give her bounty to the dead?
What is divinity if it can come
Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,
In pungent fruit and bright green wings, or else
In any balm or beauty of the earth,
Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?
Divinity must live within herself:
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch.
These are the measure destined for her soul.

3

Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth.
No mother suckled him, no sweet land gave
Large-mannered motions to his mythy mind.
He moved among us, as a muttering king,
Magnificent, would move among his hinds,
Until our blood, commingling, virginal,
With heaven, brought such requital to desire
The very hinds discerned it, in a star.
Shall our blood fail? Or shall it come to be
The blood of paradise? And shall the earth
Seem all of paradise that we shall know?
The sky will be much friendlier then than now,
A part of labor and a part of pain,
And next in glory to enduring love,
Not this dividing and indifferent blue.

4

She says, "I am content when wakened birds,
Before they fly, test the reality
Of misty fields, by their sweet questionings;
But when the birds are gone, and their warm fields
Return no more, where, then, is paradise?"
There is not any haunt of prophecy,
Nor any old chimera of the grave,
Neither the golden underground, nor isle
Melodious, where spirits gat them home,
Nor visionary south, nor cloudy palm
Remote on heaven's hill, that has endured
As April's green endures; or will endure
Like her remembrance of awakened birds,
Or her desire for June and evening, tipped
By the consummation of the swallow's wings.

5

She says, "But in contentment I still feel
The need of some imperishable bliss."
Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,
Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams
And our desires. Although she strews the leaves
Of sure obliteration on our paths,
The path sick sorrow took, the many paths
Where triumph rang its brassy phrase, or love
Whispered a little out of tenderness,
She makes the willow shiver in the sun
For maidens who were wont to sit and gaze
Upon the grass, relinquished to their feet.
She causes boys to pile new plums and pears
On disregarded plate. The maidens taste
And stray impassioned in the littering leaves.

6

Is there no change of death in paradise?
Does ripe fruit never fall? Or do the boughs
Hang always heavy in that perfect sky,
Unchanging, yet so like our perishing earth,
With rivers like our own that seek for seas
They never find, the same receding shores
That never touch with inarticulate pang?
Why set pear upon those river-banks
Or spice the shores with odors of the plum?
Alas, that they should wear our colors there,
The silken weavings of our afternoons,
And pick the strings of our insipid lutes!
Death is the mother of beauty, mystical,
Within whose burning bosom we devise
Our earthly mothers waiting, sleeplessly.

7

Supple and turbulent, a ring of men
Shall chant in orgy on a summer morn
Their boisterous devotion to the sun,
Not as a god, but as a god might be,
Naked among them, like a savage source.
Their chant shall be a chant of paradise,
Out of their blood, returning to the sky;
And in their chant shall enter, voice by voice,
The windy lake wherein their lord delights,
The trees, like serafin, and echoing hills,
That choir among themselves long afterward.
They shall know well the heavenly fellowship
Of men that perish and of summer morn.
And whence they came and whither they shall go
The dew upon their feel shall manifest.

8

She hears, upon that water without sound,
A voice that cries, "The tomb in Palestine
Is not the porch of spirits lingering.
It is the grave of Jesus, where he lay."
We live in an old chaos of the sun,
Or old dependency of day and night,
Or island solitude, unsponsored, free,
Of that wide water, inescapable.
Deer walk upon our mountains, and the quail
Whistle about us their spontaneous cries;
Sweet berries ripen in the wilderness;
And, in the isolation of the sky,
At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make
Ambiguous undulations as they sink,
Downward to darkness, on extended wings.

Catch up.

These past few weeks have been SO ridiculous.... and wonderful. I posted a handful of summarizing pics from my time in Scotland, I will probably do a full recap later on, as well as update my gentle readers on my life as of late. Unfortunately, I have work in the morning so I must retire. But do not despair. I'm back at Penn, equipped with high speed internet, and will be tending to you in the near future.

Goodnight friends and lovers,

M.

Paul and I!!! He was definitely the reason for the trip and I miss him already! 

Edinburgh castle!!! Yes, I took that photo... looks like a postcard though, huh? 

Hee hee. 

Rhona and I at Why Not? Clearly a good time! 

University of Edinburgh Old College. Stunning. Paul and I went when the Church of Scotland was in session in one of their lecture theatres. 

Lucy, myself, Kirsty and Emma at Opal Lounge on Rhona's 21st brithday celebration... which was fabulous, of course! 

That's me, cartwheeling in Holyrood Park. Gorgeous... the scenery, not me... well, and me. 

Myself, Emma (right) and Kate (bottom) after a hectic night at the Liquid Rooms.