I’m off to Vermont for my language training on Thursday, which feels strange - like it has happened so quickly. I’ll not be blogging much (if at all) during my time on campus as I’ll have taken a pledge to not speak or use English unless absolutely necessary - and I don’t think blogging qualifies.

The Iranian regime should cast its memory back to 1979 and the protests which led to the collapse of the Shah’s government. The protests which led to the exile of the Shah were started by the killing of Iranian students protesting the Shah’s oppressive policies - the funerals that followed were the spark which lit the brush fire that ended the Pahlavi dynasty and led to the founding of the Islamic republic.

So the death of Neda Soltani spells trouble for the regime. They need to remember that past is often prologue and if the Islamic government’s security forces keep killing students they run the risk of a confligaration which could sweep them out of power forever.

FInally - I’m so thankful for this! I was really starting to wonder.

Click here for the good news!!!

In the last election I gave $1800 to Obama in the primary and $2100 in the general election. In return he’s instructed DOJ to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) while waffling on the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT). We’re still waiting for the Mathhew Shephard Act and ENDA to pass congress while he issues flowery proclamations on the anniversary of Stonewall.

So today after receiving another pleading e-mail from the Obama campaign asking me to volunteer time and effort into passing their health reform act (something I do support) I withdrew my name as one of their supporters and asked them to stop contacting me until DOMA and DADT are repealed. Furthermore I won’t give one penny to the Democratic party or any other Democratic candidate until that happens.

Obama’s betrayals wouldn’t be so galling if you didn’t have various members of the Republican party, like former VP Dick Cheney and former NY State Senate Leader Joseph Bruno, running around talking about their support for gay marriage. It’s excruciating to have these untra-conservatives talking about the dignity of GLBT people while Obama keeps up with his mealy-mouthed shit. His position is at odds with the majority of the Democratic Party and of the nation as well.

I wanna be ya’lls prezydent!

This is just what the Republican party needs in 2012 - an obsese, florid-faced, former-lobbyist-turned-gubnr of Mississippi as its presidential candidate! I’m so excited for this “new face” of the Republican party to be debating Obama and telling us how Mississippi should be the model for the rest of the United States - I can’t wait for that contest.

This weekend started out wonderfully. My BF and I attended a party in honor of the one year anniversary of the renaming of my graduate school from the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) to the Josef Korbel School of International Studies. The party was at the home of the daughter of Madeline Albright and both Madeline Albright and the dean of the school, Tom Farer, were in attendance. It was so amazing to meet Madeline Albright who has always been a hero of mine, and the gathering was small enough that I got some real face-time with both her and with the dean.

When I attend these kinds of parties with these kinds of people it really reminds me of why I’ve worked so hard to get into such a highly ranked graduate school - meeting these kinds of people who have such extensive experience in the field of comparative politics and international relations can be really invaluable in so many ways.

Tonight we went to see Lisa Lampanelli during her San Francisco visit, which was absolutely hilarious. Lampanelli has the foulest mouth and picks on absolutely everyone but she’s jaw-crackingly hilarious all the same.

Tomorrow we’re going to one of San Francisco’s monthly Sunset Parties - this time on Treasure Island.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this flight and what may have transpired during it.

I’ve flown so much that I know the routine for transcontinental flights by heart. Around 30 minutes after the flight takes off the flight attendants serve beverages while preparing the meal course, then 45 minutes later the food is served. At this point you can relax because everyone knows that problems with aircraft almost always happen during the climb to cruising altitude or the descent to land - right?

Anyway - after your meal is taken away you have a gap to fill which most people do by sleeping - usually by taking an Ambien. At this point the cabin is quiet, darkened and calm. I like these moments when the plane is over the ocean, hundreds or thousands of miles from land, all alone. Sometimes I sit and look out the window at the stars, which are so bright and beautiful from 38,000 feet. But usually I join everyone else in sleep.

That must have been what it was like on Air France Flight 477 - at the point when the plane started experiencing problems was the point of greatest calm inside the cabin - when everyone was asleep or getting ready to sleep. What was it like when turbulence violently shook the plane and lightning outside lit up the sky? How bad did it become before the passengers started to fear for their lives and what did they think when the plane began to come apart 38,000 feet above the dark, cold Atlantic?

I think about this and I feel so terribly sad. To die this way is horrible but for it to happen in a place where the odds of survival were almost zero must have been horrific - and worse, this didn’t happen all at once, Air France is estimating the entire event took 10 minutes. 10 minutes of intense terror ending in death in the cold, stormy Atlantic.

I usually work out 2-3 times a week, two of those days are cardio and lifting weights with a trainer and one is just cardio. But this week I decided to do something different and workout every single day from Sunday to Sunday. So every day I go to the gym and do at least 40 minutes of hard cardio and burn at least 500 calories - those are my parameters. And so far I feel pretty good but I’ve noticed I need new shoes as my old ones are giving me a bit of foot pain.