Yeah I’m a Facebook addict - which is why this graphic, the same one I’ve been seeing now for 4 hours, is driving me crazy.

I’ve never deluded myself about summers in San Francisco - I hate them. They’re cold, windy and foggy and there are days, especially where I live up in the hills, when it feels like you’ll never see the sun again.

Which is why I’m excited to return to my apartment in NY next week. My thesis is nearly complete and after it is I’ll have the time to hang out with friends and party a bit before I have to return to California, get ready to take the GRE and become a responsible adult once again.

I heard back from an XM radio rep:

The MOVE will return later this year.  The exact relaunch date has not been determined.  However, it will happen before year’s end.

One of the most moving experiences of my life was stopping by this cemetary in Florence, Italy during my recent trip. Having never been to the vast cemetaries of Normandy, France I was shaken by the enormity of these soldiers and their sacrifices. Every headstone (other than those non-identified) was marked with a name and state and they covered the breadth of our nation. It was humbling and moving to witness the final resting place of these men, so far from our country.

I love deep, sexy house music and the best radio station on XM satellite radio is channel 80 - The Move. They play a long list of funky old-skool vocal house music but for some (unpublicized) reason The Move is “on hiatus.” So instead of hearing the pleasing sounds of house music when I get into my car I am greeted by what sounds like an announcer on AM radio from the 1940s who drones on and on about XM’s great offerings.

Well screw that. I want my house music and I want it now! Where is channel 80 and when will it be back?

I’ve made good progress on my thesis which is more than 1/2 done. I’m lucky to have a great advisor at NYU. When starting this project I was a bit unsure about working with anyone on my paper. I’m a very independent person and the thought of having to run things by my advisor was going to be both tiresome and meddlesome. It’s actually quite the opposite - she’s been a treasure trove of information and guidance.

The Good Doc and I went and saw Brideshead Revisited. What an excellent movie.

I’ve been up every morning at 4:30 AM since I returned from Italy Monday night. I need an Ambien script - STAT!

I’m 1/2 done with my thesis and will be heading back to NY in a week to finish it up.

Thesis statement:

The use of forced transfers of populations between two or more states to solve territorial or self-determination issues is today looked upon as barbaric and potentially in violation of international law. But less than 100 years ago the invocation of coerced population transfers between former adversaries in the Balkans was an accepted and commonplace occurrence which took place under the watchful eye of the international community with little debate as to the moral or human rights implications of such massive movements of populations. The suggestion of population transfers as a means to solving seeming intractable conflicts was one accepted and indeed promoted in the diplomatic lexicon.

Today, slightly less than 100 years from the period when Balkan population transfers in reached their zenith, evidence can be gathered and history examined to arrive at a conclusion as to the effects of the populations transfers between Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria and their effects on the irredentist conflicts which raged at the time. The past century has seen highs and lows in relations between all three states but curiously there has not occurred a single armed conflict on the basis of irredentist claims between any of the three states since each engaged in a series of population transfers with the other. Whereas Greece and Turkey have come close to armed conflict over issues of territoriality in the Aegean (vs. issues of irredentism) the one area where they have closest to armed conflict – Cyprus - was the one area where their respective ethic populations remained mixed. In all other areas the de-mixing of each state’s populations has resulted in a long period of relative peace between the states.

Population transfers as a means of eradicating irredentist conflicts between two or more states can be enormously effective in solving crises. While they present issues of legality under international law and affront the Western sense of the desirability of multiethnic populations they have proven indispensable in solving what previously were viewed as intractable problems of nationhood and territoriality. This project will examine the use of population transfers between neighboring states in the Balkans, focusing on Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and Macedonia as a final method of negating conflict based on irredentist claims between two or more states.

I’m on one of my kicks again of making all our food by hand and insisting it be organic. This happens frequently when I have the time. For example tonight I’m making focaccia with white-bean and kale soup. I’ve spent the afternoon making the bread which isn’t as difficult as it sounds and it’s a lot better than buying things from the store.

This is an actual picture of the bread - turned out quite nicely I think.

The indictment last week of Sudan’s president on charges of genocide in Darfur and the arrest this week of Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic represent a new frontier for international jurisprudence. While previous leaders have been indicted in office this is the first for the ICC.

What is most disturbing about the indictment of the Sudanese president is the same tired litany of complaints we’re hearing from the chattering classes about the indictment exposing peacekeepers in Sudan to danger or increasing the chances of violence in Darfur. Newsflash! There is no peace to keep in Darfur, the peacekeepers are already under attack and genocide rages unimpeded. The indictment makes no difference in creating instability in Darfur and it’s sad that the exact same arguments are being trotted out now that were trotted out while genocide swamped Bosnia and Rwanda in the 1990s. These arguments represent a cowardice and failure of imagination to confront the problem in a real and meaningful matter.

It’s also extremely disheartening but entirely unsurprising to see African and Arab nations rally behind the president of Sudan. If there’s one cause that will unite certain African and Arab leaders it’s not stopping the Sudanese campaign that have brought death of hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur but rather keeping from justice their fellow kleptocrat who is the architect of that campaign of mass murder.