Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Some Things That Remind Me of Duke...

for whatever reason. These are just a couple of stories that have some sort of connection to Duke (Dear Old)

Slate has an article on Why The Terrorists Really Hate Us which I found pretty interesting. Who knew al-Qaeda was concerned about campaign finance reform. And is it bad that I agree with a lot of their "demands?" The content of the article wasn't the reason it made me uncomfortable, rather the mention of one expert book on bin Laden written by a Duke professor, Bruce Lawrence. Yeah about him. He was assigned to be my advisor at the end of sophomore year but between that time and when I graduated I never once met with him. I was abroad for a semester then when I came back in the Spring he was doing something in Indonesia. I tried to meet with him a few more times but each time he was out of the office for a week, or something personal came up. It was a nightmare which really soured my experience with the Religion department; I still don't know if my degree is in Religion or Anthropology as a result.
Speaking of terrorists, one of the Freakonomics guy has a blog post about if you were a terrorist how would you strike? His proposal was to arm 20 or so people and have them go around and snipe people, like the D.C. sniper. I think I have a better one, which I thought of when I was coming back from Atl sophomore year and I-95 was packed. I don't know how car bombs work but if you were to space 4 or 5 terrorists across the country, highly populated areas, and have them make their cars into car bombs get on a freeway and then have them go off while they were stuck in the midst of rush hour traffic it would be pretty bad. And it would also paralyze people with fear of getting stuck in traffic which would affect people going to work and thus the economy. That or just have them build suitcase bombs and check into hotels. They're incredibly soft targets. (and I feel really bad about writing all of that. Too bad I don't believe in backspace)

And finally this dilemma "Why won't Southerners shut up about Sweet Tea" was posed. I have a simple answer; because it is amazing!! I got really spoiled in the South for the last 4 years and being really good friends with a southern boy who knew his tea and sensitized my palate. And then to be forced away by real life is so cruel, I miss it so much.

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