This coming semester...

Today, I'm going to take a self-tour of the University and find all of my classes and figure out how long it takes to walk from building to building.  Hopefully my financial aid check comes today so I can get a head start on book-buying.

This semester, I'm going to only work fifteen hours per week so I can concentrate on my studies.  This semester, I have a ton of reading, so I need all the time I can get.  Plus, I am anxious about the quality of work that will be expected of me.  I know I shouldn't be - my work at my previous schools had always been a little above-and-beyond.  Still, I worry.

When I was twelve, I crashed my bicycle while avoiding a falling branch in a thunderstorm.  I chipped my front tooth in the fall.  Yesterday, the fixed/fake part of the tooth broke off.  My dentist can't get me in until Monday to fix it, so I have to be Chippie Joe for the weekend.  I feel dumb.

Writer's Block: I got this

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Well, first of all, I would leave the World Trade Organization & break NAFTA and the other so-called free-trade agreements.  I would then reimpose tariffs on imported goods.  These two steps would start bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

I would end the Iraq & Afghanistan wars immediately.  Everyone comes home.  I would also close most of our military bases in other countries.  This will save us millions, if not billions of dollars.

I would immediately triple the budget for the Department of Education, triple the money we spend of funding scientific research.  I would request a focus be put on alternative energies so we don't need to invade other countries for energy resources.

I would lower the retirement age to 55 and double Social Security payments, which will open up more jobs and lower the unemployment rate even further.

I would extend Medicare to all citizens immediately.

I would cut the subsidies to the corn industry and ban the use of high-fructose corn syrup.  I would redirect those subsidies to small, local, & organic farmers.

I would make all elections publicly-financed are allow campaigning for only two weeks before the elections.  I would ban lobbying and any corporate interference with elections.

I would ban naked shorts and probably futures trading in general.  I would ban credit default swaps.  I would put a tax on every stock transaction.  I would limit interest rates to no more than 10%.

I would raise the top marginal tax rate back to 73% for incomes over $3 million.  I would also remove the cap on the FICA tax so that people making over $100,000 per year continue to pay accordingly.

I would declare that corporations are not people and do not have free speech rights.  I would require that all corporations that do business in the United States be based in the United States and close the tax loopholes that allow these transnational entities to siphon money from our country.

And that's just before lunch.