Busy Busy

I know that you've all been clamouring for an update for the past few days. I've been ridiculously busy this past few days, trying to get settled back in the groove of being in Halifax, going to classes prepared, shopping, yada yada yada. It's March, I've got about 6 or 7 assignments due in the next 4 weeks plus my DND application. So that's where all my time has been going since I returned from BC. I think I did my taxes too. I've made the comment to a couple colleagues that I could use a couple extra hours in the day and that is an idea which seems to be gaining traction. I'll have to ship a letter or something off to Stephen Harper's office to see if he can facilitate the grad students at Dalhousie. It's not like he's going to be chatting with the ethics commissioner anytime soon, he should have enough time to make that happen. Zing!
I'm really only struggling with one of my assignments at this time, and that is my Canadian Politics paper. It's on the notwithstanding clause and the emerging taboo surrounding its use. It's not the most interesting subject material in the universe, but the real problem I'm having is in finding references to it by academics and government folks, as well as to the Charter of Rights' predecessor, the Bill of Rights. I've read four or five articles on Diefenbaker today, and none of them gives anything more than a cursory acknowledgement of the fact that he got a non-entrenched Bill of Rights passed.

Update: The paper is progressing nicely today. I had some great ideas occur to me overnight (always a good sign when my brain is registering things at 1am and I'm remembering them the next morning. Historically whenever I get ideas like that, I have to write them down immediately or they're lost), and that's translated into over 6 pages being written so far today. That almost doubles my word count from where I was at before, and now I've got a solid blueprint marching towards the deadline.

In non-curriculum news, I'm reading a book entitled Pornified: How Pornography is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and our Families. Excellent piece of literature by a very bright young feminist who has had some influence on the most important woman in my life. She read the book before Christmas, and I've taken to going thru a few pages each night before bedtime and after I'm done the course reading. I highly recommend to anybody out there who has the idea in their head that pornography is a harmless masturbatory aid that doesn't "mean anything" and is an industry that "isn't hurting anybody." Your eyes will be opened.

Also, a quick word on the Oscars: how awesome is Jon Stewart, and how lame is the Academy for giving props to a song entitled "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp"? Please, don't forgive me for being unsympathetic. In a year in which the award could have gone to "Battle of the Heroes" or any of the magnificent tracks from Walk the Line, they honour a song that talks about the hardships of an "industry" that degrades and humiliates the women that it essentially forces into sexual slavery. Hollywood sucks, and I lost all respect for Clooney last night for declaring that he's so glad to be out of touch with the rest of the world.