How a bill becomes a law

Bethel weather has been crazy--ranging to and from 30 degrees on both sides of zero. It's been well above zero this week, with lots of blowing snow. Perfect time to start training for a spring marathon! Actually the first week of training hasn't been too bad.

I had an amazing visit to Barrow last weekend. So many familiar faces, and such an outpouring of affection for my family. It felt really nice, and it was great catching up and seeing the familiar sights after being gone for a decade. Of course I brought the digital camera and failed to take any pictures . . .

I was sorry to hear that my candidate of choice, Dennis Kucinich, is leaving the presidential race. Still, his leadership in Congress is more important than ever, so if he needs to fight to keep his House seat, I respect his pragmatism in deciding to spend his time back in Cleveland. I know he'll keep working for peace and justice.

The University of Akureyri, Iceland is offering the first ever LL.M. program in Polar Law. Very timely, with the icecaps melting, and tourism, shipping lanes, and oil & gas opening up in the Arctic Ocean. I'm a little tempted to apply--maybe some other year, once I've shaken off the eternal student label.

I think it's a little suspicious to use Facebook to rank books by the average SAT score of the schools in which they are top ten favorites. It also smacks of elitism. Granted, I've read more books in the list's top 20 than books in its bottom 20, but reading and enjoying the Bible doesn't make you less erudite than reading and enjoying Crime and Punishment, as long as you read both with a critical eye. Perhaps I'm getting too worked up about something on the Internet that's not even peer-reviewed or in a scholarly publication . . . Heck, I'm happy that young 'uns are reading. Reading books!