Recently, 215,000 of our neighbours to the South rallied in Washington, D.C. in the hopes of ending a long relationship with insanity, and I tagged along for the ride.

For years, host Jon Stewart said, America’s “24-hour politico-pundit-perpetual-panic-conflictinator” has been peddling a product for which reasonableness is irrelevant. People just can’t stop themselves from buying it. It’s a product that never goes away and generally has the effect of making people do or say crazy things. But there is power in it. A lot of power. In fact, entire businesses depend on it.

As you can tell, things got really serious after Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow performed, as they were clearly the reason most people were in attendance and the Rally started to die down after they left.

Crowded on all sides by thousands of strangers and their kooky signs, I realized that even for a foreigner (from a country where tea parties still involve elevated pinkies) there was still something to be learned from the experience.

Looking back at some of the outrage after the recent Bedford decision (concerning Ontario’s prostitution law), for example, it seems we’ve ourselves seen rhetoric take over what could otherwise have been predominantly rational discussion.Some of the public’s most vocal (read: loud) members’ reactions to Omar Khadr’s sentencing seem to have similarly had a drowning-out effect.

At some point or another, we’ve all seen truthiness win out over truth and fear defeat rational thinking. It’s easy to stand behind loud people, if only because their voices don’t carry as much back there. I know I’ve done it in the past; hopefully this isn’t me doing it again.

When Stewart explained the rally’s goal, to restore sanity, I realized, though – this is why thousands came here today, because what he’s arguing is (or at least should be) as inoffensive as it is logical. You have to be crazy to want to preserve insanity, after all.

So I guess what I’m saying is that we should all take Stewart’s invitation to start a love train, to join hands with people from all over the world. I know it’s going to be hard, especially when their opinions differ quite frighteningly from our own, but that’s part of the process of living together and cooperating.

Some say Stewart was too hard on hyper-partisan talking heads (on all parts of the political spectrum) who exaggerate and oversimplify issues and fears at the expense of rational thought. Maybe that’s true, but if you just take another talking head or writer’s word for it, then you’re doin’ it wrong.

If you’re still interested in fear amplification though, here’s a list of people that still do it well: ABC, CBS, AP, the New York Times, National Public Radio, and Anderson Cooper’s tight, black T-shirt. They’ve all won Stephen Colbert’s Fear Award (a naked man running with scissors) for refusing to allow their employees to even attend the Rally or for otherwise disseminating fear effectively, and so they come highly recommended.

As for me, I’ll do my best to welcome all rational arguments with an open mind because I’m certain that some of the best ideas out there aren’t my own.

Sincerely,

Ricardo F. Golec
Sanity Preservationist

Heading back from really long and tiring (but nonetheless exciting!) day at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Created an earthquake with fellas from Mythbusters, among other things. More updates once I’ve rested and digested!

The Fear bus has taken off and is already near the border. Watching a Simpsons marathon for entertainment - thankfully season 3.

Short story, I’m going!

Long story: I’m goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooinnnnnnnnngggg.

Thanks to Torontoist and Eye Weekly (and the sponsor, Bud Light), I am going to the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s rally in Washington DC tomorrow. I’ll try to keep updating (with near-journalistic authenticity!) as wifi becomes available.

Excitement!

So (PATENT-PENDING) I kind of want to start a Canadian version of this Fantasy Supreme Court pool. There’s money to be made in predicting what that crazy McLachlin is going to do next!

synecdoche:

“can we get out of brooklyn? it’s just not as cool as i thought it was going to be.”

new bored to death trailer!

Really excited for this. YES, IT’S NOT LAW RELATED, JUST DEAL.

Put Him in Camp Bucca!

So obviously I failed at blogging my first day, mostly because it was exciting and (mostly) exhausting. I then failed every other day out of shame. To be honest, I would probably fail today, too, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m sitting in an almost empty classroom waiting for A) more students to arrive and B) the prof to arrive, neither of which has happened despite the class supposedly starting nearly 30 minutes ago. Of course there’s the unshakable feeling that I’m in the wrong place, but my schedule says Room 107 at 8:30am, and here I am! I suppose the 3 of us that are in here could possibly be wrong, but I prefer finding evidence before I concede defeat.

In other news, first week of law school has been pretty cool. As I described it to a friend of mine, it’s exciting to be a part of this, but a bit repetitive in content because of criminology specialist in undergrad. It’s a bit like uninspired sex in that way.

Nevertheless, classes are pretty good, and not everyone is of a totally flat personality (some of them are even nerds like me, w00t!). I’ve already gotten loads of work to do, and my books (heavy bastards) cost me over $400. Jolly good fun! That’s like a week of work over the summer, to put it into perspective.

People are showing up, must burrow!!1

Words of advice in the (autographed) book sent to me by my law school, the author of which will be my section leader / prof in “ethical lawyering” for the next year. Shouldn’t be too hard as I often have more trouble getting under myself.

And yes, this marks the start of what will most likely be a failed attempt at liveblogging my first day at law school.

synecdoche:

fkdljah tim heidecker