Well, I’m done with my take-home Election Law final. I don’t feel like I did as well as I should have, given my strong interest in the topic, but maybe that’s just exam-week pessimism talking. Anyway, now I’ve only got one final left, and it’s the big, bad, scary one: FedTax. Friday morning at 9. That’s less than 36 hours from now. Yikes. So not looking forward to that.

The other thing that sucks is, I actually have a paper to finish still, for another class, that I don’t have to turn in until early next week — which is both a blessing and a curse, because on the one hand, it’s nice to have more time to dot my i’s and cross my t’s (especially when otherwise I would have been doing so this week during valuable exam studying time*), but on the other hand, come Friday at 1pm, virtually everyone else will be completely done with the semester, and I won’t. Oh, I’ll still party Friday night (after going to see Eragon!), but I won’t have that same feeling of complete and utter relief coupled with joy and exhaustion** that my classmates will, because unlike them, I’ll know that come Saturday morning afternoon, I’ll still have to get up and work on law-school stuff. Humbug.

Not that I’m asking for anyone’s pity. It’s my own fault I’m such a bloody procrastinator, obviously. I’m just venting. :)

*or perhaps during valuable blogging time

**…a feeling which generally leads to complete and utter drunkenness at the Backer

P.S. Lots of 1L exam-week stress-blogging here and here.

P.P.S. As I was typing this, Butter came over and lay next to me, nuzzling her little kitty head against my elbow. Aww. I suppose life isn’t so bad. :)

Peter Boyle, best known for his role as Raymond’s cranky father on Everybody Loves Raymond, died last night in NYC.

Breaking news:

Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota suffered a possible stroke Wednesday and was taken to a Washington hospital, his office said.

Johnson became disoriented during a call with reporters at midday, stuttering in response to a question. He appeared to recover, asking if there were any additional questions before ending the call.

If he should be unable to continue to serve, it could halt the scheduled Democratic takeover of the Senate. Democrats won a 51-49 majority in the November election. South Dakota’s governor, who would appoint any temporary replacement, is a Republican.

Hopefully he’ll be okay, first of all for human reasons and secondarily for political ones.

UPDATE: The Argus Leader quotes South Dakota’s at-large congresswoman, Stephanie Herseth, as saying she believes it as a “severe stroke.” But other reports say Johnson was conscious when he went to the hospital.

More from Political Wire, The Hotline (which says that any temporary replacement would serve until 2008), TAPPED (which says there’s an ongoing debate about whether that’s true), Althouse (who emphasizes that “in modern history the Senate has never declared a seat vacant as a result of a senator’s physical condition”), The Corner, RedState, Outside the Beltway, Malkin, Kos, TPM, MyDD, Kevin Drum, Wonkette, and two right-leaning South Dakota blogs: Jay Reding and South Dakota Politics. Needless to say, everyone — regardless of party and ideology — says they’re hoping for a speedy recovery, and I’m sure they are.

MAJOR UPDATE: Good news: Sen. Johnson reportedly “is speaking and is expected to be fine.” There are conflicting reports about what happened: his spokesman now says he didn’t have a stroke or a heart attack, but other sources say it was a stroke. A commenter at South Dakota War College (headline: “Possibly not a stroke, but an as yet to be diagnosed illness?”) offers a possible explanation that could help explain those conflicting reports: a Transient Ischemic Attack, which some people might describe as a “stroke” and others might not. But I’m just speculating.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s the latest from Reuters:

Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota underwent surgery on Wednesday, a source said, after suffering what a doctor called “symptoms of a stroke.” The actions prompted concerns about his fellow Democrats’ razor-thin majority in the incoming Senate.

While there was no immediate word on the condition of the 59-year-old senator, the source, who is familiar with Johnson’s situation, said surgeons sought to remedy an unspecified medical problem.

Just hours after Johnson was admitted to George Washington University Hospital, a spokeswoman for him said the senator had not suffered a stroke. She provided no other details.

In a statement later, Johnson’s communications director Julianne Fisher said: “Senator Johnson continues to undergo testing and procedures at George Washington University Hospital. We expect to have more information in the morning.”

John Eisold, attending physician of the U.S. Capitol, issued a statement of his own, saying Johnson was admitted to the hospital “with the symptoms of a stroke.”

South Dakota Politics has more.

Remember that line in my five stages of exam preparation, “I’ll start studying in earnest RIGHT NOW, if you’ll just… what? There’s a tsunami warning for Fiji?” Well, this is the equivalent of that, except in space:

A violent solar explosion sent a dangerous wave of radiation through space late Tuesday, prompting NASA to order the crews of Discovery and the International Space Station to take shelter overnight.

The solar flare erupted around 9:40 p.m., unleashing enough radiation to disrupt radio communications on Earth and in orbit while endangering astronauts circling 220 miles above the planet.

NASA flight surgeons and agency radiation experts determined that the burst of highly energetic particles approached a limit that made preventative action prudent.

Station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and shuttle skipper Mark Polansky were told to move their crews to the most shielded areas in either spacecraft.

SpaceWeather.com has details on the flare and storm:

Sunspot 930 has just unleashed another big solar flare, an X3-class explosion at 0240 UT on Dec. 13th. … As a result of the blast, a radiation storm is underway. Based on the energy and number of solar protons streaming past Earth, NOAA ranks the storm as category S2: satellites may experience some glitches and reboots, but astronauts are in no danger.

No danger, but it’s still good to be prudent, I guess. If the radiation storm were to reach S3 levels (like the one last week did), then the astronauts would potentially be in some danger. But the Proton Flux chart indicates that the storm is weakening, not strengthening, so that’s good news.

Space.com has more on the flare/storm, including the observation: “Such storms are fairly common when the Sun is at its most active, but they are rare during the current low point in the 11-year cycle of solar activity.”

Anyway, SpaceWeather.com adds:

The explosion hurled a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. (Confirmed by SOHO; stay tuned for the movie.) Sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on Dec. 14th.

Hmm… I assume that means the evening of the 14th. Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if this was a particularly fast-moving CME, and it got here in time for the peak of the Geminid meteor shower overnight tonight and into the wee hours of tomorrow morning (the 14th)? Meteors + auroras = space-nerd heaven!

P.S. More on the Geminids here.

Nancy Pelosi “has this ethics thing nailed,” writes a conservative Republican blogger — and he’s not being sarcastic! (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

She’s doing the right thing on earmarks, too, at least for now. Good.

Is John Kerry finally beginning to realize that a 2008 presidential run would be a pathetic waste of everyone’s time? California Yankee thinks so. We can only hope.

With the debut of Eragon just two days away, there are surprisingly few reviews available, but this one is decidedly negative. Money quote:

The final product is the story of a young, poor, bizarre combination of Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter joined up with the female counterpart to Draco from Dragonheart. With the help of an Obi-wan meets Gandalf sort of mentor, he sets out to save the wizarding world and half of Middle Earth by using Elven magic to defeat the equivalent of Voldemort wearing Sauron’s Ring of Power and his right hand sidekick who is the perfect amalgam of Saruman, Wormtongue and a Balrog riding Darth Maul. Oh, along the way he stops to save the love child of Arwen and Princess Leia with the help of Aragorn crossed with Han Solo. It’s free for all sci-fi/fantasy mad libs, only instead of verbs and adjectives the story substitutes in favorite character archetypes and plot from other films. And then comes the final battle scene.

Heh. I’m not sure that’s so much an indictment of the movie as of the book it’s based on, but whatever. Personally, I’m not going to bothered by the presence of “character archetypes”; I just want an entertaining movie. I’m crossing my fingers.

P.S. I wonder if he meant “Darth Maul riding a Balrog”? I’ve having a hard time visualizing it the other way around.

Always the groomsman, never the groom, Patrick Cullen is a runner-up again.

Tony Badger, a Rutgers alum, edged Cullen for first place in the BrendanLoy.com House Contest as Ciro Rodriguez upset Henry Bonilla in Texas’s 23rd District runoff Tuesday by a surprising 54% to 46% margin, bringing the Democratic net gain in the House to 30 seats — exactly what Badger predicted.

Cullen, who lost the Senate contest by a margin of 227 votes out of 1,134,780 cast in Connecticut, stands to lose the House contest by one seat out of 435. He predicted a 29-seat Dem pickup.

Here are the final House contest standings, with a proviso that’s noted after the jump.

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