The lead singer just mentioned the new Northern Ireland accord, and when he said Ian Paisley's name, there were scattered boos. Heh. :) But the whole crowd cheered when he said, "After 500 years of fighting, it looks like we might have some f***ing peace."

A rainbow over Legends: a good omen for the Flogging Molly concert?

Now, I just have to worry about exams, bar study, the bar exam, etc. etc. … so, yeah, piece of cake! :)

And we’re talking about homosexuality, polygamy, and polyamory. I even got to use the phrase “random fetish” (quoting Jon Stewart). God bless Con Law II.

P.S. For those who are interested in this topic of polyamory, here are the articles I sent to Professor Mason after the class discussion on Tuesday: from The Observer, from The New Scientist and (only tangentially relevant) from New York Magazine.

Myself, I agree with the Stewart Theory: the debate over gay marriage (and related issues) comes down to the fact that homosexuality is a fundamental part of the human condition, whereas polyamory and other such sexual traits are “random fetishes,” IMHO. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with them, necessarily (personally, I don’t care what people do, as long as they aren’t hurting anyone else… er, without that person’s informed consent, I suppose, so we can allow for S&M), but it’s relevant to whether society needs to recognize them in some way, protect them from discrimination, etc. That’s my opinion. But can I justify it on a legal, or constitutional, basis? That’s a somewhat more complicated question.

Anyway, it’s 1:39. Thirty-six minutes left…

P.P.S. The phrase “God bless Con Law II” is not intended to discriminate against anyone on the basis of their religion. :)

UPDATE, 2:05 PM: Ten minutes left!

UPDATE, 2:15 PM: Technically, the class period is over, but we’re still here. Not that I mind. This is a fun discussion. :)

UPDATE, 2:17 PM: Someone’s playing tetris. Heh.

UPDATE, 2:18:15 PM: Done!

P.P.P.S. I’m glad my law-school career ended (class-wise) with ConLaw II. It was one of my favorite classes ever. And I’m not just saying that because Professor of the Year Mason might be reading this. (I have no idea whether she’s one of the faculty members who reads my blog.) It was really a great class.

The U.S. Senate has voted to approve a war funding bill that includes an Iraq troop withdrawal timetable. The measure now goes to President Bush, who has vowed to veto it.

Visit CNN for the latest.

NDLS’s own Meg Tierney is nominated for Grad/Faculty/Staff Female of the Year in the “RecSpys,” the RecSports awards. You need a Notre Dame NetID to vote. Vote here!

[UPDATE: Xoxo is working again from NDLS. See below. -1:50 PM]

The self-described “Most Prestigious College Admissions Discussion Board in the World,” Xoxohth.com a.k.a. AutoAdmit.com, has seemingly been blocked by Notre Dame. People off-campus report being able to access it, and it’s still accessible through Anonymouse [WARNING: Anonymouse may display NSFW ads!!], so clearly the site isn’t down. But when you try to access it directly from campus (well, from the law school, at least), you get a standard error message:

I personally feel a degree of contempt for Xoxohth that exceeds even my contempt for NDNation — the cretins who inhabit that message board are a bunch of dishonest, pretentious, snobby, racist a**holes who delight in anonymous character assassination and tearing down their fellow human beings — so I’m not exactly shedding any tears over this, if it’s true. But, as with the Billy Packer thing, I guess I should be outraged, free speech or whatever, blah blah blah. But seriously, Xoxohth sucks.

P.S. Xoxohth was recently in the news because, in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, some idiot user posted a threat to Hastings Law School, as a “joke,” which led to the school being closed for a day last Wednesday. I have no idea if that’s related to the apparent ban here.

P.P.S. You can read more about Xoxohth, and the many controversies it has spawned, here. That post in turn contains links to various others.

UPDATE: Lisa, who tipped me off to this story, sends along a link to Notre Dame’s Responsible Use of Information Technologies Policy, which forbids, among other things, using computer resources for any “purpose which is illegal, immoral, unethical, dishonest, damaging to the reputation of the University, inconsistent with the mission of the University, or likely to subject the University to liability.” Specifically cited examples of such purposes include “harassment,” “libel or slander,” “posting or sending obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, or offensive material,” and “posting or sending material that is contrary to the mission or values of the University.” Xoxohth routinely involves all of those things. No idea if that has anything to do with this, though.

UPDATE 2: According to a commenter on a Xoxohth thread linking to this post, “It’s not just ND. I emailed around. A friend in the northeast is having trouble, too.” Not sure what to make of that.

UPDATE 3: False alarm! Xoxohth is accessible again from the law school, as of 1:50 PM. Dunno what was wrong before, but I guess it wasn’t a ban (or if so, it was lifted very quickly).

Incidentally, I e-mailed OIT (the Office of Information Technology) at 12:48 PM and asked: “Has the website www.xoxohth.com (also known as www.autoadmit.com) been blocked by the university? It is inaccessible from the law school (and I assume from elsewhere on campus), but the site isn’t down, it can still be accessed from elsewhere and through sites like Anonymouse.” I haven’t heard back, and I have no idea whether my e-mail has anything to do with the site’s restoration, I’m just throwing it out there.

UPDATE 4: OIT wrote back and said they’re able to access the site. They seemed not to know anything about the problem. So who knows?

So, there’s a Democratic presidential debate tonight.

I won’t be watching. I’ll be at the Flogging Molly concert at Legends instead.

Speaking of which, is anyone else here going to that? If so, when are you planning to get in line?

Heh:

Hugh Grant has been arrested and questioned by police after a photographer accused the actor of attacking him with a tub of baked beans.

What the hell was he thinking? ;)

Gonzaga at Memphis on Saturday, January 19? I’m so there!

Depending on the exact schedule, the USC-Memphis came in New York might also be worth a (slightly longer) trip…

Tomorrow (er, today, Thursday) is my last day of class.

Ever.

Dunno why that didn’t hit me until just now, but it didn’t. (Classes don’t officially end until Tuesday, but I don’t happen to have any classes on Friday or next Monday or Tuesday.)

I liveblogged my last undergraduate class. Will I do the same for Professor Mason’s ConLaw II (my very last class, from 1:00 to 2:15) later today? I dunno… back at USC, none of my profs read my blog. ;) But I’ll undoubtedly blog something, at least.

Of course, “last class” really just means “OMG, time to really really start panicking about finals.” But still, there’s a wee bit of nostalgia wrapped up in it.