Raves and Rants

Rave: The high-school kids in my committee were awesome! This weekend, FYI, Northeastern hosted some 200 high-schoolers for the Second Annual Northeast Regional High School Model Arab League. It's like an MUN, but for the Arab League. I co-chaired the Council of Interior Ministers. We debated dealing with terrorism, and had a real-life "crisis" when the U.S. announced this morning that the U.S. planned to deploy troops in Yemen! Phil D'Agati (my Sicilian co-chair, of Mafia decent) and I embellished on the facts quite a bit, but it was awesome. We also fudged the vote results to make sure that the Yemeni delegate - who deserved to win an award - did, and we took a vote from the hottest delegate in committee, who was rewarded for her good looks as well as her good speaking.
Rant: OK, the kids were good, but they couldn't give up their American view of terrorism. Real Arab delegates don't admit that there are terrorists operating in their countries. And they certainly don't applaud in plenary session when the speaker condemns Palestinian terrorism. That's not to say they all think it's good (some of them do) or that they're all racist (though some certainly are), but they view the 1,000+ Palestinian deaths (including 20+ during the past two days) as a greater travesty than the 300+ Jewish-Israeli deaths.
Rave: I'm going to D.C. for the top Model Arab League in the U.S.!. I'm going to run for chairman, and they say I'll have a pretty good chance. This should be a lot of fun, and is at a much higher level than what we did this weekend, though the same folks sponsor it.
Rant: Why can't guys think? Every year, they say, Converse College (an old-south girls school in South Carolina) totally dominates the D.C. competition because all the guys at the model fall for them, and they have a very well-oiled political machine, as well as the largest number of delegates. Phil (who is a Ph.D. student) laid the smackdown on them last year, beating a Converse girl in the election for committee chairship, and proceeded to win Best Chair award, though he lost the election for secretary general to a very attractive Converse freshman. This year, both he and I will run for chair, and we have the benefit of being the darlings of the organizers, because she hates Converse too, and we did such an awesome job with this HSMAL.
Rave: The Red Sox have started playing! Duquette is fired! My brother taped some of the game, so I'll add some stuff to the tape (including an intro by our Zebra Finches, Joe and Geri, who are named for the Red Sox radio announcers). I love baseball!
Rant: The New York Yankees. 'Nuff said.