A Few Thoughts on the State of the Union

It's still a bit shocking, after eight long years of George W. Bush, to tune in to a Presidential address and come away from it moved by the President's eloquence. There is no doubt that President Obama is a wonderful speaker who can alternate between a relaxed and amusing moment and soul stirring rhetoric with ease.

I have to admit that I enjoyed the way he hammered the failings of the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress by pointing out the massive Deficit that he inherited from the supposedly fiscally conservative right.

The freeze on Government spending he declared for 2011 really worries me, though, as does the fact that in spite of what the President said tonight, the Democrats seem to be backing off Health Care reform once again out of fear for their jobs.

I have been gravely disappointed over this past year with this administration's lack of action on any of the campaign promises the President made to LGBT Americans. Tonight, he once again brought up ending the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy so that LGBT Americans can serve openly in the armed services.

It was a brief line in the speech, but I for one will be paying close attention to see if this time he will live up to what he promises:

"This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are."

No mention was made about his other campaign promise to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

The other moment in President Obama's speech that really pleased me was when he addressed the heinous decision made last week by the Supreme Court which will allow corporations or anyone else to spend as much as they like on political campaigns, sounding a death knell for any chance at real Campaign Finance Reform in this country.

"Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections. Well, I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that's why I'm urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong."

I've never seen a President take on a Supreme Court decision during the State of the Union before, but it certainly needed to be addressed. Watching Justice Alito sourly shake his head and grumble under his breath while those around him stood to cheer was icing on top of the cake.

The end of the President's speech was certainly stirring, but then so were the campaign speeches. The first year hasn't been very promising, but there is still time for this Administration to turn itself around. I'd like nothing more than to see President Obama become a great leader and really bring about change for the better.

Obama's First Supreme Court Nominee

President Obama announced his choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter today: Federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Sotomayor would be a historic pick as the first Hispanic ever to serve on the court, as well as being the third woman (and only the second currently) to take her place as a Justice.

From what I've read so far, Sotomayor seems to be a promising pick. I was hoping that Obama would select a woman (I still think it's a disgrace that the number of women on the court is as low as it is and that the last President allowed the number to be cut in half!), and Sotomayor has a very inspiring personal story, having been raised in the housing projects of the Bronx.

She's also been quoted as saying something that I think sums up exactly what I'd be looking for in a Supreme Court Justice:

"I strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government."

I want to hear more about her record, especially in relation to LGBT issues if she's presided over any cases involving them. So far, though, I'm really happy with this nomination. She isn't likely to change the balance of the court, since she'd presumably be a liberal voice replacing another such voice, but since she's only 54 she could easily serve for two or three decades, which would significantly strengthen the liberal half of the court.

Missing: One Fierce Advocate

Richard Socarides has written a very good piece for the Washington Post wondering where exactly President Obama has been when it comes to leading the fight for LGBT Equality:

"In December, while trying to quiet the furor over his invitation of Rick Warren to take part in his inauguration, Barack Obama reminded us that he had been a "consistent" and "fierce advocate of equality for gay and lesbian Americans." But at the end of its first 100 days, his administration has been neither.

What makes this especially disappointing is that it comes during a crisis-driven "change moment" in our country's history that not only cries out for leadership but presents a particularly good climate for making substantial progress on gay equality.

....

I understand that the president has his hands full saving the economy. But across a broad spectrum of issues -- including women's rights, stem cell research and relations with Cuba -- the Obama administration has shown a willingness to exploit this change moment to bring about dramatic reform."

Socarides also goes on to point out how completely the President has avoided discussing LGBT related issues since taking office:

"As president, Obama barely mentions gay and lesbian Americans. During his first 100 days, he has done so only while defending his selection of inauguration speakers. He was silent after the announcement of the Iowa decision -- one of the most important gay civil rights victories ever."

The entire article is very much worth reading, as Socarides recommends ways in which Obama can become the fierce advocate he claimed to be just a few months ago. One of these suggestions is appointing an openly gay or lesbian policy advisor to oversee the government's efforts on equality issues for the LGBT community.

I think that is a fantastic idea and much more likely to actually happen than the earlier suggestion of a Cabinet level position that was being advocated by Equal Rep a few months ago.

One thing that President Obama has been far better on than his predecessors is appointing openly LGBT people to government positions (though, sadly, none at the cabinet level!). With a new spot opening up on the Supreme Court, he's got another chance to make history and could do so if he nominated Kathleen Sullivan, an out lesbian who was the Dean of Stanford Law School and is regarded as a top constitutional scholar. She's also worked on several key LGBT rights cases, including the historic Lawrence v. Texas, before the court.

Let's hope that Sullivan's name is high on the President's list!

I've been all for giving President Obama the benefit of the doubt on LGBT issues, in spite of warning signs during the primary campaign and the choice of Rick Warren to play a role in the Inauguration. I wanted to wait until we'd seen what he'd actually do for us once he was in office before making any judgement.

I'm not completely without hope yet, of course, but if these first 100 days are a preview of what's to come, things aren't looking promising. We're certainly better off than we were under Bush and than we would have been under McCain, but I don't want to settle for things not getting worse. I want the actual change we were promised.

A Variety of Topics

Just a few random things that I wanted to write about.

First off, I just saw the news that U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire from the Court in June, which will give President Obama his first chance to appoint someone to the Court. I'm a total geek about things like this, I have to confess now, so I'll probably write about this more as time goes on.

Whoever the President appoints, it isn't very likely to change the ideological make up of the court since Souter is one of the more liberal Justices. What I've always loved about Souter is that he was appointed by the first President Bush and was expected to be a more conservative vote than he turned out to be. This turnabout is second in my view only to Nixon appointee Harry Blackmun ending up the author of Roe v. Wade and a champion for abortion rights.

Anyway, it will be very interesting to see who President Obama chooses. I'm hoping that it will be a woman, since it is completely ridiculous that there have only ever been two women on the court in its history. The number of women currently serving dropped by 50% when Sandra Day O'Connor was replaced with Samuel Alito, which I think was an unacceptable step backwards.

Maybe the President could appoint the first ever openly LGBT Justice? Given that the never married Souter has always had rumors out there about his own sexuality, that could be an especially notable changing of the guard, as it were.

Another thing I wanted to note: I read on Towleroad that former NYC Mayor Ed Koch is all up in arms about the new documentary Outrage, which is an expose on closeted politicians who work against gay rights. Koch is apparently furious that the film depicts his record as being nonexistent when it comes to helping with gay rights issues and during the AIDS crisis.

Having just read And The Band Played On last month, I can say that Koch did fuck all (excuse the language but it's warranted) to help stop the spread of AIDS in his city (which was the hardest hit city in the world at that point) or to help those who were living with it get the support they needed, all because he was afraid of being identified as gay himself.

We all rightly lay blame at the feet of the Reagan administration for their complete failure to act on AIDS, but they are far from being the only politicians who have blood on their hands from that era. If indeed Koch is a gay man himself, he should be doubly ashamed. I have to wonder how the hell he lives with himself. Someone like Reagan obviously just didn't give a damn and had his bigoted ideology to wrap himself up in at night, but I hope Koch lays awake every night in torment thinking of all the lost lives he could have done so much to help save.

To end on a much lighter note, actress Kelly McGillis of Top Gun fame (wait, there was a woman in Top Gun? I'm drawing a blank...) has come out of the closet as a lesbian. Way to go, Kelly!

Alito + Supreme Court = Nightmare Scenario Come True

I'm between classes at the moment, so I thought I'd grab the chance to do some blogging.

It's been a hectic new year already, as I'm trying once again to balance a full class load and working more hours than I probably should be. But, you don't want to hear that old story again!

I've been trying to grab spare moments here and there to catch some of the Alito hearings either online or, should I ever happen to be around a television set during the day (unlikely!), on C-Span.

From what little I've seen so far, it seems to be going as expected. By that I mean, the Republicans are lauding him for being the second coming (or so it always sounds when they're laying on the praise) and the Democrats are trying their hardest to get some real answers from the man and not succeeding.

Most chilling, I think, is the fact that Alito bragged in '85 (on a job application for the Reagan White House) about having belonged to the group Concerned Alumni of Princeton, though now he has come down with selective amnesia about the group and his membership in it. How convenient for him. Senator Kennedy had a poster made of a quote from the group's magazine, and this really says it all:

"People nowadays just don't seem to know their place. Everywhere one turns black and hispanics are demanding jobs simply because they're black and hispanic, the physically handicapped are trying to gain equal representation in professional sports, and homosexuals are demanding that government vouchsafe them the right to bear children. And now... and now come women."

This is the sort of man they're trying to put on the court to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. The Democrats and any even halfway moderate Republicans should be coming together to stop this from happening. They're literally holding the future of countless Americans in their hands and if they screw this up...

I don't even want to think about it. But suffice it to say, we'll all know who failed to stop this. The Democrats have been in danger of losing the left for a long time now, and if they let Alito receive confirmation without putting up a real fight, that could be the final straw for many of us.

I say filibuster the nomination. If the right then takes away the right to filibuster, at least the public knows that the Democrats put up a real fight. If they let this go to a vote without a filibuster, they've caved in yet again to the right.

On a completely different topic, I've been waiting impatiently for Brokeback Mountain to go into wider release so that I can finally see it. And at long last it's finally coming to a theatre near me tomorrow, so I'm greatly anticipating that. Hopefully I'll have time to see it this weekend.

I also have been told that I should watch the show Book Of Daniel on NBC. So I'm going to try and catch the show tomorrow night.

It has Christian Campbell in it, brother of Neve, and star of one of my favorite gay movies, Trick, so that alone is reason to try and catch the show, especially since he's playing a gay character in Book of Daniel as well.

Opposition Required

It's really not my intention to only post once a week. It's just worked out that way lately. I've had mid term exams, work, and the death of a pet to deal with in the past week.

And then, on top of all that, the nomination of Alito to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. I expected a far right Conservative (and, honestly, I think that's what Miers was, too). This one comes with a long paper trail demonstrating his far right Judicial activism, which should make it easier for the Democrats to filibuster the nomination.

Of course, that could lead to the elimination of the filibuster, since the infamous 'Gang of 14' is said to be splintering. What a shock that the Republicans who agreed to that deal (that they would vote to protect the filibuster if the Democratic Senators would agree to only filibuster 'extreme' nominees) would break it the minute the issue arises!

The message the public is getting is that Congress will only be an independent branch of the Government when it suits the Religious Right. At least it's a message that's coming through loud and clear, and one that can only benefit the left in 2006.

One of the things that bothers me the most about the nomination of Alito, aside from the obvious, is that Bush would be cutting the number of women serving on the court in half. Do we really need another white male on the court? The answer to that is a resounding NO.

A picture from a few years back comes to mind. Remember when Congress passed that bill banning so called Partial Birth abortions, and the picture was of Bush, surrounded by a group of other white men, signing the bill into law as they all smiled?

Make one of the men African American and slap on some Judicial Robes, and you could have the future slim majority of five on the Roberts court as they take away a woman's right to choose.

The Democrats may be fighting a losing battle, but even if they are they've got to fight it. They can't back down from using the filibuster on Alito. If nothing else, it sends the strong message that the Democrats WILL be an Opposition Party. They may even be able to cobble together enough votes from some of those seven Republicans from the 'Gang of 14' or other more moderate Republicans to actually save the filibuster and keep Alito off the Supreme Court at the same time.

We'll never know unless they try.

The Senate Dems showed some backbone yesterday, surprisingly, by forcing the Senate into a closed session to discuss the lack of follow through by the Republicans on an investigation into the pre-War intelligence and the Bush Administration's possible manipulation of it. Let's hope they continue that trend of standing up and making themselves heard with Alito.

They also need to start an investigation immediately into the revelations today that the CIA is running a secret prison system for terror suspects in Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, and Thailand. We've seen what the Bush administration allows to happen to prisoners in non-secret prisons like Abu Ghraib. My blood runs cold at the thought of what the CIA are getting up to in the secret ones.

I'd say 'That's not America', but the sad fact is that it IS America these days, and we've got to put a stop to that.

I've got to work tonight. I have some e-mails to respond to, which I may write about after work tonight, but if I don't get to it then, I will tomorrow.

Harry & Harriet, Sittin' in a Tree.....

Things are a bit less hectic now, so hopefully I should be posting more regularly than I did this past week.

Where to start? With Miers, of course.

Seems that back in 1989, Harriet Miers supported a ban on all abortions except when the mother's life was in danger.

No one should really be surprised at this news. Bush was never going to nominate a moderate or anyone willing to put their personal beliefs aside in favor of the rule of law.

So now the far righters can breathe a sigh of relief and rush to confirm. And what of the Democrats? We've got a Minority Leader in the Senate who praised Miers the moment she was nominated and in fact bragged that he recommended her to Bush. How much of a fight are they going to put up now?

I say we should flood the Minority Leader's office with calls, letters and e-mails demanding his resignation as the leader of the Senate Democrats for his support of Miers. Reid himself is anti-choice and he seems to have made sure he recommended someone to Bush who held the same beliefs.

The danger with Miers is that all we really have to go on are her personal views. She hasn't ever been a Judge, so we have no way of knowing how she'll let those personal views affect her rulings. But given the views she has and the crowd she hangs around with, we can assume the worst.

We can assume that she'll help set back the clock on a woman's right to choose, on gay rights, and on civil rights in general. We can assume that she'll be a great friend to big business over individual citizens, and a supporter of the tyranny of the Administration she's served over all of our civil liberties.

And we can assume she'll do all this not based on a fair assessment of the law, but on political and ideological reasoning. That sort of Judicial activism has no place on any of our courts, let alone the highest one.

I'd have no problem with Miers or anyone who is personally anti-choice being appointed to the Supreme Court if they had a record that demonstrated that they put the law above personal ideology. No one should be blocked from any job based on personal views. But they should be blocked when they're going to make all decisions based on those views and nothing else.

These aren't abstract issues. These are people's very lives at stake. How many women will die from botched back alley abortions if these neo cons get their way?

This is my very life at stake. Forget for just a moment about the rights I should have but don't yet like the right to marry the person I love someday, or adopt a child anywhere in the country. My very right to have sex with another guy in my own bedroom could be taken away. It was only just officially guaranteed a couple of years ago, remember. My right not to be fired from a job (or to be hired at all) because of my sexuality could be taken away.

These are issues that matter to millions of real people in this country, and the Senate Democrats seem to be doing nothing about it. They need to oppose and filibuster Miers and any other nominee who either can't demonstrate they won't be an extremist on the court of has already demonstrated they will be.

I know how we got stuck with this gang of incompetent thugs in the White House. Some old fashioned electoral fraud (not once, but twice!) took care of that. But how did a putz like Harry Reid end up as the leader of the left in the Senate?

Oh, yeah! Duh. I forgot. The 'left' is more than just the minority in the Senate (and the House, for that matter). They're in the minority of the minority!

Most of the Democrats in Congress are Centrists like Hillary Clinton. Many aren't even really of the left at all. Look at Joe Lieberman. Look at that old homophobe, Robert Byrd!

With Democrats like them serving, it's no wonder they chose a guy like Harry Reid to be their leader.

They're are probably about 15 Democrats in the Senate who can be relied upon most of the time to be reasonably liberal, maybe 20 if we really stretch our definition. Even those 15-20 disappoint more often than not. In the House, there are probably 30-40.

This is a sorry state of affairs. Why do we let these men & women get elected time and again? We need to send a message next year and send some truly progressive people to Washington to start kicking some ass!

Look, the current Supreme Court is a very aged group. Chances are, Bush could nominated 1 or 2 more Justices. Hopefully, if that happens, it'll be AFTER the mid term elections. We'll have had another chance to change the make up of the Senate and put people in there who will really oppose far right nominees, to the point of stopping them from being confirmed.

Let's take a serious look at the 2006 Senate races and see what we can do. And that doesn't mean supporting Democrats and opposing Republicans. It means supporting progressive candidates and opposing Center/Right candidates, no matter their party.

Kick Joe Lieberman out of office in Connecticut. Kick Bill Nelson out of office in Florida and Ben Nelson out of office in Nebraska. And for God's sake, let's not give Robert Byrd another term! I don't oppose any candidate based on their age or the amount of time they've already served. If they're doing a good job, let them keep doing it. But Byrd, though he may have scored some points by speaking out against the Iraq war, is a homophobic relic. So let's kick him out.

We need to replace Republicans with liberals, but we also need to replace many Democrats with liberals. If we just keep sending back the same people, or their ideological clones, we're the ones who are enabling all this.

I wanted to talk about several things tonight, but I guess I climbed up on my soap box and now it's getting late.


Enter Miers, Stage Right

The master of low expectations has struck again. Today Bush nominated his close friend and confidant, White House Counsel Harriet Miers, to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.

What do I mean about the master of low expectations? Bush drove all our expectations down last July when he nominated yet another white male to replace the first female Justice ever to serve on the court, thereby cutting the number of women serving in half.

This time around, I'm sure many people are so relieved that it's at least a woman nominated to replace O'Connor that they already see this nomination in a more positive light than they did the Roberts nomination. Even I was relieved in the first moment of reaction to see that another woman had been nominated, regardless of her views. Two is certainly a bare minimum of female Justices, a number the court should never again go below.

But, truly, we're seeing the Bush team in action here again. Make sure the people expect nothing and then, when you give them the tiniest fraction more than nothing, they think it's a victory. They've been doing this since before the 2000 election and it's worked wonders for them most of the time, I'm sorry to say.

It already sounds like certain Senate Democrats are lining up to confirm Miers. It was reported today that Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Minority Leader, 'likes' Miers and in fact had recommended her to Bush as a candidate to replace O'Connor.

Of course, Harry Reid is hardly who I'd look to for advice on a good Supreme Court nominee. He's an anti-choice centrist.

John Roberts had a record that he deflected with personal charm while refusing to answer most questions. Harriet Miers has never served in a Judicial capacity and probably has a lot less of a paper trail to indicate her positions on crucial issues.

Stories have already come out saying the Conservatives are angry at Bush for picking Miers, saying her views are unknown and she could be pro-abortion or pro-any other of the right's bogeyman issues. Of course, Conservatives were going to be angry if Bush picked anyone even a fraction to the left of Justices Scalia and Thomas. But it's doubtful he did.

No one seems to know for sure what Miers' take on important issues like abortion, civil rights and gay rights are. But c'mon. This is a close personal friend and trusted adviser of George W. Bush. Is she likely to prove a moderate on the court?

So far we already know that when she was President of the Texas State Bar, she tried to get the American Bar Association to change its position endorsing the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision.

Does that mean she'll be anti-choice once she's on the Court? No one can say for sure. But it's not a good sign.

The Democrats need to take their time with this nomination, make sure they sound Miers out and go over all available documents. Just because she's a woman doesn't make her another O'Connor, and this is the crucial 'swing vote' we've all been talking about for the last three months.

With what Reid said today, though, I fear that Miers is all but confirmed in the minds of many Centrist Democrats, barring any surprises. I'm so sick of seeing them roll over so Bush can rub their tummies! But we shouldn't be surprised. They just stand for more toned down versions of what he stands for, after all.

We need some real liberals to come to Congress and start kicking ass, people!

Anyway, it was a busy day for me here. I've wanted to blog about Miers since this morning, and this was my first chance.

On a completely different note, I have to say that I really enjoyed Rebecca's picture post celebrating Paul Walker's nips! Truly, a woman after my own heart! Paul Walker was once just the sort of blond pretty boy I lusted after back in the She's All That/Varsity Blues days, but he's matured into a sort of rugged sex appeal, less pretty and blond, that still earns him a spot in the top ten on my Celebrities I'd Fuck list! Mr. Walker would look even better with a bit of chest hair, I might add. He's already got a sexy treasure trail that I'd LOVE to follow.

See, even when things are looking down, you can always take a moment to enjoy some healthy, old fashioned lust for some celebrity beefcake!

Chief Justice Blues

You're most likely to find new posts from me here either in the afternoon or late at night, just so you know. Classes, along with the reading, writing, and studying that goes with them, take up a lot of my time, especially in the evenings. I grab what free time I can for myself, and now that I'm blogging, too, things are probably going to be pretty tight for awhile, time wise.

And did I mention that I work weekends? So much for a social life! And here I thought the college years were supposed to be all about parties and hooking up. Did the movies lie? What a horrible thought!

So, today was the day that John Roberts was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as our new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The guy is only fifty years old and you know that our Government officials all have the best health care our tax money can provide (for them, of course, not for us!), so we're looking at the guy who is going to lead the court until 2040 or so.

In light of that, you might have thought the Democrats in the Senate would have put up a bit more fight. Sure, 22 of them voted against him, but so what? Given all the unanswered questions and the refusal to release all the documents relating to his work in the White House, particularly during George Bush I's Administration, the Democrats should have filibustered him on principle alone.

They did it with John Bolton, remember. They shut down his nomination because documents from the State Department weren't handed over. They should have done the same here.

But apparently enough of them were won over by his smiling charm and that adorable little son of his, paraded around just enough to paint the perfect picture of decency and family values.

Well, now we're stuck with him. Maybe he'll surprise us. Once on the court, Justices have been know to shock those who appointed them, or to slowly change over the years and become more moderate.

But can you really imagine this administration appointing anyone who wasn't going to stick to the Conservative hard line all the days of his life? I can't. They wouldn't leave anything to chance.

I read today in one of the news articles that Roberts was confirmed by the biggest majority ever for a Chief Justice. Someone Bush appointed got the biggest majority ever. Way to go Senate Democrats! Ever hear of the term 'opposition party'?

Of course, to have an opposition party, we'd have to have people serving who are actually in opposition to what the Republicans stand for. And the majority of elected Democrats aren't. They just stand for a more moderate, toned down version.

Anyone who cares about their freedoms and civil liberties should be worried right now. And as a gay man, it's doubly worrying to me that issues affecting my daily life, like my right to someday marry the person I love, to adopt children, to not be discriminated against in the work place because of my sexual orientation, and possibly even the right to have sex with the person I love in the privacy of our own home, will be coming before a court headed by a man who most likely holds the same rigid views as George W. Bush.

Some people are saying that it's okay, because it doesn't change the balance of the court. Roberts replaced the equally conservative Rehnquist, so the status quo isn't affected.

Bullshit. First of all, Roberts was nominated to replace O'Connor to start with, so don't fool yourself for a second into thinking that the next Nominee won't be just as conservative. Bush showed that altering the balance is his primary goal. And you know what? Had Rehnquist not died, there's no real doubt in my mind that Roberts would still have been confirmed today, as O'Connor's replacement. The Democrats weren't going to fight his nomination either way.

So don't lull yourselves into complacency. The balance is going to shift and the shit will be hitting the fan for decades to come. The only way the Democrats will fight the next nominee is if some skeleton emerges from his or her closet, or if the nominee is abrasive enough to make them feel safe doing so. John Roberts came off as such a nice guy that a lot of the Democrats seemed to be scared to oppose him strongly.

And don't think Bush & co didn't notice that. Look for the next nominee to be just as charming, if they can manage it.

Forgive me if I sound a bit defeatist right now. But the fact of the matter is, things aren't going to change until we make them change. It's time to vote this bunch of Centrist Democrats out of office and replace them with true liberals. That's the only way we're going to truly oppose the Republicans.

These scaredy cats in Congress aren't going to strongly oppose anything Bush & co put forward until they're sure it won't hurt them with centrist voters. Well, what more do they need? Bush is lower in the polls than he's ever been. When do these idiots feel safe enough to start showing some real backbone? And when do the Republicans wake up to the fact that Bush is nothing but a big old anchor around their necks? When will they finally distance themselves?

It's coming, but can it come quickly enough to spare us another John Roberts sitting on the bench in O'Connor's seat?

I wouldn't bet on it. But the horrible truth is, we all stand to lose a lot without even placing a bet.

I hate to end on a down note. Worse, I hate to go to sleep in a bad mood. But wait! Tom DeLay was indicted today and had to 'temporarily' step down as House Majority Leader.

Ah, now that's something to smile about.

That and some sweet dreams about the hot guy in a tight t-shirt that left nothing to the imagination who sat next to me in class today should be enough to have me feeling optimistic again in the morning.