April Fools!

So I just got back from being out of town... got back and my office is now full of 200 cubic feet of junk that was previously living in my Washington, DC condo. Rather than try to play catch up with the blog I'll just catch you up on my personal life instead! For those of you who expected something else, the joke is on you today.

Starting this fall I'll be working on my Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Houston. My goal by the end of the 4-5 years I'm down there is to better understand American Political Behavior. It would appear that no one seems to know what is going on in this field...

According to Dr. Haider Mehdi's recent article, "Iranian Foreign Minister, and his entire foreign policy establishment, along with academics and experts at the Institute for Political and International Studies appear to be perplexed and amazed at the global political behavior of the US." I'm sure plenty of other nations have no idea whats going on in the minds of our leaders either!

At Dartmouth a course asks: "Do most Americans have real opinions on political issues, or are their opinions transient and heavily influenced by the media and political elites? Do the media determine the issues people care about, or does public concern about an issue drive media coverage?" Across the country these types of questions are being asked, but no one has yet given their final answer and taken home the $1,00,000.

Is it true that "One of the major reasons why we have wars is because people don't take enough interest in politics" or that "By taking an active part in political and social affairs the people can control world events."

Amazon.com describes the book, Political Behavior of the American Electorate by saying, "The 2004 elections demonstrated, once again, the capacity of the electorate to surprise and confound political pundits, public opinion analysts, and even academics. The surprise not only stems from the closeness of the contests, but also from the country's apparent partisan polarization, geographic division, and social cleavages." Futher demonstrating the lack of understanding of the topic.

Or are people really just sheeple? Believing whatever they are told without bothering to think about it. Regardless, I need to better grasp how I can control and influence you in order to successfully rule the world! I mean... make it a better place... for everyone! So please, do continue to enjoy this blog and look for it only to get better in the days, weeks and months ahead!

Perhaps I can somehow use this blog as part of my Ph.D. dissertation... rather than as a distraction from it.