Lex Libertas

An illustration of party loyalty gone horribly awry:

“I’m for any Republican who can get elected,” said Craig Capehart of Dallas, Texas. “It would be nice if they also had policies that would be good for the country.”*

You have to be kidding me! It’s getting to the point where all some Republicans want is to hold on to power. This is damaging both to the party and to the country. What this man said is that he will support any Republican, even if their policies aren’t good for the country!

As I have been told in the past, I have a bit of a problem with authority, which is exactly why I’m a Conservative. In general I don’t trust the government, or anyone in power for that matter. And I’m certainly not going to support someone simply because they’re wearing an elephant on their lapel.

Granted, there are some times when it may be necessary to tow the party line, and it’s almost impossible to find a candidate I’m always in agreement with. But these are compromises made within the premise of a functioning party that, at its core, stands for the things I believe in. The goal is not to be in power. Holding majority status is simply the means to allow us to effect policy change.

I believe that government should be as small and as localized as possible. It’s main functions are the enforcement of contracts and the protection of private property (from which springs national defense), though I understand the need for infrastructure development within our current system.

If I ever believe that the Republican Party has moved away from its central tenants of individual freedom (and correspondingly, individual responsibility), limited government, and fiscal conservatism (”Liberalism” for the Euros out there), then it will cease to be my party. However, I hope this will never be the case. To ensure this, Republicans must constantly grill potential and actual representatives, and not just support anyone who shows up.

In every asking of the question, ROLL CALL reports, Republicans have been happier than Democrats.

Republicans tend to be better off than Democrats, and that is one explanation for the happiness gap. But when the researchers controlled for household income, Republicans at all income levels were happier than Democrats at those same income levels.

As for ideology, conservative Republicans were happier than conservative Democrats, and moderate to liberal Republicans were happier than comparable Democrats.

And don’t forget, we’re also better in bed. Or perhaps those issues are connected …

For the past two weeks, I’ve been looking forward to what was supposed to be a wonderful weekend. A friend’s church is having a retreat in the countryside, and it would have been a great opportunity to take a break from the city and socialize. Instead, I’m home and immobile.

Starting on Tuesday, my sleep pattern was traumatized, and everyday saw me fall deeper and deeper into a stupor. Normally, I teach English every night from 7 to 10pm. Last week, however, I also started a private client who is only available in the mornings, from 10 to 12:15. She lives, however, on the other side of the city from me, and it’s a one and a half hour commute each way. Combine that with my normal job, which has a commute of one hour each way, and we’re looking at ten hours a day. Add to that my university classes, which are in the middle of the day.

The real problem, though, isn’t with the number of hours that I teach, it’s with the lack of sleep that resulted. I need 8 hours of sleep, minimum. Any less for a sustained amount of time, and I get sick. Considering that I don’t get home until 11pm, and I have to wake up by 8, that doesn’t leave me with much time. When I get home, I don’t go immediately to bed. I’m usually hungry, and I use some time to check the internet and wind-down from my day.

As if I wasn’t cutting it close enough, I haven’t been able to sleep past 7. The nightmare that is the White Nights is beginning. It’s as bright as day in my room at 7am, and no matter how tired I am, I can’t sleep through it.

To make a long story short. I’ve been working myself into the ground, and not getting enough sleep. All of which led to my getting progressively sicker throughout the week, but there was nothing I could do. My private client is preparing for a trip to England, and we had to work everyday. Besides, even if I would have been able to postpone the lessons, I need the money.

On Friday, I was the sickest I had been in two years. My whole body ached, it hurt to breathe, swallowing was painful, I had a fever, my stomach was rebelling, my eyes were constantly tearing up, and I couldn’t walk straight. I forced myself to go teach, which was a very stupid decision. I put all the energy I had left into the class, and afterwards was so drained that on the way home I was honestly afraid of dropping to the ground, immobile.

I’m glad to say that today I feel much better. I’m sick quite sick, but in a normal way. I seem to have avoided the flu that I was sure had me in its grasp, and I won’t have to go to the hospital, which was my main concern. I only teach mornings twice next week, on Tuesday and Thursday, and I’m hoping that three nights in a row of full sleep will get me back on my feet.

As of today, I am an illegal alien in Russia. Don’t worry too much, though. This mostly means that if the police stop me, they’ll take whatever money I have on me, maybe my cell phone too, and let me continue on my merry way. How did it get to this point? Well, like any good Russian story, it involves corruption, betrayal, and an extremely ill-tempered government employee.

In order to keep a short leash on us, and to continuously pump money, we foreign students are given visas for only six months at a time. My visa was only until the 1st of March, and I tried to extend it this week.

In order to extend, you need: An HIV test, several passport pictures, proof of medical insurance, proof that you’ve paid the semester’s tuition, two applications, your name on a sheet of paper from the room down the hall (let’s be nice, pretend they have good organization, and call this the “Registrar’s Office), a receipt for payment of the application fee (400 rubles ~ $15), and one small pink monkey (to act as your intermediary should any conflict arise with the passport thief).

These various steps have to be done in a certain order, and that often entails a lot of walking back and forth to the same places multiple times. To start with, the Foreign Office is open to students only between the hours of 3 and 5 pm. Since there are thousands of foreign students at the university, this means that if you want to get in, you often have to come hours in advance. It also means that if you want to go to several rooms in the same building, it might take several days, because each one has its own line. Oh, and they’re closed on Wednesdays, because eight hours a week is enough to take care of thousands of students.

The various tasks that must be completed all occur in different areas of the university, which all have their own, sometimes conflicting, hours. Moreover, the campus is sectioned off so that you can’t just walk in a straight line. You have to constantly walk around gates and through access points. This is just another manifestation of the Soviet/Russian desire to control movement. The HIV test, for example, is taken in a laboratory on the other side of campus from the Foreign Office. It costs about $10, and is ready at 5pm the following day. Of course, the other place closes at 5pm, so this means that you have to go there at least two days before you plan on handing in your documents.

Tuition is paid at yet another location. But before you pay, you have to get permission to pay, which is from the Foreign Office (FO). Of course, you have to wait in line to get this. You take the permission to the second floor of the building where you pay. You give it to a lady, who punches some keys on a keyboard and prints out the invoice you give to the cashier downstairs. Oh, and you can only pay in cash. About a year ago they added the fantastic new ability to pay by credit card, but for some reason it won’t accept all cards, and my MasterCard doesn’t work. Then you get a receipt that you take back to the FO, and hand in. They take a copy, and you take the original. They then give you a sheet of paper with your name on it.

Now, if you’ve done all this and have the documents I previously mentioned, you can go and turn it all in, including you passport, to apply for a new visa. Once you’ve waited in line, you hand all the documents to a woman who has the appearance and character of a troll. She verifies that everything is in order, and gives you a bill to take to another cashier, to pay for the application. This cashier is located in yet another part of the university. Then you trod back, and wait in line again. Depending on how fiercely the fire of anger is burning within your heart, you might just barge in, bypassing the line and demanding to be seen after the current occupant has left. Then you give away your passport for one to two months, and receive a sheet of paper to show to the police if they stop you.

That’s the normal process. Let’s see what went wrong, and why Owen is now an illegal migrant. Well, at the beginning of February, I decided to turn my documents in early, so as to avoid the rush of doing it at the last minute, like I usually do. However, due to some unforeseen budgetary shortfalls, I was unable to pay my tuition. Without this, of course, I couldn’t extend my registration. Through a combination of payday and much-needed donations, I went down to the university at the beginning of the week to turn in my passport.
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