please turn down the level of discourse, i'm trying to drink myself to sleep

Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire (link from, like, everywhere on the Internet). Transcript also available here. Prior to this clip, I have asked myself, "Could I love Jon Stewart more?" and the answer, clearly, was yes. Outrage: so hot right now! However, owning up to my personal political responsibility: so tepid right now.

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who is originally from Alberta, where her left-leaning views put her in the political minority and forced her to have to defend her positions on a regular basis. She said she actually missed that environment because it challenged her and motivated her to be better-educated and informed than a more liberal environment, like our university, has. I was also more politically engaged and informed when I was in highschool than I am now. I read the newspaper, I researched issues I was interested in, and I had political dialogue with other people on a regular basis. Since coming to university, it's been really easy for me to immerse myself in the Queen's bubble and pay only cursory attention to the "real world." I still have an adequate grasp of American politics, but I'm not an American citizen — and in the last couple of years, I have paid so little attention to domestic politics, such as issues in the late Chretien administration, the Martin administration, and even the election, that it's sickening. (In the last year or so, it's often been hard for me to pay attention to anything beyond getting myself out of bed, but that doesn't excuse the entire trend.)

Appropriately, I am blogging instead of studying for my Canadian politics midterm tomorrow. Yes, that thing I'm paying to get a degree in that I often actively choose to ignore.