Also interesting to note that conservative constituents demands for "purity" echo the kinds of ideologically stringent shit that metalheads fling at each other on the Internet.

Earlier this week I blew through The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on my days off--both kinetic, punkish, and overall spiky works, well worth reading.

Currently on James A. Michener's Poland, a historical novel. Very clumsy prose-wise and bland character-wise but rather insightful w/r/t state-building and the relationship between government and society. I'm about halfway through.

Next in my hopper is Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus and other essays and then Robert Caro's The Power Broker.