More People Have Read My T-Shirt Than My Blog

The title of this initial entry seems appropriate. Maybe some family and friends will follow this, and tell their family and friends about all the crazy stuff they find here, such as links to interesting articles, diatribes about the state of the world, pithy commentary, zany pictures, and all things BLOG. Who knows?

For those who don't know me, I'm a doctoral student in Public Administration and American Politics. My studies focus mainly on careerist-appointee relations, regulatory development and enforcement, the "administrative presidency", and interest participation in the American bureaucracy.

I have many more extracurricular interests that include my wife, my friends, my family, backgammon, traveling (when I can afford it), Baltimore, and classic hip hop music ("there ain't nothin' like"). Policy areas that continue to spark my interest include food (especially GMOs) and water policies, urbanization, infrastructure, and education. I'm also quite interested in the relationship between the behavior of political elites and public opinion, including areas such as issue framing and partisan polarization.

In a second life, I'd like to become the world's leading Camus scholar, as I earnestly believe that "the absurd is the essential concept and the first truth". And, therefore, in my first life (despite my current trajectory) I still fully expect to one day become a rock star.

The purpose of this blog is mainly to provide myself with a kind of notebook to update and summarize things I'm studying. So, there will probably be little linearity to any of this. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy reading, commenting, and wasting time!

- MOB