"If you're going to walk a long, lonesome highway, be sure you've chosen it for yourself."

Indeed. Doing the work for a M.A. or a Ph.D. that you don't actually "need" is not only a long lonely road but it is also a time-sucking, often frustrating, and hugely expensive undertaking as well. Myself, I dropped out of grad school after one semester. I've regretted this sometimes, but mostly not. Do I Have to Finish My Dissertation? 

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Three years of student aid and a 0.0 GPA to show for it - MLive
Political fall-guy for Governor Granholm's court packing scheme baffled by it all - Det Freep
Maybe that's why he didn't get retained by the voters perhaps? Too bad. He doesn't seem that bad.
The 1970's Oakland County Child Killer story makes news again - Det News
Amid rumors of a possible cover-up.
The real slayer of empires: Public debt - Newsweek
The 10 best low-carb fruits - Daily Apple (Mark Sisson)
Assange's rape allegations and the integrity of the left - The Nation (Katha Pollitt)
The right-wing's war on net neutrality -Daily Kos (Joan McCarter) via Slashdot
London UK police claim CCTVs solve "six crimes a day" - BBC
I'd like to know what these "six crimes a day" are before I take that claim too seriously. And pissing on the sidewalk, jaywalking, skateboarding offenses and similar shit shouldn't count, either.
"The vindictive grand jury investigation of pain-relief advocate Siobhan Reynolds" - Slate (Radly Balko)
Winterizing your bike - Wired

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The death of 'Caveman'Zimmerman ends an era in Idaho -The Idaho Statesman
Lived in a cave from 1947 until death at age 94.

Daniel McCarthy's ruminations on anarcho-capitalism -Tory Anarchist

Anarcho-capitalism is an untenable form of polity, IMHO. Capitalism can't exist with out a state entity.

"Have you read 'Sein und Zeit'? - Quick Study (Scott McLemee)

Graduate students twisting themselves into knots. Darkly funny. Why I quit graduate school myself.