College dorm life today:

Steve Leslie’s dorm room at Miami University has 20 plugs sprouting from the walls. They power a color TV, stereo, compact disc and DVD players, video game player, desktop computer and laptop, printer, scanner, refrigerator, microwave and two fans. Then there are rechargers for a cell phone, hand-held computer, camera, electric razor and toothbrush
. . . .
Today’s collegians are part of a generation raised on electronics, and colleges are having no choice but to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade electrical systems. Often, the upgrade costs are getting passed on to parents and students in the form of higher fees.
. . .
The average freshman at Miami University takes 18 appliances to campus, according to a March survey by the school.

And on the local front:

Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn., decided to tear down one residence hall last year and build a new dorm at a cost of $7 million.
“If too many women turned on their hair dryers in the morning, the circuit breakers would blow. That was happening daily,” said Bill Seymour, vice president and dean of students.

Dorm life back in the dark ages:
Here’s my electronics inventory when I lived in the dorm ten years ago:

1. Clock
2. Refrigerator
3. Microwave
4. Hairdryer
5. Typewriter/computer (Yes, I had a typewriter. Fortunately, my senior year roommate let me use his computer for those longer papers.)
6. Iron (rarely used).
7. Radio/CD player.

There’s probably something else I’ve forgotten at the moment. But nothing that would overload the circuits. My dorm was a conservative one; TVs weren’t allowed.
Suffice it to say, I lived on fewer watts than youngsters do today.

I’m out celebrating National Ammo Week. Ha!
There probably won’t be any fresh posts until this evening. Enjoy the links to the right.

I took this survey (link via Ernie the Attorney) and apparently I’m not on the cutting edge; I scored a 47, which is in the bottom 15%. That may help explain why it seemingly took me two days to install this Movable Type web page.

Uggabugga reproduces a chart which tracks the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq. It highlights three milestones along the way: “Mission Accomplished,” “Bring ’em on!,” and “Deaths show Progress.”

Not withstanding the best efforts of senators during last week’s 36-hour marathon Fox News Channel photo op, yet another Bush judicial nominee is languishing on the Senate docket:

The Senate is blocking another of President Bush�s judicial nominees � but this time it�s Republicans and not Democrats playing the role of obstructionists.
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) last week sought unanimous consent to take up the nomination of Leon Holmes to a seat on the U.S. District Court in Arkansas.
. . .
But at least four centrist Republicans expressed doubts about Holmes, based on statements culled from some of his writings. The four are Arlen Specter (Pa.), Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (Maine), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas).

Why is it that these senators aren’t fulfilling their Constitutional duties? Is it because Republicans don’t want conservative white Southern males to succeed? Are they uneasy with giving a lifetime appointment to one who, when writing on a total abortion ban, stated that “concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with the same frequency as snowfall in Miami”?
Whatever the case, it isn’t these senators who are holding up the vote:

Hutchison, noting that Senate Republicans just finished a futile marathon anti-filibuster effort to overcome Democratic opposition to six Bush nominees to federal appellate courts, said, “I will not ever stop a vote from coming to the floor. That�s what we talked about for 36 hours last week.”
Pryor, who once practiced law with Holmes, a Republican, in Little Rock, noted that he has been �languishing� on the Senate�s calendar for more than six months. Pryor said he is “perplexed” as to why Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) hasn’t scheduled a floor vote on the nomination.

Perplexing indeed.
Via Daily Kos.