It has come to my attention that the current generation of college students are drinking . . . to excess! I’m shocked, shocked. At my alma mater, Miami, they apparently went after beer pong. Back in my day, we didn’t play beer pong. At least I didn’t. I played Three Man, Asshole, Up & Down the River, and Quarters; but no Beer Pong. Mostly I didn’t have a lot of use for drinking games. I didn’t really need the assistance.

I’ve been hearing about and rolling my eyes at the steady reporting on the scourge of binge drinking on college campuses for the past 20 years. It makes me wonder how long it’s been since it a) wasn’t a scourge; and/or b) it wasn’t much reported upon.

Apparently a guy died on the mountain T & I climbed a year ago. I think he was doing a tougher route, but it’s still a reminder that, as my Dad stressed, those mountains will kill you if you don’t respect them. (By which I’m not implying that the hiker who died didn’t take the mountain seriously — I have no idea about the details.)

A Missouri man whose body was found Thursday on Quandary Peak was an acclaimed master chef visiting Breckenridge for his sister’s wedding.

Ryan Torpey, 31, had embarked on a short day hike from the Blue Lakes trailhead Wednesday morning but had not returned by 5:30 p.m., prompting his family to contact authorities.

“According to his family, this guy was an experienced hiker, and he had summited Quandary before,” said Summit County Search and Rescue spokeswoman Anna DeBatiste.

T & I on Quandary Peak last year:

The Christian Science Monitor has a very informative article on the situation between Georgia and Russia. Apparently a region known as South Ossetia is within the Soviet era borders of Georgia but has been attempting to break away from the modern nation of Georgia. Since the 90s, South Ossetia has been in a sort of legal limbo, not really governed by Georgia, but not recognized by other nations. The area is apparently pro-Russia and enjoys Russian support. Georgia invaded in what appeared to be a planned invasion. However, what wasn’t expected was responding invasion by Russian armored units.

Moscow has long supported South Ossetia and another Georgian rebel statelet, Abkhazia, and maintains a contingent of peacekeeping troops in both. The two republics won de facto independence through bitter civil wars in the early 1990s, and have since lived in legal limbo, unrecognized by the world community, which supports Georgia’s claim of sovereignty over the whole territory of Soviet-era Georgia.

But two key developments have pushed these formerly “frozen conflicts” into the spotlight in recent months. The West’s backing for Kosovo’s independence from Serbia earlier this year, over Russian objections, created what Moscow calls a precedent for other breakaway territories. And the US-backed push to expand NATO into the former Soviet Union, taking in Ukraine and Georgia, has met ferocious resistance in Moscow. For Russia, the existence of breakaway territories in Georgia is a prime argument, frequently repeated by Mr. Medvedev to Western leaders, against Georgia’s admission to NATO.

Did I mention that a significant oil pipeline runs through the region? This has the potential to be a god-awful mess. Not as bad as an ex-Presidential candidate having an affair, judging from the relative amounts of news coverage, but a mess nonetheless.

Tart Juice pretty much captures my feelings on Edwards’ affair.

My first thought when seeing this on the news this morning was I’m so glad he didn’t get the nomination. He could have seriously, unintentionally, screwed things up for the country. I also feel bad for his kids, two of whom are under 10 years old, and for his wife, who now has a deceased child, breast cancer, and a cheating husband under her belt.

A little more disturbing, however, is that this story pushed the apparent Russian invasion of Georgia to the back burner of cable news.

Update Scott Lemieux has a good take on this as well.

But, of course, I’m forgetting the rules: Edwards’s adultery is bad news for Barack Obama, Bill Clinton’s adultery is bad news for Hillary Clinton, but John McCain’s adultery isn’t an issue for John McCain.

Charlie Averill brings us a report that does not surprise me.

When it comes to processing and holding hearings on the denied claims of individuals for disability benefits, Indianapolis ranks dead last. And offices responsible for handling denied claims for individuals in Northwest Indiana rank among the most backlogged in the nation.

On average, it takes the Indianapolis office, handling cases south of Pulaski County, 896 days to process a disability claim. That’s about 2.5 years. A fair number of my collection cases involve people with unpaid medical bills who have applied for disability. Typically, in the absence of any alternate resources, I’ll put these cases on a long leash. Even so, these folks will usually have to come to court 2 or 3 times as I check up on them (making sure nothing has changed, they haven’t moved, etc.) before their disability case gets resolved.

I’m all for reviewing these claims — there are plenty of folks who apply who at least appear able bodied to me — but this looks like one of those justice delayed is justice denied type deals.

Remember, election season is also terror alert season.

The Indiana Court of Appeals issued a decision where the Plaintiff-Appellants’ name caught me by surprise. They were designated as:

KEVIN R. BOYD, as a Member of the Board of County Commissioners of Martin County, Indiana, On behalf of all Horse Drawn Buggy Operators and all other Citizens, Buggy Owner or Operators, so situated as affected parties as a Class,

Boyd’s complaint alleged that the Daviess County Board of Commissioners lacked the authority to pass an ordinance requiring operators of horse drawn vehicles to obtain a permit. The case was dismissed on procedural grounds, and the Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal.