“This is actually a serious post. I will really sell this piece of shit.”

Those are the words of a disillusioned graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center graduate who on Wednesday posted an offer to sell his GULC degree “for the bargain basement price of $59,250″ on Craigslist. Why? And, what might incline you to buy it off of him?

“After several years of practicing law I have come to the conclusion that my law degree is useless and I don’t want to be a lawyer anymore. ….

“This priceless collectible will permit you to be surrounded by hobby-less assholes whose entire life is dictated by billing by the hour and being anal dickheads. Additionally, this piece of paper has the amazing ability to keep you from doing what you really want to do in life, all in the name of purported prestige and financial success. Finally, girls in the Marina will swoon with retarded thoughts of sugar daddy when they hear you went to XXX prestigious law school and are a lawyer.”

“Act now as supplies are limited and this crap takes three years to make. DISCLAIMER: this piece of shit isn’t even written in English. It’s in Latin or something, but I have the translation. It says “Haha. We took your tuition money bitch, now suck it. Sincerely, President of the University.”

Vox contacted the seller, who confirmed for us that he is indeed selling a Georgetown Law Degree for the value of his outstanding student loans. Yup, that’s our seal. If you squint, you can make out President John DeGioia’s signature, too.

“So far I’ve received an offer for $200 and at least two dozens offers to buy me drinks. Another guy offered to give me an Ipod Nano.  One girl told me I’m her soul mate and that she wants to go on a date.  The best offer was from a documentary filmmaker who offered to give me $50 to piss on my diploma and then set it on fire. Unless I get something better I’ll probably accept this offer,” he wrote in an e-mail to us.

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On Wednesday, D.C. Councilmember and Georgetown alum David Catania (I-At Large)(SFS ‘90, LAW ‘94) spoke to a Voice reporter about his run for re-election, his recent work on same-sex marriage and medical marijuana legalization, and his time at Georgetown. Below is a full transcript of their conversation. Interview conducted and transcribed by Claire Wheeler.

Voice: What led you to first become involved in politics?

Catania: Where should I begin … I was active in my neighborhood before running for the Council. In the mid-1990s I was active in my former neighborhood, which was called Sheridan-Kalorama. I ran for the [Advisory Neighborhood Commission] in 1996 and was successful in that race and then the opportunity presented itself to run for the Council in a special election. Based on the work I had done as an adviser to the Neighborhood Commission and the view I held about the direction of the City, I decided if we wanted the City to improve, we would have to have a new generation of leadership with a different set of priorities then the generation that preceded me. So when the opportunity presented itself to run for the council in 1997, I decided to run.

V: Why did you decide to run for re-election in the council?

C: I think first and foremost, that I have chaired the Committee on Health since January 2005 and over the last five years I think we have made a lot of progress on improving the quality of healthcare in the district and access to healthcare. We are working to narrow certain health disparities that exist in the city, but there are still many challenges and a lot of work to do. I had hoped that we would have universal access to health insurance by 2010. It was a goal of mine. The economic meltdown in 2008 has really frustrated that goal, but I am still committed to it. The District enjoys one of the lowest rates of uninsured in the country, thanks in part to the work that I have started in the past few years on expanding our Medicare programs and expanding our Alliance programs. The district is in the top-tier in the Nation in terms of insured, but we still have, nonetheless, about eight percent of our population that is not insured, and I want to continue my work to bring that down to zero.

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Georgetown University currently has 30 undergraduate alumni serving as Peace Corps volunteers, a number which puts its volunteer levels at eighth in the nation among comparatively sized schools in 2010 (PDF). However, that number is down over 14 percent from last year, and down over 54 percent since 2004, according to a press release that came out on Thursday.

Georgetown has seen its ranking consistently fall from second best in the country in 2004 and 2005 to its current spot, tied with the University of Chicago at eighth best among medium-sized schools. Neighboring D.C. universities also fared well in mid-sized university rankings, with The George Washington University and American University taking first and second places respectively in the category.

Full rankings for 2004-2010 (PDF).

Founded in 2009, Jacques-Philippe Piverger’s (MSB ‘99) non-profit organization, Global Syndicate, is still in its infancy. But immediately after he heard about the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, his organization launched The Haiti Project, an ambitious fundraising campaign that will host fundraising events in six major U.S. cities.

But unlike a lot of recent fundraisers, The Haiti Project is not just focused on providing immediate relief effort for Haiti—while it is already raising funds, the first event, which will take place in New York City, is not until May 13. The campaign’s focus is on sustaining long-term development in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation as well as disaster relief.

“The focus [of Global Syndicate] is on economic development, health services, and access to education,” Piverger told the Voice. “We are raising funds for Haiti in those key areas. So far, we have raised a little over $20,000.”

Piverger said the fundraiser in New York City is shaping up well, with Bobby Kennedy, Jr., and many New York political figures promising to attend. They have already identified several partners the event will benefit, too—part of the money raised there will go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Another Georgetown alumni, Kristin Johnson, sits on the board of Global Syndicate, and several alumni and Georgetown-affiliated people are helping plan the various Haiti Project events, including Marcia Dyson, an affiliate of the Center for Social Justice and the wife of Professor Michael Eric Dyson.

D.C. Councilmember and Georgetown alum David Catania (I-At Large)(SFS ‘90, LAW ‘94) made headlines in 2009 as the man behind the District’s same-sex marriage legalization bill. But Catania, whose third term will end this year, has been keeping mum on whether or not he’ll run for re-election in November, leading some local politics fans to wonder whether the marriage equality victory might be his swan song.

It looks like the speculation can finally come to an end, though: Catania has told “several close supporters” to assume he’ll be running, according to Washington City Paper. City Paper and D.C. Wire also report that Catania will be making an official announcement in mid-January.

In addition to writing and championing the recently-passed same-sex marriage bill, Catania has spent much of his time on the Council working on health care and insurance issues. As of now there is only one challenger for Catania’s seat, Congress Heights minister and civic activist Anthony Motley.

Photo from Flickr user dbking, used under a Creative Commons license.

The polo shirt is a reliable choice of clothing if you want to dress for a party but are too drunk to think of something better to wear. But what if you want something more? What if you want a polo shirt with a shocker insignia? If that’s the case, two Georgetown alums have the answer for you: College Polos.

JP Medved (MSB ‘09) and Anthony Sessa (SFS ‘09) launched the site, which sells collared shirts that look like any other polo shirt—except where other shirts would have an alligator or polo player, though, these may feature beer pong, the shocker, or “fun bags.”

Medved, former editor of the (usually conservative) Georgetown publication The Federalist, says he bought the domain name about a year ago without an idea of what to do with it. After graduating, he and Sessa decided to start selling the shirts.

Possible new logo designs include a beer bottle, skull and crossbones, a dollar sign, and Twilight-inspired fangs.

“Hopefully a bunch of guys will sucker into it and buy stuff for their girlfriends,” Sessa said.

The two are still undecided on their best design idea, however. According to Sessa, they’re toying with the idea of a logo of Jack the Bulldog humping Syracuse’s mascot, a giant orange named Otto. I’m just not sure they’ll be able to make that clear on a 3/4 inch logo.

Bill Clinton (SFS ‘68) wasn’t the only president to come through Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service during the ’60s.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the current president of the Philippines, attended the SFS, too. Arroyo didn’t graduate from Georgetown, but she did study here for two years while Clinton was an undergraduate. In fact, Clinton recalled her as his “friend, a long, long time ago” when he attended a ceremony for the Clinton Global Initiative in the Philippines in 2007, and spoke admirably of the tough decisions she had made as the leader of her country.

Like Clinton’s, Arroyo’s term in office has also been marked by legal troubles … and that’s about where the similarities end.

Arroyo, notes every article about her presidency, is incredibly unpopular. She has had to stave off impeachment several times, and her administration is supposed to be behind several serious corruption scandals and the killing or kidnapping of many Filipino activists.

Most recently, “[h]er closest political allies in the southern Philippines were implicated last week in the massacre of 57 people, most of them journalists, in the country’s worst case of election-related violence,” writes Carlos Conde in the New York Times.

So when Arroyo announced on Monday that she would run for a seat in Congress in next year’s elections, it prompted speculation that she was doing so to retain immunity from prosecution, or so that she could use her clout to become prime minister—after creating the position herself.

Arroyo actually does have one last thing in common with Clinton—hers is a political family. A bizarre detail of this story is that the person who currently holds the seat she intends to run for—who said he will step aside for her to run—is Juan Miguel Arroyo, her son.

Photo from Flickr.

The holidays never come too soon for Georgetown alum Julie Littell. In December of 2007, Littell realized that her passion for decorating gifts unnecessarily conflicted with her love of the environment. So, she began Earth Presents—a company that sells eco-friendly gift wrap.

The wrapping paper sold by Earth Presents is made from 100 percent recycled products, and the inks used for the designs are all vegetable-based. They also sell gift tags, ribbons, and bows that are packaged in 100% recycled content. The company also gives children from the D.C. area an opportunity to provide the artistic inspiration for the designs featured on the gift wrap.

This year Earth Presents donated wrapping paper to Georgetown’s EcoAction. They will be selling the gift wrap for charity in Red Square to help promote a recyclable and Earth-friendly holiday season.

In this week’s issue of the Voice, I had the chance to talk to quite a few former Georgetown comedians. Unfortunately, we didn’t have space for all of their quotes in the article, so here are a few of the extras:

Alison Becker (COL ‘99) on the advantages of being a comedian at Georgetown:

“Because the comedy vibe at Georgetown was so under the radar of the administration, we did whatever we wanted. It was student-run, and that’s how comedy should be: without rules. And Georgetown gave me something that few other schools could have: the chance to create with genuinely intelligent people. You can’t be an idiot and be a good comedian. You have to play to the height of your intelligence. And I am thankful that my fellow improv players challenged me intellectually and comedically. “

Mike Birbiglia (COL ‘00) on benefiting from Georgetown’s erudite culture and bureaucratic red-tape:

“The upside of Georgetown is that I was surrounded by people from all different fields. government, language, science. so in some ways, I feel like I benefited by osmosis, and it gave me a slightly more balanced view of the world.”

“When I was at Georgetown, I resented the administration and bureaucracy of the performing arts, but when I have distance from it I can see that they really have more of a long view and that yes, it was a struggle to get something up and running on campus but that actually there ought to be a struggle of some kind, because the struggle students will face when they leave Georgetown is far more arduous.”

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NSO staple Mike Birbiglia (COL ‘00) is in the midst of a nationwide tour, and in anticipation of his Saturday night performance at Warner Theater in D.C. he had a chat with Washington Post readers earlier this week.

While many of the questions were about his comedic work, quite a few Washingtonians used the chat as a chance to discuss Birbiglia’s time at Georgetown.

One reader claimed to be the runner-up in the “Funniest Person at Georgetown” contest the year Birbiglia won, another asked about his “theory of bisexuality,” which he developed while taking a women’s studies class at Georgetown,  and someone else admitted her “friend” had a huge crush on him when they were in college together.

The best part of the chat, though, comes when a reader asks him for help controlling his fellow Hoyas’ urinary habits:

Washington, D.C.: Why are you so funny?

Also, can you get these Georgetown students to stop peeing on my front lawn?

Mike Birbiglia: I can’t vouch for those people. I never peed in anyone’s lawn while at GU, though I did once ride in a shopping cart.

…

Georgetown: We pee on everyone’s lawns.

Mike Birbiglia: Sounds like you do. Yes.