Wake Me Up before you Go-Go

Jenn and I spent Thanksgiving at our friends' (Chris and Katie) place. The meal was positively scrumptious. The only thing missing was a nap afterwards. But there were many less than subtle differences between Turkey Day there versus any Turkey Day in my past. Those of you who have seen me eat turkey know about my legendary Gravy Wall of Mashed Potatoes. I bring this up only to stress my love of gravy. What I do is create a barrier using mashed Potatoes. The barrier acts as a buffer between things which need gravy, such as the turkey, and those which don't, such as cranberry sauce. And I put enough gravy on my plate to pretty much reacht he top of the gravy wall. This brings us to the first key difference: the gravy. Katie's gravy was positively delicious. The one thing I noticed right away was that it had an odd thing in it: ingredients. See, mom's gravy is basically the fat, some flour to thicken it and some bullion to add some extra taste. Katie's had crazy things like apples and other things that constitue ingredients. Never before did I realize that gravy, in some parts of the world, (namely the Watermolen household) includes ingerdients.

There were other such differences, which leads me to my first point today which is that my diet is remarkably unremarkable. Everythig I eat requires a bare minimum in preparation. Even the meals I thought required preparation (past turkey dinners for instance) actually required little to none in comparison to what some folks are doing out there. I'm not sure where this stems from. Is it the fact that my mom, bless her, just could not cook nor showed any interest in doing so (from teh purest "read a recipe and put a whole bunch of things together" stand point)? This led to very little experimantation and variation in my meals growing up and has obviously affected the way I eat today. Or is there a gradual change in the population, starting with witht he thirtysomethings, where more and more people are dedicating time to what they make. I think this might be the case, too. Two supporting facts: the ever-growing popularity in Whole Foods Market/Trader Joes type grocery stores and the fact that growing up, even when I went to places where the moms cooked, there were rarely, if ever, too much additional effort apparent in the dishes. Lasagna was aobut the most exotic I think I ever had elsewhere as a kid.
The odd part of this whole thing is that just about everyone that isn't me owns a cook book. But Until recently, I seriously doubted anyone ever used it beyond the simple "let's make sure I don't fuck up this turkey". From time to time a dessert here and there. But it was never something I really witnessed or got to sample until my friends, people my own age, started cooking.

Another Thanksgiving point that I alluded to earlier but I would liek to expand upon: I didn't get to nap. This is a very sad thing as on the East Coast, the post-dinner nap was always a requirement. You finish your meal, you saddle up in front of the TV, turn on the game (usually it's just about half time in the second NFL game) and you fall asleep. You wake up just in time for the 4th quarter. It's perfect. But living on the West Coast does not allow for this ritual. The problem is the game times. You're sitting down to eat just as the second game is finishing. And prime-time Turkey Day fare doesn't start for another 3 hours. There's nothing to nap to! This is just one of those little things that 99.999% of the people that move from East to West probalby don't notice.

But that's why I'm me, I guess.

My what a big SCREEN you have!

The TV is much bigger than I expected. It hink the problem is, you look at these TV's in Best Buy, and they are in amone 55", 68" and 12' screens and the 44"-er looks to be a little on the small side. Not small mind you. But in comparison, it is obviously smaller. So you figure, you go with the 44" because you're not sue if $800 is worth spending for another 10". Now ladies, I assume in some circumstances paying for the extra size is definitely worth it. Bet let me tell you something: that is not the case for TV screens. I would veture to say the the 44"s was JUST RIGHT. And I'm really not saying that because it's MY TV and I have developed a bond with it (they say a man develops a bond with his TV within the first 3 programs). It is a fact: for the size of place that I have and the sue I will be getting out of the TV, the 55" set the guy was saying I should get would have been too big.

The big pluses of the wider and larger screen are mostevident in movies and sports. For regular TV viewing, I think a regular set suits just fine. But the movies is SOOO much better. And the football? Fergitabahdit. When they have the crazy SKYCAM on the Sunday night game, that just takes it to a whole other world.

I would liekt o thank those who were present for the first movie viewing, which did turn out to be LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring. Short version as the extended version would have taken us right past midnight. I think I'll be taking off a day in March or so in rder to watch the extended version all in one sitting. Like a follow up to my geek day next Friday when I do THEE TRILOGY.

THE TV HAS ARRIVED!!!

I have gotten word that there is a brand new 44" LCD rear projection wide screen TV IN MY APARTMENT. I also understand that it has been installed and that it is functional. JOY!!! I'm beside myself, really.

Jenn had a wonderful idea of having a going away viewing on teh old TV and then a wolcome view immediately after for the new one. The going away viewing will be Ferris Bueler's Day off. Easily, the most viewed movie for that screen. For the record, When Harry Met Sally would be second and rounding out the top 5 would be the Star Wars, the Jungle Book and the Big Lebowski. Had the Big Lebowski come out before I was in college, it would be the winner in an almost embarassing land slide.

So there are 2 questions that need answering now.
1) what is the wlcoming movie for the new set?
2) what happens to the old TV?

I'm heavily leaning toward one of te Lord Of the Rings movies as the welcoming moive. The movie needs to be a special effects bonanza worthy of the wide screen, hence why I choose not to pick The Big Lebowski. I'm also not picking Star Wars because I'm taking Dec 3rd off from work to stay home and watch all of the DVD's. Other contenders are one of the Indiana Jones movies. Die Hard. Aliens (if Jenn could stomach it [not a big fan]). That's it, I think. Not sure I can think of anything as good as those movies that NEEDS to be seen in a wide screen. Obviously, there are better movies, but not for this occation.

I don't knwo the answer to the second question. I'd like to thinkt hat I could find a spot to hide it away and safe it for when I have a house, but I don't think that's realistic. Plus Jenn has stated rather strenuously we are going to be a 1 TV house. I'm trying to find a good homw for it, but I only know of 1 person that might want it. She ahs to check with her parents if they want a replacement TV for the one they had in tehir kitchen. I can't throw it away. I'm not saying it can't be thrown away. I just don't want to know about it. Someone will have to tell me that they're going to take it to Jenn's mom's storage place and then put it in a dumpster on teh other end ouf our complex. I can't know about it being disposed of.

That's the tough thing about new things. You end up having to say goodbye to old things. Of course, ask me on Sunday if I care and I think we can all guess the answer.

Paul

The No Hitter

Right now, things are going pretty good for me. Obviously, I have some things going on that I could complain about, but the good far out weigh the bad. It's a happy little life I'm leading now that we're 2 weeks removed from Black Tuesday and my mind has wondered to purely self-gratifying interests. So, I'm going to do the un-thinkable: I'm going to talk about the good stuff right in the middle of it all happening. GASP!!!

For those non-sports fans out there, I need to explain an un-written rule in baseball. When a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter, no one talks to him. The later it gets in the game, no one will look at him. By the 8th inning, tehy treat him as though he has the plague. Mentioning the no-hitter is the sure fire way to have some moron o the other team bloop a hit hit into shallow right to break teh thing up. If you're a TV announcer and you mention it, the fan of teh pitcher will curse at you as though you're W at a Gay Pride Parade. Or anywhere in the North East or West Coast. Any way, here I go.

Firstly, and most importantly, I have me a woman. She rocks and she makes me supremely happy. Her presence alone makes my life absolute bliss.

Work is going pretty good. Not the most interesting job, but steady and very flexible. All in all, I like.

I'm getting a new TV delivered to my apartment on Friday. My current TV has served me well, but the fact is, you cna't read the scores on games when they flash tehm on the screen. The whites are completely washed out. This also makes reading subtitales rather tricky. So it was time to get a replacement, and with chip in via an early Christmas gift from the Rentals, I've got a new tube on the way. 44", wide screen, Rear Projection LCD. *drool*

I got called Satan on Monday. And this was a genuine name calling with all the spite and malice one might throw behind such a moniker. In teh previous article, I briefly commented how a old friend on my father's used Catholicism and my father's religious beliefs as a political weapon against him. Basically what happened (this was back in July or so) was this guy said that if my father voted for Kerry, he would have to answer for the blood of millions of un-born children when he died and faced God. Needless to say that this is teh prime example of right-wing religious nut-job that scares the ever loving crap out of me and basically made November 2-November 6th 5 of the most upsetting days I've had to deal with in a while (need proof, read the past posts). Anyway, my dad forwarded an op-ed article from the Daily Mirror in London basically calling our Bush as a two faced, hypocritial, greedy, ego-centric liar. All fair and true points. And it also had some barbs thrown in for good measure about the voting public of the US that cited Moral Values as their #1 election issue. This forward included me, some of my dad's kin, some other Kerry voters he knew and Mr. Fascist. His response prompted me to reply back to him and so began a week or so of back and forths where I sited instances in history and in international events which showed how Bush wasn't a very popular guy in the world and how the road the US is heading down isn't a pretty one. His only rebuttles were that my sources were liberal media scum and can't be trusted and I didn't see any of the events so they didn't actually happen. Eventually, the exchange led me to comment that while it will be impossible to get a secular democracy in the Middle East in our or our children's life-time, I sure hope we can get our own democracy that way some time soon. And that led to Mr. F calling me a Satan. I hadn't been so giddy in years. Being called Satan by such a man would be like Ghandi calling me a fat cow.

I have TiVo. And Tivo is finally picking up on teh fact that, from time to time, it'd be a GOOD thing for it to record a little Skinemax for me.

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King extended edition will be coming out on DVD next month.

And here's the last thing. And given the title of the article, I'm really not sure I should even mention this one. My brother would surely kill me and I'm certain Blair will be none too pleased, but it needs mentioning. I will attempt to be brief so as to not awaken the no-hitter gods. Also, they've lost already this year, so it's not like this is an actual no-hitter, but still. My Steelers are absolutely kicking all kinds of ass this year. I haven't had this much fun following a football season since I actually lived in Pittsburgh and they made it to the Super Bowl. AND, this coincides with the year I got the NFL Sunday Ticket on Direct TV. AND they have the best Rookie QB on their team since Peyton Manning (some say Dan Marino and while Peyton was inconsistant his rookie season, he still had the hype and you knew, in spite of the mistakes, he was going to be a keeper). AND their secondary and O-line (both question marks going into the season) are holding up. AND they're actually fun to watch (not something you could say about all the good teams they had in the 90's). This team justifies being a fan.

See? I'm just absolutely giddy!

Genius: thy name is TiVo!!

Yes, here it is. The long awaited TiVo post has arrived.

I'm going to make a very bold statement that I will stand by: TiVo is the greatest television-related invention EVER! It beats Color. It beats the TV dinner. It beats the VCR. It even beats the recliner. There, I said it: I would rather be without my recliner than my TiVo.

For those who don't know, TiVo is a digital recorder for Satellite TV (like Direct TV and teh Dish Network). It wrks like a VCR except that there's no tape, you can record 360 hours of TV and its smart. Not "Terminator self-aware machines" smart. But "I will tape every new episode of the Daily Show for you" smart. So you don't have to worry about ever missing your favorite show or it ever trying to kill you, which, I think, is the least we can ask of our digital friends.

TiVo is so wonderful, I'm having a hard time developing a coherent structure to this post. How do you list the wonders of perfection?

I'll start by mentioning some of the less-than-obvious advantages it has over the VCR. You know how you always believed that you could watch one show and record another using your VCR, but you never could quite figure out how that worked? And if you depended on a cable box, then forget it, it ain't happening? Well, with TiVo, watching one program while recording another is one of it's more trite features. Say you you have the TV on in the background and it's tuned to Oxygen, which just so happens to be playing the classic TV-movie, MY Breast starring Merideth Baxter-Berny. You're not paying attention, just farting around on the computer but you just so happen to look up right when they show her near-perfect titty. Even though you're not recording the show, you can actually REWIND right then and there and make sure that that was in fact her titty. And then you can pause it and just stare at the titty for a while. And if you want to resume watching the show from that point on, you just keep watching. Or if you want to catch up to the actual like broadcast, you can do that, too. You see, whatever you're watching at that moment, it's recording for you. And if you rewind, it will continue recording the show that you're missing while you're ogling Mrs. Keating's titty.

My favorite use of this feature is actually not for Skinamax. It's for the NFL. Every Sunday, I will record the Steeler game. It then frees me up to flip around to the other stations during comercials, punts, official reviews or commentaries by any Fox announcer. If I flip back to the game and it looks like something actually happened during the punt, I will rewind it to see for myself. This also allows me to replay questionable calls (like a holding penalty) that the announcers more than likely missed.

Next, if you happen to love NYPD Blue but you're beautiful signifcant other doesn't, you can set up what's called a Season Pass. Any time NYPD Blue is on ABC, it will record it for me. I can specify that I only want first-run episodes. I can specify that I only want it if it's in a particular time slot. Whatever. Currently, we have a Season Pass for NYPD Blue (for me), CSI (for her) and the Daily Show & South Park (for the whole family).

Another great feature is the Fast forward. Yes, yes, the VCR has the fast forward. But on Tivo, when you're going super-fast through the commercials and the all of the sudden you see that you're back on the show, you click play. TiVo will actually send you back by about 5 seconds, figuring your relexes made you miss that much time at the start of the show. No more trying to guess how many commercials there might be during a break. You just wait until you see the show again and you don't miss a thing.

Granted, it's not prefect. It has an annoying feature where it will record shows and movies for you. Crap that you wouldn't ever watch in a million years. But with 360 hours of space, I don't mind the inconvenience of deleting them. And every once in a while it will catch you something you've actually been wanting to see.

Seriously, if you have Direct TV, it is almost inexcusable to NOT have TiVo.

And it does make watching Skinamax a lot more fun!

That's Incredible!

Believe it or Not, this is going to be a little review for the wonderful movie that was just released: The Incredibles.

*quick side note: remember when reality television consisted of pictures of the World Record breaking 145 foot pizza and a little spot about a guy that lives in a boat shaped house in a dessert? If you do, you're 30. Congrats on making it this far.*

My friend Jim, in some ciricles (though not mine) known as Disney Jim (in my circles, he's just the World Famous Jim Clark (yes ladies, it's true)), told me about an hour before I left to see The Incredibles that it was "the most fun movie-going experience he's had since Indian Jones and the Last Crusade" (soon to be re-titled Penultimate Crusade). That is lofty praise as anyone who remembers That's Incredible on TV but doesn't remember Bewitched as anything but TBS re-runs would attest to. Last Crusade was surely not the best movie I'd seen up until that point in my life. Maybe not even that year. But, DAMN, if it wasn't one hell of a fun roller-coaster ride of a movie to see in a theater with a bunch of friends. Also of note, Jim is one of 2 people in the world who I trust implicitly in the arena of movies. If Jim says I need to go see a particular movie, I'm going to do my damnedest to go see it. No questions asked.

I am here to report that the movie IS in fact that good. What makes this movie even better is that I'd give about $500 right this second for a chance to go to Pixar to see all the footage that didn't make the cut (and the footage you know they created with no intention of ever making the cut featuring all the super-heros we hear about or think might exist in the flick but never really meet). Alas, we'll have to wait for DVD.

Synopsis and revie: Super heros populate the Earth fighting crime. Something happens that make them all have to go into a sort of Witness Protection Program for the Specially Abled. They spend several years off camaera adjusting to The Life when a new baddie pops up requiring the return of Mr. Incredible (the Superman of the Super heros). He sneaks around behind his family's back but they find out and help save the day. The end.

Now, it starts off a little rough but fun. Think about it though: they're creating a comic book universe without the benefit of Pop Culture cache for the past 50+ years. Understanding what's going on in this universe in a very short time frame isn't going to be cake. But they do it and rather well. My only complaint is actually during the time frame when we're seeing the mal-adjusted former heros. This part drags a smigde and while funny, is missing something. I'm not sure exactly what, but that's OK.

Once Mr. Incredible goes off on his own again, though, the final hour+ is an absolute scream.

The afore mentioned Jim has a theory about Animated Features that I had been sceptical about for a very long time but I am now a true beliver in if a slight caveat is added: Action/Adventure animated films don't work because odds are, the audience would rather just see the action with real-life characters. The caveat that I would like to add (and I'm sure Jim would agree, though I haven't spoken to hima bout it yet) is that they DO work if you're creating a comic book universe. In fact, I'd go an extra step and say that I'd probably like the Spiderman movie MORE if they just let Pixar make 'em. There's something about watching people use super powers that is FAR more fun in animation form. It might be because you KNOW they can to ANYTHING, and you're OK with that.

Anyway, this caveat made for a totally enjoyable and I dare say unrepeatable movie experience. Everything works. EVERYTHING, I TELL YOU!!! I just don't see any movie ever capturing the same tone.

And to be honest, that's one of the great things about Pixar. They're not trying to make the next big thing, the next new thing or the next IT movie. They do such a great job of creating uniquely memorable movie experiences, which is all they shoot for. There's a little company called Disney that once did that rather successfully. Once. *sigh*

Calmer Thoughts

I feel a lot better now, thank you. I'm not quite as angry, but I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around this whole religion-taking-over-politics thing. Also, the Daily Show and political cartoons have helped. At this point, the best case scenario for the next 4 years is a repeat of the past 4 years: one Village Idiot President, one Major Terrorist Attack, one Soveriegn Nation Invaded, one Bill Restricting a Social Freedom, 4 years of absolutely priceless Daily Shows. Right now, I'm hoping for the best rather than fearing the worst. Although, I prety much know for a fact that we're in for at least one Sweeping Change REMOVING A Social Freedom, but I suspect we'll get 2 of those in addition to some restriction some where down the road.

Anyway, I think, until those things come about, this will be my last politically volitile blog. I know it's far more fun to read non-pol stuff, and Lord knows it's less stressful to write them. But in closing, I'd like to direct everyone to the following blog, which my friend Steve sent me to:
http://backseatphilosopher.blogspot.com/
Read it. It's thoughts from some crazy zen-master kinda guy. Those of you who have met Steve (Blair, I know you have, though you may not remember him) will know that this guy is right up his alley. And those of you that know me know he no where near mine. So here are rebuttles to each of his questions.

- True, the UN has flows. Major flaws. To impy that it's wonderful and perfect shows a pure naivety in World Politics. However, to take the opposite approach, as our esteemed Lead Shit Head has done, and ignore it completely, to isolate (uh-oh, there's that word) this nation saying the current system is flaw so therefore can be rejected and ignored, prevents us to help be a driving force in it's change. To say I'm not going to play until teh game has MY rules ensures that all the other players will look at you with distain, resentment and then ultimately, not look at you at all. It is far better to work from within than without.
- True, you cannot measure the dead and say that the war sux because it is beyond the acceptable limit. If those 1000 died while still trying to smoke Bil Laden out of his cave, I can't imagine there would be too many people that would have cried foul for such a cause. But when your stated grounds for the war in question (Iraq) are constantly flawed and in flux (having WMD's, threat of having WMD, threat of paying for others' WMD's and now FREEDOM), and the suspect grounds are highly questionable (profit, period), then 1 dead, our side or theirs, is unacceptable.
- I like this arguement. This would have been a nice plan in August when Supreme Scrotum Sack got an e-mail briefing saying that Bin Laden was looking to use airplanes to attack us on our soil. However, it is not a nice plane when the enemy in question has never had, nor is there any reason to believe he ever would have, plans to attack us.
- My only problem here is that the definition has always been implicit. You won't find any laws or codes in the past says that the married couple is a man and a woman. It's just a couple. You know that means a man and a woman. I think taking the implicit nature of the definition and feeling the need to make it explicit IS biased and bigotted (this is like my Shrek rule, some gays want to get married and as a reaction, the right OVER REACTS and says let's ammend the Constitition).
- Great point. I wish the arguement they were make were as concise. I'm glad this guy isn't a Right-wing Religious Nut-job.
- Here's the problem with using the Bible as your letter-of-the-law basis for all decisions: you can find a passage in the Bible to support just about every stance on every position imaginable. It's wrought with contradictions and ambiguities. Many passages can be used as an excuse both in favor and against a single opinion, based on whether you decide to ignore or respect the context of the quote. The Bible has been transformed from a collection of wonderful stories with a very solid moral road map and has been manipulated into a weapon in which to attach the very fabric of the ideas of freedom of speech, freedom of thought and even free will. To use it as such, and imply that Jesus would want us to be bombing Iraq, is to take it to an absurdist extreme. THAT is what the Religious Right does and THAT is why they are dangerous. The Bilbe should be taken in context to the situations you yourself are experiencing and the very different world in which we live.

Whew! That was tougher than I thought it would be.

Love to all my peeps!

Back to the Good Ol' Days

Yessiree. We're looking at a real fun 4 years ahead of us. It will be a celebration of what's good and right with America. We'll get to watch sinners duck into dark alleys with wire hangers; find them lying there bleeding to death. We'll get to indiscrimiately bomb whoever we want without any reprecussions. Why not!? We're afraid of them, they are different from us, so they must be bad. And there's more people right here in our own country that need to gett some more hatred thrown there way. We've let these fags and dykes butt fuck and carpet munch for long enough. Time to start singling them out by making amendments directly against them. And oh the wonderful things that Right Wing judges have in store for us!!! Those leftist media outlets had better watch out!

I told a friend earlier this week that I've always been skeptical of and mistrusted organized religion. But until yesterday, I had never actually FEARED it before. Welp, that's what it's come to. I'm afraid of religion. I react oddly, some would say irrationally, in these sort of situations. The moive Shrek was OK, kind of funny, very forumulaic (lifted right from Disney). But then everyone started talking about how it was the most irreverent and off kilter animated movie EVER!!!! WOW!!! Um, no, not really. The only difference here was that the princess turned into an Ogre rather than vice versa. WHOOPTIE!! So now I hate that movie, mainly because I feel the general sentiment for it needs to be tempered a bit, not because I actually hated the movie. Welp, I hate religion now.

I've always said that more people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason. And now our "President" is carrying on in that lovely tradition.

Here's the thing that REALLY gets me: the #1 reason sited for voting for a specific candidate was MORAL VALUES. and Asshole Bush got over 80% of those people's votes. That means that the American people feel that morally speaking, killing over 100,000 people half way across the world that posed no threat to our country is OK. That means that they think God would rather a man kill 100,000 LIVING INNOCENT PEOPLE, than refusing to prevent women from having the right to abort their un-born. These religious nut-jobs think that God would feel better about bombing innocent people's homes than being Catholic. It makes me want to puke my guts out. I'm having a very hard time being within 30 feet of anyone who goes to church regularly right now. There are A LOT of people in my office that read the Bilble on their lunch break and I just want to post a sign in my cube that says "Your Religion is the Next Mythology."

I'm sick of people using their religion as a weapon. If it's not bombs then it's with their hurtful words. Or their manipulative guilt. My father the Catholic, one of the mast thougtful people I know, was told by one of his right-wing "friends" that he'd better be ready to answer to God if he really does vote for Kerry. As if my dad voting for Kerry is the equivalent of recruiting women to get abortions. And it just goes on and on. The Lord does not talk to ANYONE!!! The Lord does not want us to be bombing innocent people in the Middle East. Where does it say ANYTHING about, "Thou shalt believe in only me and think as your pastor thinks or you may rightly be smote"!?!?! NO WHERE!!! What Would Jesus Do, MY ASSS!!! They don't give a shit what Jesus would do. They just want to know what would a dictator do to create more fear and hate in the hearts of his people in order to better blindly lead them down MY path. Fuck Jesus.

So now we're going to get to have Patriot Act 2: The Revenge of the Evangelical Nut Jobs. Do I think they'll go so far as turn back the First Amendment? No. But they'll do their damnedest to put as many dings and holes in it as they can possibly get away with. They're not going to want to hear about how our Asshole President should be brought up on War Crimes. You know they're going to want to keep tabs on what we're reading, or surfing through.

I do hope that I'm over reacting. I do hope that our Dick-wad President isn't as big of a Fuckface as he outwardly appears. But you look at that automiton wife of his, and that shit-eating grin of his and you just know, he knows what he's doing is wrong and he just doesn't give a damn.

I'm getting this all out of my system here so that maybe it will prove theraputic for me. Like, I just need one good venting sessions and I'll be OK. I know that's what Jenn is hoping to.

But here are some of the additional thoughts that I can't shake:
- Last couple times our country was leaning this far right we had prohibition and we had the McCarthy trials. Who's going to be persecuited this time and what freedoms will be taken away? Seriously, I don't know. But think about it. You think the flappers had any idea that, in just a couple years, they wouldn't be allowed to drink? You say now that it's absurd that we'd not be able to call our Giant Douchebag of a President a Shit-guzzling Scrotum Sack. Under the circumstances, I'd consider a Constitutional Amendment proecting marriage getting off easy.
- The judges that this Asshole President is going to appoint will be setting the social agenda for teh next 35 years. Seriously. They have no quals with allowing the government to dip it's hand in a little social righteousness. Do the courts have any business telling me how I spend my time in my bedroom? Or on this computer? They don't, but they will.
- This Shit-for-Brains President managed to win on 2 platforms: fear and religion. Hitler won on 2 platforms: fear and religion. Our public, right now, is as stupid and short-sighted as the Germans were 70 years ago. You don't think these yahoos could be whipped up into enough of a frenzy to do them some book burning? Seriously. I'm not saying that they'll be able to get the books BANNED entirely. I figure, we'll always be able to BUY them. But you don't think they'll march into the libraries and take out what we have access to for free right now? They're already doing it on the TV and radio.

Again, I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm exaggerating. I hope I'm over-reating. But for some reason, I just don't think I am.

Fear and Loathing in the White House: Election Eve thoughts from an independent

My first ever election was the 1992 Presidential Election. Bush vs. Clinton. Two men that make you want to vote for Ross Perot, which is exactly what I did. That started me on an interesting road of political middle of the road-ness over the next 12 years.

When I registered to vote on the day I turned 18, Sept 27, 1992, I registered Republican. My first political memory was during the 1980 Presidential Election. I was in Kindergarten. Reagan had said something very funny to a 6 y.o. Looking back, I suppose that's not entirely surprising. Anyway, he had made me laugh and, in spite of the fact that my parents were ardent Dems, I "voted" for Reagan in my Kindergarten class. Carter won by some obscene vote of 15-3. Whatever. It was a Catholic school in a Union strong hold, but from taht day forward, until the day I walked into the booth in 1992, I chose to back the party of my Grandfather, a successful businessman. The kind of man that would have voted for Goldwater without batting an eye. And he was also my hero.

But then I had to choose between a weasle (Bush, Sr.) and a guy who, in every single interview, I KNEW was lying. Just saying exactly what needed to be said to make people like him. So I voted for Perot. And I'd have done the same given another chance. In addition to not trusting him, after having seen him as President for 8 years, I don't care all that much for his policies either.

In 1996, I couldn't vote for Perot again. But I wasn't voting for Clinton. And Dole, nah. So I wrote in The Brain with Pinky as his running mate.

4 years later, I didn't get to vote (long story involving where I thought I was registered and where i actually WAS registered). But had I the chance, I would have certainly voted for Nader.

I'm a political indipendent. I'm Socially Liberal and Fiscally Conservative. I cringe at the thought that on occation, I actually agree with Gov. Aaahnald. I'm a middle of the road weenie who's used to not liking 50% of what the President d'jour stands for. In Clinton's case, that would be about 60%. In Bush Jr.'s case, that would be about 99%. You see, Bush Jr is SO socially Conservative, we're on the percipice of a theocracy. And he's such a free spender and has ballooned the size and reach of the government to catasrophic proportions. He ain't the man.

If Kerry should win, and I sure as shit hope he does, I'm sure I'll only agree with at most 50% of his policies. I'm know that I would rather have someone like Howard Dead or McCain (before Bush had hin brainwashed) in the White House. I like Edwards, though, and I think he'd be a nice President in 8 years. Point is, if you disagree with a guy 99%, even 50% looks good. So good in fact, that you're willing to agrue until you're blue int eh face with people backing Bush. Keep in mind that if I only disagreed with a guy on about 5% of the issues, I'd be screaming just as loudly AGAINST Kerry this year.

But that guy doesn't exist. I'm used to the guy I vote for not having a chance in hell of winning. I was hoping Dean would be the difference this year, but it turns ou people don't think Passion and Politics should mix. Unless, of course, that Passion is for the Lord.

So I find my self having strategic conversations with life long Dems about how "our man" can beat the Village Idiot. But he's not really "my man." Just a better man. Not the worse of 2 evils this time. Not quite good vs. evil. More gray vs. black. Luke in the beginning of Jedi vs. Palpatine. It's far more important that the bad guy lose this time around.

And in another 4 years, maybe I can hope against hope that "My Man" makes a run and I can actually argue FOR someone.

I'm not going to close with the standard Reason Not to Vote for W. My good friend Chris yesterday upset me a bit. He said that he doesn't think Bush is as dumb and he seems. I grew up in the Gifted program. An intellectual snob through and through. The one thing you learn in that program is that it's very easy to spot the difference between the following groups of characters:
1) The real smart people - those that just have it
2) The bright people that have to work a little harder - you respect that
3) The bright people who chose not to work a little harder - their priorities are in another area
4) The not so bright people that genuinely try hard
5) The not so bright people that chose not to try
6) The genuinely not bright people

The thing about people in group 6 is, one of 2 things is said aobut them: "they're dumb as rocks" or "they're not as dumb as you think." The truth usually falls closer to the prior. Bush falls in group 6. The man's a moron.