Chess and Checkers, Right and Left

“Thus, what is of supreme importance in war
is to attack the enemy's strategy.”-- Sun Tzu

Today, as a purely mental and distracting exercise (it is a slow Sunday in comfortably middle-class Seattle for me after all), I began to think about what a Barack Obama presidency would look like. I began to contemplate the very thing, I have convinced myself is impossible. The more I contemplated it, the more I was disturbed by what lies ahead. Don’t get me wrong, I intend to vote for Barack Obama and still yearn for a regime change at the executive level of American government. However, seeing the discourse of the past week, and following that trajectory forward beyond November, I am very concerned.

Republicans are a notoriously aggressive political party, so "better luck next time" isn't enough for them. They use their self-righteousness to galvanize and energize their political maneuvers, and thus they need never apologize for their tactics and they never stop fighting. For many Republicans, the end always justifies the means, and the greatest end one can achieve is to solidify and protect the American values, that most Republicans feel that they alone symbolize. Literally, some Republicans view all alternative points of view as “anti-American”.

As I have written before, I admire Republicans in many ways, because far more than the Democrats, they do not delude themselves about how power is usurped, and used, to achieve an agenda. In other words, they see politics for the cold, malicious power-grab that it is, and not the pleasant discourse of contrasting philosophies that we wish it was. Also unlike many Democrats, Republicans actually have an agenda. You may not like their staunch support and vision of “Reagan’s America”, (and I certainly don’t) but give them the credit that they have successfully rallied-around this vision for decades, and have gone to great lengths to perpetuate and empower it.

Now of course, several boughs of the Neo-Con philosophy have begun to break, (or at least appear to be ineffective). Indeed, there is an argument to be made that Neo-Conservatism may have even been the systemic cause of some of the country’s current problems. So it seems like dire and desperate times at the Republican dinner table, which explains why even the National Review and the Buckley family have suddenly come to blows.

However, despite all evidence to the contrary, I am not convinced the Republican Party or the conservative movement is going through the utter collapse and humiliation, that DailyKOS is already celebrating.

Assuming however, the polls are correct, and Obama wins, let’s play the politics of the next year out, see what we find…

Nobody likes an angry Republican, and unlike the Democrats, when Republicans are angry: heads roll and blood is spilled, (Democrats in contrast tend to whine they lose, then mutter and write editorials that blame the centrists in their party for losing). To start with, all of the anti-McCain voices in the conservative movement will begin their “I told you so” essays. Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter will appear almost instantly, to remind us they predicted the calamity months ago. This discourse will only last a day or two because the real message the conservatives want to perpetuate is: fraud.

Fraud. Illegitimate. Scandal.

These three words will be the only explanation Republicans can offer for the results of the election, and they will hammer these three themes home, well into November and well beyond the Obama inauguration (assuming he wins).

Already, the groundwork is being laid for this rebuttal, and the messages we hear are alarming. The most alarming aspect of them is there are just enough granules of truth in these accusations, to allow the Republicans to ensure their "scandal" takes root in the mainstream media. What media outlet doesn’t love controversy anyway, and wouldn’t be more than willing to magnify these granules into a full-blown, scandalous investigation and national dialog?

The attack will come from several tiers. First, we’ll hear reams and reams about ACORN, (and other community-based voter registration organizations), that registered thousands of fake voters. These organizations are skewed left, they are disorganized and they are quite frankly, a tad inept. Rightly, or wrongly, they will look and sound suspicious to the average American once the bright light of media scrutiny shines on them.

Then we’ll hear about “fraud” at the polls, and especially how early-voting in some states were usurped and manipulated by Barack Obama. The Republicans will scour the Earth for voters, who “confess” how they voted multiple times, or used a combination of early-voting, absentee-ballots and poor registration. Others will suddenly pop-up claiming Obama supporters urged them to cast votes in states they do not reside in. They’ll find a black-woman from Illinois for example, that will “confess” how she was urged and taught how she could actually cast her vote in Florida.

Then we’ll hear the more powerful and quite frankly more legitimate claim about the shady way Barack Obama was able to raise such enormous funds.

The fuel that will drive this “controversy”, will be that, in fact, Obama does indeed collect money in a somewhat dubious way. In many ways, this is not Obama’s fault. He merely perfected a means of fund-raising pioneered by Howard Dean. To make matters even more perfect for the Republicans, this means of raising funds, also questions the integrity and security of the internet, and this is a theme that a vast majority of older-Americans appreciate and applaud.

The internet is big and spooky to many Americans fifty and over, because it is a medium and tool that was developed primarily by the generation that came after them. And of course, there is a basis of truth in the internet’s unreliability and insecurity, so the ingredients are well established for the Republicans to make a lot of noise about how Obama "broke the law" in becoming President.

The Republicans will probably even find internet-donations, that have "links to terrorists", and despite the flimsy evidence, the headline will be so sensational our media won't be able to resist it.

Obama’s main source of income was built around a rule that establishes that nobody who contributes less than 200 dollars to a political campaign has to declare who they are.

You then combine this rule, with an internet-based campaign fund-raising tool, and you then combine this with the elements of fraud that take place under any electronic-commerce endeavor, and you have the recipe for the accusation of scandal.

I guarantee you, there will be examples and instances that the Republicans can point to in the months ahead, where people were donating money via credit/debit cards that were stolen, (or used without permission). There will be examples where people obscured how much or how often they contributed, (therefore bypassing the 200 dollar rule), by creating “anonymous” profiles to hide the true source of the contribution.

We'll see instances of foreigners contributing, and some of the contributions will be deemed to have very dangerous ties or a "threat" to our security. For all of these accusations, there will be examples along the way, to make these accusations seem legitimate, there are probably some being "planted" by shrewd Republicans right now.

It sounds outrageous I know, but I have a great deal of experience in electronic commerce, and indeed have had great success in my career in this field of work; and I can tell you any electronic-based, credit card system, can be exploited via fraud.

Indeed, there is no e-Commerce business I know of, that hasn’t had fraud issues and these include billion dollar companies who devote millions to limiting their fraud-liability. There is *NO* way, Obama’s campaign could have completely insulated themselves from fraud, because no e-Commerce business ever has.

So while, it may be true that Obama’s campaign did the best they could to limit fraud, (and make sure people were contributing honestly), all it will take is a few sturdy examples of fraud (and those examples will manifest believe me), and the entire campaign can be called into question.

Lastly, these two veins of attack (voter-fraud and campaign financial-fraud), is a clever and obvious move for the Republicans because they can claim higher ground on both fronts almost immediately, and even more brilliantly, could use their attack to create legislative pressure that will seek to strengthen them in 2012. They can’t lose anything (since they’ve already lose the election), but can gain not only legitimacy for the next election, but might also take away the very tools and means by which Obama has forged himself into such a strong political force.

One casualty from this election I am certain, is that if Obama wins, the rules for campaign financing will change again, because if the Republicans have any kind of congressional power (a lack of a filibuster-proof majority for Democrats in the Senate more than likely) they will extend that power to get this dialog onto the public agenda. They’ll rally the FBI/CIA to investigate Obama’s financing, and they’ll rally their “troops” into civil acts of discontent (rallies etc), to delegitimize Obama and his party.

It will be a war of words, unlike any we’ve ever seen, because the conservatives will perceive themselves as righteous and just, in raising these concerns.

If the left were smart, they’d be preparing for this inevitability right now. Sadly, the left in this country is not always smart. Remember this is a side of the spectrum where half of their members refused to recognize how brilliant a politician Obama was to begin with. Their solution was to dredge up the ghosts of the Clinton presidency. Mercifully, the other half of the left, stopped us from that nightmare, which would have surely ended in Republican victory.

Unbelievably, as I write this, the left is popping champagne and declaring a victory, before it is even won. The left will probably stand around stunned and surprised that their victory isn’t as fully realized as they deluded themselves it would be and then blame "racism" for it. Then the real war will begin, and the left will be (as usual) playing a reactive and defensive game to the right’s attacks, totally unprepared and hung over from their premature celebrations.

I think if this plays out, we’ll likely see concessions on voter registration and campaign financing, that will ensure that the populist-nature of Obama’s political rise, will not be seen in this country again for a very long time. After all, Obama's campaign defeated two institutional and powerful forces: it defeated the Clinton machine, and it is now poised to defeat the Neo-Con machine.

You can't slap the power-brokers of America that hard, and not get punished for it.

The fight does not end after November; indeed, the fight will have only just begun. That’s something the left should be talking about and strategizing against, but instead they post YouTube clips of Sarah Palin and giggle and pat themselves on the back, for an election that still is undecided.

The right is playing chess, the left is still playing checkers, and I fear Obama’s political career (and populism in general), could suffer from it.

News of the World

"Each morning our key to the world comes through the door
More than often its just a comic, not much more
Don't take it too serious - not many do
Read between the lines and you'll find the truth"
-- “News of the World”, Bruce Foxton, The Jam

Not long ago, I wrote that I’m voting for Barack Obama. I stand by that vote, and after nearing the end of his book “Audacity of Hope”, I feel my choice is a good one. Now an eloquent and well-reasoned book about politics doesn’t mean the author will make a good president, but it is at least comforting to know your candidate is capable of explaining his positions on everything from the economy, to race, to foreign policy. I say that, because many of our recent political leaders, seem unable to even recite a cliché, without botching it up.

So, I am willing to give Barack Obama a shot, and I feel more comfortable with that decision after having read his book, which explains in detail his general philosophy about politics and leadership.

However, I also stated a few weeks ago, that I am apathetic about democracy in the US right now, and I also argued that despite my vote, I think Barack Obama will lose.

These seem like ludicrous positions now, given how weird and entertaining the campaign has turned of late, and extremely implausible given the polls show Obama has a significant lead.

However, I still stand by what I wrote.

I am still apathetic about the process, because the campaign is even more farcical now than it was just a month ago. The Ayers and ACORN “conspiracy” theories of the right-wing are laughable, the kind of “we never landed on the moon” ranting you hear from that schizophrenic low-life at the end of the bar.

The left however, simply can’t stop demonizing Sarah Palin and now of course they’ve focused their venom on the so-called “Joe the Plumber”. The left have talked more about the trivial details of these two people, than they have about the current economic crisis. Most disturbing the liberal blogs are ignoring how complacent, weak and ineffective the House of Representatives acted during the recent “bailout package”. Nor are they angry at all at their own party, for the shameful pork-barrel that was added to a bill, to provide welfare to companies that managed their debts irresponsibly. What we get instead is this weird self-righteous rhetoric because it turns our “Joe the Plumber” doesn’t have a license, and Sarah Palin lied about her experience hunting caribou, like this somehow justifies the shameful performance of congress.

This really goes to the core of my apathy. There simply doesn’t seem to be an outlet, for reasonable, non-partisan discussion about critical issues that affect me and the future of my children. Indeed, people assume that because I’m casting my vote for Barack Obama, that I must now forgive Democrats of all sin and “join the team”. My apologies, but Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Franks, Charlie Rangel and others have a lot to answer for, and I won’t give them a free pass simply because they play for the same “team” as my presidential candidate.

The blogosphere of course, makes the situation worse, and yes I do recognize the irony of whining about blogs, on a blog. Still, I took the time last night to click every blog link on the Andrew Sullivan page. There, I was taken a whirlwind trip of the partisan blogosphere. My favorite and most illustrative lunacy of these blogs can be categorized by these two points of view:

RIGHT: It is ridiculous that the liberal-press has vetted “Joe the Plumber” more than they have investigated the secrets of Barack Obama’s life and ties to domestic terrorists.

LEFT: It is ridiculous that the press has vetted “Joe the Plumber” more than they have investigated the secrets of Sarah Palin’s life and her ties to secessionist parties and their attempt to acquire explosive substances.

What made both points of view so ludicrous was not just that they were a partisan mirror reflection of one another, but that the rest of these blogs that made these complaint, went on to spend at least 50% of their real estate talking even more about “Joe the Plumber”. This is akin to complaining about the “power of cheese” while munching on pizza.

Meanwhile, real news is ignored: Our governments around the world are injecting tax dollars into banking corporations, radically altering the foundation of the geo-economy; the Russians have assassinated yet another dissident, this time apparently via mercury poisoning and once again have rattled their sabers with direct threats to the Ukraine and Poland. Saudi Arabia continues to indoctrinate their student population that western democracy is “evil and unpure”, while we hand them billions of dollars because we are addicted to their oil. Dubai perpetuates slave labor, recruiting Indian laborers into an indentured servitude scam that is now the largest slave trade in the world. China continues to send money and political support to the atrocities in Darfur and Russia props up Mugabe, a dictator of equal moral proportion to Saddam Hussein. Iran has just acquired better nuclear technology, and is defying the United Nations with an almost laughable hubris. Domestically, we see a volatile marketplace, frozen credit at our banks, and foreclosures rising. We’ve seen the worst unemployment in decades, and an infrastructure in the worst shape in our country’s modern history. We are fighting two wars, neither of them progressing as well as we would like, and our veterans are returning to a health care system that fails to treat their wounds adequately. Yet, the number one headline on CNN is that Sarah Palin will “star” on a comedy show on Saturday night.

How can you not just shrug your shoulders and tune out the media noise? How am I supposed to be “energized” into activism, when a Bruce Spingsteen fund-raiser is considered “news”, when our country just recently sent bomb-dropping drones into Pakistan? Apathy doesn’t seem so utterly unreasonable when you stare at that reality.

I also said a few weeks ago that I think Obama will lose. It seems like a laughable assertion given the polls. Heck, even Christopher Hitchens and Chris Buckley have cast their lot in with Obama. Still, I predict here and now that Obama will lose, and I predict this because of the following reasons:

1) The “Bradley” Effect, which I feel is very real. You can knock off at least 6% of Barack’s support (more probably in a lot of Midwest and Southeast “swing” states). Also polls *always* skew left, and you can review polls before the 2000 and 2004 elections for proof of that.

2) The “October” surprise. Republicans are starting the momentum towards a huge “voter fraud” campaign, that will make the liberals whining about Florida in 2000 look like a tea and cupcake party. This “surprise” will include even more allegations that Obama is a terrorist, and will inject so much vitriol, partisanship and hatred into the campaign, that the outcome of the election will suffer as a result.

3) The hubris of the left, will reach such catastrophic levels, and the expectations for Obama’s victory are now so unrealistically high, that voter turnout for the left (a critical element to Obama’s success so far) will falter, and Obama will lose states that looked in the “bag” heading to voting day (states like Pennsylvania will stunningly support McCain I predict). Obama succeeded in the primaries, because he was in a razor tight race, and his well-organized “ground game” was superb at getting the vote out. Now that everyone thinks its over, that energy will dissipate, and the left, being the left, will simply be too lazy to vote (once again).

If you doubt the third point, I point to you that the leading story on Politico today was “what networks should do when Obama blows out McCain on election night”. The media, (even the liberal blogs) are already crowing about a blowout. This is a disaster for the Obama campaign, that require a sense of urgency in order to win. Their “change” platform falls flat, if everyone already is deceived into thinking he’s already won.

I hope I am wrong. Indeed, there is a part of me that suspects that I am wrong, but I refuse to raise my expectations, because the alternative is so depressing, that I almost feel it is better to resign to it now, and just accept the fact that the Neo-Conservative apparatus will find a way to preserve their executive power.

I will be voting though, you can count on that. I am not so apathetic as to not cast a ballot. Let’s hope that vote actually counts, and that we give a new kind of leader a chance, the stakes are high, the times are dire and we need to move in a new direction.

Flat World, Fat American

The world is shrinking, and like Thomas Friedman suggests, it is also flat, (or at least it is getting flatter all the time).

As an American, living in Seattle, I am fairly sure Melbourne, Australia qualifies as somewhere “very, very far away”. The thing is though, it really isn’t, and indeed putting aside the marathon flight it takes to get here, it is pretty obvious as you travel these days just how real the "global village" truly is.

I was 8000 miles from home, a distance just a century ago that was beyond the reach of everyone except the truly rich, and even then, would take months to traverse. Travel in the 21st Century is wondrous, because while the flight may not be faster than it was say 25 years ago, the speed at which information, communication and commerce could be conducted was measured in the blink of an eye.

On my recent trip, I kept up with local news, I even watched local sporting events, on-demand and at my convenience. I tracked my bank accounts, paid bills and monitored the situation at my work via email and Skype.

I didn't want to pay for any outgoing phone service, so instead, I'd email my wife via a cheap, but high-speed internet connection and this would signal her to call me, via our cheaper phone service from home. Literally her phone would receive the email, buzz her that I was contacting her, and she'd push a single button to talk to me. Another button later, and I was on speaker talking to my whole family, my voice emanating from the center of the dinner table, while my kids ate macaroni and cheese and told me how about their homework.

I thought the city of Melbourne was a poster child for the dawn of the 21st century. We live in a century where slowly the national and cultural lines have begun to blur, and we are becoming citizens of the world. Melbourne reflects this progression just as well as any other modern city I’ve recently visited. In Carlton for example, (the academic neighborhood of Melbourne where I stayed), the student population was literally, a world-wide population. I met students from China, Japan, India and North America, who blended in and mixed with the local students; the cafes and eateries too offer a variety of fare, curry at one stop, falafel in another, and then eggs and bangers in another.

During a taxi ride, I met a student from India, who worked a cab at night to pay his bills. He was in Australia on a student visa, and working on a path for Australian citizenship. When he learned I was originally from Canada, he immediately inquired as to the ease of immigration for students there. He seemed willing to contemplate moving there, if the economic and academic prospects were brighter. He resolved to research these opportunities, and the idea stunned me. Literally, this young, bright and ambitious young man was shopping the entire world for opportunity. The concept is not new or revolutionary, but it made me realize, even the cab drivers have become international citizens of the world. The very man driving me to the pub in Australia could be building bridges in Vancouver just five years from now.

I picked up a local newspaper in Melbourne one afternoon, and digested the front section in its entirety, editorial section and all. The paper had a conservative lean, and was commenting on the global financial crisis and the American election, with a unique Australian-conservatism. It smeared Barack Obama in one editorial, linking him to Ayers and suggesting strongly Obama was far more radical than America realizes. On the very next page, George W. Bush was ripped apart for his ineptitude. It seems even conservatives in Australia can't stand America right now. One out of three entries in the paper had an extremely anti-American take, and therein lays the problem.

As the 21st Century starts its second decade, our political and social biases haven't kept up to speed with the advances in communication and multiculturalism. We still define one another by our nationalities. While I was in Melbourne, I was nothing more than a fat American tourist in most places I visited, and I was sized up and categorized into this pidgeon hole quickly and often.

I understand and even empathize with international resentment of America right now. However, to judge someone purely based on their nationality, is a shallow and extremely outdated prejudice. I was born in England, I was brought up in Canada, and now I reside in Seattle, Washington. Along the way, I called Mexico and the Bahamas home for brief periods. I have about as much in common, with the stereotype of the "fat, ignorant American" caracature as the Australian serving me has in common with "Crocodile Dundee" (well except the fact, I must confess, I could probably shed 25 pounds). I don't suggest I'm the most intelligent, or open-minded fellow on Earth, far from it, but I deserved a better chance to distinguish myself from a stereotype than I received in many places I visited while in Australia.

So while the world may be flat, and it may be shrinking, our minds have not broadened to match. I concede, I am just as guilty in this regard as anyone. All of us, still occasionally cling to this idea that we're culturally divided, and that these cultural lines define precisely who we are. While we can all draw strength and a sense of purpose and faith from our ancestry, we are all much more than the flags and governments of our countries. Indeed, most of us (myself included), now draw our identity from several nations, and thus, borrow bits of culture from all over the place.

It may come as a shock to some, but as an American, I am not particularly fond of hamburgers (and prefer falafel any day), and I actually do know the rules of cricket, and yes, I have a basic understanding of the history of some other countries. I am not George Wallace, I am not Gordon Gecko, I am not Fred Flintstone. I also do not wander the Earth with a sense of manifest destiny. Similarly, I assume most Australians I meet don't wrestle alligators, or barbecue shrimp, or have blonde air, blue eyes and funny cowboy hat.

Yet, when we travel, it is amazing how quickly, we seem to call upon these wretched caricatures and apply them instantly to those we meet. Some of this is pure social anxiety of course, but mostly I think, we've just simply not caught up mentally to the realities of the world around us.

We are all connected now, and all reliant on one another. What makes the Bush administration such a dangerous anachronism, is more than anything, it ignored this basic reality, and tried to execute its policies unilaterally.

Perhaps, more than anything, this is why Americans are loathed abroad (and believe me I was snobbed in enough restaurants in Melbourne to verify that we are indeed loathed abroad). American government has refused to act like a member of the global village, indeed perhaps, denied it even existed, and more than anything I feel this is what other citizens of the world seem to resent most.

The global village is real. If there is any positive lesson at all from the current financial/banking crisis, it is that it demonstrates clearly, just how utterly dependent we all are on one another. A badly structured mortgage in Ohio, will eventually cause the Australian government to pass new bank deposit reform. A butterfly flaps its wings, and the price of tea in China changes.

Now that we're all in this together, economically and politically, its time to take the next step socially as well. Although the world is changing quickly, and often this is difficult to cope with psychologically, we need at least to make the effort.

Don't let Lou Dobbs tell you, that internationalism and multiculturalism is something to fear. It is as inevitable as the construction of roads, after the invention of the combustion engine; as inevitable as electronic commerce, once the computer modem was perfected. You shouldn't waste energy trying to stop, fear or demonize the realities of human evolution. This kind of resistance inevitably hurts your culture, and holds it back.

Look, I am narrow-minded as the next fellow, I am not trying to preach from a soapbox, I just see what I see, and try to understand for myself what I can learn from it. To do that, I must admit my cultural prejudices, my biases and distortions run as deep as any other. More than not, these prejudices are barriers to my happiness, and now more than ever, they are far more out of touch with the realities of the world today than ever before.

Bigotry, in any form, simply isn't a 21st century idea, and to put it bluntly, bigotry is bad for business. While all human beings cling to cultural distortions and consume propaganda from their governments a little too willingly at times, the good news is that the ugliness of nationalism and racism are slowly eroding. They are eroding because we all rely on one another to survive, and we are learning through one on one contact, that we are all not so very different from one another.

The good news here is, the more we connect, rely and depend on one another in the global village, the less likely we seem to want to destroy it. The 21st Century more than any other time in history, has all the right tools and technology for us to forge a level of prosperity and peace that seemed like an utter pipe-dream just 50 years ago. It might take the rest of this century to come even close to this, but the tools and progression are already there, we just need to advance socially to keep pace with the technology around us.

That's a comforting thought, especially as the anachronism of the Karl Rove era of gunboat diplomacy comes to an end. And to those waiters, hosts, clerks and others who treated me like a second-class human being simply because I was American I simply say this: I may be American, but I am also much more than the cartoon figure that word seems to conjure today.

Let's shake loose these mental shackles. If a cab driver from India can see the world as a marketplace of opportunity to consummate his dreams, so can the rest of us; if a girl from Shanghai can perfect her doctorate in microbiology in Melbourne, then move to a research facility in San Francisco to help isolate a new vaccine; if this fat American can sit in a college pub watching live cricket from Bangalore, while drinking Australian beer with students from New Delhi, Perth and Adelaide, then maybe we can finally catch up socially and mentally, to the technology and advancements and realities of the 21st Century.

We are neighbors. We are neighbors, just as surely as the woman next door who trims her hedge and shares with you the chocolate cake she just pulled from her oven. Our technology, our email, websites, cell phones and economies have brought us together. So lets act like neighbors, and lets not punish Americans just because they elected a bad president. Heck, Canada made Brian Mulroney Prime Minister, and nobody ever complains about “that fat Canadian at the end of the bar”, well except for one bar I know, but that’s because it’s a bar full of Husky fans, and they tend to behave that way after they lose the Apple Cup. :)

Apathy Wins, God Bless America

My silly blog here is chaos. You may have noticed this. It bounces around from deeply personal and incoherent rants, to strange, cryptic entries about baseball and Steve Raible.

So for better or for worse, (and mostly for worse), this is a little vent for my streams of consciousness. It demonstrates pretty clearly, my lack of academic skill, and my complete butchery of the English language. Yet, despite all this, I continue with the exercise. Sometimes you simply have to force yourself to write down how you feel.

This is, without a doubt, very interesting times in which to be alive. In 1998 the leading news stories were about shark attacks, and blue dress that was saved as a “treasure”. Now of course, the Arctic continent is literally melting before our eyes, Mother Nature is unleashing furious storms of record size and devastation, our stock market is collapsing and people are losing their homes to foreclosure. The media reflects all these events by reporting about lipstick, a Tina Fey skit on Saturday Night Live and a new OJ Simpson trial.

Sport in America has hit a new low, which considering the seedy, corrupt and criminal history of Sports in America, hitting a new low is really something. The NFL was caught red-handed helping specific franchises succeed, and had their “union leader” in their hip pocket for the past twenty years, in the worst case of management/union collusion I’ve ever seen. You wouldn’t know any of this from the ratings, most Americans care more about whether their fantasy football team won last week.

Companies that speculated with high-risk loans, then covered up their asset to debt ratio in their books, collapsed, and a government that has preached “free enterprise” for eight years wasted no time in bailing them out. We’re now meant to believe, that a company that got itself into trouble by borrowing too much, needs yet another loan, this one financed by taxpayers. I haven’t had a tax reduction in eight years, but my basic cost of living has raised 10% in the last year alone and I have the receipts to prove it.

I guess I should be outraged by all this. I guess, the “genius” of the times we live in, is that somehow I am not outraged. I’m too damn complacent and comfortable with my refrigerator full of snacks, my big-screen television and my vast array of video games to entertain myself with. I should be motivated to some kind of political activism, but I’m too bloated, too lazy and most of all too cynical and apathetic to want to participate. These statements probably “outrage” a lot of people, but to be honest, I feel utterly powerless, and most organizations out there designed to “do something about it”, irritate me. They seem designed to exclude people like me. The poorly-educated, middle-class consumer of video games, television and sporting events, isn’t the kind of recruitment they are looking for. I don’t cut the mustard for their private club of outrage and rallying.

I could join a blogger community, and coalesce into an online gang, that thumps any thought that deviates from the collective. I could be a “KOS Klone”, and go around urging forum Admins to delete anything on DailyKOS.com that doesn’t shoehorn into their gang’s little game of “mock every American that doesn’t think like we do”. I could pat myself on the back for joining their clan, and pretend that cheerleading shamelessly for one party over the other 24-hours a day, equates to true activism. I could listen to Rush Limbaugh I guess, but that little posse hasn’t accepted an audience like me in decades. Indeed, I think as an immigrant atheist with gay parents, I am probably the poster child for the kind of Americans “ditto heads” love to loathe.

I could seek an independent clan of voters and community, but I am not convinced there is such a thing, and if there was, probably was so flat, that it would come across as very “Joe Clark”. That obscure reference to an ex-Prime Minister of Canada, basically means, it would be intelligent, and probably even have positive ideas, but would be so grey and dull in its delivery, it would feel more like medicine than nutrition. People much-prefer leaders that do pirouettes behind British royalty, but then impose fascist wage freeze laws, that destroy your chance of promotion in the workplace, or even declare martial law, in an act that makes the “Patriot” Act look look timid in comparison. The bottom line is: fascism always wins if it is delivered with a little style.

So, I have chosen to just wallow in apathy and write a chaotic blog of my thoughts instead.

I wrote earlier that I have chosen to support Barack Obama in my first presidential election. This choice is solidified with the choice of Sarah Palin, who represents the same Neo Conservative philosophy that I feel has led this country astray in the last eight years. In fact, I really hate to use the word “conservative” to describe this group of voters. This is an insult to true conservatives, who value freedom and controlled spending, more than religious zealously and corporate bail-out.

What I haven’t written before is I think Barack Obama will lose, especially now that Palin is on the ticket. In fact, I predict here and now that I think Barack Obama will now lose pretty handily. The election has reduced itself to another cultural war (by design), and this is a battle Neo-Cons win, because they can claim the higher ground before the debate has even begun. Once the bible becomes the central reason for a politician’s appeal over the other, all the facts, and stock market collapse will not matter. I think at this stage, Obama can kiss Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida good-bye.

My only hope is, if we must suffer through another Republican presidency, that the result is at least definitive. If it comes down to a box full of proxy-votes, or if some hidden cache of votes from overseas is found to claim a key state, then America truly is deep trouble. This is a nation already radicalized on both sides of the spectrum, and if those divisions fester and if the nation becomes even more polarized, it will become increasingly dysfunctional in its government.

To be honest, I’d much prefer it if Palin or McCain had some kind of “youtube moment”, a-la Bob Dole falling off the stage, or Gerald Ford stumbling over himself as he gets off an airplane. Something the fast-food media can repeat endlessly, to guffaws and laughter of the voting public and this somehow miraculously wins the election for Obama. I don’t think Obama has any chance of winning it based on a debate on the facts and issues. We live in a world, where such a debate does not entertain us, and therefore we pay no attention to it.

This is why, I find my apathy growing to new heights, and thankfully this consumerism-society offers me all kinds of distraction in which to indulge that apathy. I’ll still vote, but will walk home from the polls convinced the vote didn’t do a damn bit of good.

Feel free to loathe me, because I’ve given up on the democratic process; just remember I can see Mount Rainier from my house, which must mean I’m an expert on Geology. Of course what is there to know, other than God made all mountains, attempting to move any mountain, would seem to violate some kind of divine decree wouldn’t it? I’ll sit at home and play Spore instead.

My Choice for President

Last night's speech by Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention was not of any particular historical significance.

What will be historically significant is if he wins the election. The great triumph of Jackie Robinson is not measured by his "try out" for the Boston Red Sox in 1945 it isn't even measured by his full-year of play for the Montreal Royals in 1946. History isn't measured by "getting close" to doing something, you actually have to do it.

I am a great admirer of Barack Obama. I say that without reservation and I say it because if you read the first two paragraphs above, you might think I am not. Indeed, what I find so compelling about his candidacy is his eloquence, his ability to deliver his vision to ordinary people like me. This to me is such a welcomed change from George W. Bush, who can't even recite old clichés, without bumbling over his words, and looking like a constipated man negotiating with his own bowels in the process.

I am not an admirer of the Democratic Party. I say without reservation and I say it because if you read that last sentence you might think I am one of those cheerleading Democrats who waves DNA pom-poms in the air at every turn.

The Democrats have been an embarrassment to this country several times, and I see no definitive evidence that the Democrats have provided better leadership than Republicans throughout history. LBJ did nothing to stop the Vietnam war, JFK took us closer to nuclear war than any president in history, Carter couldn't even rescue a handful of hostages from a third-world country, and Clinton lied about something so stupid it nearly cost him his presidency.

Clinton's presidency was particularly inept. His key fault was he took a non-issue and made it so mammoth in proportion he cost Al Gore a chance to be president. I happen to think Al Gore would have been a far greater president than W, and so I will never forgive Clinton for protecting his own ego, over his own country.

What frustrates me most is that three simple sentences from Bill Clinton was all it would have taken: I made a mistake. I am sorry. It won't happen again.

If he had the courage to look in the camera and make that simple confession, George W Bush's presidency never takes place, the Iraq War is never waged, and we do not suffer through Donald Rumsfeld, the most inept cabinet member in modern American history.

So no, Democrats, you are no better than Republicans, not by any measure what so ever. You've produced just as many lies, prolonged war, cheated the public of their own money and reneged on your promises. When you got into scandal, you bombed innocent people to distract us, when an act of honesty would have brought short-term pain for long-term gain you decided to lie and then gambled no evidence would surface to expose your lies.

I like John McCain. In fact, I find him a very refreshing Republican. This statement angers my liberal friends, but I truly do like McCain. He is not as strong a candidate as he was in 2000, because his own party destroyed him that year. To rebuild his candidacy he had to charm certain wings of the party, or risk being destroyed again. He became less independent and more of a party whip. Still, McCain is about a decent a public servant as you can expect. He works well with his opponents, he is generally honest and he isn't a complete pawn of Neo-Con doctrine.

Despite McCain's interesting candidacy (and his extremely interesting VP choice) I still like Barack Obama better. Having said that I must admit, I have been disappointed in Obama's campaign of late. His convention for one thing, came across as plastic, staged and entirely phony. For someone who preaches so effectively about changing the very fabric of American politics, his dog-and-pony convention seemed very state, very partisan and highly stylized with little to no substance.

I also find Obama's choice for VP rather boring. I like Biden as Secretary of State, or Secretary of Defense, but he lacks the temperament for executive office. He's also safe, established and knee-deep in Washington "politics as usual". His choice was also a slight to the 18 million people who voted for Hillary Clinton. Nobody, and I mean nobody, dislikes the Clinton-dynasty more than I do, but let's face it, she should have been the VP choice, because so many people were enamored with her. Does Barack Obama listen to the American people or not? His VP choice demonstrates that perhaps he doesn't listen.

Despite these reservations of late I am still going to vote for him. This is the first presidential election I get to vote in. I take pride that my first vote ever, will be to elect the first African-American president in this country's history. I didn't get to see Jackie Robinson play for Montreal. I didn't get to see MLK deliver his speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. I wasn't alive for the zenith of the civil rights movement of the sixties. Despite that I have seen other proud moments: I have seen apartheid fall in South Africa, and I've seen a liberated Nelson Mandela give a speech at Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario. Shortly after that speech, Mandela would go on to govern the very nation that imprisoned him.

Now, I want to see Barack Obama become president. I believe his election will be measured as a significant step forward for America. His presidency will make mistakes, because all presidencies do (Reagan and Grenada, JFK and the Bay of Pigs etc. etc.). He may not, in the end, be measured as one of the great presidents of my lifetime, but his election will be historic. His speech last night in Denver wasn't historic, but watching him taking the oath of office in 2009 will be.

I'd like to witness that history. I think it would be good for this country.

Having lived through 8 years of the worst president of my lifetime, Barack Obama doesn't seem "risky" at all, and he seems more than ready, and far more competent than what we have now. And please don't tell me, a poor black kid growing up with a single-parent, who lost his mother at a young age and had to borrow money to get his education, is somehow an elitist. That's a lie, and I'm sick of lies. Education is a good thing anyway, and it bothers me that propaganda sometimes attempts to suggest a solid academic career makes someone untrustworthy and unfit to lead us.

So I choose Barack Obama, a man of eloquence, a man who claims to lead us into changes, this country needs (energy, health and educational changes in particular).

Here's hoping Barack Obama redeems my choice, and makes my first vote ever for president, one I'll treasure and be proud of for years to come. Despite the charade of a convention, and the boring choice for VP, I have every confidence Barack Obama will not only make history, he'll also make progress for a country that for too long has been lead by cowards and thieves.

Death of the Ditto-Head

We’ve heard a lot about "change" recently in the US elections. I suppose this is natural, given we have an American president right now that as his term expires, is one of the most unpopular presidents of my lifetime. His opinion polls are tracking lower than Nixon’s when he was forced to resign. Even Jimmy Carter at the height of the Iranian hostage crisis was liked more.

So, like all politicians do, when there is an unpopular person or idea in the arena, they run away from them like wild gazelles. They try to distance themselves from the disliked entity. Sometimes they even claim they “knew all along”, that the entity was a bad seed. So Hillary Clinton who was beating war drums, and waving the American flag like all good little political children were after 9/11, now tries to cast herself as an anti-war candidate, and Barack Obama proudly states he never voted for the war – (and conveniently he didn’t, because he wasn’t even in the Senate at the time the war was being ratified). To be fair Barack probably would have voted “present” had he been there, it’s a habit Barack seems to enjoy when the political waters are a little muddy.

There is one other change however that this “average Joe” has spotted recently, that some pundits, spin-masters and opinion factories don’t seem to be talking about.

I’ve noticed is the Republican Party itself is changing, and changing in a way that is frustrating those who thought they were in control of it.

For a long time now, the Republican Party has been dominated (some like Kevin Phillips would say “usurped”), by a highly religious, deeply social conservative wing of the party. The phenomenon is well documented in Phillips’ book: American Theocracy. Tied to this wing of the party, is a wide band of rubber-stamp mass media, that pounds the social conservative agenda every single day. Now despite my some of libertarian values, and my atheism, I’ve always respected this wing of American politics. You can’t advocate freedom of religion, without tolerating and respecting, the right of like-minded religious citizens to coalesce, organize and fight to win elections, to advance their cause.

While I respect social conservatives, I don’t agree with them. I’d be a hypocrite if I did. None the less, it is pretty clear that the social conservative wing of the Republicans truly galvanized in 2000, when Karl Rove saw the zealous nature of the wing. He saw their ability to organize and get out a large number of voters, and he realized they were the key to defeating Al Gore.

Fueling this “revolution” of 2000 and 2004 were the social conservatives and their impressive array of media preachers. Rush Limbaugh was at the height of his game, Fox News Network came online and ascended to TV ratings that CNN could only dream of. Sean Hannity was an icon, Ann Coulter was quoted weekly in mainstream press, and everyone was wearing an American flag on their lapel. The old “tragedies” of the Bush 41 were being corrected now, by Bush 43, and the more partisan you were as a Republican senator, the better you were received by the party as a whole.

Now suddenly, in 2008 it seems that revolution in the Republican Party is starting to diminish, and the proof is in John McCain’s success.

John McCain was never “in” on the exclusive social conservative wing of the conservative party. He dared to run against, George W. Bush in 2000 (the hand-picked choice of Karl Rove and the social conservative wing). McCain dared to cry “foul” when he was assaulted by slime tactics that questioned his war heroism, and demonized his public record. Worse, McCain seemed to preach compromise on such sensitive issues as immigration and abortion, he dared to suggest the social agenda was not as important as the fiscal agenda, and suggested the geopolitical goals of the country, are not always achieved by brute force.

The right wing, social conservative pundits slaughtered McCain, they sliced him up, they fed him to their wolf packs, and they tittered with glee when he was defeated. “This is what you get for being a moderate Republican,” they chided. “Only real conservatives will thrive in our party,” they decreed.

2008 has come along, and to the utter outrage of the Republican Party “base”, John McCain is not only alive and well, he’s a few weeks from seizing the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

The social conservative wing of the Republican Party has done everything it can to stop John McCain from winning. Rush Limbaugh in fact, has turned his website and his radio show in a 3-hour long daily rant about the “evils” of John McCain. There’s no gray area in Rush’s editorial rants either. He suggests without apology, that McCain is a liberal that will destroy the Republican Party in 2008. His rants are supported across numerous blogs, commentators and editorials on that side of the spectrum, even Ann Coulter declared last week, that she’d rather vote for Hillary Clinton than vote for John McCain. Folks, to social conservatives, this is akin to saying you’d rather contract syphilis than kiss the groom.

During the Super Tuesday primaries, the social conservative power core, were urging voters to mobilize and defeat McCain. Ari Fleishcer lowered himself to appear on the CNN broadcast of the primaries, and with each result shrugged and said “McCain is not the clear choice of my party”. Karl Rove went to the flagship Fox News, and also insisted the race was not over, despite McCain’s success.

What happened on Super Tuesday essentially was that the social conservatives made a huge power push, and nothing happened. In fact, if anything, the voters went in the opposite way. Each Rush Limbaugh editorial somehow seemed to bring John McCain another vote. The party rejected the very power core that had brought it success in 2000 and 2004.

It’s an amazing change, and the elite members of social conservative wing of the Republican Party are livid. They don’t control the party’s destiny anymore, they learned that Republicans are not all “ditto heads”, that Goldwater Republicanism is not a dinosaur, and that a moderate conservative, is still a legitimate conservative that can win the Republican nomination.

That’s an amazing change in the landscape of American politics, essentially, what has happened in 2008 is Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity have become irrelevant. Their preferred choice in 2008 is getting slaughtered. People still listen to these guys, but they don’t comply with their commands. They have no real influence. Their rhetoric pushes the party in the opposite direction that they want.

As an independent, with no allegiance to any political party, I find the diminishment of the social neo-con’s influence over the Republican Party to be fascinating. Despite all their yelling, clamoring and demands that McCain is a heretic, McCain responds by proceeding to thrash his opposition. I am unsure if I’ll ever vote for John McCain, but I do recognize his ascendancy as a sign of a fundamental power-shift in the Republican Party.

Here we have a politician, outside of the Karl Rove mold, and he is winning, and there’s nothing Rush Limbaugh can do about it. That outrages Rush, but it fascinates me, because it signals a change. Essentially what is happening in 2008 is the more Rush Limbaugh yells, the more the party moves away from him and his ditto-heads. Indeed the era of the “ditto-head” seems to be coming to a close, and that is real change.

Gabe & Tyco's D&D Farewell

Make no bones about it: Gabe and Tyco are wretched little snots. I love them, like one loves a mouthy cornerback who performs obscene dances when they catch an interception. They have great talent, exceptional skill and are entertaining to watch, but I am not sure I’d invite either of them to dinner, because I don’t enjoy that much ego with my soup.

But we like arrogant, loud mouths in America don’t we? This is how and why we still treasure Babe Ruth. This is how Rush Limbaugh makes a living. Tyco and Gabe are just the editorial Babe Ruths of the gaming industry.

To be fair, they are more substantive than radio talk-heads, because at least they inject some craft into their work, but they also pass opinion off as factoid. They also mistakenly believe that their subjective opinion is kept objective, by just claiming that it is objective. They've wallowed in this lie for years now, and believe it. They believe their own myths, and while it is true a monkey can live off its own dung and urine for days, its health slowly deteriorates along the way.

And we have a very unhealthy monkey on our hands here.

Having said all that, I still read them with each update. Reading Gabe and Tyco as a gamer, is as essential as reading Maureen Dowd if you're a politics-nut. You may not agree with her, you may see her as snide, condescending and biased, but you still read her, because her editorials will ripple all around the blogosphere. People react to what she says, like it is "news" all in itself. Gabe and Tyco can make cannon-ball splashes in the gaming waters with a simple cartoon, or even a single sentence in their editorial rants. I admire that fact, and if there is any industry that needs the occasional slap in the head, it is the gaming industry, and Gabe and Tyco slap hard. They take their baseball bats and they beat down a bloated and hypocritical industry with great delight.

On that note, I want to say that I thought Gabe and Tyco hit a homerun today with this comic:

D&D Online Comic

Now don’t worry if you don’t get the joke. This is part of Gabe and Tyco’s schtick, they don’t print cartoon for mass market consumption, in fact sometimes the references in their cartoon are so obscure you need to read Tyco’s 900 word essay accompanying the cartoon to truly understand it.

This cartoon is catered to the semi-casual gamer, but a lot of them come from so deep in the gaming trenches, that they test the trivia of even the most ardent gamer-nerd. Just last week for example, not only did you need to read the editorial to get the joke, the editorial explained that to TRULY understand the reference, you had to download their podcast. Nerds will lovingly do this, because they love exclusivity, they love the illusion of elitism, and there isn’t a hardcore gamer on the planet, that doesn’t think he’s smarter than the average bear.

That lie in itself, is really part of the real problem with gamers in general. Watching Star Trek and slowly developing your Klingon vocabulary isn’t a particularly skillful display of academic prowess, and neither is reaching level 70 in Warcraft. Nerds often equate obsessive behavior with intellectualism, and will dissect any minutia related to their obsession endlessly to prove it.

This behavior, is of course, annoying. That’s why we nerds are a rather annoying sub-culture. We exclude others who are not as obsessed as we are, and we boost our own self-esteem by simply indulging our obsessions even more; until we eventually even exclude each other on ridiculously thin lines of division. So for example, you may play World of Warcraft, but since you don’t play Horde and you like 2v2 Arena PvP, and because you always run a DPS rogue, I cannot include you in my little group. We gamers divide our community into such tiny bits, that in the end we find ourselves alone, with our opinions with only PornoTube to comfort us.

Today’s comic rips the heart of the Dungeons and Dragons brand, and crushes it before our eyes. It was brilliant. It shouted a statement that all of us gamers know in our hearts: our old friend D&D is dead. It has become the “8 Track Tape” of gaming. No amount of 4th Edition and no amount of “gimmickry” on D&D Online will save it now. Cast it adrift onto the sea of history, and reminisce about it, like some 40 year old remembering a KISS concert when he was 12 years old.

It’s a sad truth though that Gabe and Tycho exposed today. If you are old nerd like me, you remember Dungeons and Dragons fondly. Like me, you might even still play the game once in a while (with dice and not a keyboard), but it’s not real gaming anymore, it’s a trip down memory lane. I might catch an old episode of Gilligan’s Island too, but the entertainment derived from it, is purely nostalgic now, as if watching the episode was a small glimmer and slice of your youth. You could get the same experience by thumbing through your old high school yearbook, or finding some old t-shirt you wore as a kid and giving it an unhealthy sniff.

That’s what D&D is now, an anachronism – left behind by bigger, brighter brands that seized the ideals of D&D and took them to new heights. World of Warcraft lore is terrible, it’s one of the worst narratives in an RPG I’ve ever digested. It doesn’t matter, because it’s been absorbed into mainstream culture, it helps sell trucks during commercials of an NFL game. It’s become so pervasive we can identify it on a cereal box, or embroider it on a button down shirt.

Why didn’t D&D become that brand? The answers to that are complicated, but lie firmly on the shoulders of Wizards of the Coast. Note I did not say Hasbro either, I said Wizards. Eat your lumpy gruel, WOTC, you blew it. You held the most identifiable fantasy game in America just twelve years ago, and you squandered it on a litany of sub-par books, that even your most obsessive fans failed to greet with any enthusiasm. You seized some part of the pie with Baldur’s Gate, but then you hemmed and hawed about how to exploit that opportunity on paper. You still won’t license your brand without massive deliberation in your R&D department, despite the fact your R&D department has developed a winning game in over a decade (not to mention producing some of the biggest and worst flops in gaming industry history).

Sure Atari took over with the Hasbro Interactive debacle, that saw Peter Adkinson quit your company in disgust, but what excuse is there for Eberron, and why on Earth would you choose that rubbish as the source for Atari’s first attempt to compete with the monolith WoW?

Six months from now, Gabe and Tyco are going to catch wind of the chicanery in D&D 4th Edition. They’ll see that WoW is not only the winner, but that Grandpa is dressing up in his Granchildren’s clothing and trying to download Amy Winehouse onto his iPod. All 4th Edition is, at its most fundamental level, is a D&D sheep dressed up to look like a WoW Wolf. The master has now been relegated to the apprentice and the funeral pyre has been lit. Come on old man, we’re supposed to look up to you, but now you’re prancing around in your Timberlands and reciting DMX lyrics. D&D 4th Edition is like Pat Boone trying to jam with Metallica, and you just look foolish.

To be fair, D&D Online was a disaster for many reasons, not related to Wizards of the Coast, but the systemic rot within the D&D brand grew out of the dung-infested top soil of WOTC R&D. Gabe and Tyco have declared the brand dead in the online gaming world, and we all now damn well that the cardboard version, has been relegated to clinging to a measly plastic miniatures market to justify itself.

We’ll miss you D&D, and like the Brady Bunch, maybe a delicious parody will be made of you by Hollywood, and we can enjoy you again but this time, knee-deep in irony, and nostalgic sarcasm. Oh what a groovy, groovy time that old D&D game was.

2007 Reflection

So 2007 is behind us.

As I examine the sum of the deeds and events of the year for our family, I feel it was a great year.

Each of us blossomed in unique ways this year.

Desiree (my youngest daughter) grew both emotionally and physically this year. She has become one of the most conscientious children I have ever known. Her empathy and her understanding of others is remarkable. For a child who just celebrated her tenth birthday last month, she exemplifies an emotional strength and an understanding of others, that many of us “adults” have never attained (including myself).

Academically she still struggles in some areas, but even this, she takes in stride. She became excited when told she required additional work in the morning to get up to speed in mathematics. She met the challenge with genuine enthusiasm. Her math skills are blossoming quickly as a result. She’s a giver, a true and genuine giver, and she likes to work hard when given the chance. She’ll also go out of her way to comfort, or aid others around her.

I worry of course, this means her childhood is being rushed too quickly, that she is taking on adult ideals and adult emotions at too young an age. However, my wife points out to me all the time, how much “little girl” there is in her still. This is obvious in her favorite games and toys, the way she interacts with other children, and even the way she decorates her own bedroom.

My favorite moment with Desiree this year is hard to isolate because there were so many. However, one that stands out immediately is one that is fresh in my mind. Recently Desiree had to write an essay over the holidays for her school. She was told to essentially write an editorial about something she was “passionate” about.

She wrote an essay about a television commercial of all things. In fact, she discussed a commercial for a popular children’s cereal. She compared the commercial that airs now, to the commercial that used to air a few years ago. She drew a comparison of the two, and criticized the new campaign. She accurately described the marketing’s focus, and then cleverly deduced how and why the advert had changed, and then expressed strong opinion on why the change had deteriorated the overall strength of the ad.

It was a brilliant analysis of how mass-media markets to young children like herself. She saw through the ad’s gimmicky façade, and then extrapolated her own view.

This is, in my opinion, a clever expression of thought. It required her to view media that was attempting to manipulate her emotionally, compare it to media she had digested before, and then draw independent conclusions. It was independent thought, with an editorial viewpoint. It was strong analysis, and it was entirely her own creation.

Reading this essay, it made me proud that her mind was so open, so capable of combining her emotions with objective analysis to produce a fabulous essay about how television ads attempt to market to children her own age.

Chantal (me eldest daughter) also blossomed this year. She is beginning to show the early signs of teenage life. This means her emotions are becoming more complex, and her reactions to the outside world aren’t as “pretty and perfect” as they used to be. Indeed, she’s begun to experiment with cynicism, and even at times outright rebellion, surely a precursor of what is to come as moves into her teenage phase of life.

I could consider this advancement a loss, as she wiggles out of her childhood cocoon and sheds some of her innocence along the way. However, I don’t see this as regression, or loss. I see this as growth, and I have to admit, as a spectator it is fascinating to watch her find her voice, and her sense of self.

Chantal is very much an individualist. She does not dress like her school mates do, she develops her own eclectic style, one that is unique and all her own. She is famous for trying out unique clothing combinations, accessorizing her appearance in unique ways, and sometimes even “crafting” her own clothes and symbols that she uses to establish her own identity.

I worry at times, that she will suffer socially because of this. Middle school rewards conformity, and indeed it is really the first place where conformity is introduced as a means to social acceptance. Chantal, for better or for worse, has rejected it outright, and has accepted the consequences in return. She is even proud of her decision, and is self-aware she has decided to be this way.

There are many moments that I enjoyed with Chantal this year. She blossomed academically, in a year where there was a lot of pressure on her to improve. She moved to a stricter and more demanding school, and she not only survived, she thrived, bringing home impressive grades and praise from her teachers. This is quite an achievement given some of the challenges Chantal faced in her early development.

However, for me, the proudest moment I had with Chantal was when she was faced with an awful field trip, shortly after the school year began. I can’t imagine the stress of the situation. She was brought to a new school, and all her old friends were no longer in the same class. Everyone in her class was new, and unfamiliar. The teachers were new and unfamiliar, and the school itself was vast and crowded compared to where she had gone to school before.

It was the first year of middle school, and every kid (and even some of the teachers), were stressed out about this new phase in their lives.

To alleviate the stress all the children were feeling at the school year, the teachers took the children on a field trip. Alas, for Chantal, the selection of where to go on their field trip instantly became an issue.

The school had decided to take the children to a live production of “High School Musical”, a Disney television show that is geared to the pre-teen crowd. It is, as you can expect, highly sanitized, and polished into a television product that threatens nobody, says as little as possible, but provides a lot of glamour, pretty boys, pretty girls and sugary music along the way.

Chantal despises the show.

She considers the show beneath her. She can’t stand the clothes they wear; she particularly dislikes how the girls in the show are submissive and seem to obsess about boys and shopping. She even once compared the women on the show to “Barbie” and claimed the show was too “fake” for her to enjoy.

These were her own assessments of the show, in fact, my wife and I had never seen the television program, so her exposure to the show, and her decision to dislike her came all from her.

When the field trip was announced, she made her vehement disapproval of the show known to her class.

She was immediately ostracized and even somewhat vilified for opinion. Many other girls in the class “loved” that show, and it is of course, one of the most popular shows for young girls on television right now. Chantal knew this, and yet she expressed her dissatisfaction with both the show and the field-trip to see a live version of the show.

She came home very disillusioned that day. She was unaware, that going against the grain in a social situation can yield some very nasty backlash. Some of her classmates teased her, even her own teacher seemed unsympathetic to her protests.

When she came home, we had a long talk about it. She expressed beautifully why she felt the field-trip was inappropriate.

“Why not a trip to the art museum?” she asked. “How about a science museum or a trip to a place that celebrated the natural beauty of the northwest?” she wondered. “Why on Earth would you participate in an academic event that was essentially sponsored by Disney?”

I was worried she was becoming an elitist, someone who couldn’t shrug off her concerns and just have fun with a situation. However, her own expression of dismay over the choice was just far too eloquent to deny. She had a point, why was the school rallying around a television show?

As the discussion progressed, she began to protest the fact she had to go. She basically felt, since she thought the trip was a waste of time, she didn’t have to go. For better or for worse, I explained to her that this was her new school, her new class, and even though she did not like the show, she had duties as a student, and just like a regular class she was compelled to attend the event.

She was very disappointed in my decision. Still, she listened to my reasoning, and even listened to my concerns that while she was perfectly entitled to her opinion about the field trip, and in fact, I even admired it - her point of view did not make her “better” than the other kids that did enjoy the show.

On her own, she then deduced, that if her classmates were willing to accept her, for how she feels, for how she dresses, she must in-turn accept them for their differences.

I thought it was a fantastic insight into how society requires tolerance. I also thought it was good of her to attend the field trip with a stiff upper-lip.

She came home the day after the field trip, even more vindicated about her opinion of the show. She pointed out several instances of the show she found offensive. She argued quite strongly that the show was sexist. I have no idea if her opinion is right or wrong, in fact, I do not even care if it is, I just admire that she came to this opinion on her own, of her own free will.

She was proud of the fact though that she attended the field trip without antagonizing those classmates who loved the spectacle. Her own teacher even commented that Chantal behaved extremely well, and while she was clearly unhappy with the show, never showed any sign of “sour grapes” or offered any condescending remarks about the show or her classmates.

She instead went to the event gracefully, and then came home and expressed what it was about the event that she did not like. She stuck to her guns, she didn’t cave into the majority opinion, but neither did she wield a superior attitude about her own point of view either. That is a highly complex reaction to a rather stressful social situation. I thought it showed great maturity, and I will always remember her and admire her for how she handled that situation.

There are so many other proud moments of 2007 for me, too many to catalog here. Overall though, I have to say, it was a good year.

It was not a perfect year, there are moments of 2007 I’d love to forget, moments that made me sad, or disappointed me. Those moments were rare though. For the most part 2007 was one of my fondest years ever.

I hope 2008 provides just as much joy and wonder…

Pierrefonds

Pierrefonds was a suburb like any other. It just happened to be a suburb of Montreal, Quebec and I just happened to live there in the early seventies.

There are lot of mental images that flash around in my head, when I drum up the subject of Pierrefonds and reflect. The first images that are summoned are the thick snow tires on those big, ugly cars of the seventies. In those days, cars were big, they made low, thumping noises when they were running and in Quebec, they were equipped with large, thick snow tires for winter.

The most vivid sound I can recollect is the sound of those big snow tires spinning furiously when they were stuck on a patch of ice or were caught in a bank of snow. Cars would sometimes hit a patch of ice on our street and swerve into the snow banks. These banks were often far over my head along the side of the road. When you hit the gas of the car, the tires would spin and the deep treads of the snow tires made an interesting and haunting sound.

In the end, the cars would always get unstuck and it would always leave a trail of black ice and snow where the exhaust had polluted the white snow bank. When I walked to school, you could see these black, carbon-stained scars along the side of the road, and you’d know that the snow and ice of Montreal had caught yet another victim.

Earliest Memory

Your earliest memories are always shrouded in fog and they are often only brief moments, tiny snapshots that your brain managed to capture when you were very little. These memories have been corroded by the moths of time. They have holes in them, and it isn’t always easy to pull them out of storage and look at them.

My earliest memory is being inside a BOAC jet, flying to England. I am not sure how old I am, old enough to talk, old enough to hear my Mom’s voice and understand it. My younger brother Keith has been born, but if memory serves he’s just a baby. I am probably three years old.

I remember being tired and being unable to sleep in the chair of the plane. I had never slept sitting down before. My Mom tells me to go to the floor and sleep by her feet. I was small enough to crawl down to the floor in between the seats. I spread across the floor in this tiny gap, without inconveniencing anyone else. I remember my Mom’s voice telling me to go to sleep and that we’d be in England soon.

It was a soothing voice my Mom was always good at making you feel safe. I fell asleep, a mile high in the sky, and rocketing at 500 miles an hour towards England, and it remains my earliest memory.

Good-Bye 2006

So we come to the end of another year. They called this one 2006, based on a kooky religion and some bad math.

I liked 2006, I look back at it and it was a good year.

It’s easy to point out all the trouble in this world. There’s a lot of trouble to choose from. Massive 25 mile long ice drifts are breaking free and casting themselves adrift on the ocean. It’s just the start of events like this, ten years from now, we’ll see this happen more and more.

In case you weren’t aware: out planet is dying.

There are lots of other troubles, Israel is still…well Israel and Iran suddenly denies the truth about the holocaust and builds nuclear weapons. Radical religion continues to want to push us all towards a holy war. Just last week an elected US Senator suggested that a Muslim Senator, (who was also democratically elected), was a security threat to the United States.

It seems, we’ve never fully shed the Middle-Ages. I am waiting for a prominent politician to come around and challenge the notion that the Earth is round.

Ah but, 2006 was a good year. We learned more about cancer this year, than probably any year previous and we now actually have proactive means to defend ourselves from certain types of cancer.

Our knowledge of biochemistry and genetics continues to take amazing leaps. We are learning how the tissue repair process in our body can break down and form tumors in breasts and the colon. We’re learning how to isolate genetic indicators that signal that someone is at high risk of developing these kinds of cancers.

In the decades ahead, we’ll cough up some spit or a drop of blood and in two weeks, they’ll have a genetic disposition chart that will show your risk of certain diseases like an actuarial chart. You can then learn how to take preventative steps to prevent the development of those diseases. You’ll learn which types of screens and checks should be performed regularly for your genetic disposition. You can even see a Genetic Counselor if you want. By the way Genetic Counseling is a growing and lucrative field.

To those who fear anything new and different, it all sounds frightening. But what it really means is a Doctor can learn that your ten year old daughter is highly susceptible to breast cancer, merely because of certain indicators in her genes and you can take steps to prevent your daughter from developing a tumor later in life and dying. It’s a good thing. Life, health and improved understanding of how our bodies work, is a very good thing.

There were other great achievements this year, too often ignored by a media infatuated with dysfunctional celebrities and gossip.

Alternative fuels are making serious headway and automobiles are finally reducing their fuel consumption. Slowly America has realized that our addiction to OPEC Oil is a dangerous addiction, heck even the President said so this year.

Micro-Credit has come of age, a concept that is helping turn around the eternal poverty and hardship in places like Bangladesh. There is hope for the poorest and meekest on this Earth. I grant you it’s a faint hope still, but more and more various nations are fighting their way out of poverty.

New super-powers are beginning to emerge. This is a frightening thought to the xenophobic, but surely the fact that India’s standard of living is vastly improving is a good thing. They are a democracy; they have a fantastic education system and their life expectancy, economy and political influence are all improving. They have removed the shackles of the Third and Second World and moved into the First World. It’s a good thing, their growth and evolution doesn’t mean it is coming at the expense of our own.

Technology of course, grows in leaps and bounds. It is easy to be cynical about these improvements. Sadly, there are some who argue we’ve become slaves to our machines. I think its hyperbole to argue such things. I enjoy talking to my relatives, via phone, text or video at a fraction of what it cost me twenty years ago. I enjoy connecting with and finding people all over the world that share my interests and hobbies. I love the fact the internet teaches me something new every single day.

I am also a hedonist (at least part-time hedonist). So forgive me if I enjoy my new HDTV, my new video-games and my digital camera. Consumption is too often viewed as a sin. Over-consumption is dangerous, especially when it endangers our planet, but that new digital video camera you just bought should be enjoyed guilt free.

On a personal level, 2006 was fine and dandy. I finally got some financial discipline. I have stopped being a teenager when it comes to money. The accomplishment sounds meek, but for me it’s a huge step forward. My work was fine, despite severe challenges and a few internal battles. Mostly I am very proud of my work and I know what I have developed is miles ahead of the systems I inherited.

My family is awesome. My younger brother got to spend his first full year watching his new baby daughter grow. I hear my younger brother’s voice now and I reflect on who he is and where he is in 2006 and I beam with pride. You made it pal, and it looks and sounds really good on you. I could not be happier for him. My Mom spent some time in Ecuador, helping to build a community shelter and recreation facility down there. She came back saddened by the plight of good, honest people down there. I take pride in the fact, that despite the fact she’s over sixty years of age, she found the courage, strength and hard work to make a difference amongst all that hardship.

My wife and my own children are as lovely and healthy as ever. They are happy, I know this because I can hear them laughing in the other room. They are warm, they are dry, they are safe, healthy and they are well-fed. That’s not the most impressive accomplishment of all, but it is certainly the most important.

Good-bye 2006, forgive me if I try to forget all your trials and troubles. Forgive me if I ignore your terrorism, religious intolerance, racism, pollution and frightening politics. Today I celebrate the good things about being alive in 2006. Because it truly is a great time to be alive.

My only lament is the few that I love dearly in my heart could not be here to share this incredible year with us. To them I say, you live on inside our hearts, but I really wish you could have seen just how great a year 2006 was.

My Raible Vacation - Calgary Concert

At last we arrived in a civilized place! Calgary, the most cultured place in all of Alberta, which is kind of like saying the most woman-friendly tavern in Madinah.

So we decided immediately to do the most cultured thing we could find. Now this is Calgary so ballet, opera, symphonies and theater are pretty much out of the question, so we did the next best thing, we went to a KISS concert.

After the show, we went backstage. We found Gene Simmons there and he was hanging out with Howard Schultz and Ariel Sharon. They all seemed to be getting along well and kept switching from English to Yiddish in mid-sentence.

Gene asked everyone if they were interested in a KISS merchandise license. Just 10K to put the KISS logo on a labia ring and sell them online. Not a bad deal really, I'll think about it, I might be able to make some money on that.

I started to get angry at Howard Schultz (which isn't hard), because he was bragging about 'fleecing the Emerald City'. So I decided to get violent, but then I realized Schultz was surrounded by a gaggle of high-priced lawyers, so feeling intimidated I beat up Tommy Thayer instead.

Well the police came and took me away. They mumbled something about "Soccer Riot Snazel", but of course the Canadian justice system is a joke, so my sentence was to receive free medication and a formal apology from the Ministry of Tourism. Apparently, they felt their country must have done something wrong to make such a nice American tourist such as myself to act that way. I used the free medication to get hold of some Codeine and Xanax. I figure they'll make a nifty cocktail with Tequila if Phil and Bobby get on my nerves.

Here's a snapshot of the concert, pretty crazy. You can click the image or you can click here instead to see a larger version of the photo.

Raible Vacation - Respite in Red Deer

The snow was so heavy we had to use snowmobiles to get out of Edmonton. At last we are out of that sub-artic wasteland!

We have spent the night in Red Deer, Alberta. The people here in Red Deer are very nice, although they tend to hiss like Sleestaks whenever you mention Eastern Canada. I think most people in this town would rather drink raw beef dip than converse with some snot from Toronto. Who can blame them really?

Lanny McDonald called, he says he has a big night planned for us in Calgary tomorrow, I look forward to it. I've lost my camera, I'll have to buy a new camera now. I just hope I can figure this dumb purple and orange currency that Canada uses. Honestly, their money looks like it was made from gay pride parade confetti.

Raible Vacation - Breakfast in Edmonton

Well I was right, Edmonton is cold, Edmonton is bleak and the Yaks shed hair everywhere.

We tried to make a nice morning breakfast, but our spirits were low.

Bobby Orr and I spent the night with Ariel Sharon who was in town to score some free heart surgery from the socialized medicine here in Canada. He was making all kinds of jokes about the United Nations and he got drunk on Molson Ice.

Bobby and I didn't like him much.

Some dude in a weird looking van keeps following us and pestering us with voice mail, but we just ignored him.

Tomorrow we're off to Calgary, thank goodness, civilization at last. You can see a bigger version of our breakfast snap shot by clicking the picture or by
clicking here.

My Raible Vacation Day 2 - Scenic Edmonton

It was time to move on to Edmonton.

I had been to Edmonton once before, it was bleak, it was cold and a Yak ate my shoe.

My friend Phil and I made the trip via the Trans-Canada highway. This is Phil and me in Edmonton, there wasn't much there so we decided to skate on a nearby lake.

As you can see it’s not much of anything, but I was able to watch Eskimos score a touchdown and then skin whale blubber on the sideline to sell in the concessions. I really liked the Caribou meat myself; it goes great with Tim Horton donuts. I understand Eskimos don’t use labia rings, I guess the danger of frost bite is too severe.

I’d like to tell you I didn’t think about Chone Figgins today but I’d be lying.

You can click the photo for a larger image, or you can
click here for a larger image.

My Raible Vacation - Day 1 Catching Salmon With Bobby

Day 1 - Catching Salmon With Bobby

Finally! After packing up all the Aason cards, changing my cell phone number again and establishing email filters I was ready for my first ever Raible vacation.

My friend Bobby and I flew to Prince George BC, where we went ice fishing in July and caught this really cool salmon. It was great, I didn’t think about Chone Figgins all day.

After that, we went shopping for labia rings but couldn’t find any. Later that night, we sat around the ice shack and I did begin to think about Chone Figgins and Bobby made me drink a lot of alcohol so I’d shut up and go to sleep.

I hope to write more about my vacation later.

I Like Blogs Damn You! Here's Why...

Blogs.

So full of deeply personal and uneducated opinion that they are so easily dismissed by anyone with even a smidgen of cynicism, which in today’s modern age amounts to every living soul on the planet.

Still, as uneducated and self-centered as most Blogs are, they still reflect one delightful and often overlooked virtue: free speech.

It’s too bad (in my view) that Blogs became a branding agent for political mongers who make money by broadcasting one and only one side of the political spectrum.

It’s too bad that Blogs were usurped into the pedantic MySpace, a place where kid’s gather and pretend they are adults while adults gather to act like children. If the deafening sound of American pop-culture has left you with a headache, then MySpace is the last place you want to visit. Here, all that matters is the latest comedy skits on television, aptitude with the latest colloquialisms those skits have spawned and of course, discussion of any celebrity that is flogging their wares in mass-media.

If ever a fascist wanted to prove his case that the general public loves to be duped, usurped and lead astray, the vast majority of dialog on MySpace proves their case in spades.

None the less, it is still a medium of free speech, free thought and free interaction of human being across the whole globe. However elitist your reaction to Blogs might be, you can’t deny that Blogs are unaltered, unedited and deeply rooted in the simple notion that all ideas should be free to be broadcast themselves. Yeah sure, some of you would rather listen to even the driest of editorials on NPR or re-read that Salinger novel for the seventh time, rather than stoop to the bowels of the internet. None the less, so far, most governments and corporations haven’t been able to get their grubby, dirty paws on Blogging.

Not that they haven’t tried of course, nothing freaks out an autocrat more than people expressing themselves. Even the most intelligent and educated people can feel threatened by a 10 year old girl simply writing her thoughts in an open diary. The reasons they feel threatened are often shrouded in morale concern. Pedophilia is of course often at the top of the list of reasons why Blogs must be controlled, terrorism is another frightening word that governments delight in throwing around to pardon themselves from judging your loyalty to them and punishing you if you dare to express a dangerous idea.

Frankly, I am choking under the 21st Century’s movement towards censorship, media manipulation and privacy invasion. Now defending Blogs and defending privacy almost seem contradictory. What kind of a nerd can complain about having his privacy invaded, when he writes massive essays on every single salient thought that pops into his head and then publishes them in a forum that the entire world can access and read? Well point taken, but while I defend the freedom of Blogging, I also defend its anonymity.

If you love Blogs like I do you know the success stories of free and anonymous editorial, the emergence of frank discussion on China from Chinese residents, who have found ways to Blog themselves and not get caught from the prying eyes of the Chinese regime is my favorite example, but there are others. The Blog of an ordinary Iraqi resident during ‘Shock and Awe’ was fascinating and the discussion about the Blog’s validity was even more interesting. Seeing a puffy, pill-addicted Rush Limbaugh feeling threatened by the ideas of an adolescent kid in Baghdad, was for me, delightful.

Blogging might be hated by elitists who think uneducated commoners like me should just shut up and read Tolstoy, but like it or not it is here to stay. Thank goodness too, because as I read more and more about stealth marketing efforts by large corporations (where companies ‘plant’ company stooges inside free forums, town meetings and large clubs to broadcast company marketing efforts), as I read about corporations that sue, bully and cajole consumers who dare to complain about their products, or worse companies that shut up formal employees by threatening them with expensive lawsuits, when those employees dare to expose the criminal activity they witnessed in their employ. As I read about our own government tracking every single phone call made in the United States, in the name of ‘security’, but has failed to secure our waterways, chemical plants and nuclear facilities in any tangible way. As I read about databases of debit card purchases being sold to whoever wishes to pay for them and wireless ‘smart barcodes’ on product that communicate to central archives as to when, how and who purchased them, and as I read about a world utterly obsessed with knowing who we all are and what we all think and then passing laws to put us in prison when those thoughts or actions don’t match a particular profile, well quite frankly Blogs quickly become a very safe and very necessary haven.

Censorship is in ‘vogue’ my friends. It’s the latest new ‘thing’ and we have all passively accepted it. Your neighbor calls and complains about a raise in his utility bill that was not broadcast or communicated to him before hand and his power is cut off for three days. You call to complain about the fact the garbage collectors were seen driving dangerously in your neighborhood and your garbage stays in your alleyway for days. You broadcast in some forum that a product you purchased has failed to meet up with your expectations and the post is deleted, or worse edited to make it look like you are completely happy with your purchase. You post a bad review of a movie and suspiciously a person that has defended every single movie that a particular media company has produced vilifies you and then proceeds to deliver yet another glowing review, just like the last one for the movie the same company release two weeks ago.

CNET, Amazon, Windows Marketplace, CNN, Hasbro and others have all allowed people who are PAID to editorialize to infiltrate their forums and areas reserved for customer feed back and splatter the medium with infomercials that appear to be just free thought, from a paying customer, but are in fact ‘employees’ of the very brand being discussed. Meanwhile an extremely dissatisfied customer has his message altered to make it look like he was happy the whole time.

Welcome to the 21st Century, the century where compliance and patriotism have fused to become the same thing. This is the century where discordance and complaint is met with vilification and even criminal prosecution in some cases. This is the century of databases with billions of individual data points on everyone and the massive queries that troll those databases for trends, profiles and bell curves. When your political thought, your private discussion with your neighbor about the civic election, your payment to the company that mows your lawn are all cataloged into the same central repository and then disbursed to the government that focuses primarily on staying in power, well forgive me, but the quality of Blogs are the least of my concerns.

In fact, in many cases, an angry Blog, from an uneducated slob like me, can at times, seem like a breath of fresh air.

I know what some of you are thinking, how dare I whine about the conditions of the modern world? I should go back to my cubicle, just shut up and watch American Idol. At the very least if I am going to rant about something, couldn’t it be about something interesting like Tom Cruise’s baby?

(The above was unedited and just a capture of train of thought, my apologies if it was painful to follow or read as a result).

Today

So it’s time for me to write something...

I have so much to say I don’t even know where to begin, let me boil it down to some sort of stinkin’ office memo, in the name of efficiency let’s just craft it like some sort of inter-office memo.

1. Thank you all of you who raised concern about my last self-loathing post. It’s amazing what people who crawl out of the crannies when you claim you are unhappy. Thank you all and believe me, while I have moments of self doubt, I am overall doing just fine, and thank you all for asking.

2. Seahawk Kinship – Yes American Football is incredible. Yes, Seattle deserves a Super Bowl – and more. My favorite people on Earth live here. This is a city that quite simply is beautiful, not just physically, but beautiful artistically and spiritually.

3. Yes, I like to drink beer. Yes, I like to watch sports. You got a problem with that? If so, then good for you, none the less, beer and sports still serve me better than the New Testament. Put that in your Ann Coulter pipe and smoke it.

4. The Montreal Canadiens are about as close to human perfection as you can get. The sole exceptions I can think of are Macbeth, To Kill a Mockingbird and Gary Gygax.

5. You try collating multiple MSI and IHC genetic tests, from multiple labs across several genetic markers and then tell me I’m insane. Do that first before you ever fucking judge me and my ridiculous blog.

6. Oblivion is way fucking over rated. In my opinion, it’s more about hardware elitism and RPG snobbery than anything that resembles real entertainment. It runs on my machine fine. It's boring as hell.

7. The NBA has become a joke. Where are the ambassadors to the game? Am I really supposed to buy that Carmelo is on parallel with Kareem, Magic, Charles and Mike? No fucking way, the NBA right now is selfish, elitist and way too fucking expensive. It’s the sport of the upper-middle class, it’s the American version of Cricket. Fuck the NBA, it is totally fucking cheese. It is out of reach and totally out of tune with the average American.

8. Somebody took my cheesy ass lyrics and made a real rap song out of it. Holy shit, my cranky uneducated ass actually inspired someone to make art. Here it is… Check it out. Yes, those are my cheesy lyrics applied to real music and craft. My thanks to my life-remixed kindred spirit that produced this it totally made my week.

9. Steve Raible Baseball is dead. Yet instead some fucking ridiculous clown-like board game squanders millions. Wizards of the Coast is THE dumbest fucking dumb-ass company I have ever worked for.

10. England won World War II. Yeah sure America provided the tanks and the people. Yes, America’s significant contribution should never be denied. But the spirit of World War II, was embedded deep in the fire bombs that landed in London. That glorious country survived the nightmare and provided the launching pad that eventually ensured that democracy would dominate the rest of the 20th century.

11. Russia is fucked up and anyone who thinks the Cold War is over has not been paying attention.

12. No, I am not some sort of right wing bitch. I am not a clown who waves flags. China and Russia are fucked, period. America is superior to them both. I say that not because I am an overly-patriotic reactionary. I say that because America invented Jazz, put men on the moon and lead the vast majority of scientific fields.

It does so, because at this stage of time, it is a superior fucking country that treats its people with more respect than any other super power in human history. Yeah, I like Canada too and the UK, but let’s face it, neither of those countries intimidate the Security Council.

13. Yes, damn you vote. Yes, I know Florida was fucked up in 2000. Yes I know democracy isn’t perfect. Yes, George Carlin’s nihilism is right and correct. You know what? I don’t fucking care, vote anyway, it’s hell of a lot better than a country that doesn’t even provide that simple basic human expression.

14. I like Passover more than I like Easter. I say that as an atheist.

15. Did I mention that Oblivion is over rated?

16. Has anyone else noticed that the editorials on Penny Arcade have slowly become unreadable? Jesus H. Christ, put the fucking thesaurus down you nerd and just talk to me like a normal human being.

17. Yes Michael Moore lies. So does George W Bush, the left and the right have turned into cheerleaders. Make up your own god damn mind and try to do it without listening to NPR or Rush Limbaugh.

18. I love life, every time I doubt that statement, I look at my children. Whatever life is, for better or for worse, I believe it gets better with every generation. I believe I have seen visible proof of that statement.

19. To support item #18, I claim here and now, that I am a better human being than my own father. However, I also concede that one of the key reasons that I am a better human being, is my father worked hard to raise me right. It's called progress, it's called evolution. It's part of what makes life so beautiful.