A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
US politics
From MoveOn.org:
Hey,
Want a free Obama button? MoveOn’s giving them away totally free–no strings attached. I just got mine, and wanted to share the opportunity with you.
Click this link to get a free Obama button:
http://pol.moveon.org/obamabuttons/?id=-10678064-xWz9Azx&rc=ads.adwords.ng.img336x269
Thanks!
From a developer’s standpoint, the page turning Flash on that site is awesome!
Obama will be a seriously great president!
I’m so lovin’ the 2008 election!
Vote Obama!
Now that Sarah Palin has been announced as John McCain’s running mate, people are being quick to dig up dirt. The first I came across was an insinuation that Sarah Palin, with her stance against abortion and birth control, promoting ‘abstinence only’ beliefs, is raising her daughter’s child as her own. iReport lists 8 reasons this may true including a picture. Daily Kos added commentary. Next, Palin denies global warming is man made and adds that Palin is no friend to the environment "once attacking McCain for his ‘close-mindedness on ANWR.’". And finally MSNBC chimes in with the ethics investigation: "Palin is under two ethics investigations springing from accusations that she abused her office to pursue a personal grudge."
Update: I think this is a good time to emphasize that we should remain focused on the issues and not on slinging dirt.
Issues that could arise from the baby (which honestly, as a Downs baby it seems more likely to be her baby than her daughter’s): stance on abortion, availability of birth control, and position on sex education in schools. What about honesty and disclosure regarding the child (presuming it is her daughter’s)? A non-issue as that is her personal decision and a simple matter of privacy.
Issues that could arise from denying global warming is not man made: Religion in government, Decision made on religion vs science, teaching of creationism instead of evolution, Kyoto Protocol, environmental choices such as drilling ANWR, mountaintop removal coal mining, drilling the protected coastal shelves, energy policies, war on middle eastern nations for control of oil, clean energy vs nuclear.
Issues that could arise from the ethics investigation: misuse of power, integrity, trust in our leaders, open government, privacy of citizens, Patriot Act
Did McCain just win the election? Please tell me that we aren’t about to have 4 more years of Bush policy because the blood is rushing from the brains of men to cat calls and discussion of whose weapon is larger, and blood rushing from the brains of women angry that Hillary didn’t get the nomination. I hope our society is more intelligent than to be led by "look! something shiny!" Young, beautiful, pageant winner, hunter, gun aficionado (lifetime NRA), 5 children – 1 in Iraq and 1 with special needs (Down Syndrome), has ANWR in the palm of her hand — good move McCain! But I don’t think it’s checkmate. I truly believe that our society is intelligent enough to see that the Obama policies are far better for this country than the McCain aristocracy.
I look forward to the debates. This is going to one awesome election!
Fox News playing mind games:
I promise that I know people who would use this one thing as their reason to not consider Obama. I can already hear the conviction in their voice, "he’s a terrorist!"
The only thing I can say about Joe Biden at this moment is he was the first presidential candidate to appreciate the power of Twitter! Follow @JoeBiden and @BarackObama. I still cannot find a John McCain official Twitter account nor one for Petraeus. For some reason Biden doesn’t thrill me. Of course, McCain/Patraus frighten me.
Update:Thank goodness it wasn’t Hillary!
Cathy spent the day in the car with her father yesterday having him regurgitate the misinformation that is the hallmark of the Republican Party. I received text messages asking me to find Barack Obama’s real name. To believe the hearsay, Obama’s real name is Barry Soetoro. I took a few moments to look into it and found Snopes, Fact Check, bloggers galore, The LA Times, and many other sites which confirmed Obama’s eligibility as president and showed his genuine birth certificate as Barack Hussein Obama II born in Oahu Honolulu Hawii at 7:24pm August 4, 1961. In the process, I discovered that John McCain’s citizenship eligibility was in question until corrected by an act of Congress. Here’s my comment from Domestic Psychology:
What’s funnier is that we had to pass legislation to make McCain eligible.
McCain was born in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone while his father was stationed there as a naval officer. In 1787, however, the framers insisted that any president be natural born — that is, born within the United States. … absent a constitutional amendment, the question remains whether McCain can claim natural-born status. [Source, JONATHAN TURLEY, Legislation Introduced to Remove McCain’s Panama Problem in Seeking Presidency]
See also The New York Times. It took an act of Congress to make John McCain a natural born citizen. See 110th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 511 agreed on April 10, 2008.
To make it funnier, I told Cathy that if McCain/Petraeus take the White House, I’d move to Panama. Now I have to reconsider that!
The family running your country OR extras from The Dark Knight?
Today is the deadline to sign the Kucinich petition to impeach GW Bush based on these articles.
Other than impeachment, censure is an option. Of course, with so little time left in the GW Presidency, what’s the point? Perhaps it prevents him from declaring martial law and stopping the elections in November? See President GW Bush 2004-indefinitely.
Who said it?
As seen on Puerilis:
God Save the Queen!
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).
Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.
A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
(You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary.)
- Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
- The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as “colour”, “favour”, “labour” and “neighbour.” Likewise, you will learn to spell “doughnut” without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise’. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up “vocabulary“).
- Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let M*crosoft know on your behalf. The M*crosoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter “u” and the elimination of -ize.
- July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
- You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.
- Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
- All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables.
- Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
- The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
- You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
- The co ld tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
- Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.
- You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). Don’t try rugby – the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us.
- Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyondyour borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
- You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.
- An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
- Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.
God Save the Queen!
I wonder if we could talk Christian Payne (@documentally) into recording a reading of this. I tried but it was God awful! Now, give me some Jeff Foxworthy transcripts and I’ll do just fine!
