Oct 31, 2008

Boo! Halloween 2008

2008 PumpkinA warm and dry Halloween evening, but only 35 kids came to the door. So much chocolate to throw away now... Not! Chris carved this year's pumpkin while I was roasting the seeds (they were delicious). I like his design and the extra carving he did on the back. Click on here to see the back side. You can't see it in this photo, but the nose is "3D".

I've been following the American elections pretty closely. Looks like Barack Obama is going to lead a Democratic tidal wave on Tuesday. Its been interesting, and satisfying, to watch the Republican campaigns collapse. I guess eight years of George W. Bush will do that. The down side is that I've been following some election web sites a bit obsessively, particularly FiveThirtyEight.com. FiveThirtyEight (the number of electoral votes) is an excellent poll analysis site run by a Democrat nerd. Tonnes of detail and quite objective about the polls. Some good "on the ground" reporting too.

I've been drawn into some extended debates with rabid neo-conservative bloggers too, which has been a real time sink. I just can't let the idiotic lies go unchallenged when I stumble across them. Obama is not a baby-eating foreign-born socialist Muslim planning on instituting a communist dictatorship as soon as he's in office! The absurd length of the Presidential elections gives people plenty of time to get wound up. Funny how Canadians can take the American election more seriously than their own.

Listening to: Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears from Songs From the Big Chair.

4 comments:

  1. "I just can't let the idiotic lies go unchallenged when I stumble across them. Obama is not a baby-eating foreign-born socialist Muslim planning on instituting a communist dictatorship as soon as he's in office"...

    Remember this is coming from a Canadian LIBTARD who thought a movie about a couple of queer sheep shagers pandering to their inner perv worth watching...

    To bad this silly son of a stump refuses to take part in reality...

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  2. Boy, that's a great way to bring a conversation to a stop... I presume that you're making a particularly homophobic reference to Brokeback Mountain.

    Your "reality" YouTube link is to a well-known criticism by Barack Obama of how civil rights activists have focused on using the courts to try to effect change. Obama's point is that the courts are ultimately a poor way to do it, but this edited and annotated version tries to falsely frame it as showing that Obama thinks the courts weren't radical enough.

    The "redistribution of wealth" thing is certainly worth debating as there are legitimate points to be made on both sides of the issue, but I have yet to see any honest or objective arguments advanced by "the right".

    Good luck with your personal issues.

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  3. "I presume that you're making a particularly homophobic reference to Brokeback Mountain"...

    Hmmm, so you buy into 'pandering to the perv' bit, eh?

    How so politically correct of you...

    "Obama's point is that the courts are ultimately a poor way to do it"...

    ROFLMAO!

    Really?

    Maybe you might want to explain the following then: Shakedown of CitiBank...

    "The "redistribution of wealth" thing is certainly worth debating as there are legitimate points to be made on both sides of the issue"...

    So you think there is some supposed upside to stealing someone else's money?!?!

    Educate yourself: Not yours to give by Walter Williams...

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  4. "Hmmm, so you buy into 'pandering to the perv' bit, eh?": Brokeback Mountain was as much about homophobes like yourself as it was about the main character's dysfunctional and tragic relationship.

    "Shakedown of CitiBank": the pdf of court actions in the lawsuit you link to simply shows that Citibank settled. This simply means a) they were going to lose or b) settling was cheaper than "winning". Or maybe you're exposing the fact that Obama is... A LAWYER! Quick, fetch the cloves of garlic! Even lawyers know that the courts are often not the best way to achieve justice.

    "So you think there is some supposed upside to stealing someone else's money?!?!": Well I'll have to "?!?!" right back at you. 'Redistribution of wealth' generally revolves around issues of taxation, wages, and public services. Calling it stealing is kind of a "low-information" starting point. Worthwhile or not, it is an exchange.

    Finally, Walter E. Williams is guest host on the Rush Limbaugh show! Are you suggesting, with a straight face, that I should turn to him for guidance? Perhaps he's useful if I want to see what the current neo-con "talking points" are, but not for analysis or "education."

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