Stray Hawkeye

AHHHHHHH.  And if you look at the date on the post, it’s not even a costume.

I’ve had this song stuck in my head for a few days and still really like it.  Plus, it adds to the Halloween mood.

The video is kind of meh, but in all fairness, I hate about 95% of music videos and think they usually make the song worse.  This one at least stays about neutral.

With the major party logos being a donkey and an elephant, I would hate to think of what that would smell like.  But puns aside, a random listing of interesting political bits:

• Interesting map/chart (and analysis) of which newspapers have endorsed which candidates for President.
• Third grade civics lesson.  Frighteningly accurate.  Though I disagree with the last sentence.  The other half of the class just wants McCain to beat up all the bullies (and potential bullies, and imagined potential bullies, and…) who could potentially threaten their ice cream supply.  It’s only the fringe 3rd party crazies that would dare to ask questions like how to pay for the ice cream and actually expect a clear, detailed, specific answer (I’ll use a scalpel, I’m not saying what I’ll scalpel, in any detail whatsoever, but I assure you it will be scalpeled!), or suggest that beating up supposed bullies might, in fact, create more bullies.
• So, aside from the fact of how profoundly and absolutely pointless and non-binding political party platforms are (that could be a good rant for later), the national Republican party has adopted the most socially conservative (aka- Religious Right) platform in the party’s history.  Aside from the usual stomach turning items, (okay, so I mostly support school vouchers, though for wholly different reasons), there’s this item: “To protect our servicemen and women and ensure that America’s Armed Forces remain the best in the world, we affirm the timelessness of those values, the benefits of traditional military culture, and the incompatibility of homosexuality with military service.”  Aside from the awkward phrasing that’s so typical of party platforms (aka- a sentence written by a committee, and then amended by majority vote), this actually makes for a nice backdoor (excuse the extremely crude pun which will become obscurely apparent shortly).  So, if McCain were to win, when (not if, when) he starts a war with another country (Iran, Russia, Syria, Pakistan, North Korea, Palestine, Egypt, or mystery Evil), and we don’t have enough troops because we’re already massively overextended in un-Constitutional troop deployments, and he’s forced to enact a draft, you don’t even have to resort to being a conscientious objector (who, by the way, still have to serve, just in non-combat roles) or going to Canada – you can just say you’re gay, and poof – out of the military (Hey there sailor…).  I don’t know about you, but given the option of fighting in an unjust preemptive war against a yet to be determined artificially hyped up enemy on basis of falsified intelligence, without a Congressional declaration of war, further bankrupting the country and degrading our already nearly mortally wounded international reputation, or, on the other hand, kissing another guy to the satisfaction of the government anti-gay department, I’m pretty sure I know what side I’m on.  Who would have thought the Republicans would find a way to encourage straight people to try out homosexuality?
• A good article on how policiy free the campaign has been, why, and puts things a bit in perspective.  The title of the article sums it up fairly well: An Election About Nothing.
• And given the huge degree to which individual freedoms have been eroded in the last 8 years, the degree to which the Bill of Rights has basically been implicitly repealed, you would think the candidates would be clamoring to assure us that they will undo this grevious wrong of the Bush administration, one of the most unpopular EVER.  Nope.  “You will scour the presidential nominees’ acceptance speeches in vain for any hint that your life is rightfully your own, to be lived in accordance with your beliefs and desires and no one else’s. The Founding Fathers set out to protect ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’… “
• Obama on religion:
  
  I must say, I don’t agree with him on a lot of fiscal policy, but I respect the man.  This is one of the best and most intelligent takes on separation of church and state (intended or not) that I’ve heard in a long time.  The ending is particularly fitting given the current McCain/Palin campaign strategy.

These guys were at the RNC protests, and were every bit as entertaining in person, if not more so.  They lead chants of “Drill, Drill, Drill!”, “No you can’t!”, and “Four More Years!”.  My personal favorite sign is “Don’t change horsemen mid-Apocalypse”.

Another case of having the right amount of biting social commentary mixed with light hearted comedy to make a lasting impression.

They have a whole website of this stuff at lobbyistsformccain.com

Got this one in my email, thought I’d share.

A busload of politicians were driving down a country road when all of a sudden, the bus ran off the road and crashed into a tree in an old farmer’s field.  The old farmer, after seeing what had happened, went over to investigate.  He then proceeded to dig a hole to bury the politicians.  A few days later the local sheriff came out, saw the crashed bus, and asked the old farmer where all the politicians had gone. The old farmer said he had buried them.  The sheriff asked the old farmer, ‘Were they all dead?’  The old farmer replied, ‘Well, some of them said they weren’t, but you know how them bastards lie.’

I was a little disappointed it’s an ad, but still, way too good to not post.

Everyone’s usually aware of the Presidential, US Senate, and maybe US House candidates that will be on the ballot.  However, there’s also lots of other offices, proposals, State Constitutional Amendments, local property and/or sales tax changes,  judges, and such that people tend to less informed on.  These can have as much (if not more) of an effect on your day to day life as the big contests.

Democracy only works if you vote, and do so in at least a slightly informed manner.  I’d encourage you to look at both sides and weigh the arguments, even if you think you’re sure you know which side you’re on already, especially on local elections.  Both of the major parties are pretty big tent, and a local candidate who’s running as a Democrat or Republican might have wildly different views on a lot of issues than their more publicized national counterparts.

If you take a look at your ballot now (info on how to do that below), you’ll have some time to research the issues that are important to you, and where all the candidates stand. You can even make up a little cheat sheet for yourself on who you’re going to vote for.  It’s totally allowed.  I make one every time, and it really helps me to remember some of the more local candidates, or how to spell a write-in candidate’s name if that’s who seems most up to the job.

Take one night off from TV in the next week.  Research your candidates.  Look at the issues.  Then vote.

Some links on how to find out who/what is on the ballot where you live:

• If you live in Hennepin County in Minnesota (Minneapolis and western suburbs), you can see your actual ballot here.
• If you live in Ramsey County in Minnesota (St Paul and eastern suburbs), you can see your ballot here.
• The rest of Minnesota can also find their info in a slightly less polished format on the Secretary of State’s website.
• For everyone else, search for “Secretary of State” and the name of your state, you should be able to quickly find the Secretary of State’s website where you live.  They should have ballot and polling place info, though as always with the government, it may take some digging to find what you’re looking for.

So, I’ve bookmarked a lot of political stuff that will make more sense if I post it before the election.  In light of this, expect the next week or so of posting on here to be pretty politics heavy, with lots of links and somewhat less commentary.  I’ll return to my usual eclectic mix after the election, and hopefully intersperse a little humor here and there.  Just fair warning in case you hate politics.

So, perhaps I’ve been watching too much election coverage, but I was out running, and I had an old Simon and Garfunkel song stuck in my head (in particular, a punk cover of one of their songs), and a thought for some new lyrics occurred to me.

I would record this and mash it up and put it on YouTube, but as mentioned in previous posts, my audio visual editing skills are a bit lacking, and my singing skills are more lacking.  So, here is the original version of the song, with my lyrics below.  Sorry, I couldn’t find the punk version online, it’s by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.  Feel free to sing along.

Election day,
On a Tuesday in November,
I am a candidate,
Listed there with Biden, one of many Joes,
Plumber, Six-pack, Liberman, and Smoe,
I am Barack,
I am Obama.

I’ve campaigned,
Raised funds vast and mighty,
That none may match,
I have no need for Hilary, that chick is a pain,
It is inequality in wealth that I disdain,
I am Barack,
I am Obama.

I talk of Bush,
Tie McCain to what came before,
I’m headed for a landslide,
I’m turning southern states from red to blue,
If I had a few more weeks I get the rest too,
I am Barack,
I am Obama.

Don’t talk of pigs,
or the makeup they may wear,
I am taking down the GOP,
Beating them by lots, coat tails trail behind,
I’ll bring a Democratic congress in with me,
I am Barack,
I am Obama.

And Barack’s gonna win,
And McCain may well cry.

Do you have a porcelain sink?  Is said sink covered in little black marks from you pots, pans, and cookie trays?  Do you spend forever trying to scrub those stupid marks off?  I know I did, until today.  Yes, that’s right, there’s a wonderful product out there that makes cleaning those marks off a breeze!

Toothpaste.

Plain old toothpaste.  Okay, in my case it’s Crest Baking Soda Toothpaste, cause it makes my teeth feel so much cleaner.  It may even well be the baking soda that does it, but the toothpaste is even already in an nice paste spreadable form.  It doesn’t just work well at taking off the marks, it works TV infomercial, but wait there’s more, call now and we’ll double your order AND throw in a free pocket fisherman well.  And it’s even reasonably environmentally friendly compared to most cleaners.

Maybe it’s the cleaning product fumes from the rest of the cleaning I did today, but I was really excited to find this and see how well it works.

An odd bit of Zen, or something, on life goals- changing, degrading, growing, evolving, I’m not sure.

At a fairly large meeting last week at work, we had a speaker come in who is sort of a higher up in the overall chain of command.  Our company has an extremely large, confusing, fussy chain of command with a lot of “strategy groups” and such along the way, so I’m not sure exactly where this guy falls, except that he’s high enough to be considered worth flying in from the coast to be a guest speaker, but low enough he would come to a relatively small meeting(150 people in a company of 150,000), stay for the whole thing, and not be a keynote speaker.

That’s a bit irrelevant to the story, but it sets the stage.  He was part of a panel discussion.  To introduce themselves, each speaker had a single PowerPoint slide (which from the divergent styles, fonts, layouts, and approaches to content, it was apparent they each prepared their own).

His slide had all of this in bullet point form, but I think it’s worth recounting how he narrated it as well, as closely paraphrased as I can remember.

He was born on an Army base and described himself as an Army brat.  It was always his dream to fly fighter jets, specifically F-16′s.  He went on about this for a bit.  However, when he was ready to enter the Air Force Academy, his vision was not up to their standards (you can’t fly fighter jets in the Air Force if you wear glasses).  So, he decided that he would be a military officer.  I forget the exact name of the school, but there is apparently a hugely prestigious Air Force school that one goes to be become a really important Air Force guy.  Like, you have to interview with a US Senator and a few other equally impressive people just to apply to get in.  This application is a very long process.

(This part is a little fuzzy, it was late in the meeting, so I was fading in and out.)

During the application process, he met a girl, and applied to a regular college.  By time his application to the military school came back (he was accepted), he decided to stick with the girl (maybe wife by this point), and the college he was going to (a place you’ve probably heard of, but not Ivy League or anything).

There may have been a bullet point about children and joining our company here, but if there was it was rather quickly and generically covered.

His next big accomplishment on the list, and he was quite excited about this, was that he build a deck on his house.  They live on a golf course, and he spent the last year or so designing and building a deck for the back of his house, facing the golf course.

Now, he didn’t actually build it, like cutting the boards and hammering the nails (“But it looked fun!”).  He hired contractors who did the work, but he was very proud and still referred to it as himself building a deck, and was adamant that a very detailed sketch of it the deck in the lower corner of his slide was in fact his “back of a napkin” design for it, drawn in perspective, with measurements.

In fact, of the pictures on his slide, telling us who he was, two of the pictures were of the deck, one was of a jet, and I think the other was a generic family type picture.

It just struck me as odd how he went from wanting to fly fighter jets, to being on a panel discussion introducing his life by focusing on the deck he spent the last summer not actually building.

I suppose this happens to all of us to some degree.  We all wanted to be an astronaut/cowboy/princess/president/fire fighter when we were little.  Or, in my case, paleontologists (I was an odd kid).  Yet very few of us will end up being the first Space Presidential-Princess of all the Fire Fighting Cowboys.

It just struck me as odd for someone to present this shift is such a straightforward, yet, I’m guessing entirely unintended, manner.

Kris Kuksi has a fairly good variety of art up on his site, but I really like his Church Tanks:

link

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Also, a pretty flower:

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Just keep hitting play every time it gets to the end:

I know, simple pleasures.

I don’t claim to understand it at all, but I’m sort of fascinated:

Uniqlock

The video clips seem to change every few days.

Is it just me, or does the relief formed by Minnesota’s eastern boarder look a lot like an old man looking to the left of the picture and somewhat skyward?  Perhaps wearing a hat or head dress.