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October 31, 2006
Chickens for KFC
My friend Tanya sent me this (and the post title) from today's Hotline:
Philadelphia Daily News and Washington Observer-Reporter endorsed Casey (release, 10/31). Meanwhile ex-Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) "formally kicked off Democrats for Santorum" (release, 10/31).
If anyone knows a Democrat who's supporting Santorum, please tell me - I've never seen a Unicorn either. That's the best joke I can come up with - Tanya already came up with the best one.
Posted by MikeSager at 1:27 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
E-Voting or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Technology
Say the right things when electioneering. I trust I can rely on your vote
As Democrats, we are usually the party of science, technology, and forward-thinking. Look at Stem Cells, Global Warming, Alternate Energy, and The Solid Flavor Injector. And yet the moment we begin discussing e-voting, people start grabbing pitchforks and torches (for my British reader, I'm referring to the burning kind not the battery kind).
Let's take a step back, and look at why people are so distrusting of electronic voting. First of all, people seem to object to any form of e-voting - not just machines made by Diebold. So I'm not going to talk about the creepy factor of Diebold's CEO being a big Republican donor - people would still be distrustful regardless. Instead we'll look at the technology itself, and what makes people uncomfortable. I'm also going to address how our penchant to vilify the infrastructure does a major disservice to our electoral process as a whole, as well as our turnout as Democrats.
I must warn you now that this post is going to get both geeky and wonkish at points, so please brace yourself.
There are two major complaints about e-voting - data integrity (hack-ability) and the absence of a paper trail. Yes these are computers which contain software which can be abused by people with dishonest intentions - but so are optical scan tabulators or just about any other electronic device. At least at the places I've gone to vote, you're not completely behind a curtain but rather a privacy divider. This difference means that no matter how much you want to, opening up a voting machine to load malicious software & then rebooting it will not be possible without arousing some suspicion from the poll workers. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I don't feel that it's any easier than stuffing the ballot box by more traditional methods.
Secondly, there is the absence of a paper trail. This irks me more - I feel that the system could print each vote onto a tape so that you can ensure the electronic tally matches the day's printout. One proposed method that would allay everyone's fears would be the electronic machine both tabulates AND prints out an optical scan ballot that the voter would verify and then run through an optical tabulator and be collected in case of recount. This has 3 fail-safes in it - and there'd never be any question about the integrity of the data.
But even with the ideal not being there, I still feel that a computerized voting machine is no more susceptible to failure than any of the previous hardware. Furthermore, speaking as someone who has worked on a recount involving a heavy number of optical scan machines, I have greater confidence in the computerized machines than the optical scanners that have the slightest bit of trouble if a person marks their ballot wrong. And the reliance on a hand recount is foolhardy - when we did the AG recount last year, all we got to recount was the Tabulator's tapes, not the ballots themselves. I'll take my chances that the computerized machines get it right the first time.
There have been some recent news blurbs about machines displaying the wrong voter - this piece from the Miami Herald goes into this in detail. There is a very simple reason for this - the touchscreen was not correctly calibrated. Not the software was overriding the voter's preference. Occam's Razor people! There's a reason it's my license plate.
It is good to be vigilant about our Democratic process, and the infrastructure involved. It is bad to make people that "the fix is in", and no matter what they do the evil voting machine will override their vote. If you thought your vote wasn't going to be recorded correctly, why would you bother to show up? Our party has continually scape-goated the infrastructure instead of addressing the real issues why we've lost elections. And this demonizing of the process stifles our own turnout - and it's a self-defeating circle. We don't vote because the machines will make us lose anyways - see we didnt' vote and we lost - therefore it must be the machines. There are many far more insidious ways to suppress votes than rigging the machines - challenges, not enough machines, disinformation. We've seen it happen all over the country, especially in heavily African American areas - if we add "And the machine is rigged anyways" into the mix, why would they bother to show up? Why would anyone bother to show up?
There are plenty of things we can do to win elections. Focusing on the infrastructure isn't one of them.
Posted by MikeSager at 12:30 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 30, 2006
When We Arrive...
When we arrive, sons and daughter. We’ll make our homes, on the water. We’ll build our walls of aluminum. We’ll fill our mouths with cinnamon.
Recently many people – friends, acquaintances, sworn enemies – have been asking for my opinion on what’s going to happen next week in the general.
Well – I’m not going to try to predict. Admittedly there are a small handful of people with whom I’ve confided my forecast, but I have not made this public for a very specific reason – I will very likely be wrong. Nobody likes to be proven wrong. Throw into the mix my hard-and-fast rule of not being critical of campaigns that I have involvement with, and you have a recipe for shutting up.
Every time anyone asks, my response has been “I am cautiously optimistic.” What does that mean? That’s a very diplomatic way of saying “I don’t have a fuckin’ idea but I think things might have a possibility of going well.” So I have decided that if anyone asks me what I think about the election within the next seven days, I’m going to answer with something completely ridiculous. Such as “In an upset, Eugene V. Debs will win Richard Pombo’s seat through a clever campaign ad involving Eels.”
The problem with optimism is it tends to spiral into full-fledge hope. When someone wants something badly enough, giving a person even the tiniest strand upon which to grasp can sustain that hope and optimism. That strand can fuel a lot of thought, a lot of action. We have always acted upon hope, trying to make tomorrow better – either for ourselves or for the world around us. No matter what happens in 7 days, we’ll still have hope. If everything else is taken away – we’ll still cling on.
Hear all the bombs, they fade away.
Posted by MikeSager at 10:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 29, 2006
Lucy and the Football
From today's Post:
I would just like to point out that I made this metaphor on October 12th (which was a pretty lousy day for me for a couple of reasons). Glad I'm not the only one who feels this way...
Posted by MikeSager at 11:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 27, 2006
Whoops
When we last left off, I was accusing my side overreacting. Well - I was wrong. Apparently the Playboy ad didn't exist in a vacuum. They were also running a radio ad that had - wait for it - JUNGLE DRUMS in the background every time they talked about Ford, and angelic music when talking about Corker. Jungle Drums. My friend Alec who pointed this out to me confirmed that I am, in fact, an out of touch Northeastern Tweed Jacketed Liberal - so of course I would've have picked up on the the nuances of the Playboy ad. Here's the link to TPM, which has more about the ad. Whoops.
Euch - now I feel like I need another shower.
Posted by MikeSager at 5:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Politics of Race
The recent flap over the RNC's ad against Harold Ford hasn't been sitting well with me. This puts me in a position I absolutely hate - having to (almost) defend Republicans - euch. The controversy specifically relates to the blond "Playboy Party" girl - how she asks Harold to call her and gives a wink. It seemed like a good ol' fashioned political hit ad that was admittedly slightly amusing (which is the most insidious kind because it gets in your head with realizing it). Then the accusations of racism started flying. At first I couldn't understand why. And then I found out why people were making a big deal - because Harold is African American and the woman is White.
Perhaps I'm "naive". Perhaps I'm living in a "tweed jacket liberal-fantasy land". Maybe I need to "leave the beltway" more often. But...
What the hell is racist about a chick telling some dude to call her?
I mean, honestly, are there more than a tiny handful of idiots out there who still get worked up over this? I thought they were all focusing their hatred on the gay community now!
Harold Ford has the RNC running scared. He's taken a seat that should've been an easy lock for the Repubs, and is about to flip it. He's run a fantastic campaign while employing some absolutely fantastic talent. He's substantially more conservative than I would personally like, but he seems like a great fit for Tennessee. He's smart, he's religious, and according the "Quorum of Ladies" with whom I hang out, he's quite..."hot".
There has been some real bigotry this election cycle from the Republicans - George "Macaca" Allen's tendency to hang around with White Supremacists is a pretty clear example. I don't know if the RNC meant for this ad to have any racial overtones - it seemed to me like they were trying to reinforce the party-boy image. Racism does still exist out there, and people do still play on those fears - but this didn't strike me that way. But like I said, maybe I'm naive.
Euch - I actually somewhat defended the opposition. I'm going to go take a shower now.
Posted by MikeSager at 9:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 25, 2006
13 Days, Hodgmania, What Do New Yorkers Have Against WaPo?
There's 13 days until the General Election. My stomach has been residing somewhere up around my throat for the last two weeks, and I suspect it's only going to get worse. As much as I've made every effort possible to insulate myself from a bad outcome, I can still feel that I do have some emotional investment going in - the exact thing I wanted to avoid.
I have always been someone who's thrown themselves emotionally into their work - often as an outlet for other frustrations and disappointments of the more personal variety. And once again I find myself avoiding my personal disappointments as of late by charging harder and harder into work and school.
I'm going to do what I can to maintain this personal detachment I worked so hard to build up for the last year. I cannot allow this referendum on the state of our country become a referendum on my personal life like it was last time. But much like you write a concession speech so as to not tempt fate, I believe I will buy that bottle of Whiskey to make sure that I don't need it . Plus I'm having a party that weekend, so I know it'll get used one way or another. At least I know that I won't have to be the last one to lock the doors of the campaign office this time.
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John Hodgman made a return to DC last night, and read from his book The Areas of My Expertise. A Hodgman reading is always fantastic - perhaps one of the funniest book talks anyone can attend. Last time he came through, the event was also at the Warehouse Theater - but it was in the upstairs screening room instead of the actual theater space. Therefore, there was a lot more room and I actually go to sit!
The show itself was very similar to the first one, although it did feel slightly more abridged. Last time it was a little more personal - the tight space and bottle of Whiskey that was passed around ensured it. But Hodgman was, as always, spot on and hilarious. After the show he signed copies of the book, including one for my friend I went with - he'd already signed my copy which was at home. We briefly discussed a couple of mutual acquaintances in the world of professional comedy and on the Daily Show staff, as well as the state of politics right now. If you see the word John Hodgman, go check it out.
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One of the presenters...maybe openers is better...for John at the event was David Rees, the ultra-left cartoonist who's well beyond me. Rees was overall fairly funny (though he had one fairly offensive joke that fell really flat), but his best moment was when he was making fun of the Washington Post. Here's the thing - what do New Yorkers have against the Post exactly?
Sure - I love the New York Times. If I subscribed to two newspapers, the second one would be the New York Times. But I only subscribe to one and that's Wapo. There's something very pleasurable about having a newspaper waiting at your door every morning, as well as being able to hold it in your hands as you read it on the train.
Back to what I was saying. New Yorkers seem to have this inferiority complex where they do nothing but insult the Post at every opportunity. What's the matter? So they scooped you on Watergate! So they have Bob Woodward and Fareed Zakaria while you have Judith Miller! Get over it - both papers are fantastic news sources, and it's time you stop harassing the Post.
Oh - and the Yankees suck.
Posted by MikeSager at 5:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 23, 2006
Ghosts of Elections Past, Ghosts of Employments Past, Ghosts of Chickens Past
There's been a mini-reunion of my Kerry compatriots from Orlando up at the Whitehouse campaign in Rhode Island. Since our RFD from Florida is a high level up there, he's recruited everyone to come up (he even tried to get me to come do GOTV). We're now talking about getting the family back togethr sometime in December - that would be wonderful.
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Today I got a phonecall from a production company I did 2 gigs for 2 years ago. They were asking me if I was available to light an event at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. I explained that I was out of the game, and gave them the contact info for a buddy of mine. But it was still nice that people liked my work enough years ago to think of me this far removed.
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Threadless is having a sale. For the price of one Urban Outfitter's t-shirt, I just ordered 3. The best one of the lot...
Posted by MikeSager at 7:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 19, 2006
The Realities of Iraq
When I opened up my laptop this morning to do my usual check of CNN, I found a link to this report showing sniper attacks on American soldiers in Iraq. This is one of the most gut-wrenching, disturbing, and necessary pieces of reporting I have ever seen. It is absolutely horrific to watch the kids my age being murdered for a unclear cause that was built on a lie.
We cannot win in Iraq. Everyday our presence pours gasoline onto the fire. Mr. Bush's bloodlust has resulted in nothing but senseless death. It is time for us to go - there will be a full fledged civil war there no matter what we do. And then there will be an extremist Islamic regime. Hussein may have been a genocidal dictator, but he was no threat to us. He had been declawed. He was secular, and just as despised by the religious extremeists as we are. And now, we've lost almost 3000 of our people - for what? We invaded one country that did not have WMD, and now there are two countries with nuclear weapons and a madman at the trigger!
It's time for us to come home - we have lost this war and there is nothing we can do to change that. We have destroyed our internation credibility, we have created a blood bath, and we have given up the lives of our brothers and sisters for no reason at all.
Such a waste.
Posted by MikeSager at 5:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 18, 2006
Up Yours Strindberg!
Sometime in the next year or so, I fully intend to get a dog. I had previously planned on naming him "Vonnegut". I have changed my mind. I will now name my dog "Strindberg". Why?
"I always disliked dogs, those protectors of cowards who lack the courage to fight an assailant themselves." -August Strindberg
It will be just one more thing making this dead writer miserable.
Checkout Strindberg and Helium
Posted by MikeSager at 10:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Photo of the Day?
Last night my friend Sandy and I were discussing many things over a pitcher at Lucky Bar, as football matches (the European kind) played on all the tellys. I talked about my little weekend photo safari, and how I'm planning one with Hobo sometime in the near future. Sandy was talking about maybe posting one picture everyday for the next year - 365 photos that capture a very brief moment in time. Well, this is me beating her to it. I'm not sure if I will post it on my blog, but it will certainly be in Flickr (provided that I can keep up with this).
Here's to immortalizing life's mundane moments!
Posted by MikeSager at 7:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 15, 2006
I Get The Picture
I'm going to attempt to do a regular entry consisting mainly of photos, and perhaps an anecdote or two to go with it. I suppose this is my effort to photoblog.
I really liked the composition of the shot, but I inadvertently hit my camera off of Program (yes yes, I use Program) on TV - which made for shake-y vision.
The Waffle Shop near Ford's Theatre. Yes, I went to Tourist Town.
From Shops to Baseball...
The Roosevelt Bridge
Teddy!
And of course, what set of pictures I take could be complete without a Metro shot.
Posted by MikeSager at 7:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 12, 2006
Bellweathers
For those of you who've read any of my past posts, you know that I was very optimistic leading into the 2004 Elections. I was on the ground. I could FEEL that we were going to win. Well...yeah...we all know how THAT turned out. This year, I have built up a cynical outer shell of pure pessimism. (WARNING: MIXED METAPHOR AHEAD!) I have maintained my quintessential membership in Red Sox nation - utterly convinced that we're going to lose until it appears in reach, only to have Lucy pull the Football away at the last second! (End Mixed Metaphor).
Being that I live in the world of Campaign Finance, I've decided that my bellweathers this year would be... Republican Fundraising. July to Present has seen Death, Sex, and of course Macaca. The numbers come out this weekend, though we probably won't see anything from the Senate until Monday or Tuesday. But my point is this - if the Republican's fundraising has not seen any major move in either direction, we're screwed. Otherwise, are they dumping money trying to retain seats or cutting off candidates because they don't think they can win anymore?
Who am I looking at? Senate Side - Allen, Dewine, Corker, and Chaffee. House Side - Shays, Drake, and (Count) Chocola. I will take a look at their respective numbers when they become available, and from that we can get a good idea of where we're going.
One thing this cycle is for sure - the Conservative base is going to be a lot harder to get out to the polls this time, and even the wedge issues of ignorance won't be the same driving force it was before.
Certainly there are some fantastic looking pickup opportunities out there. I have a lot of friends who are very seasoned professional who are quite optimistic about their respective races. I'm optimistic enough to think that we're not going to have a net loss of seats this time - there isn't a Texas jerrymander. And while I can compartmentalize enough to say that "Oh - we'll win this seat, and this one too!" I won't allow myself to think there might be a big picture change about to happen. That's what I did in 2004, and when we lost it was absolutely devestating. For one thing, I can't afford the bender I went on last time.
I am hoping for the best, but I've learned enough to prepare myself for the worst.
Posted by MikeSager at 8:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 11, 2006
Richmond is Taking Us for a Ride
I am going to talk about 2 different transportation issues in this post. First I open with a picture I took of the George Washington statue near the Virginia Capitol.
George is facing to the South, riding on his horse. At this point, I’m going to offer 3 different jokes before I continue.
1 - And yet this statue is not the largest Horses’s Ass in Richmond.
2 – This horse was the last transportation idea that Richmond accepted for us up North.
3 – As George’s transportation goes South, so does all of our money.
Anyways. Northern Virginia is the wealthiest part of this state. We send a lot of money down to Richmond. We even offered to levy a small tax upon ourselves in order to pay for things that we desperately need – like road improvements, and mass transit! No cost to the rest of the state! And what do these anti-tax Grover Norquist jackass Republican legislators from other part of the state do? They say they won’t let us raise taxes so that we can build more roads because of some bullshit principle! Governor Kaine keeps calling them back, and they keep on being obstructionist to real progress. The State Senate is on our side! Everyone in Virginia is on our side – except for these ideological morons in the House of Delegates!
The next time you’re sitting in traffic in the Washington area, think about House Speaker William J. Howell, a Stafford Republican. And then think about how if we keep sending Republicans to the State House, Howell will remain the speaker.
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I’m rather surprised I said nothing about the Tysons tunnel/el issue. As a policy wonk (see above) as well as a train nerd (please see posts regarding the differences between the Alstrom 6000 Series Metro Cars and the CAF 5000 Series Cars) it’s amazing that I failed to chime in. Well – now that it’s been pretty much decided, I open my mouth! Nothing quite like being fashionably late.
It is absolutely stupid that the state was backed into the corner on the tunnel issue. The Tysons tunnel would’ve paid many long term dividends, and contributed to a well developed corridor. The el isn’t as bad as some are making it out to be – checkout the Loop in Chicago or the BART in San Francisco.
I read Zack Schrag’s Book “The Great Society Subway” which is a history of the Metro. And yes he’s a Professor at Mason (and I hope to take his history of DC class at some point) . Anyways, Schrag points out in the book that the goal of Metro's designer wasn't to lowbid everything - they wanted to do it right.
And yet, even with the potential for outside money for the tunnel that reduces the overall taxpayers costs of the project, because the price tag rises it all of a sudden it doesn't meet some kind of arbitrary "cost effectiveness" metric. But this metric is flawed - it doesn't account for the differences in potential economic development, nor does it consider costs over time.
Governor Kaine was faced with a very difficult choice - try to build it right and risk have it not be built at all, or have build it flawed but guarantee it will be built. While it is the wrong decision for Tysons corner, it was the right decision for Governor Kaine - for far too long the Dulles corridor has been choking on the products of its own success. The Governor understands that the Silver Line must be built.
That said - it's not like this isn't still rapid transit. The Metro coming through Tysons and Reston will still be a major boon to the area. It will pull thousands of cars off the road and will still contribute to Tysons being a walkable downtown. Take a look at the Silver Spring stop on the Red Line.
In this case, a flawed approach is better than no approach at all.
Posted by MikeSager at 3:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 10, 2006
The False Promises of Campaign Finance Reform
A frequent refrain of many people is “get the money out of politics”. On the surface, this seems like a great idea – people will govern with only the best interests of the people in mind. There is an unfortunate reality that bites this bit of naivety right in the ass.
Coming up this weekend we will see the latest finance reports from most campaigns in the country – all federal filers and many state filers. And all one has to do is read the Disbursement Schedule on ANY competitive campaign’s report to see one absolute truth – running for office costs a LOT of money. You have to hire staff, pay for mail, pay for TV, pay for little pieces of literature, pay for yard signs (which if you looked at the way people get crazy over yard signs you’d think that each yard sign equals an additional vote), pay for legal teams, pay for consultants – it’s like setting up a major business with the sole purpose of going completely broke by a specific deadline.
I once ran a campaign on next to no money – it was not a pleasant experience. When I tell my friends that I wrote strategy for a campaign that got 40% on $63000, they are outright shocked. Do we pay for signs or lit? Do we buy a couple of drive time radio spots, or a lot of non-peak air? In which newspapers do we buy ads? And yet it was a combination of a bit of earned media, heavy ethnic targeting, and trying to ride the coattails of a Presidential campaign (with the associated turnout) and we managed to get 40%. But 40% is not 50% + 1 vote, which is what we actually needed to win. To get there – you need the cash.
The fact that elections cost money will not change. TV time costs money – if some were provided for free, both sides would try to buy more. Literature costs money – ink, paper, labor. There is nothing for free. Should it be the job of the government to pay for these campaigns? I don’t think so – I think my money should be going to schools and roads, not political campaigns. So where is this money going to come from?
Furthermore, the more we limit the amount of money a campaign can raise – the more we make it so only the wealthy can afford to run for office. In 2004 Democrat Melissa Bean defeated incumbent Philip Crane 52% to 48% - 9000 votes. In order to do this, Bean had to raise $1578192.99 according to her Post General Report from 2004. An extreme example from last cycle is the Frost/Sessions race – Frost raised $4630761.91 and LOST to Pete Sessions who raised $4343194.97!!
If we remove the ability for candidates to raise real sums of money, who will be able to afford to run? Only the wealthiest amongst us can afford this – and that’s not representative of the interests of the majority of people in this country.
The costs will not disappear, so why are we limiting our fundraising? This hurts us as Democrats more than it hurts the Republicans – the rich are a lot more likely to have rich friends than those of us who have to work for a living. The wealthiest in this country vote disproportionally for conservative candidates – that way they get their tax cuts and can protect their billion dollar oil profits. But it’s not the wealthiest who swing these elections – it’s what I would call the “middle millionaires”. The young tech gurus/stock market mavens/hotel heiresses who made a bit of money in business, but still hold progressive views on the world. Why not relax the caps but increase the regulation? Require all groups to publish their fundraising sources! Make the senate file electronically! And for us, let the mid-size donors max out a little bit higher – they’re on our side!
Money in politics will never go away – the best we can do to ensure our interests are being best represented is to shine a giant flashlight onto the process. If we attempt to eliminate money from politics, human nature dictates it won’t go away – it’ll just be unchecked and unregulated.
For more information:
FEC Website
Posted by MikeSager at 7:45 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Sigur Ros
My coworker & officemate Jeff just described Icelandic art-rock band Sigur Ros as a "mournful cat singing a dirge". He has a point.
Posted by MikeSager at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 7, 2006
Fire Alarms
The fire alarm went off in my building tonight. Being my grandfather's son (Olev Ha'Shalom), I immediately grabbed my bag and headed out the door and down 14 flights of stairs.
The fire department showed up with two trucks, which I found somewhat surprising. I would've figured a full battalion call since this was a high rise, and apparently there was some smoke (which I smelled on my way down while on the third floor - let's just say it smelled illicit).
After the fire department gave the all clear, I made it a point to thank every firefighter I saw. I live less than a mile from the Pentagon - the people who showed up at my building were probably the same ones who responded to 9/11. I will always thank every firefighter I see.
Posted by MikeSager at 11:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 5, 2006
Staring Hate in the Face
As I walked to my American Presidency class (taught by noted conservative and fantastic Professor Richard Norton Smith (don't say I can't get along with any conservatives!)), I walked by a group of protestors on the central walk at Mason. Right there, outside the Johnson Center, hate was staring my in my face. This wasn't the loud hate of a Neo Nazi march that was all bark and no bite. This was a much more insidious form. Students, people my own age and younger, who have grown up in the modern era, holding signs with one stated goal - that two people in love with each other can't marry if they don't meet certain criteria.
It is SHAMEFUL for those who stand against gay marriage. It is a disgusting comment on our society that we're still attempting to exclude certain people for some sort of sense of "moral superiority". Bullshit! This ballot proposition, a shameful pandering bit of neo-Jim Crowism, has only one goal - to deny a basic human right to a group of humans. Who are you people to judge what love is? Who made you the arbiters of acceptable social contracts. Marriage allows for joint property, hospital visitation, health insurance benefits, custody arrangements, and many other social institutions us heterosexuals take for granted. How would you feel if one of your parents wasn't allowed to visit the other in hospital as they laid dying?
And if I hear ONE more thing about G-d or Jesus or whatever as an excuse for homophobia and hatred, I am going to slap that person across the face. I will personally turn your other cheek. Doesn't it say somewhere in that 2000 year old book you're so obsessed with something about "loving thy neighbor"? I'll give you a hint asshole, denying people basic human rights isn't very loving. And that whole thing about judge not lest ye be judged? Have you people actually read this thing your extolling? Hell - it's more violent than Scarface...and I walked out of Scarface! Even Kill Bill can't compare! Don't you people get all pissed off over cartoon violence? Oh wait - maybe that's the other group of psychotic fundamentalist nutjobs.
Oh and new rule - these people are no longer to be referred to as "the religious right". These people are NOT religious, and they are NOT right! I have LOTS of friends who are VERY religious, and they have NOTHING in common with these Ultraconservative Fundamentalists.
On November 7th, Vote No Virginia!
For more info - check out:
The Commonwealth Coalition
The Human Rights Campaign
Posted by MikeSager at 10:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
The End of Another Season, The Middle of Nowhere, My Band Luck Continues, Bowling
And once again the season ends - especially early for me since neither one of my teams made it to the postseason. The Sox imploded under the weight of horrendous luck and injury, and the Nationals...well...just sucked. But at least we had Zimmerman and Soriano to make it interesting. Hopefully next year, Sori will be back, Zim will maintain, and Patterson will be healthy. That right there could make all the difference. Combined with an improving bullpen, and we might be able to be competetive.
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I went to a wedding this weekend out in Nellysford Virginia. It's somewhere slightly past bumblefuck. Anyways, it was at a nice little bed & breakfast. The most amusing part - sleeping in horse stalls. I mean, they had beds in them... and doors. But they were horse stalls. Would I choose it myself? Nay...
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Also this weekend, I checked out a band at the Black Cat that I was e-mailing with about joining. Well, there was a bit of a post-show tiff between some members, and now it doesn't look like the group is going to be around. And thus my streak of not being in a band continues...
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Last night we went bowling after Happy Hour at Lucky Strike to celebrate Ellen's Birthday. The first part of the first frame, I rolled a Gutter Ball. This of course seemed to indicate my complete ineptness at bowling was going to continue. Then something strange happened. On the next roll, I changed my technique slightly, and I got a spare - knocking all 10! Next frame? 9! Then 2 Strikes in a row! The rest of the night I rolled 6s and 7s, but still - I'm amazed that I found myself a groove! It's a sport that I suck less at!!!
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