mtadkins

Well, I used to say that I was ambivalent about the two front runners for President, McCain and Obama. I had an unexplained level of respect for McCain, perhaps just from an understanding of his personal sacrifices as a soldier and his years of public service. And it helped that he didn’t seem to be a complete jackass, overtly corrupt, or a getting-rich-on-others’-suffering crony of Bush, Cheney, Halliburton, Blackwater, et al (…must…stop…).

But after 6 months of speeches ( McCain vs Obama ) and talking points and interviews and bullshit via proxy…I’m convinced that McCain is just not the man for the job. I want someone who can drive the bus and dictate the policy and the direction of his party (which is a vibe I get from Obama…he’s calling the shots. Both Clintons and even Reagan had it as well) and not someone who’ll cater to the lowest element of his party (Hello, racists homophobes!).

I won’t go as far as saying that he’s a dimwit, like Jack Cafferty has…but McCain is reminding me too much of Bush: a doofus figurehead for much smarter con party men.

 

I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin’s eyes and see into his soul.

George Bush’s record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself.

He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens’ faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.

 

I guess I’ll side with the elitists on this one…

And, if that was too subtle, here’s a hey-at-least-it’s-factually-based hatchet job on McCain:

Ack. Just saw over on Pajiba that FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS was probably wrapping up for good.

I’ve only lately come around to watching this show and slowly, ever so slowly, it got to me. Sure, some of the dim-witted-ness seems forced and can get repetitive, but hey…it’s also pretty damn funny about 75% of the time.

Ok, well…I really only brought it up as an excuse to link to:

“If You’re Into It” from episode 5

Where does all of the good TV go? Soon I’ll be reduced to playing THE SOUP on a continuous loop (i.e. watching E!)

…thank you…
 

(and thank you, Boing Boing )

John Schwenkler created neat WORDLE illustrations (I’ve been playing with it as well…here’s Vladimir Nabakov’s PNIN ) using the text from the candidates’ websites :

’nuff said.
 

Well, from AMAZON.com, that is…

I was playing around with the new Universal Wish List button that Amazon has added to their site (brilliant idea, natch) and pruning items from my Wish List that I had or no longer wanted, when I realized that I had some items listed there that were older than my kids. Some of these wishes were obviously from a time when I had (much) more free time to laze about reading Wittgenstein 😉

So, here is the Oldest Item On My Wishlist, added on Nov, 4 1999 :

I’ve always been fascinated by quantum physics and found Bohm to be especially enlightening and enjoyable to read. I found my way to him through his dialogues with Krishnamurti, who I respect greatly. It is one of my many disappointments that for several years I lived mere hours from the Krishnamurti retreat in Ojai, yet never visited. Perhaps another day…

Here’s a clip of the K man:

Krishnamurti on Channel 4 TV (1) – 1984

EDIT: Here’s the link to part 2 of the interview…