Not a whole lot of substance tonight either, just a lot of dodging questions and throwing jabs at each other. The two Vice-Presidential candidates came off as looking a whole heck of a lot better than their primaries.
He’s not getting the candidates to follow the rules they agreed to, but so far I think Tom Brokaw’s the one who’s ahead on points.
Monthly Archives: October 2008
Vote Naked!
Rather than tell you why their candidates are the best (or perhaps work to make sure their candidates really are the best), the political parties in Pennsylvania are more concerned about the clothes people will wear to the polls. Because after all, people’s clothing is more likely to influence your vote than anything the candidates have to say. (Then again, given how little of substance the candidates have had to say, the party leaders may have a point there…)
The solution is simple: Show up at the polls naked!
Oh sure, a few folks will look at you as though you’re not too bright, but you’ll still look smarter than any of the party leaders!
Why I Should Buy a Tivo.
Over the past few years, various friends and other concerned parties have been getting on my case about my sleep habits, or rather, my lack thereof. There is a degree of truth to the stories — more than one person has received an email response from me with a 3:00 am timestamp. (Of course, the first person to bring that up had sent me an email herself just 10 minutes earlier.)
I’ve been doing better about it. These days, more often than not, I’m asleep by 12:30, and almost always by 1. In the past two or three years, I think there’s only been one or two times when I watched any late night TV, and those were times when I was sick and had spent most of the day sleeping. (The fact that I’ve largely stopped watching TV at all undoubtedly has something to do with it as well.)
I did watch the first season of The Daily Show, back when it was hosted by Craig Kilbourn. I’ve only ever seen perhaps a half-dozen episodes of the Jon Stewart version. Aside from a few water cooler conversations, missing it hasn’t had a great impact on my life.
Somewhere along the line though, I did miss something. I’m not sure when he came onto the scene, but thanks to YouTube, I’ve discovered that at some point a fellow named Craig Ferguson took over CBS’ The Late, Late Show. I’ve caught one or two of his rants and find them equally funny and thought-provoking.
Why, it’s enough to make me think I should start staying up late again!
Wylie's Recipe Book
Pooched Eggs are one of Wylie’s all-time favorite breakfasts. Every morning he curls up on the couch, watching me in the kitchen, waiting to see if this treat will be forthcoming.
Pooched Eggs
In a bowl, combine two eggs with three teaspoons of milk.
Melt a small pat of butter in a frying pan over medium heat. As the butter finishes melting, add the egg mixture. As the eggs begin to set, stir the mixture with a spatula, allowing more of the liquid to come in contact with the pan. Continue until no liquid remains and the egg mixture has solidified.
Serve over a bed of kibble.
Feeds one.
Variants: This recipe also works with small pieces of ham or sausage stirred in. Instead of scrambled eggs, you can substitute fried, dogs aren’t overly fussy about that sort of thing. Dogs are omnivores, so stirring in small amounts of vegetables should be OK, just don’t go overboard (Wylie doesn’t want a huge chunk of tofu either).
Arrrr!!!
Talk Like a Pirate Day was two weeks ago. That was a Friday this year, which made a perfect excuse for celebrating an entire Pirate Weekend. A few highlights from this year’s festivities follow.
For any well-dressed pirate, eye patches and hooks are optional, and of course all swashes should be buckled appropriately. Traditionally, proper pirate headgear has included both bandannas and pirate hats. In more recent times, the latter category has been expanded to include sports caps for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Seattle Seahawks (beware though, wearing another team’s hat may have you walking the plank).
Can you guess which pirate makes her own chain maille?
This bloke be Claire.
According to Wylie (the obligatory not-so-scurvy dog), heaven must be a lot like this.
Sure, Sue thinks its funny now. But what’s she gonna say when Jacob tries the “Pull my finger” routine on her?
These swabs must be music pirates.
The most fearsome pirates of all.
Be Like Julie
Like Dustin Hoffman says, “You gotta be like Julie.”
It’s a funny video, and of course (like you’d expect this time of year) it’s one with a message.
Every Time Someone Says "Maverick", You Take a Drink
Well that wasn’t what I expected. I missed last week’s Presidential debate, but tonight’s debate between Vice-Presidential candidates was interesting.
I particularly liked how well the candidates spoke of not only their opponent, but also of their opponent’s primaries. (And that was interesting too. This is the first time I’ve heard someone refer to the Presidential candidates as “primaries” relative to the veeps.) I don’t think anyone pulled their punches, but it was a very civil debate. One such nice touch, almost lost amidst the applause, was when the two candidates came out and Sarah Palin asked Joseph Biden, “Can I call you Joe?”
A pleasant surprise: Based on debates I’ve watched in the past, I fully expected the initial question to be ignored so the candidates could thank the moderator, the presidential debate commission, their families, the American People, God Almighty and anyone else they could think of for allowing them to appear there instead of actually answering the first question. Instead, both of these candidates were brief with their thank yous and actually spent some time giving meaningful answers.
I liked this debate format. I know there’s some controversy surrounding the choice of moderator, but I liked how the candidates were given a choice of responding to an immediate question or responding instead to previous comments. It gave the entire proceedings more the air of a conversation rather than an argument. (I’m quite tired of the endless arguing, hearing a conversation was nice!!!) Having questions that were directed at each candidate, more along the lines of “Tell us about yourself” instead of another point to debate was also a nice touch. (The sort of stuff we want to know about who the candidates instead of about their policies.)
Also surprising: I hadn’t expected to hear a Republican candidate use the word “blunders” (plural!) in reference to the current administration’s actions in Iraq. That earns Governor Palin a nod of respect that she’s willing to publicly think for herself rather than toe the party line.
More memorable points:
Both candidates agreeing about gay marriage. Not whether it should be allowed, but rather the point that a lot of people seem to be overlooking: instead of fighting over the meaning of the word “marriage,” folks should instead be discussing the civil rights of committed couples.
Senator Biden’s tears. When Biden spoke of knowing what it was like to be the only parent, “to not know if your child was going to make it” there were tears in his eyes. Instead of making him look weak, to me he looked stronger. (Joseph Biden’s first wife and year-old daughter died in a traffic accident in 1972. His two sons were critically injured but survived.)
Exxon Mobil’s Windfall profits. It seems that the Obama-Biden ticket is deadset on taxing Big Oil’s “windfall profits.” This makes me nervous. How will they tax non-US companies? And is it really fair to tax them because of the dollar amount? Sure, Exxon Mobil has profits in recent years that are larger than those of any other company in history.
People love to go on about that. But those are only record profits when you measure them in dollars. If you instead measure them as a percentage of revenue (the “margin”), they’re relatively small, something like 20%. By comparison, companies in the software industry tend to have profits in excess of 30%.
The difference is that our lifestyle is built on cheap oil, not cheap software. so “Big Oil” is an easy target. Beyond that, I’m just not comfortable with the government deciding how much profit is “acceptable” and how much is “too much” based on the passions of the moment.
Overall, I think Senator Biden “won” versus Governor Palin. I’m looking forward to visiting FactCheck.org to see who was right, but there were several times where Biden corrected Palin along the lines of, “I know which vote you’re talking about and here’s the background of why I [or Obama] voted that way” or “I know which vote you’re talking about and here’s the details you’ve left out.”
All in all, I found the debate informative. I’ve not made up my mind yet, but it was all useful input.
One question though, did anyone count how many times the two candidates used the word “maverick”?