Juno

I have two things today, unrelated to each other. First, I have seen a lot of blog outrage over the State of California's rejection of gay marriage last Tuesday. I can't say that I am super surprised...whenever given the chance, voters have resoundingly voted against gay marriage... but like a lot of people, I thought maybe California would have treated this a little differently than some other states.

And, in truth, it was different. Just not different enough. Several years ago, a ballot initiative in California turned down gay marriage by something like 70-30, and this time it was 52-48. My question is...how much (if any) of the opposition was a reaction to the Supreme Court's "activism" of last year? I haven't really seen it discussed, so I don't know if it was a factor at all, but there is often a lot of resentment towards judges "overreaching" and making laws from the bench. So, maybe some of my California readers can chime in let me know if that was at all a factor...if some voters just didn't like the idea that the Court had thrown out a ballot initiative and this was just a way to get back at them.

Just a thought.

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Totally separate subject.

I watched Juno twice this weekend. I had never seen it before, and while I always wanted to, I just never got around to it. But I saw it Saturday and then it was on again yesterday so I watched it again. Not surprisingly, I have some thoughts.

First off, I had no idea how complex the relationships were. Between Juno and Bleeker, and the three-side relationship between Juno and Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. But you know who my favorite character in the whole move is? Juno's Dad. Right, I know...deep psychological jealousies of girls and their fathers, blah blah blah.

I love him because he is kind of a simple character who is almost completely absorbed with the happiness of his daughter and the rest of his family. And, at the very end, he says something to her that I think is more perfect than anything that anyone could really ever say. She is laying in bed in he hospital, obviously exhausted from the delivery, and also probably overcome by the emotion of immediately giving up the baby. Her father says "Someday you will be back here. On your own terms." I dunno...it just got me. Every girl should have parents like that.

One more week closer to retirement

Happy Friday everyone:-) Seriously, there is almost nothing bad about Fridays...they totally rule.

Yikes...the fire alarm just went off!!! LOUD!!! I just realized that, instead of sit here for a minute and a half while it went off, maybe I should have been evacuating? Are fire alarms really that effective if everyone assumes that they are always false alarms? Hmm...I will have to leave this for another day...

I don't really have a whole lot to talk about today. Pretty big crowd for chicken fingers last night...The Boy came, as did Smoking Hot Roommate and the Rocket Scientist. Big Sis met us there, as did The Boy's Twin Sister. When Munchkin is in college, am I going to make her meet me for dinner every week? Probably...lol.

Not a whole lot up for the weekend. I have a whole bunch of little shit to do tomorrow...I have to get the battery in my watch replaced, pay some bills, go to the grocery store, buy some other shit...nothing terribly exciting. We are going out with some of The Boy's friends tomorrow night, which will be fun...we haven't seen them in a while. I think we are having Chinese food with SHR and The Rocket Scientist tonight, that is a little up in the air.

Oh, I know what I meant to cover...Celebrity Rehab. I think this is one of my favorite shows. It has some really funny parts, but it can also be really insightful into the mental, emotional and physical manifestations of substance abuse. I think much of the interest is to see people that are naturally self-absorbed and spoiled become sort of vulnerable and accountable. It shows you a more accurate picture of people, me thinks. Jeff Conway, for example, is just an asshole. And Gary Busey...yikes...

I think my favorite people are Rodney King, Steven Adler and Amber Smith. Although, Tawny Kitaen is sort of growing on me, she seems to be losing her facade a little bit. I thought I would hate Rod Stewart's son, but maybe he isn't so bad...we will have to see.

Capsizing the boat, though? That was one of the funniest things I have ever seen...

Election Recap

Sorry to not post yesterday...it had nothing to do with a post-election hangover, and everything to do with the boys at work convincing me to play hooky and go golfing with them:-) How could we not? It was like 70 degrees outside! It's November! We are morally obligated to take advantage of that.

I learned a valuable lesson about golfing in the Fall, though...you lose the ball under leaves a lot! That was kind of super annoying:-)

OK...election. Very few surprises, really...things pretty much followed the final polls pretty closely. A pretty resounding win for Obama, obviously. I do, however, have some issues with the analysis of the event. Namely:

1) Obama went to great lengths to not be "The Black Candidate". He did an enormous amount of work and was hugely successful in being and standing for so much more than that. So, I was a little disappointed when, right when they called the race, the talking heads all of a sudden reverted exclusively to talking about his race. I don't want to say that it was insulting to him, but I really feel like it sort of belittles what he has accomplished. He deserved a more robust reading of what he had just accomplished.

2) I heard at least three different people refer to Obama as a "transformational figure." How absurd is that? Don't you kind of have to be President first before you can transform anything? Can we maybe let him actually govern first? George Washington was a transformational figure. So were both Roosevelts, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. Heck, I would buy Andrew Jackson as a transformational figure. And Obama very well could be...but let's actually let him transform something first.

3) Can we please ignore this nonsense about whether the country is right-of-center or left-of-center or whether this is an acceptance of Obama's ideals and yada yada yada. This election was about exactly one issue: George Bush. Obama won because McCain was more identified with Bush than he was, and Bush is wildly unpopular. Everything else was basically a rounding error in the polls. When we try and take lessons from this election (as we always do) it is foolish to look much beyond that.

4) I sincerely hope that the worldwide love for Obama is not based on a feeling that he will consider the interests of other nations ahead of our own. Or, if it is, I hope that they are wrong. I am all for open communication, and for articulating and promoting our ideals. In fact, that could well be Bush's greatest failing: an inability (or unwillingness) to properly articulate why his actions were in our interest, why they are in others' interests and why we have to do things that others disagree with. But make no mistake...the President of the United States of America should be concerned with serving no constituency other than the citizens of the United States of America. I trust Obama to effectively articulate whatever message he is trying to get across...I simply hope that the message is appropriate.

So, there are my flash thoughts for the day. I didn't vote for him, but I am not really unhappy with his election. I am sure he will make mountains of mistakes...they all do...and will almost certainly struggle to meet the absurd expectations that every President starts with. But I know he is smart, and I trust him to work hard, and that seems like as good as start as any.

And honestly, he has to be cool... he is from Chicago after all;-)

Election Experiment...um...Inconclusive

Ahh...the big day is here! There may be very little suspense left in the election (unless the pollsters are totally and completely wrong, which is possible, if unlikely) but it is still a great day. It is like the Super Bowl for civics geeks! I should warn you...this is gonna be a very long post, so beware (even though I cut out the parts about why I would rather we didn't encourage people to vote. Seriously, if you can't figure out why it is important on your own, then I would rather you not dilute my say.)

First, my election experiment proved...um...almost nothing. I am not sure that I initially set out to be impartial, but I was never really strongly in favor about any of the candidates, so I think that my thoughts came off pretty much down the middle. I have been leaning for some time now, but as the election neared, I made a more conscious effort to focus on objective analysis of the candidates instead of opinions.

I assumed that there would be some correlation between people's leanings and their perceptions of my leanings. Either you would assume that I was voting for the other guy because the criticism of your guy would sting too much, or you would read the criticism of the other guy as evidence that I was on your side. In the end? It made little difference. I got 23 responses...11 thought that I agreed with you and 12 thought that I disagreed. It didn't matter which candidate you liked...pretty evenly mixed on both sides. So...my grand experiment proved...um...nothing!!!

It did prove that there was little leaning apparent in my thoughts. A summary of results:

Who are you or would you vote for?
Obama 13
McCain 9
Other/Undecided 2

Who do you think I am voting for?
Obama 13
McCain 10
Other/Undecided 1

Where do you live?
Georgia (5)
California, Connecticut (3)
North Carolina, Virginia (2)

Oregon, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, New York (1)

Germany (2)

Canada, Wales (1)

So, people maybe sensed a minor leaning, but not much...and there was very little correlation between who people are voting for and who they thought I would vote for. Also, Georgians love me... I should move!

So, anyway, my experiment was kind of a letdown...I didn't get the results I was really hoping for. But...I still have to vote! And I am sure that you are all dying to know who I am going to vote for! Or, maybe not...but you are gonna hear anyway:-P

I am, through somewhat gritted teeth, going to vote for McCain. I could give you like 40 reasons why I shouldn't, and why I don't really want to...but in the final analysis, I simply agree with his view of Government more than I do Obama's. For me, this involves prioritizing issues...I agree with Obama on abortion, and guns, and on parts of his education ideas, and some other stuff as well. I agree with McCain on taxes, spending and entitlements and immigration. I think McCain is more prepared and willing to do what is in the best interests of the country abroad...I feel like Obama would be much more concerned with being liked.

I find them both to be embarrassingly wrong on energy and (especially) health care. When I tally these things up, I agree with McCain on what I consider to be the more important issues. I think it is important to note here, that I firmly believe that energy will be THE defining issue of the next 40 years. I would have voted for either of them if he had put forth a coherent, reasonable energy plan, but neither did. Obama is more specific and environmentally conscious, but McCain's is more realistically effective ("throw everything at it...we shouldn't be eliminating any options right now").

Basically, I would like the next President to address our long-term solvency. We have a massive budget deficit and national debt that is a complete pox on my generation. There are basically two ways to try and close that: raise taxes and cut spending.

Actually, there is only one way...the structure of our entitlement programs is such that we can not pay for them, no matter what we set tax rates at. We HAVE to cut benefits, and the math is simple enough for everyone to understand. Which of these two do I think is more likely to control spending? That's actually an easy one...McCain, despite some recent lapses, has been a pretty avid controller of spending throughout his entire career in the Senate. Obama has no record on this, but his entire philosophy of government says that he will continue to grow the size of government.

So, there you have it...in a nutshell, I am voting for McCain because I think he will spend less. How is that for summing up the longest, most expensive and most interesting political race in the history of the world...

By the way, I am going to vote tonight after work, so you can still try and change my mind;-)

Ladybug

Gooooood morning:-) Did everyone have a happy, festive, candy-filled weekend? I did...and I am currently eating a leftover cupcake that was in the kitchen for breakfast. Score!!!

Excellent responses so far on Friday's election question...please keep them coming if you haven't responded yet! Brandy is sort of onto what I am doing, but I will give you the full details tomorrow, along with the results. In other, random election news, Obama's illegal alien Aunt lives near me...whoo hoo!!!

I am fairly certain that none of you had a more fun weekend than I did:-) Not that you would have had as much fun doing what I did, but it was fun for me. I got to Tinkerbelle's house in plenty of time to Trick of Treat on Friday, so I got to take her over to meet up with a couple of our cousins and take them all out:-) Tinkerbelle was a lady bug, and she was so cute that it gave me chest pains to look at her...lol. Black tights, big, round red sack with black polka dots, antenna...adorable!

I stayed with them both nights, so I got up Saturday and made her breakfast, and then we went out to...um...kinda to do nothing. We went shopping but didn't really buy anything. We met BFFg for lunch, then went over to our Aunt and Uncles house to hang out for a bit...a bunch of cousins and whatnot were there. I was hoping to go out with the BFF's and BFFg's new boyfriend (that I set her up with...) but I decided to babysit instead. Tinkerbelle's Mom had a date:-D.

Sunday was sort of the same...woke up, made breakfast, hung out, took her to a birthday party, helped her with some schoolwork and then had to go home. All in all, a really nice weekend with lots and lots of Tinkerbelle time! When Munchkin and I go back soon I will fit in some other people, but I really missed the little nugget, so I was glad to spend some time with her. Oh, and who thinks she should come spend Thanksgiving with me:-D?

Got home at a pretty reasonable hour...in time for The Boy to make us dinner, which was lovely of him. OK...so dinner was frozen tortellini, but it was still yummy:-). I don't keep him around for his culinary skills;-).

And now, back to work, with the election looming! My gut says that Obama wins in a rout...like, not at all close, but pollsters have been wrong before... More on this tomorrow. Until then, keep warm!