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Archive for June, 2008

I just had a fascinating phone conversation with one of my more conservative friends. He proceeded to tell me how Obama is a muslim, Clinton let terrorists into the country, Clinton abandoned our valiant troops in Somalia (I think they call this “cut and run” now), and how McCain is a true compromiser with integrity in his beliefs. The best part was how he told me that he formulated these opinions himself, since five minutes and The Google will tell you otherwise. You should note that if you didn’t know that Clinton/Somalia piece was about the Somalia conflict, it would almost read like a certain chimpy president and his Middle Eastern policy.

It just never ceases to amaze me, the incredible *stupidity*, or at least lack of willingness to doubt crackpots at their word, which hangs over this country. And what a short memory we have…. McCain was the victim of such a hitjob when running against our current poor excuse for a drunk loser of a President back in 2000 for the GOP nomination. Now, just as he endorses torture after having been a victim of it, he does the same kind of hitjob attacks on his opponent. Now *that* is integrity, or something. I think I’m leaning towards the something.

If you’re going to dislike someone, do it based on how they play in the role they’re vying for. If someone is running for congress, evaluate them on what kind of Congressman they’d be, not whether or not you’d want to drink a beer with them. I want a President who is, at the least, brighter than I am. Being more respected and a better leader would also be requirements for the job. For some, inexplicable reason, Americans love to pick they person they think has the best “character”, attends church with the most regularity, and would be a good candidate to date their daughter.

Maybe we do deserve the last eight years of plague …

I’m writing you, the good people of the MTA, to thank you for the ride on the Metro North train to New Haven yesterday.

The complimentary sauna included with the train ride left me peeling myself off the seat, and the lack of any openable window compounded this. I think I’m a few pounds lighter for the experience.

All kidding aside, this leads me to ask a simple, stupid question: Why aren’t we funding public transportation in this country? A ride on the Metro North costs about 16 USD one way from New Haven to Grand Central station, which still is more expensive than the ride in a gas-guzzling air-conditioned SUV at the current petrol prices. I can’t help but think that if we hadn’t been pissing money down the toilet while tilting at windmills in sand dunes halfway around the world, we could have sunk some of that money into improving, subsidizing (gasp! not subsidizing! what will conservatives say!) and maybe even air-conditioning our public transportation.

That being said, we could also try using solar power, since the train lines take up a pretty large amount of ground space, to subsidize the drain on the power grid. I know, I know, it doesn’t have quite the ring that “shock and awe” has, but at least it might have a net positive effect on the world. Wouldn’t that be nice for a change?