Month: November 2004

At Home

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I have something like 15 vacation days left for the year. There’s no way I can use all of them, but I’m going to try… starting tomorrow. I have some things to take care of.

Speaking of taking care of things, I need to have my wisdom teeth removed. I’ve been good about going to the dentist. Since college, I’ve gone once every six months. My teeth are in great condition. But my third molars are coming in a little bit and the bottom ones are slightly impacted. It hasn’t been hurting, but once in a while, I’m just aware of the corner of the teeth peeking through the gums.

So I have to have them extracted at some point, and I’m not looking forward to it. If anyone has any good extraction stories to share, I could use the encouragement. Most of the time all I hear about is pain, discomfort, and blood.

Re-energize and Re-define

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I honestly didn’t think that it could have happened this time without major fraud. If it truly is legitimate, I will just have to quote BoingBoing answering a response from a British individual:

Well, presuming that the elections were fairly conducted and accurately counted — which remains a matter of some debate — I’m going with yes, more than half of American voters are just fucking stupid.

The United States of America: A nation of intolerance, fundamentalist Christianity, and a fake “moral superiority” which people believe validates philosophies like intolerance, bigotry, racism, sexism, lack of concern for the needy, the “death penalty,” and lying to a nation about war and the state of the world. Is that really “moral?” If that is “superior,” I wonder wht could be considered “inferior.”

Feel free to disagree. As it is we are all so steadfast in our positions within our Divided Nation, we won’t listen to each other and will never change our minds.

This is where I say: I am getting involved. I don’t know how yet, I don’t know the plan, but I am energized.

UPDATE: As I get time today, I’ll add some links to interesting comments (not just from people who agree with me) on election night and the next four years if I find them:

Dan Gilmour

BoingBoing (that’s the post I quoted, but I note they’ve changed their wording to be a little less hostile)

Greg Knauss is almost right, except for his call for dispassion. Passion is the only thing that can drive change.

Mat Honan

CNN on the economic issues for the next four years

Gwendolyn Zepeda

Jeff Jarvis

New York Times Editorial

Daniel Blau

The Cunning Linguist

Mike the Canadian

Canada 2.0 (hehe)

Lance Arthur – Do Not Move to Canada

Why they voted for Bush (interesting)

More Jeff Jarvis (about “moral values”)

NaSoAlMo

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It’s possible you’ve heard of NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. A group of people have decided that it would be fun for each of them to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. Now someone has thought of NaSoAlMo, National Solo Album Month. The idea would be to write, perform, and record a complete solo album throughout the same month. I should do this. I really should. I have enough equipment to do it. I just don’t know if I have enough time.

By the way, I voted this morning. This is how CNN plans on analyzing poll results and early vote counts in order to project a winner.

Down to the Wire

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As you know, I’ve held off on discussing politics on here for some time now, but it’s time to come back to the most important issue. I know that most of my readers are good citizens so I’m preaching mostly to the choir, but please make sure you do one thing tomorrow: vote.

Even if you don’t believe we have the most stellar options, and even if you’re not happy with some of each of the candidates’ pasts, we have two individuals neck-and-neck and voter turnout is what is going to shape the course of the country and the world for the next four years.

Still undecided? Think the two candidates are two sides of the same coin? Well, they agree on one thing, and that’s that the war in Iraq has to be finished in some manner. Fine. But on almost every other issue they are polar opposites. Consider that the next president will likely appoint between one and four Supreme Court justices. Think about your values and which individual most closely represents your values. I’ll spell it out for you.

If you want tax breaks for the big corporation you work for, then Bush is your man. If you want the top 1% of income earners (who mostly earn their income from their investments and not from any actual work) to have a more fair share when it comes to paying for the services the government should supply to all citizens, then Kerry is your guy. If you believe that even when the life of a woman is in danger, or after she is raped, she should not have any option of terminating the pregnancy, then Bush is your guy. If you believe that a woman has the right to choose to protect her body and can make decisions for herself with guidance from doctors, then Kerry is your man. If you believe church and state should be separate, that empirical reality is truth (or the path to the truth) and faith-based “reality” leads us back to pre-Enlightenment times, then Kerry is the guy you vote for.

The only explanation for anyone who is undecided is either they don’t know what their own values are or they just don’t have the mental capacity to contemplate the differences between the two main candidates.

Will the world be better off four years from now if one guy is president instead of the other? That’s impossible to say. But you have to start by taking the path that is best. The only way to do this is to vote.