The World

Did you volunteer to work in New York City for the Republican National Convention? If you did, you probably received an email cotaining the name, Social Security number, race and other personal information belonging to hundreds of other volunteers. Oops! So much for security.

You know, I think the Republicans are loving the fact they’re having their convention in one of the most liberal cities in the country. It’s about incitement. When there are anti-Bush rallies—riots, even—they can easily make the Democrats look like a bunch of crazies. And if you’re one for believing conspiracy theories, which I am to an extent, don’t be surprised if the craziest activits are actually working for the Bush side, trying to make the Democrats look bad. I wouldn’t put that type of underhanded scheme past anyone involved in politics (Democrat or Republican or Whatever).

Are you still buying the government’s propoganda that the economy is improving and that the job situation in this country is improving as expected by the administration? Come on people, pay attention.

Did I ever mention how much I despise politicians?

Okay, so humor me for a few minutes. Like you, I want to fix this country. Bush isn’t going to do it, and neither is Kerry. The best chance of long term success probably has something to do with this: First, let Bush take the presidency for another four years. (I can’t believe I’m suggesting this.) After that, the Bush administration will not be looking at re-election. They will use that opportunity to move the country even further to the right. Since neither he nor Cheney will be running for re-election in 2008, the administration will abandon even the moderates and centrists, appoint their right-wing Justices, and push their crazy, totalitarian regime.

In response, more liberal organizations, like MoveOn.org, are going to pop up, with huge donors, overshadowing everything the Republicans have done to control their message through media. Like donors shaped the Republican message, these donors will shape the new message of the Democratic party… or overtake the old Democratic party with something entirely new.

Right now, there is nothing in the Democratic message to get excited about. Over the next four years of a Bush presidency, Americans will get entirely fed up with the Republican government, and there will be a huge swing leftward in 2008. So it’s scary to say it, but having Bush in office may be the best thing for this country over the long term. He will push the country so far to the right, the citizens finally gets excited about issues, resulting in a rebellion of donations intended for the New Democrats. But understand this, even though this possibility has been going through my mind after watching the speakers at the Democratic Convention tonight, there’s no way in hell I’m going to vote for that ass, George W. Bush.

So here it is, my prediction, and when I check my website archives in 2008, I’ll know if I am correct, or if I’m just a lunatic tonight. If this doesn’t play out, and Kerry is elected this year, I’m just not convinced that several years down the road this country will have a strong interest in peace, good environmental, economical and individual health, excellent cultural education for all, and a society that welcomes scientific and medical advances. We need a revolution and the country isn’t far enough to the right for one to occur yet.

Still think Fox “News” is fair and balanced? Take a look at their internal memos (leaked by the guys doing a documentary about the news channel) that certainly clear up any misunderstandings about the political leanings of the decision-makers.

Starting Thursday, talking on a cell phone while driving without a hand-free device will be illegal in New Jersey. Hands-free devices are generally awkward and uncomfortable… Maybe with new laws (although I don’t agree that this is the best solution), more people will be interested in improving earpieces and headsets.

Even though Bush and Kerry appear to be on separate ends of the political spectrum, they are both members of the same club with the same ambitions. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but it is pretty clear that if we see a Bush vs. Kerry presidential race, it really doesn’t matter who wins in the end, since neither of these guys are really in control of policy. There might be minor differences in the way they go about a few issues, but I predict history will eventually look upon them as being very similar. I hate politics.

According to a new proposal by astronomers, two-thirds of the world’s living creatures may have been destroyed by a supernova near by. Its gamma rays would have recomposed the Earth’s atmosphere and allowed deadly ultraviolet radiation from the sun to hit the surface.

It would have also created dust in the atmosphere, cooling the surface, and setting up conditions that would allow an ice age to begin. Neat. Well, it’s neat, except for the fact that a supernova might expose the Earth to harmful gamma rays every few hundred million years and could happen at any time without warning.

We’ll be safe once we learn to live under water in the deep ocean.

I bet it’s beautiful in color. There are more photos of Mars here. They are stereoscopic pairs, which I believe means that if you take the left image of the pair and tint it in red in Photoshop, tint the right image in blue, overlay the images, and put on your 3-D tinted cellophane glasses, the photographs will appear to have depth.

Update: Apparently NASA has the technology and ability to read my mind. They’re expected to release color photographs today.

My issues, though hurtful to me, are of course not the biggest of the world’s problems. Yesterday was World AIDS Day. AIDS is one of the world’s biggest problems. A person with the ability to see past him or herself might gain some perspective by reading this. I come back to it every once in a while.

I have a cousin, maybe a second or third cousin twice removed — I was never sure how any of that worked — who died as a result of AIDS. I didn’t know him well, but it’s painful remembering the funeral in New York just the same. He was young, maybe 30 or so.

Every time I fly I think of my own mortality, even before September 11, 2001. I know it’s crazy and the chances of dying in an airplane are less than the chances of dying in an automobile accident, but the addition of the fact that you are not in control (the pilot is) and the fact that I am several miles away from the ground always makes me a little nervous, and a little excited.

So as I think about my own life on the plane, I contemplate about whether I would be satisfied with my life if I died today. Let’s see. I have had only a moderate level of “success,” I have no children, so one way I could look at it is that I am not ready to go. On the other hand, although I’m not satisfied and will never be, I’m now a person I can respect. I have a healthy attitude, personality and vision of life. It’s a big change from my insecure, external-locus-of-control, victimized, selfish and unthinking personality from a few years ago. I’m actually quite happy with myself as an individual. Although complete happiness is an unattainable goal, the journey has been good.

A little introspection is nice, but what is even better is thinking about what else I could contribute to the world if fate allows me to continue to live another day. I’ll get on that.

I’m leaving tomorrow for California. I plan on meeting up with my mother and brother, both of whom I haven’t seen since the last time I was on the west coast, something like three years ago. We’re going to drive from the Los Angeles area to Las Vegas and spend a few days there, visiting my aunt and uncle who live there. Their kids are meeting us in Vegas for Thanksgiving, too. It should be just like the old days but instead of driving to Long Island and listening to Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant in the car, I’ll be doing school work on the plane.

My new computer is almost ready to be built. I have all the parts except for the CPU, memory, DVD+RW/-RW, and DVD-ROM. I had these parts delivered to a co-worker’s house in order to avoid sales tax. FedEx attempted delivery on Friday, and then again following that, but he wasn’t there to sign for the shipment. I was hoping to be able to put everything together tonight, but now it’ll have to wait until I return from vacation next week.

I’ll keep my readers updated on my casino winnings. Anyone have any tips?