Wake Up America

Unfortunately, Dennis Kucinich's "Wake Up America" speech a couple of nights ago at the 2008 DNC Convention didn't get any play in the "liberal" media. This should've been the keynote speech, Bob Casey's speech was as exiciting as David Brinkley on Ambien.

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In my dream last night I walked into Tower Records in San Francisco and a techno version of “Come Poo Poo Come” was playing inside the record store.

The Perpetual Debate

Inspired by the McCain/Obama “Saddleback Forum” (a presidential forum at a mega church held on August 16th), I’ve found myself internally tackling yet again the first and foremost topic of the forum…abortion. Obama has been getting a lot of flak for showing a “nuanced” answer with regards to the grand abortion question which to me shows that his cerebral cortex is still struggling with a clear, concise opinion. He stated that the answer is something scientists and theologians have been struggling with for a long time and the answer is “above his pay grade”. This brought up the question…is it the President’s job to legislate morality? Yet another “nuanced” question…I’m glad that things aren’t as simple as McCain claims it to be. Life is too complex to be simplified for the masses.

So when does a life begin? I think conception/the fertilized egg is a reasonable answer. However, when is it morally acceptable to abort? I believe there’s a vast difference between a fertilized egg and a six month-old fetus (organ development, brain activity, etc…). That doesn’t make it any easier answering the question.

Christians have championed the notion of conception being the point where all rights are bestowed and a person exists. Regardless of how simplistic that might sound, it is reasonable. What isn’t reasonable is the inconsistency of their respect for human life in the abortion debate. They lose their conviction when an American F-16 causes the death of thousands of innocent civilians (collateral damage) including pregnant Iraqi women, that’s not abortion, the pregnant women’s death was the product of a greater good. You would think Christian Republicans would be of a more peaceful ilk. Invading sovereign nations who did nothing to provoke this country is hardly a Christian moral.

I would never let a loved one get an abortion (unless rape/incest is involved). But it's the legal right to abortion is what's up for debate, not abortion itself. And believe it or not, 65% of the population think Roe v. Wade is acceptable. Even if it was overturned that just gives specific state the right to make it illegal.

Here's an example of how words can really muddy up the debate that's at hand. This is from an article I read in the Washinton Post August 20th, 2008.

"On paper, this campaign looks fairly standard. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, is staunchly in favor of abortion rights, while McCain, an Arizona Republican, has compiled a solid record over four Senate terms of opposing abortion. "

What it should've said...

"On paper, this campaign looks fairly standard. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, is staunchly in favor of abortion rights, while McCain, an Arizona Republican, has compiled a solid record over four Senate terms of opposing abortion rights."

Now FoxNews would report it as such...

"Obama, an Illinois Democrat, is staunchly in favor of abortion."

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A couple more Parker Word Jumbles...

"Plablo" - the name of a Backyardigan character
"Garella Bar" - granola bar
"Memolade" - lemonade
"Napsticks" - gymnastics

The French

Americans hate the French. Regardless of the fact that they are the reason we defeated the British and achieved our independence. We tend to forget that and focus on their actions in WWII, their hygiene, and the fact that they wouldn't let us use their air space when we elected to create evidence that justified our need to invade a sovereign country in the Middle East.

Say what you will about the French, but can we create something as ingenious and useful as this?

No, this isn't an earth-shattering advancement in technology, but it's still a small gentle reminder that we aren't number one in everything. And worse, you start asking yourself why we're not. At some point, it goes beyond humbling and becomes worrisome - like when your friend from London can hop on a train and be in Paris, 300 miles away, in 2 hours, whereas the 230 mile train trip from New York to DC takes 3 hours, if not longer. That's disturbing. And what about the Chinese Magtrain that goes 400 mph?

I just figured it out...it's not too difficult. The reason we're not told of the seats available is because the theaters fear it will deter people from seeing their movie.

Parker Dancing

The Presidential Polka

After watching an rather unhealthy amount of the Beijing Olympics, I found myself obsessing about the marketing of prospective “leaders” last night. Here’s McCain trying to convince the public that Obama’s merely a well-spoken celebrity and with this he’s really putting a damper on the whole Olympic television experience. His ads start with the sound of an eerie dark drone (minor chord) then a concerned female voice stating that if Obama is elected we’re actually going to be worse off than we are now (higher taxes, more government, less jobs, more abortions, less guns, no unnecessary unprovoked wars, blah blah blah)…is that even possible? McCain’s ads aren't even necessarily targeted at undecided voters as much as they are aimed at our political media which now cover politics with the same rabid disregard for substance and “truthiness” as gossip columnists. The general ignorance of so many Americans about the true state of the world means that the visual appeal of ads and the images they present operate to influence elections far more than in the past, except for the whole Michael Dukakis sticking his head up out of a tank. What used to be a process dominated by verbal and printed appeals is now far more oriented toward visceral appeals to one’s own prejudice and fear. Really, Marketing 101 states that the appeal must be toward one of the following...one's sexual desires, fear, the need to be part of a particular group, or the hope for something better. Which one do you think these candidates are playing us for?

I don’t know if Obama is going to make a good president. In fact I have a strange feeling that he’s going Jimmy Carter his ass right out of a second term. Jimmy Carter was a fine honorable man, much more than Bush, but let’s be honest he made some mistakes…Walter Mondale for one. Irregardless (I know, it’s not a word, but I’ve always wanted to write it somewhere), Obama is the obvious choice in my eyes for some very simple reasons that I don't think I need to enumerate here. We know what he's said in certain speeches, and we know what his campaign ads have emphasized, but do we really know what type of leader he will be and what his priorities will be when/if he becomes "it"? I fear we are being seduced by his glamour and charisma, without really knowing what he will do once he attains power. But hell, I'll vote for anyone that Sean Hannity doesn't approve of.

In the long run, I believe he will win simply on the fact that this election will be a referendum on Republican rule. For six of the past eight years they've had the majority in the Legislative and Executive Branch and have failed. Remember the big push for privatizing Social Security a few years back? With the market in a continual downspin, imagine if they accomplished their goal of giving Wall St. billions more dollars to gamble with.

The thing about marketing and advertising is that their most essential function is to lie. Not in a covert, actionable way most of the time, but to lie by association, omission, or misdirection. As an infamous ad pioneer bragged nearly half a century ago, “we sell the sizzle, not the steak”. “We sell the motherhood, not the infant formula”. I hate marketing, I try so hard not to be a victim of it’s intent. I think I’m doing a good job with that but who knows, maybe the marketers are marketing their goods and services for the “anti-marketing contingent”. That’s me! Damn, I can’t win.

Advertising/marketing is basically about manipulating the consumer through misdirection. Exactly the opposite process from one that has any chance of installing a great or admirable leader of the Executive Branch or legislator. Campaigns are designed precisely to avoid that process of winnowing out the true character and spirit of the candidate and they are succeeding quite well. It would be relatively easy to short circuit the deadly cycle of political marketing by making full transparency mandatory and taking the money out of politics making it a level playing field with no advertising just various forms of debate, discussion, and fact-finding. But right now it looks like the small elite that benefits from they system is beating the vast apathetic and misdirected majority by a landslide.

Advertising in 1941...You've Come a Long Way Baby

At least Parker has never claimed that we're bad parents. Not yet at least. Nor has she needed a laxative as much as little Mary apparently does.

Four Out Of Five Doctors Agree!!

...the fifth doctor is completely wrong and should not be included in the survey.

Five Days Without Mommy and Georgia

Well, the ‘Grand Experiment”, whether a washed-up 39 year-old wanna-be musician, wanna-be athlete can take care of a vivacious 2 ½ year old for five days straight is over. The results are quite good. Parker and I spent a lot of quality time together and it’s accurate to say that I would make a wonderful housewife. A couple of bulletized observations:

-Parker is addicted to the Backyardigans-there is no cure. I bought her a Backyardigans book containing seven stories for us to read before her naps and she can’t get enough of it.

-We went to the pool three times. Parker and Ella were jumping off the edge together with me catching Parker and Loren catching Ella. We had them counting to different numbers then jumping off the edge together. I couldn’t stop laughing…too cute for one man to take.

-Last night Parker and I had a very interesting about whether girls can play baseball. She was adamantly sure that girls could not play baseball and I was telling her yes, they can. I couldn’t get it through to her that girls can play baseball. So this morning her opinion completely changed when Laura told her that she could play baseball. That’s all it took. The interesting part of the conversation is that it was as close to an adult conversation that we could have. She’s growing up so fast.

-One day while we were saying our prayers before her nap she expressed her thanks for her “paba”-the routine is that I ask her what a “paba” is, she won’t continue her prayer until I ask that question so she respond by telling me it has “wings on its nose and something on its toes” blah blah blah accompanied with some other mumbling…I don’t know what she’s saying but I know it's Backyardigan-speak. Anyhow, she asked me the question if the angel that looks over her is a “girl angel”, then she asked if I had a “boy angel” looking over me and if so, did it have a penis?

-While in the pool she adamantly announced loudly to the people around the pool that she had to poop and got out of the pool and ran with me to the toilet. She did the same thing while we were in Barnes and Noble.