Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Neal Pollack Loyal Pipeline reader Chris Z. sent me a link to the Neal Pollack Invasion today.  Good stuff.  Check out his August 19 entry from Raul, the Iraqi Teenager, whose song about L. Paul Bremer made me laugh out loud. 11:26:45 AM    Say what?[]

Why Wesley? Hyperbole featured an outstanding and hilarious (in a sad kind of way) comparison of President Bush and potential Dem candidate Wesley Clark yesterday.  You should check it out; it's a recap of Bush's complete smarminess on his ascent to power, parallelled by a truly amazing rise to prominence in the military by a major league badass. I'm quite taken with Wesley Clark.  But why?  How can I be so supportive of someone I know very little about, and who has no political experience?   Do I like Clark because he can make Bush look like a real idiot on these military and patriotism issues, two issues that I find really annoying?  Do I like Clark simply because I think he can win? I started down that line of thought today, and then I realized something.  Read this sentence from above again: How can I be so supportive of someone I know very little about, and who has no political experience?   I realized that virtually every vote I have ever cast is for someone I know very little about, and in many cases had little or no political experience.  Sure, they may have held office.  But what the hell did I know about their term?  Did I know a damn thing about Dukakis?  Did I know a damn thing about Clinton in '92?  I knew he wasn't Bush, and that was enough for me.  Deja Vu. It's not that I'm stupid.  I'm not.  It's not that I'm uninformed.  I'm not.  I'm not the most informed person around, but I think I know more than the average voter.  And yet, what have I been voting for?  I've been voting for an alternative.  I vote for Candidate A, because Candidate B is unpalatable to me.  I vote against people.  I have never campaigned for a candidate.  And so here I am again, hoping for Wesley Clark to emerge, and wondering why I so desperately want to vote for a guy who's strength, really his whole image, is military service.  How did that happen?  I've never given a rat's ass about the military service before.  Why now?  Is it that I truly believe in Wesley Clark?  Or is it that I think Clark, as opposed to Dean or Kerry, gives my vote against Bush the most power? Part of this will be answered in time.  We don't know enough about Dean or Clark yet.  They might both engender the kind of response in me that makes me want to actively campaign for them.  Hell, we don't even know if Clark is in the race.  But I do know Bush.  And that's enough. 11:09:06 AM    Say what?[]

Mars Is Coming Today is the day.  Mars will be a mere 34.6 million miles away, closer than it has been since 57,000 something B.C. I'm a bit of an Astronomy geek.  Well, that's not entirely true, I guess.  I got really into Astronomy one summer a few years ago.  I read Cosmos, I bought some Astronomy textbooks, and I learned all the constellations in the northern sky.  But, like so many of my interests, I set aside Astronomy to take up an interest in trees, followed by an interest in the Civil War, followed by my stint as a beat writer for Cat Fancy, and so on. But the pull of space has always been strong for me.  Whenever there's a new discovery, I read about it.  I find Astronomy to be one of the few true callings, a genuinely noble pursuit that, in my mish-mash of Agnostic hopefulness, seems to me to be as much a spiritual pursuit as a scientific one. As such, it's really a miracle that I have never owned a telescope.  Oh, how I have yearned to sit on the dock at the cabin in the late fall and look to the heavens.  But you know how it is with telescopes.  You have to spend some dough to get one that's really worthwhile, but then what if you end up not using it all that much?  Is there any doubt that the majority of telescopes and SoloFlex machines in this world are really just expensive clothes hangers? Leave it to a great astronomical event to spike telescope sales.  Which means that by this time next year, I ought to be able to get a nice telescope on eBay for cheap.  I'm tempted to call these people rubes for blowing a was on a telescope they will use once, but of course that's the wrong attitude.  There are people all across the world who are going to be inspired enough by Mars and what they see through their telescopes to develop a passion for learning about space.  If you ask me, that's a pretty great thing.  How can you not look out at the vastness of space and not have a bit of perspective about your own world, your own size, and your own life?  Perspective is always good. Is it wrong for me to aggressively inculcate a love of space and enthusiasm for telescopes in Linus and Lily?  I don't think so.  Sure, I would benefit, as I would get the toy I have always wanted.  But wouldn't the children benefit as well?  Can we not enjoy the discovery of the heavens above together? I think we can.  Bummer, though, that we'll have to wait another 60,000 years for Mars to get this close again.  But that's the nice thing about space--There's always some other great event to come along and participate in. 10:52:21 AM    Say what?[]

© Copyright 2003 Doug Hennessee. Last update: 9/2/2003; 10:37:58 AM.