Random Acts of Mind by Dones

The votes have been cast, the machines unplugged, the chad have dropped.

It was only a matter of time before the next campaign started…

NOW FOR THE BIG NEWS:
I turn 35 years of age in 2011. Thus I will be eligible to become President in 2012.

And so, without further ado, I declare my candidacy to be
DEFAULT WRITE-IN CANDIDATE OF CHOICE
for the 2012 presidential election and beyond.

No more will you be forced to write in your uncle, or neighbor, when faced with the choice of two horrible candidates.

Now you can write me in!

You have my permission, from now until further notice, to write my name in for any and all public offices for which I am eligible.

(I’ve got to start somewhere)

A quick preface with the info that may or may not be known to the readers of this blog: My son’s birth father is african-american. Which makes us a mixed-race family.

While race has never been the reason I voted for Barack Obama, I’d be lying if I said I’m not excited and greatly moved by tonight’s historic election of an african-american president. I have friends, neighbors, family members, and coworkers who are celebrating this victory on a far deeper level than I am, but I smiled and wept as I listened tonight to the black commentators who were awestruck at the moment Obama’s election was called. While I hope race was not the reason they voted for Obama either, I share with them the celebration that the same Constitution that once counted a black American as 3/5 the worth of a white one, has brought this nation to the point where a black man is now the president-elect.

Which brings me back to my son. Ever since my wife and I decided we would be open to adopting a non-white baby, I started thinking along with all the other fathers of this nation’s black children, that when my son is asked what he wants to be when he grows up, I will tell him he can be anything he wants to be. And we want to truthfully agree when he says, ‘I want to be president of the United States,’ that it can be so. Until tonight, however, we have had a big lump in our throat thinking about that prospect, because there’s been no evidence that a little black boy could ever become president. Until tonight. Now, when my baby boy learns to talk and says he wants to grow up to be president, I can tell him without a shred of doubt, ‘Yes you can.’

Thank you America, for giving my son this opportunity, and thank you President-Elect Obama, for being an example to my infant son that he truly can grow up to be anything he wants to be.

To all of you out there who are goign to complain about the outcome of the election, regardless of who wins, I say:

Don’t Vote!

That’s right. A long-time axiom I have held to in politics is “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.” This is a tenet I hold near and dear to my heart, because I prefer to reserve the right to complain if I don’t like what happens in government and politics. I can complain about Bush because I voted for him twice and feel betrayed. I can complain about Congressman Dennis Moore because I’ve always voted against him and I can’t stand that he’s still my representative.

But if all you’re going to do is complain about the system, I’d rather that you just stay home on Election Day and turn off the TV, and don’t even think about calling me. Because if you don’t vote I don’t have to hear you complain about how ‘the electoral college is crap,’ and ‘they’re all a bunch of crooks anyway.’ The electoral college may not be your favorite method of electing a leader, sir or madam, but it’s the one we have. And if you don’t want ‘crooks’ in office, why don’t you run for office yourself, or at least encourage your favorite prospective leader in your neighborhood to run for office, and support their candidacy?

I would be all for a new Constitutional Convention. I think the system is just about as broken as we can make it right now, and it’s not looking like Obama or anyone else will really be able to fix anything about the system as a whole. But I also don’t think we’re the right generation to go creating a new Constitution. Because all we’ll do is bring old partisanship and grudges into the discussion, and we won’t have made any progress.

If we’re to create a system you really can’t complain about, sir or madam, then we should start with the next generation, my son’s generation. We need to give these kids the best education possible, by supplementing public or private school learning with honest-to-God home-schooling. These kids should be out in the world getting to know their peers and elders, and learning all kinds of government-sanctioned stuff on the standardized tests; but they should also get after-hours tutelage by the best minds our generation has to offer (namely, you and me) by making these kids learn what’s Really Important. Maybe then they’ll be educated enough to be the Washington’s and Jefferson’s and Adams’s of tomorrow. Then you won’t be able to complain about the system, because in some small way, you had a direct hand in creating it.

November Book Club: The Watchmen
Originally uploaded by metamorphilia.

I am reading the Watchmen in anticipation of next year’s film release. Please join me, and we will discuss over the last week of the month. (Fair warning, for December, I’ll be reading Neil Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.)

Once again, I’m here to reiterate that yes, I’m voting for Obama next Tuesday. People still ask me ‘why,’ and so I thought I’d outline my entire voting strategy this year.

First, the Republicans are in trouble this year. I feel like a first-rate idiot for voting Bush in 2004 and 2008, though when I’ve admitted that in the past I’ve qualified my decision by saying that I didn’t think Gore or Kerry would have done a better job in the White House. I’m getting to the point that I don’t even believe that now, because between the administration’s policies on Guantanamo Bay, torture, Iraq, wire-tapping, and finally the economy, I don’t see how the two Democrats could have done any worse. That’s where I am with McCain & Palin, because there’s no way that they have made me feel comfortable with the direction the GOP is headed. Back in 2004 my main statement was that I wished another Republican would have opposed Bush in a primary. The fact that McCain (or any other Republican) didn’t oppose Bush back then tells me that the party establishment has failed me. A McCain-Palin ticket serves to confirm this desertion. So all of those strikes again the GOP is one point in favor of Obama.

Has Bush done anything right in the last 7+ years? Probably the SupremeCourt justices are the only shining example I can think of. Some people will say that everything else was worth it, then, because Roe v. Wade may get overturned in our lifetime. As much as I agree that ths was a good step, it doesn’t justify the rest of the administration’s policies. The war in Afghanistan is another plus for Bush, but it is marred by the distraction in Iraq and the fact that we haven’t experienced a full victory against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan & Pakistan. If you have other examples of Bush doing good since his inauguration, I’d love to see it in the comments.

(By the way, I’m not saying that we haven’t seen success in Iraq; I have several friends and friends of friends who are or have been deployed Iraq, and I think they’re doing great work there. I’m just saying it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Getting rid of Saddam was good for his country and the world, but I wish it hadn’t been a son avenging his father that made this happen. Oh well, the Lord works in mysterious ways, I guess.)

As for what I think in favor of Obama, I’ll try to lay it all out here without being too wordy, but you know me.

Number one is that he’s the alternative to McCain. Granted, I would have voted for McCain if Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic nomination, but that’s because I have so many objections to her being ‘back’ in the White House. But there would need to be a similarly objectionable reason for me to vote against any other Democratic candidate this year. So it’s not just Obama’s appeal that has my vote

Next, Obama is my kind of guy. I like the kind of guy who is comfortable in front of crowds, speaks his mind, and yes isn’t smarmy like Bill Clinton, or pandering like Mitt Romney.  Obama speaks with the authority of being sure of himself, and this is what I saw in Bush in 2000. (No, really.)

But unlike Bush, Obama strikes me as authentic. Does Barack Obama have skeletons in his closet? Absolutely, and I think the GOP has done everything in their power to get it all out of the closet. And you know what? What I find doesn’t really bother me. I look at it this way, and forgive me for being too presumptive:

- The Preacher: I don’t agree with everything my pastors have ever said in or out of church, and I was at my previous church since 1996. The pastor of that church was still the best pastor I’ve ever had. Granted, he was pretty much the anti-Jeremiah Wright in many ways, but he gently said some pretty oddball things, if one were to publish and interpret transcripts in the media without context. Sure, my pastor never made racially inflammatory remarks (that I know of), but I think that it would be difficult to be a black man attending a black church and not hear some racially charged statements from the pulpit, even in this day and age. It may be a double-standard, but race is so much in the forefront of many african-americans’ minds (sometimes rightly so, sometimes not) that it doesn’t surprise me. It isn’t fair, and I’d love for things to be different, but it seems to me that it’s easier for whites to keep company with other whites without ever discussing race, than it is for black people to congregate together and not have racially charged discussions.

- The Wife: Michelle Obama isn’t my favorite person in the world. But you know, I really am a fan of First Lady Laura Bush. I suppose how I feel about the wives does have a positive or negative efect on my view of their husbands, but it’s minor enough that I don’t concern myself with them. Now if Michelle Obama starts helping Barack with policy decisions, if she’s assigned to head up the health care reform like Hillary Clinton was, then we have a problem. But I’m willing to take that risk.

My biggest case for Obama is that I agree with many of his policies. When he talks about energy, health care reform, getting out of Iraq and getting more into Afghanistan, removing tax breaks for the top tax brackets, lowering taxes for those who make less than $250,000 a year…I think those are better solutions for the country than McCain’s. Granted, they’re only campaign promises, and Obama would be the first on my $hit-list if he starts letting the Democrats in the Congress and Senate dictate to him on policy decisions.

Which brings me to my voting strategy: Obama for president, Republicans the rest of the way down the ticket. I don’t think my vote will be enough to keep the Democrats from holding both of those branches of government, but that’s my goal. Honestly, though, I think a clean sweep will be the best thing to happen to the Republican Party since 1994. The promises from that banner year have long since been abandoned by the GOP, and I think the Republicans need to go sit in a corner for 2 to 4 years and think about what they’ve done. Then in 2010 maybe they’ll get one house of Congress back, and who knows what 2012 will bring? Maybe Obama doesn’t pan out, and is just a ‘one-termer’.

Well, that’s about all I can manage for today. Being sick, I’m losing my train of thought, but I’d love to hear your voting strategy and any reactions you have to mine. Just be sure to vote on Tuesday!

Disclaimer: The content of this video does not necessary reflect the views of this blog or its creator. I just thought it was funny:

As I continue the lament (started by Engadget) of the the VCR, as least in stand-alone form, I am reminded of the very first one we got when I was a kid. It was the early, early 80s when we got our first VHS cassette player/recorder, and I think it was a second-hand unit from a friend of the family. It had an analog counter, a pop-up cassette tray, and all mechanical push-buttons. We lived in a small town, but I can say with some certainty that there wasn’t yet a video rental place to be found anywhere. The studios hadn’t really started releasing pre-recorded cassettes yet. But we had HBO and The Movie Channel on our 20-channel, push-button cable box (I remember TMC was channel 2), and we started recording movies and shows for later reviewing. As I recall, that first VCR didn’t last very long, as the pop-up cassette tray refuse to pop up anymore. Our second VCR was a light-year ahead, with a front-slot opening and an lcd display (nothing on-screen yet, I don’t think).

So many of my childhood movies were viewed on VHS. Playing them over and over and over helped me and my brother bond with each other, and there are many film quotes that only have special meaning to us and those like us. But now it’s the end of an era, and I can mark my generation by the fact that my baptism was not recorded on video, but my brother’s was. Conversely, my wedding tape is on VHS, but my brother’s is on DVD.

So let’s open up the floor: What memories (fond or otherwise) do you have of VHS?

Your Undefeated Ball State Cardinals!
Originally uploaded by metamorphilia.

Got to see BSU take on Eastern Michigan when my dad & I got tickets. They won, 38-16, to go 8-0 for the season so far.

First, read this article:

Black and white TV generation have monochrome dreams

How cool is that? It seems intuitive to me, but it’s neat to see a study that would appear to confirm that the media we view affects our dreams, even so much as determining black and white vs color.

I wonder if dreaming in black and white affects you differently? The Baby Boomers (and some of their immediate predecessors) would then be unique among all the generations of humanity in this regard. Although there are so many other ways my parents’ generation have distinguished themselves from the others in recent shared memory (for good and ill) that it would be difficult to ascertain exactly how the lack of color in dream would make them more susceptible for any particular behavior.

Daddy teaches baby Josh how to nap on couch.
Originally uploaded by metamorphilia.

From one generation to the next.