CC's lay service

Delivered by Chalicechick this morning as part of a lay service on "Technology and the Human Spirit"

One time when I was a kid, my mother casually mentioned that once I graduated from high school, I would probably never see my friends again. She explained that it was a part of life, you moved to college and wouldn't have time to write letters. Long distance phone conversations were expensive.
I'd get over it, she reasoned. I'd make new friends.
At the time, this conversation really upset me.
If I could go back and tell my twelve-year-old self a few things, I would explain how by the time I graduated from high school in 1996, e-mail would have revived letter writing to some degree and long distance would be cheap.
I see the internet and the cell phone as the two most important technological revolutions of the last 50 years, and it's interesting to me that they are both technologies that relate to connecting people to one another. There has been plenty of other innovation in almost every imaginable arena of American culture, but what has really changed lives is the ability to contact one another at virtually any time and the ability to exchange and collaborate on information over the internet. Cell phones, and particularly the internet, have been a defining technology that has changed the world much as the car and the printing press changed the world before.
If the degree of change is hard to get your head around, consider that, for example, soldiers in remote battlegrounds learning instantly of a peace treaty is for all practical purposes a brand new thing. For a famous example, the Battle of New Orleans was fought a full two weeks after the treaty of Ghent was signed in Belgium.
Anyway, the internet is a new medium for human expression, and I tend think most of the praise and criticism it gets is misplaced for that reason. While a sad book can make me cry, I don't have any illusions that the book itself is doing that. It is merely a medium for human expression. The internet, like any medium, simply reflects aspects of human culture back on us. For example, I'm confused by people who are concerned about violent video games given that executions were a form of public entertainment for thousands of years in a huge number of cultures.
But one can, with admittedly some oversimplification, put the idea of an entirely new medium of near-universal communication into a framework of human history and scientific progress that explains a lot of the cultural weirdness of the late 20th century and a lot of human behavior now.
For me, at least, the explanation starts with an apple.
(Thow apple into the air, let drop)
We all knew when I let go of the apple, it was going to do that. But why?
A few thousand years ago, the average person would have said that it was love that attracted the apple to earth, the center of the universe. At that time, most of human interaction was face-to-face or in letter form. With the written word, people were able to transmit ideas across distances, though a public speech remained the most efficient means of getting a message to spread widely in a local area.
By the 9th century, Persian and Indian scientists had some idea of Newtonian physics, but until the Renaissance, for the rest of the world the universe was a place that we assumed was ruled by love and God's will. It must have been a comforting existence to be a part of a massive symphony with God as a conductor.
It's probably not a big surprise that when both the printing press and the Newtonian view of the universe came into being that there were a whole lot of revolutions and the idea of democracy seriously started to take root.
Newton's explanation for the apple was different. He took love out of the picture totally, explaining that the apple fell because all matter in the universe attracts all other matter in the universe, and indeed, the same force that might bring an apple down on Newton's head is impacting the orbit of the moon. In Aristotle's vision, the ethereal heavens had their own unending circular motions, totally unworldly and separate from our world of earth, air, fire and water. Newton showed that the same laws of nature apply to earth and sky, to apple and moon. A mechanistic universe.
The newly invented printing press was the medium of that era, and the sudden rise of cheap publication took Newton's ideas of a world where everything followed rules and the universe functioned like an extremely sophisticated machine all over Europe, and indeed the world. Of course, it also produced pamphlets that suggested Marie Antoinette was having lesbian affairs with the ladies of her court, rumors that historians deny but that at the time fueled the hatred for the French monarchy and likely made the French revolution a good deal bloodier than it had to be. Far be it from me to suggest that a more sophisticated view of the world necessarily makes us more reasonable. The printing press' contemporary critics understood that much.
Still, I'm sure you can imagine the comforts of a mechanistic universe. Everything happened because of something else, with God as a master engineer. There was a finite amount of stuff to figure out about the universe, and once we figured out on giant explanation, we would really know what was going on. Further, with the spread of all this knowledge and the rise of the middle class, common people were suddenly equipped to lead. Thus the rise of democracy and the reformation.
As if the loss of the idea that love was the force that ruled the universe wasn't enough, at this point we've figured out that the universe does not run totally like a machine and that we may never reach a point where we've figured things out.
That's scary, y'all.
Einstein showed that Newton was wrong, at least partially because his theories didn't properly predict the orbit of Mercury. Thus general relativity was born, and the idea that what scientists had thought were certainties were now strong probabilities. Now, Einstein was working on this stuff a hundred years ago, but it takes awhile for these things to seep into our cultural consciousness. And indeed, nothing has made humanity truly understand the idea that things we thought were certain aren't like the increasing speed of news. Sometime after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, October 22, 2008, Ashley Todd told police that she had been attacked by an Obama supporter. By Thursday morning, the whole country knew about the attack, both candidates had put out press releases. By Friday, the whole country knew that the attack had been a hoax and reporters were busy analyzing how the story had fed on itself and how the campaigns had reacted.
One thinks of Marie Antoinette and wonders how much damage Ms. Todd's lies could have done in a world without a 24-hour news cycle. Maybe a world with non-mechanistic, chaotic aspects that we are increasingly coming to accept needs a medium that gives us 24-hour access to information and resources that let us check our facts.
But much as the ancient world had personal Gods that spoke to prophets and oracles and the Renaissance had Luther declaring "let no priest come between a man and his God," our age also will offer new spiritual directions. It stands to reason that if we have new options for relating to information and new ways of relating to one another, new ways of thinking might be applied to spiritual ideas as well.
Our lay service committee spent a lot of time discussing people's fears about technology. To be honest, I don't really have any. The internet doesn't scare me any more than the printing press does. I think this digital age of ours gives us more choices. And even if some make self destructive or even evil choices, having choice is better than not.
But while the technology itself doesn't scare me, a couple of the possible theological responses to the technology do.
The more obvious of the two is fundamentalism. It seems to me that the world has for some time been in the grip of another iteration of the Great Awakening. People find the choices too scary and want to be told what to do and what to believe, so they reach out for fundamentalism. I'm sure you can think of examples of people who have fled for the comforts of certainty, but I'm guessing that no one in this room considers him or herself particularly susceptible to that.
My other concern is a little harder to explain.
In Norton Juster's delightful mathematical romanace "the Dot and the Line," it's said of the Dot "And she suddenly realized that what she thought was freedom and joy was nothing but anarchy and sloth." Freedom and Joy, and Anarchy and Sloth can easily be confused. I call that confusion "Whateverism", and I am very nervous about people using our chaotic, option-filled universe as a justification for adopting it as a theological approach.
"Whateverism" seems a real possibility for those of us who have accepted the Chaotic as a reality. Unitarian Universalism is based on the freedom of the individual to come to his or her own religious conclusions, a basis which builds in toleration of other religious beliefs. However, it also requires of us that we refuse to tolerate oppression - the refusal to allow that freedom to others. That is the proper limit of toleration.
The limit of toleration is not, on the other hand, the limit of criticism. I think we tend to confuse legitimate criticism with intolerance. It is important to be willing to make a distinction between toleration and approval, to choose between the bad and the good, the better and the best. Tolerance is good and necessary in this shrinking, diverse and chaotic world we live in, but we must not give up our freedom to judge wisely in its name.
I realize that what I'm asking here is for us to live an unambiguous life in an ambiguous universe.
I get that it's a lot to ask.
But the human spirit asks, indeed, demands it of us.

The Daily Show's bit on gay marriage.

Hmm

I totally swear there was a rainbow over Northern Virginia the day
after the election.

I love this.

Now that Michelle Obama is a fashion plate, people are clamoring to design her Inaugural Ball Gown.

The Daily Beast decided to let some Project Rumway alumni give it a shot. Of course, they couldn't make it too easy, so the designers could only use Laura Bush’s 2005 Inaugural Ball dress, an American flag, burlap potato sacks and $10 worth of trims

Anyway, the results are here.

CC
who was kinda dissappointed that her big Gay Boyfriend didn't take the contest a little more seriously. No, wait, lots of his serious designs still kinda look like that.

Sleepiness and hope

The building engineer gets into the elevator the same time I do this morning. I yawn.

“Obama?” he asks.

“Yes,” I say, smiling.

“It’s a good day.” He said.

“Yes, it is.”

The elevator doors open and my workday begins.

CC

CC's front yard this morning

10pm -Current liveblog

9:55 IMHO, it's over. Congrats, President Obama. FWIW, he's ahead in the popular vote now.

10:00 Still watching the Senate races...

10:01 Katie Couric is now talking about the race in the past tense. (And she's not wearing pinstripes.)

10:28 CBS just went to Howard University, DC's traditionally black University, where at least hundreds if not thousands of students are cheering and crying and now I'm crying a little too. This is so awesome.

10:58

WAHOO!!!! Thank you, Virginia!!!

11:14 Sniffle. I'm a happy girl.

11:23 I didn't like the beginning of McCain's speech, where he talked about race. But the later part of the speech still seems fine.

Honestly, I've been weepy since CBS showed the students at Howard.

McCain gave a good speech, focusing on Unity. For awhile, I could see the guy whose hand I shook that time.

TheCSO observes "this is NOT the time to give Palin the mike"

They didn't.

11:46 Oh, and come next year, there will be 17 women in the US Senate. Not too shabby.

Students from George Washington University are gathered outside the White House, jumping around and cheering.

9pm

9:10 Damn. Saxby Chambliss is going to win. Come on, Georgia! Get with the program!

9:13 No more Liddy Dole. No more Liddy Dole. Godless heathens rock. OK, I feel better now.

9:15 And theCSO called. Back in a few

8:30

(At eight I was in the car.)

I am now camped out in front of my TV and intend to remain here until I have to go get theCSO from his precinct. As you can see from the photo, Dr. Frank-n-furter is running my research department.

8:33 I have real mixed feelings about Christopher Shays losing in Connecticut, which the exit polls say he will do by a large margin. Radley Balko says of Shays "Shays has a reputation for being “thoughtful” because he makes a public show of agonizing over big, important votes before casting them. Then, almost without fail, he ends up voting the wrong way."

I get that, but at the same time I really liked having some liberal Republicans around and he struck me as a fundamentally good guy.

8:39 Asshat Virginia Incumbent Democrat Jim Moran and Asshat Virginia Incumbent Republican Frank Wolf are both going to win their elections. Sigh. I would have been fine with losing both.

8:44 Right now Obama has slightly under three times McCain's electoral votes, but McCain is actually winning the popular vote. Electoral math. Sigh.

8:50 Forgot to mention, Liddy Dole is going down in North Carolina. Wahoo! Remind me to tell you about the time in my reporter days I gotcha'd her. It was awesome.

8:54 I had the chance to go to some of the big election watch parties and decided to stay home and blog instead. I am 90 percent OK with that decision. But as I watch the black church in Atlanta singing a Dresden Amen as civil rights leader Andrew Young is saying "This is a victory of faith over fear, grace over greed, and vision over violence," I kinda wish I were there.

7pm

I'm not doing well paying attention. It's a good thing I studied this morning. I will have to look over this stuff again.

The professor has asked for election results two more times. I kept my mouth shut.

Some people are already calling VA for Obama. I look forward to doing that, but I'm not ready yet.

CC

6pm

During class, the professor asks "have any states been called yet?"

"No," I respond automatically, thus outing myself as someone who was watching the results, not the professor.

Nice one, Einstein.

We're doing 1016(a)5, which is about taxation of premium bonds. It's making my brain hurt.

As of this moment, Obama's winning Indiana.

CC

5pm

Chili and biscuits is traditional. I think it started at the Kerry election, when theCSO went to work as a poll worker even though he was really sick. I brought him chili for dinner. Since then, I've brought him chili every time he works the polls.

I'm so charmed that he's a poll worker every election. It makes me feel snuggly inside. I'm a sucker for a guy with a sense of civic responsibility.

It was fun to bring him his chili and kiss him hello. He said that the turnout has been immense, even though there were so many absentee voters.

In other news, Ralph Nader and Joe the Plumber are clearly having some sort of contest to see who can be the biggest chode.

CC

4pm

Left work a little early because one of the associates needed some papers dropped off with an attorney who was on my way to school. I managed to drop the papers off without getting lost. I will take my victories where I can get them.

I can tell the anticipation is bugging the anchors on the news channel almost as much as it is bugging me.

CC

3pm

I've written a few more letters and I go hang out with one of the lawyers for a bit.

We talk about the election in general terms, how nasty things have been and how we can see rational reasons to vote either way, so we don't understand why anybody really cares about William Ayers and such. I feel like there are people all over the country having exactly the same conversation.

At some point, the talk moves to our families and she says:

"My mother-in-law and sister-in-law found a plastic surgeon who is having a mother-and-daughter special. By the time I go down for Thanksgiving, they're both going to have new boobs."

Now THAT conversation might be unique to us.

On a more serious note, read this beautiful thing that a Chaliccesseur sent me. Especially if you're voting in Virginia as I did.

CC

2pm

Waiting (and waiting, and waiting) room. Nothing much is happening. I left work, went by the bank and came here for an appointment that should have started fifteen minutes ago.

No news on the election. It's all waiting.

1pm

Sigh. My time is submitted, now I'm returning a few phone calls before I leave for the dentist.

Pardon my lack of groovy politics link this hour. Not much is going on.

CC

Noon

Lunch of the Gods. Of course, I'm dining at my desk because I'm using my lunch hour for the aforementioned dentist appointment.

Here's a list of places that are giving away free stuff to people wearing 'I voted' stickers.

11am

Memo is done. Now I will tweak last month's accounting of my billable hours a bit before I submit it. I am notorious for having spelling mistakes on my bills and while they get corrected before they go out, I still think it looks tacky and I try to prevent it.

The Agitator has a decent slate of election predictions.

10:00am

Good news and bad on the research front. I found a perfectly on-point case--in Oklahoma. Also, it's against us.

I stopped by the associate's office to tell her and she said she didn't think there was any way that opposing counsel would find the case I found. I beamed at the implicit compliment to my research skills and went back to work. I will write my memo now.

In other news, the Barack-Obama-themed-burrito won California Tortilla's mock election, the Obama-themed-omelet won Silver Diner's mock election and the Barack-Obama-themed-ice-cream won Baskin and Robbin's mock election.

And Nate Silver reminds us to ignore exit polls.

CC

9:00 am

One of the associates gave me a difficult research task on a DC case*. I've done the initial research and found that there isn't much on point, but I decided to do it again before I wrote my memorandum to that effect.

As I was working on it, I said out loud, "Damn it! I can't find anything on point."

One of the secretaries looked up "What does 'on point' mean?" she asked.

I walked over to her desk and gave her the five minute talk on the common law, using Scott V. Shephard** as a basis for explaining how the laws on the books don't always give the fairest result and judges need to improvise, then these improvisations become part of the way that area of law is decided.

She did a nice job of faking interest and her responses indicated she understood my explanation. She will be a good paralegal someday if she wants to be.

Then we both got back to work.

Wonkette has New Yorkers talking about lines around the block, but my secretary said that she voted within about 15 minutes this morning.

CC

*Most research tasks on DC cases are fairly difficult as it is a city, not a state, and thus has correspondingly less caselaw. The courts often follow Maryland, but I always spend lots of time trying to find a DC case anyway.

**A prankster tossed a lit firework into a market. It was quickly thrown away to another person and another, and it ended by exploding in the plaintiff’s face.

Even though the prankster wasn't the last to touch the firework, he was liable.
The guy who actually threw the firework at the plaintiff was just trying to get a lit firework away from himself and was not liable.

I find this is a good case for explaining the common law as it is a wacky enough situation that people easily believe that the laws on the books wouldn't quite be equipped to handle it, particularly given that it happened in the 1700s.

8:00 am

And I drive to work. I'm listening to a lecture on Corporations law on CD as I drive. (I'm really not a very good student and have to put this stuff in front of me in multiple formats to do a decent job of picking it up. Tax law is fairly logical but quite complex and corporations law is pretty weird in general.)

Fivethirtyeight.com says the freaky little town in New Hampshire is not predictive of the rest of New Hampshire, to say nothing of the country.

Ah well, to work.

CC

7:00 am

Still at it, more or less.

OK, I took a break to take a shower and get dressed. But yeah.

Now I'm back to reading about depreciation recapture. Trust me, you're happier not knowing.

Still, it's good that I'm getting all this reading done now. I have a dentist appointment over lunch, so I won't get to read then. I always feel like if I don't at least review my reading in the 12 hours prior to class, I will sound like Sarah Palin if I'm called on.

In actual news, for some values of "news", that freaky little town in New Hampshire where everybody votes at midnight went to Obama.

CC

6:00 am

I got back from taking theCSO to the polls and realized that I wasn't going back to sleep. This is actually OK with me as I need to review last week's tax class and what we're talking about tonight.

Had some cheerios, got to work.

I will spare you the details, and thus not betray any misunderstanding I might have of them, and say simply that what we did last week is how one defines a "Capital Asset" and what qualifies as an expensing, depreciating or non-wasting expenditure and what does not. (E.g. If own a meat-packing plant and oil from a nearby refinery starts seeping into the basement of my plant and I repair the walls so this won't happen, was that an ordinary cost of doing business or an investment in the future of my plant.)

CC

An election day in the life of CC

(In which I liveblog an entire day that sure as hell better be historic)




4:58 a.m.
CC: Dude?
TheCSO: Yeah?
CC: What time do you have to be at the polls? Your alarm has been going off for like a weekend.
TheCSO: (thinks) Five a.m.
CC: It's 4:58

By 5:15, he's getting out of my car at the polls.

TheCSO: Love you
CC: Love you. Call me if you need anything.
TheCSO: Will do
CC: And text me to let me know how turnout is looking
TheCSO: Uh huh.

Election Eve and CC can't sleep

Bleh.

There's something rather anticlimactic about having voted already.

Sure, it was convenient. Saturday afternoon, theCSO and I went to the county government center and waited in line for an hour. We talked and I finished The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For which, by the way, rocked.

Virginia allows people who meet one of about a dozen conditions to vote early. We got to vote early because TheCSO will be a poll worker* and I go to school out of state. Not FAR out of state, mind you, but out of state.

The machines were optical scan. Yay! And I even thought to get an extra "I voted!" sticker that I could wear to Starbucks tomorrow.

So that's good.

And it's not like Obama's done anything to change my mind in the last 48 hours.

Indeed, after I voted, I said to theCSO "Now we will go home and hear on the news that Obama tortured a kitten."

TheCSO responded, "If McCain's the alternative, I'm willing to believe the kitten had it coming."

Goodness knows I will be at the polls enough tomorrow. I drop theCSO off at some ungodly hour, then will take him a bowl of chili for dinner on my way to class, then will come to get him after the polls close.

The chili's our tradition.

But it still feels weird that my voting is already done. And I'm not nervous about the election, and indeed kinda tired of other people being nerous about the election, but I still can't sleep.

oh well

CC

*I realize I totally have a nerd fetish, but to me there is something very hot about a man with a sense of civic responsibility.

Keith Olbermann: Not the worst person in the world, but still kind of a tool, IMHO

Ok, so this weekend, SNL had Ben Affleck doing a parody of Keith Olbermann.

I thought it went on too long, but was actually pretty funny.



Olbermann, however, didn't like it so much. His full reaction is here. Basically, him being made fun of is part of a massive conspiracy:

Since spring they've been trying to cajole, sweet-talk, bully, threaten, blackmail, and bribe everybody at NBC from the pages to the presidents to get the milquetoast coverage they want - especially to shut me down.

This reminds me of nothing so much as Michael Moore's claims that his movie Canadian Bacon flopped because of a Hollywood Conspiracy, when the truth of the matter is it sucked.

CC

NOTE: Folks in the comments have mentioned that they think Olbermann was being tongue in cheek here. If so, we're reading it really differently, though Wonkette and New York Magazine and MediaBistro all read it the way I did. That said, I will confess that I don't see why it would remotely be in Conservatives' best interest to shut him down. Much like with Bill O'Reilly on the other side, I doubt he wins over anyone who didn't agree with him in the first place and he serves as a useful example of the evils of the other side to those with disagree with him.

And Olbermann himself certainly doesn't shy away from hinting at violence, so that someone did the same to him is unfortunate, but nothing new.

Well, duh...

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Katharine!

You are a Katharine -- "I am happy and open to new things"

Katharines are energetic, lively, and optimistic. They want to contribute to the world.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Give me companionship, affection, and freedom.


• * Engage with me in stimulating conversation and laughter.


• * Appreciate my grand visions and listen to my stories.


• * Don't try to change my style. Accept me the way I am.


• * Be responsible for youself. I dislike clingy or needy people.


• * Don't tell me what to do.

What I Like About Being a Katharine

• * being optimistic and not letting life's troubles get me down


• * being spontaneous and free-spirited


• * being outspoken and outrageous. It's part of the fun.


• * being generous and trying to make the world a better place


• * having the guts to take risks and to try exciting adventures


• * having such varied interests and abilities

What's Hard About Being a Katharine

• * not having enough time to do all the things I want


• * not completing things I start


• * not being able to profit from the benefits that come from specializing; not making a commitment to a career


• * having a tendency to be ungrounded; getting lost in plans or fantasies


• * feeling confined when I'm in a one-to-one relationship

Katharines as Children Often

• * are action oriented and adventuresome


• * drum up excitement


• * prefer being with other children to being alone


• * finesse their way around adults


• * dream of the freedom they'll have when they grow up

Katharines as Parents

• * are often enthusiastic and generous


• * want their children to be exposed to many adventures in life


• * may be too busy with their own activities to be attentive

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

1...2...3... Aawww...

This might be my favorite story of the election cycle

CC
who loved writing letters like this when she worked with the Kerry campaign.

Check out this cool Jack O'Lantern that TheGnome carved

Sigh.

Reason and Reverence has a nice post up about how Liddy Dole's has an ad about her opponent Kay Hagan EATING DINNER with a guy who works for an atheist PAC and even ACCEPTING CONTRIBUTIONS.

It's not even claimaing that Hagan herself is an athiest. Does merely fraternizing with atheists qualify for an attack ad these days?

While we're talking about hitting below the belt, here's a great commercial that does just that:



CC

Imagine a chubby paralegal doing the happy dance

Chalicechick's least favorite member of the entire legislative branch has been convincted on all seven counts.

Boom shaka laka!

CC
hat tip to Kermit-the-Scott, who Imed me this not knowing how happy it would make me.

Sniffle

Awesome article on Katharine Hepburn, who was CC's childhood hero.

CC

I'm fascinated

by Superstruct. Is anyone else playing?

CC

A different presidential candidate dance-off video

http://view.break.com/592648 - Watch more free videos

I think this one's even better.

CC

Ps. Nate Silver is as skeptical of the Bradley effect as I am.

Way too many election-themed Yo Mama jokes

Yo mama so ugly, Sarah Palin has gone on record as "pro-life, but only because yo mama has already been born."

Yo mama so fat, every year there's a new study that shows French kids can find her on a map but American kids can't

Yo mama so ugly, McCain is offering her a $5000 refundable tax credit for plastic surgery.

Yo mama so fat, the only Supreme Court verdict she wants to overturn is HomeTown Buffet v. Yo Mama.

Yo mama's so ugly, Obama said "You can put lipstick on a pig and it would look a lot like yo mama on dollar margarita night."

Yo mama's so fat, she started her political career in Ayers' kitchen and never left.

Yo mama so slutty, even the McCain campaign won't pull out of her.

Yo moma so fat Russia can see her from *their* house.

CC

Hat tip to Boing Boing

Links of the Awesome and a couple of question

-I am completely addicted to Failblog.org or at least the still photos on it because I never bother to watch the videos.

-An interesting column on Laws named after girls, though the column oddly omits mention of Megan's law, which I would think would be the most famous example.

-Things that make CC shake her head

-Ikea furniture mods

-A question for Moms. Is this as fucked up as I think it is? I mean, you know my feelings on parents who write things about their kids for publication when those things and the parent's willingness to have them published reveal the parent to be completely nuts. (Not even like Dooce-let-me-tell-you-about-my-husband's-prostate-problems-level crazy, more like Ann-Lamott-let-me-sound-creepily-oedipal-level crazy) So obviously I'm not a fan of the publication. But are the feelings themselves and this woman's weird little jihad to find the nine-year-old with a crush on her kid as weird as it sounds to me? I'm seriously thinking her kid is going to one day be one of those guys who can't have a normal relationship until his mom dies.

-Also, I was watching the 1982 BBC version of the Scarlet Pimpernel yesterday because it was apparently French Revolution movie day in my house. The executions in the moved are portrayed as huge public events, with hundreds of people coming to watch. My understanding is that this is historically accurate, and indeed, that public executions were entertainment for thousands of years, since at least the time of Christ.

I know every once in awhile somebody floats the idea of televising someone dying in the electric chair and the idea is soundly shouted down by society as a whole.

So why am I always hearing about how brutal modern society is and how violent video games are going to make us into crueler, nastier people?

Seems to me we're improving.

CC

Sign number 61,907 that John McCain is in serious trouble

From Fivethirtyeight.com:

So a canvasser goes to a woman's door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she's planning to vote for. She isn't sure, has to ask her husband who she's voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, "We're votin' for the n***er!"

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: "We're voting for the n***er."

God bless America.

CC

Obligatory

Everyone's favorite photo of John McCain.

And the proof that it's real

There. I've done my Obama-voter-blogger duty for the day.

CC

Debate Liveblog tonight as well

TheCSO will probably be playing cards with the guys and even I have things I'd rather be doing than watching the debates, but at this point, it seems like the thing to do.

CC

ps. Anybody doing anything fun for election night in the DC area? That sounds like a joke and I am invited to the requisite number of big organization parties, but I'd like to do something smaller. I may liveblog then in a limited sense as I can only really sustain posting every other minute for a couple of hours.

Attention MoveOn

THIS is how you do the "Anti-drug ad parody political ad" and make it FUNNY.




Nice Job.

CC

Hillary Clinton not going to run for President again.

Doesn't expect to be Senate Majority leader, won't be on the Supreme Court.

Sigh.

I'm assuming that now that Obama is beating McCain by like 15 percent among white women, I can say that I think this is a shame without somebody calling me a harridan or anything.

CC

The time CC met John McCain

The summer between college and grad school, I worked at the Department of Commerce. One day I was just coming to work and McCain and an aide were leaving the building.

"Excuse me?" I said. "Senator McCain?"

"Yes?" he said, turning around.

"You're my friend Rob's hero." His face broke into a wide smile. He stepped forward and pumped my hand. "He named his van 'the Straight Talk Express annex," I gushed.

McCain's laugh was deep and genuine.

"That's great to hear." He said. "Tell Rob I said hello. I'd write him a note, but I don't have any paper on me."

Indeed, I didn't either and neither did the aide. So a verbal "hello" was going to have to do.

Senator McCain and I said goodbye.

It's hard to believe that the gracious dude who shook my hand eight years ago has
turned into this guy.

For the record, Rob's an Obama supporter too now.

CC

The last rose of summer

CC's latest bizarre dream

I wake up and I realize I’m late for work. I toss on some clothes and head for the door. When I open my backdoor to the outside, I see with horror that the world is covered in cockroaches. Like every six inches of space in front of me has a cockroach. I turn around to go back inside the house and see that suddenly my house is full of cockroaches, too. So I freak out and I start to run through my neighborhood, not stepping on cockroaches, but trying to get away from them. I run up the street, and down another couple of blocks and soon I’m standing in front of an ocean. There are still cockroaches everywhere and I’m still really scared and icked out.

I jump into the ocean and start to swim under the water. No cockroaches under the water, just a feeling of deep calm. Breathing is apparently not an issue. I swim down deeper and deeper. An Octopus comes up to me. I get the sense that I know this octopus and he and I are good friends. He shows me a garden full of beautiful oysters. I’m not sure what constitutes a beautiful oyster, mind you, but I knew in the dream that they were.

The octopus and I say goodbye but it’s a “catch ya later” sort of goodbye that suggests we will see one another soon. I swim on to an underwater church that I hadn’t been consciously aware of. The church building is rectangular outside but inside it’s a perfect circle and there’s a pedestal in the center with a large clock. And I know it is my job to take care of the clock. I go to the clock and start polishing it as if that was what I had intended to do all along. A monkey hops up to me and starts chattering to me and I talk to him as I’m working. I look around the room as I’m working and I see that there’s a tiger and a lion there too and I get the sense that they also will hang out with me and keep me company.

So I get back to work on the clock.

And then I wake up.

Snerk

CC is bored.

Say something interesting.

CC

Turns out, Oliver had indeed heard of "Fannie Mae" and "Freddie Mac"

During my debate liveblog, I wrote:

9:12 Oliver, an african-american guy, has a question. I find it weird that "most of the people" he knows have had "a difficult time" in this economic crisis. Didn't the crisis start like two weeks ago?
9:13 McCain thinks you might not have heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Yep, he's going for the dumb guy vote. Either that or he's talking to Oliver. Probably not the time to be talking down to black people, Senator.

Turns out that Oliver Clark, the aforementioned Oliver, is a little pissed at McCain's response.

He wrote on his Facebook page:

How did I feel about Sen. McCain stating “You probably never heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac before this.”

Well Senator, I actually did. I like to think of myself as a fairly intelligent person. I have a bachelor degree in Political Science from Tennessee State, so I try to keep myself up to date with current affairs. I have a Master degree in Legal Studies from Southern Illinois University, a few years in law school, and I am currently pursuing a Master in Public Administration from the University of Memphis. In defense of the Senator from Arizona I would say he is an older guy, and may have made an underestimation of my age. Honest mistake. However, it could be because I am a young African-American male. Whatever the case may be it was somewhat condescending regardless of my age to make an assumption regarding whether I was knowledgeable about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.


In all fairness, I am still not sure that McCain was specifically referring to Oliver. He might well have been saying that most Americans haven't heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which still sounds snotty and wrong.

But he certainly answered in the sort of overly-sweet tone of voice that lots of people use when talking to, well, old people like McCain.

CC
Hat tip to Wonkette

That (one) was fast

Click here if you need the t-shirt

CC
who, snottiness-wise, was bothered more by the tone McCain took with Oliver than the "That one" bit, though I admit the "that one" bit makes a better soundbyte. Obama managed to actually answer Oliver's question and talk to him like he was a reasonable person, so score two for "That One."

Debate liveblog

9:00 No pinstripes on Katie tonight. You're welcome
9:01 I would totally lie and claim to be an "undecided voter" to get on one of these things. I wonder how many of these folks did.
9:03 The "No one's allowed to make noise, except now" thing reminds me of the Service of the Living Tradition every time.
9:04 Brokaw says many of the questions tonight are about the economy. The first one comes from a guy with an awesome accent.
9:05 I LOVE that Obama brought up AIG.
9:06 McCain felt at his pockets as if he couldn't find his keys. It was weird. McCain likes energy independence, he just doesn't, you know, bother to VOTE for it when he has the chance because that would mean showing up.
9:07 Everybody likes the bailout. Sigh.
9:08 Brokaw asks each candidate to name a treasury secretary nominee. OH GOSH, BROKAW'S ASKING FOR SPECIFICS! WHAT DO WE DO? McCain wants someone America admires and trusts. Judge Judy for treasury secretary!
9:10 I kid, McCain likes Meg Whitman from Ebay, Obama likes Warren Buffett.
9:12 Oliver, an african-american guy, has a question. I find it weird that "most of the people" he knows have had "a difficult time" in this economic crisis. Didn't the crisis start like two weeks ago?
9:13 McCain thinks you might not have heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Yep, he's going for the dumb guy vote. Either that or he's talking to Oliver. Probably not the time to be talking down to black people, Senator.
9:14 THECSO says: McCain just started talking about Fannie and Freddie's "risky loans" they started making. (I was wrong here. Turns out they DID buy a bunch of Alt-A paper.)
9:16 CC again: Obama is confident about the American economy. That makes one of us.
9:17 Brokaw: Is the economy going to get worse before it gets better?
TheCSO: Man, I wish Ron Paul were here to answer that. He'd be like "yep."
9:18 McCain likes American workers. Did you know that?
9:19 I don't like this undecided voter. She wears Sarah Palin glasses and she can't speak. Wait a sec... Sarah? Is that you?
9:20 "When George Bush came into office, we had surplus..." Obama says. It's that whole "Largest economic expansion in the nation's history" thing I was talking about when Hillary Clinton was running.
9:21 Speaking of Clintons, remember how Bill was the governor of Arkansas and he was running against a dude who had been director of the CIA and Ambassador of the UN, and he didn't seem to remotely think that Foreign Policy questions that were unfair in the least? Those were the days. Oh, yeah, McCain is talking...
9:22 McCain had the chance to say "Maverick" and didn't. I think that means all of y'all have to spit a drink out...
9:23 McCain LOVES that energy independence that he couldn't be bothered to show up to vote for.
9:24 Try to keep up, McCain. It's a debate. I like how he can fix entitlements, health care and energy problem, he just can't pick up his damn cellphone from the campaign trail to work on the bailout. That has to be the political equivalent of walking and chewing gum.
9:25 Obama knows how much gasoline is going for in Nashville today. Nice one, Senator.
9:28 Brokaw-Don't make jokes about the economy.
9:29 If we're paying 6.8 billion dollars for airforce tankers, that puts an interesting perspective on the 700 billion bailout.
9:30 Oh please don't bring up 9-11, Obama...
9:31 TheCSO is reading a twitter feed that has funnier jokes than this liveblog. Jealous.
9:32 TheCSO and I are confused by the whole "Town hall is McCain's format" claims. He's fumbling a lot more than Obama is.
9:34 Lisa wrote in the comments ""Every time Obama says, "And just one more thing," I imagine Tom Brokow giving him dirty looks and pointing to his watch."" Snerk.
9:35 She also asked about McCain's "rifle" comment. I think the idea is that a rifle is a precision instrument compared to a shotgun. It's McCain's version of Obama's "scalpel vs. hammer"
9:36 TheCSO offers more perspective on the size of the bailout: This year's budget for the Fairfax County Public Schools: 2.2 Billion
9:39 Cubit says: "Every time McCain pumps his fist, I'm reminded of one of those members of the lollipop guild welcoming you to munchkinland. " That's right kids, make me laugh, and I will put you in the liveblog.
9:41 McCain is now repeating his talking points.
9:42 What we need is a commission! And recommendations! If this whole president thing doesn't work out, McCain so has a job waiting for him at the UUA.
9:43 "If you talk too long, you don't have to answer followup questions" is NOT a good precedent to be setting. Oh, and do you know where we get the majority of our oil? The top supplier of oil to America is: Big bad terrorist Canada.
9:44 For the first time in history, a Republican just used "the French do it" as a justification for doing something. McCain doesn't like Spain, but he loves those cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
9:45 TheCSO says: Brokaw needs a gong.
9:46 Manhattan Project vs. Garages is an interesting question.
9:49 McCain doesn't answer, and doesn't do so in an annoying way.
9:51 Health care question, sorry, I'm zoning. But here's a fun fact: All those earmarks McCain is always talking about add up to 16 billion. So cut out earmarks and you could take that money and run one (admittedly large and wealthy, but still...) school district in Va for slightly more than seven years.
9:56 TheCSO points out that healthcare across state lines will just drive all healthcare to the place with the fewest regulations and the friendliest courts. Like banking.
9:57 Hairplug jokes. Ai yi yi.
9:58 Obama just brought up TheCSO's point about healthcare across state lines, and no more eloquently than theCSO did. TheCSO and I did this awesome little happy dance.
10:01 McCain has supported every Goddamned war ever. He calls this "good judgment"
10:03 Oh, please Obama, use "I don't understand" as a repeating theme and hit all of the things McCain has done that he doesn't understand a la John Travolta in "Primary Colors." Please?
10:04 Damn. He's not going to do it. Us Kathy Bates movie fans never get any respect.
10:05 Ok, even the "Obama DOCTRINE" even sounds sexy.
10:06 Obama brought up Hitler. Debate's over.
10:06 TheCSO asks "If we're opposed to 'ethnic cleansing,' why use such a happy term for it?"
10:09 Pakistan question. Obama hitting the Bin Laden button again, which I understand.
10:11 Three minutes ago, McCain's hero was Reagan. Now it's Teddy Roosevelt. Flip-flopper.
10:13 Who were these Afghan freedom fighters again? Could someone remind me? Senator Obama? Do you know?
10:14 As far as theCSO and I can figure out, McCain is in favor of attacking anybody Obama isn't.
10:15 Obama's taking the "speaking softly" bit and running with it. Yeah, bring on the snark.
10:16 I think the point is that you were joking about Iran when lives are at stake, McCain. Who we were joking with isn't the point.
10:17 TheCSO and I again wish Ron Paul was here, this time to answer the "reorganizing Afghanistan" question.
10:20 Sorry, I'm zoning on the Russia question. I think I'm still on the fact that McCain knows how to get Bin Laden, but won't tell.
10:24 Tom Brokaw asked yes or no question. If McCain had left it at "Maybe," I would totally have given him the point. As it was, his answer was like three times the length of Obama.
10:25 The next question is being asked by a very pink man named Terry who has been in the Navy. I bet those were rough years. Anyway, he wants to know what we should do if Iran invades Israel.
10:26 McCain respects Terry, but not enough to actually answer his question.
10:27 McCain is against holocausts.
10:28 Obama seems to get the "Umm...yeah. Israel is our strongest ally" point and his answer is a damn sight tougher than McCain's point.
10:30 Obama just made the first actually funny joke of these three debates.
10:32 The business of America may or may not be business, Senator McCain, but it's certainly not war.
10:33 When I think of "steady hands for the tiller" or indeed "steady hands" at all, John McCain does NOT come to mind.
10:34 I am planning to vote for Obama, it's true. But I haven't called either of the previous debates for the Democrat. I'm calling this one. I think McCain had his ass handed to him. I was really impressed by both candidates, though. There wasn't really any mudslinging though McCain was kind of a dick with the "that one" bit.

At the same time, I wish we could have a few followup questions. Obama came off a lot better, but neither of them had to answer questions that were particularly hard. I'm aware that I'm mostly making my call based on image. Obama watched McCain the whole time and McCain wandered around. Obama was willing to talk about Israel and McCain danced around it.

And honestly, the Israel question was an easy one.

Seriously, is "We're not taking any options off the table" such a hard answer when you're the REPUBLICAN?

On the cosmetics, Obama kicked ass. McCain didn't have any more substance, though.

As much as I appreciate Brokaw letting McCain drone on like a weird old man, I think next debate the lights should be where the TV cameras can see them.

Debate liveblogging again tonight.

I'm guessing none of the usual suspects will make it tonight, but theCSO and I at least will be watching the debates from here and providing our usual commentary.

My church has a non-partisan debate-watching party tonight, and the temptation to do "town-hall-style-liveblogging" with lots of people's comments is there, but don't know that I can handle that and still have my comments appear as the debate goes on. I will probably just liveblog from home as my liveblogging pretty much consists of me typing stream-of-consciousness for an hour and a half with occaisional pauses to google something and/or get more alcohol and isn't precisely a social activity.

Folks from my church, who have become increasingly aware of the Chaliceblog, will likely be commenting, though, and of course I would love it if you commented too.

CC

CC Caught Stalking Andrew Sullivan

A Chalicesseur who has met me IRL noticed this on Andrew Sullivan's blog. Yes, the girl stalking Andrew looks like a skinnier me, though regrettably not right now because the person to last cut my hair cut my bangs too short, so I have an expanse of forehead like the wide open prairie.

Like most problems, of course, this will be solved by time.

But anyway, yeah, otherwise it's totally me. Reddish-brownish hair, brown sweater, glasses and hanging out like a block from where I go to law school, assuming that that window is facing up New Jersey Avenue. Clearly I am Sullivan's stalker.

Call me, Andrew!

CC

Weird dream I had last night

I was staying in a palatial bedroom in a beautiful country inn. The place was immensely cluttered with music boxes and figurines in a very lavish style. The bed was blonde wood with a thick comforter and soft white sheets with small flowers on them. I had just woken up and I was sitting in bed looking at the room when an alarm clock next to me started to go off. I turned it off. A moment later, a second alarm clock on the other side of the bed started to go off. I turned that one off, too.

Seconds later, a third alarm clock goes off some distance away. I stumbled out of bed, find it and turn it off. Again, and again, an alarm clock would ring, I would furiously shuffle through the elegant clutter and find it and turn it off, only to enjoy only a moment of silence before the next clock would start to ring across the room...

And then I woke up to find my actual alarm clock going off.

CC

I do get that this is a total long shot

I had somehow missed that Bouchercon, the world mystery writers' convention is happening forty miles away this year.

I'm planning to go. At this point, I am unsure whether I will be spending the night (hella expensive) or commuting ((hella inconvenient, particularly given that Margaret Maron (swoon) is speaking on a panel called "TOYS IN THE ATTIC: After guns, knives, poisons and blunt instruments, what?" at 8:30 Saturday morning)).

Is anybody going? It would be fun to have someone to hang out with there. It seems so big (like roughly the size of GA) that I'm slightly nervous about going entirely alone.

CC
who also sees that assuming she misses no law school classes, she can only be there for half the con anyway so is also partially tempted to just give up and plan better to go to Indianapolis for next year's convention. She's pretty sure, after all, that Margaret Maron, Lori R. King and Laura Lippmann go every year.

OK, fine, one more on Sinkford and Ahmadinejad

I actually thought I was done with this topic. Completely disgusted, yet done. A very smart and sensitive minister of my acquaintance has advised me to put together a letter on this and try to convince people to sign it, but I know me and that's exactly the sort of project I start with enthusiasm and embarass myself by flaking on.

Anyway, what aqueezed one more post out of me was Ms. Kitty linking to this, an article on the Fellowship of Reconciliation website about reactions to the meeting. What gets me is that a Catholic peace worker who participated mentions in his letter that he understands why the questions had to be "filtered."

So basically, Ahmadinejad picked the questions he wanted to answer, knew in advance what they would be and had his glib little answers all prepared.

It wasn't even amateur diplomacy, kids, it was theatre, with Sinkford cheerfully playing the part that the man who stones people to death let him play.

And then saying he couldn't imagine President Bush doing the same thing.*

Actually, President Bush uses PR opportunities where only selected people are allowed to ask selected questions all the time.

It's just that liberals generally have the sense not to play along, and nobody calls Jeff Gannon "courageous."

I am so sick of hearing about Sinkford's "courage."

You people DO know that even if you are actually speaking out against Ahmadinejad as opposed to helping him, he can only have people who disagree with him killed back in his home country, right?

CC

*Again, I'm not a Bush fan, but that was INCREDIBLY inappropriate, though I'm sure it made Ahmadinejad's day. That bitter little statement more than anything else says to me that this was primarily an ego thing for Sinkford.

Ps. Would someone please mention this on the ministers' chat? The one non-blogging minister I talked to about this was pretty horrified, but hadn't heard about it since these days most people pretty much ignore Press Releases from the UUA about what a great guy Sinkford is for doing something political.

An even better BarackRolling

Steve Caldwell pointed this one out to me. It's even better.

Obama fans, this will make your day.



CC

At a book signing where Tom Tommorrow is.

IF you're reading this before 4:15 or so eastern time on Saturday

AND you know me well enough to have my cell number or get it off my
facebook page or are friends with someone who meets that description
who will vouch for you,

AND you would like a signed book and are good for the cost of same.

Call me and we will work out the details.

CC
Sitting in a hotel bar at a comics convention and studying, but
willing to trek back through the exhibit hall if it's really important
to somebody.

Sent from my iPhone

Grossest fast food item ever

You've been Barackrolled!

Well, not yet, but click the link.



I am amazed that people have this much free time, but I will admit that the result is pretty cool.

CC

Vice Presidential Debate Liveblog

8:58 First, the good news. Like Catholic University Law School, Canada is apparently easy to get into.
9:00 May I say that Katie Couric is rocking those pinstripes. She's watching the debates with Bob Schaeffer and some guy who looks like Bill Gates. Ah. Jeff Greenfield.
9:01 Jeff Greenfield wants to know "which Palin" and "Which Biden" will show up. I'll settle for deer-in-the-headlights Palin and ANY Biden, though obviously folksy, smart, Biden is preferable.
9:02 HATED Palin blowing a kiss to the audience and saying "Can I call you Joe?" this will be a long night.
9:03 Cerulean says Biden sounds like he hasn't slept in awhile. I concur.
9:04 Biden has four criteria and he is slowly going through them. He has been prepared.
9:05 After three minutes of listening to Biden, I feel like *I* haven't gotten much sleep recently.
9:08 Like her running mate, Palin also likes the American worker.
9:09 Does anybody remember that “Married with Children” episode where Kelly is going to be on a sports quiz show and they fill her head so full of sports knowledge that she comes off as sort of robotic on the show and forgets a game her own father played in? This is how Palin is coming off
9:10 “Darn right it is” Folksy and kinda cute. Good one, Sarah.
9:11 Joel asks in the comments if Palin's accent is coming off as less strong. He's right. It is.
9:12 Both Biden and Palin are doing well.
9:13 I kinda liked the gas station story. Good one, Senator.
9:14 Want to drink every time Palin says "Darn right."
9:15 None of us are entirely sure what a "budgetary procedural vote" is.
9:16 Fuck, she's doing well. I hate it when my anxieties come true.
9:17 The "class warfare" question was an interesting one but kind of a gimmie for Biden. Lots of people LIKE class warfare. I don't think anybody likes fewer people getting insured.
9:18 Biden has funny-looking eyes. Unless I missed something, Palin seems to have just conflated personal and business taxes.
9:19 Palin appears to be ignoring Biden and reading her notes.
9:20 "Ultimate Bridge to Nowhere" snerk.
9:21 This is funny. Ifill is trying Lehrer's question from last week again. TheCSO points out the Biden is coming CLOSER to answering it than anyone has. And he's bringing up health care.
9:22 Palin is saying the McCain doesn't flip flop.
9:23 Cerulean says that Palin keeps moving the coversation back to Energy because the McCain Health Care plan is "What? Me Worry?"
Also, I have never felt moved to say "Bless their hearts," about energy company CEOs
9:26 John McCain warned us about the upcoming crisis. Didn't do a Goddamned thing, but hey America, he told you so.
9:29 She cannot stop moving the subject back to the energy. FortiesGirl just yelled: "Biden's misquoting McCain! Why won't she talk about what she really said?" and the rest of the room went "Because she doesn't know!" in unison.
9:30 What was the question about? Even I have totally lost track. Fuck. I think that means Palin wins.
9:35 Joe Biden, NEVER SMILE AGAIN. And Sarah, if you must use the word "Rape" casually, don't grin while doing so.
9:36 I am already sick of the "Your guy voted for _________ X number of times" accusation format.
9:37 Palin says no one in the McCain administration would do anything to prevent hospital visitation rights for gay couples. Jana-who-creates is like "Yeah, they would."
I tend to agree.
9:38 AWESOME.
9:39 A smart guy in the comments just asked "Why does she support carbon caps if she's not willing to admit that CO2 emissions cause global warming? Biden should have pushed harder on that. " Good call.
9:41 I'm still on Palin being for civil rights for gays. This is me reeling. They're talking about Iraq.
9:42 I've got three engineers and a chick who went to Brown with me and we're all confused about who voted for what when.
9:43 Stop smiling, Joe Biden. Gah, Palin is doing well. This sucks. I wish I'd decided to drink after all.
9:44 "As my mother would say, 'God love him" I AM SO SICK OF FOLKSY.
9:45 Obviously Pakistan's the bigger threat. Thanks to Sinkford's friendly smile, we're BFFs with Iran now.
9:47 ACK! Palin can't say "Nuclear" either. But she did a respectable job on "Ahmadinijad"
9:50 If we keep talking about Ahmadinijad, I'm going to get all mad at Bill Sinkford.
9:51 I love that John McCain hates Spain. It's Penelope Cruz's acting, isn't it?
9:52 MUST GET DRINK. Back in a sec.
9:53 OK, that helps. OK, Palin is encouraged that we "both love Israel." Everyone else has gone downstairs for gin. I assume. Oh, actually fajitas. I whould have gone for gin.
9:54 Biden wants to know how McCain's foreign policies will differ from George Bush's. In all fairness, he's not giving specifics on how OBAMA's positions will differ.
9:57 Jana just brought me gin. Whew. Why is it so wrong of Biden to mention that we're blowing up stuff? We are.
10:01 Props to Biden for brnging up Darfur. Blogger.com keeps freezing up on me.
10:02 Palin just mentioned that she sure is a Washington outsider. Ayup.
10:04 Oh, and the test ban treaty keeps us from doing some pretty cool nuclear powered-spaceships. Just sayin'
10:05 Ifill wants to know what would happen if the president died. I'm betting both VP candidates will carry on because their running mates' policies are so darn great.
10:07 Palin is smiling too much at the idea of assassination. OK, now she's not.
10:08 Palin is starting to spew random talking points. Finally. But IMHO she's not slipping fast enough.
10:11 See, Gwen? The people LIKE class warfare!
10:12 Sarah Palin winked agian. Sigh.
10:13 We kinda hated hearing about how kids are getting extra credit, but it was effective.
10:14 Gwen Ifill is not impressing me. In the NYT, Gene Healy's much better version of the question she just asked was The claim by Dick Cheney that he was exempt from certain disclosure requirements because the vice president was a “legislative officer” has been greeted with outrage. But the main power the Constitution grants the vice president is a legislative one — breaking a tie vote in the Senate.

So, Governor Palin, Senator Biden, doesn’t Mr. Cheney have a point?

But, then, if the vice president is a legislative officer, how can he wield the vast executive powers that Mr. Cheney has exercised, including orchestrating and supervising a warrantless wiretapping program?

Can the vice president shift between branches at his convenience? If not, what, in your view, is the constitutional status of the vice presidency?

10:15 OK, she's asking it now, by bad for dissing Gwen. Ok, she's sort of asking it.
10:16 Palin is now answering a really roundabout fashion.
10:17 OK, Biden is getting cranky. Go Biden! Get cranky in Cheney's general direction!
10:18 Yes, Joel, she's trying to channel Reagan. Oh, and yeah, Gwen Ifill asks easy questions.
10:19 "Shining city on a hill, as President Reagan said." Jana, bring me more gin.
10:21 I swear to God, Palin just said of McCain "He's the man we need to leave...err...lead."
10:23 Joe Biden is talking and the rest of the room is talking about Lieberman.
10:24 Gwen Ifill is treating this like a job interview. Which, it is, I suppose. But Katie Couric actually asked harder questions.
10:25 Palin has no regrets, Bush style. Also, she's never had to compromise, because she's so good at compromising. I don't get it either.
10:27 Palin looks really uncomfortable and like she wants to go home.
10:28 "Don't question people's motives, question their judgement" is good advice for living. But damn. I'm not inspired.
10:29 Palin likes to answer "tough questions." Sigh.
10:30 Palin's closing speech was good. I'm glad Biden's going last.
10:32 Biden's closing speech was also good. Whew.

UPDATE: CBS's uncommitted voters came down as a win for Biden. CNN calls it "jabs but no knockouts." I guess they weren't expecting Palin to suck as much as I was expecting her to. And it's true that she didn't do a great job of answering the questions that were asked but she faked her way through well enough.

Three hours pre-debate, I'm getting nervous

At this point, I worry that expectations for a Palin loss are so high that anything less than her bolting from the stage will be regarded as a victory.

Oh well. We will see.

CC

FWIW

I was G-chatting with a friend about the Sinkford-honored-to-meet-with-Dude-who-believes-in-stoning-people-to-death issue and as part of my explanation of why it made me so upset, I linked to this old post.

For newer readers, that I was sick of this and writing things like that two and a half years ago might add some perspective on how long running my objection to the UUA's immersion in politics has been and why it bugs me so much when Sinkford helps a tyrant with his PR.

I have to believe the next UUA president won't be like this.

CC

Ps. Someone who agrees with me, but is far more rational on the subject has posted here.

Live blogging tonight

The Usual Suspects (sans Smiley Dave, Zombiekid and TheGnome) will be over tonight to eat fajitas and watch the debate and there will be livebloggage as I steal their jokes.

I've decided not to drink every time I hear the word Alaska, since the sheer amount of Red Bull in my system alone makes me more susceptible to alcohol poisoning.

Anyway, coverage will start as soon as I can get home from class, though I'm stopping at the store on the way.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but sincerely wanting the debate to go like this:



CC
who honestly thinks "What's another Supreme Court decision you disagree with?" is the political interview equivilent of those SNL Celebrity Jeopardy sketches where the categories have titles like "Black Comedians Named Whoopi"

Response to Ms. Kitty.

Ms Kitty is also writing about Sinkford's meeting with the president of Iran. She asks what would Jesus do? or Gandhi? or Martin Luther King Jr.? or Michael Servetus? or Francis David? or, to throw in a few women, what would Joan of Arc do?

As far as I can tell, if they had been asked to meet with a tyrant who abused his people and dropped strong pro-genocide hints (if you believe his claim that the whole "wipe Isreal of the map" bit was a misunderstanding):

Jesus would have used that "presto-change-o abandon your wives and children and possessions and follow me" power that he used on the fishermen.

Gandhi would have met with him, expressed his utter disgust with a wit and cleverness that would have been quoted worldwide, then gone home to fast and recover from the experience.

Martin Luther King, Jr. would have made him listen to the sermon of his life.

Servetus would have treated him with utter contempt and rudeness, and given him a lecture on bible that would have left him extremely confused.

Francis David would have explained to him that killing people who disagreed was unneccessary, probably in strong terms as that issue was pretty personal to him.

And Joan of Arc? Would have kicked his ass. Because she was an army leader and that's what army leaders do best.

But I'm betting NONE of them would have met him on friendly terms then put out a masturbatory press release about how "honored" they were.

CC

CC goes off on Sinkford meeting with Ahmadinejad.

Remember when I was asking the question "How do cultures that mistreat women fit into the general theory that all cultures are equal and should all be respected and not judged by white American standards?" hoping to get an answer from antiracist folks and the only people who even really TRIED to give me an answer were non-UUs?

Well, I kinda wish we had tried to answer that before Sinkford met with the President of Iran and put that wonderful news all over UUA.org.

Now the UUA press release does note that Sinkford asked about the treatment of women and got the standard bullshit answer, which the press release cheerfully parrots back "He also spoke about the Iranian belief that women are the essence of society’s beauty and kindness, and said that Iranians do not want women to work too hard, in fear that their spirit will be broken and that this will destroy society’s beauty."*

I guess I'm glad Sinkford asked, though it's not like is question did anyone any good, but what the fuck?

The Press release was rife with the usual snottiness that accompanies this sort of issue "Bruce Knotts, who is a retired United States diplomat, understood the significance of this meeting..." I'm guessing that because I disagree with Sinkford attending that meeting, I must not understand it.

Sigh.

I don't care so much if Obama meets with him, though I'd personally rather he didn't in that I tend to think that when the President of the United States meets with somebody it makes them look legitimate. That said, a real diplomatic negotiation might theoretically do some good unlike the previous years of negotiations that haven't.

But Sinkford meeting with him is just crazy. I mean do we want to be the religion with a mind so open its brains fall out?

And of course, we all hate President Bush so much that Sinkford had to negatively compare him to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad under the apparent theory that President Bush never answers softball questions from fawning religious leaders.

I don't like President Bush at all. I find pretty much nothing redeeming in the man. But he is NOT a holocaust-denying murderous freak who persecutes minority religions and pretty much anyone who disagress with him and wants Isreal wiped off the map.

I CAN NOT WAIT for a new UUA President and I really, really hope that neither Hallman nor Morales have the inclination to do things like this in the name of my religion, and by extension, me.

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Hat tip to Peacebang, whose response was considerably more restrained. Until it wasn't. But that's even better, because even UUs need a bit of hellfire and brimstone every now and again.

*The Press release also cheerfully recounts that the Iran's government is committed to wind and solar power! The Iranian people will be so pleased to read this press release should they ever be allowed to use an internet connection uncensored enough to let them to see UUA.org.

How to make somebody's day

FWIW, a very kind friend sent theCSO and I an arrangement from these guys.

It was SO beautiful and awesome and he and I and FortiesGirl and Cerluean have just about eaten it up.

It was such a cool alternative to sending flowers!

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A YRUU class we did recently that went really well

This year our church's spiffy youth ministry coordinator, TogetherBeth, has us working out of the "Building your Own Theology" curriculum and it has been going really well. We had an amazing class a week and a half ago that I meant to write about before theCSO's accident started taking up all my time and attention.

We gave the youth paper and markers and had them draw "How I saw God when I was a kid" and "How I see God now." It was pretty fascinating to see what people came up with.

In the interest of maintaining their privacy, I only photographed my own drawing, but several youth drew a God figure that was highly influence by the "buddy Jesus" from Dogma. There were lots of old men in the sky, of course. Conversely, a few people drew God as being scary.

As you can see, mine was a little different. When I was a kid, I knew from picture books that God had a beard. Now the only person I knew with a beard was Rev. Thompson, the associate pastor at my parents' church. And HE talked about what God wanted us to do all the time, as he stood at the pulpit in long flowing robes.

So at about four years of age, I was convinced that the Reverend Thompson was actually God. My parents denied this, so I remember thinking that Rev. Thompson was SECRETLY God, the way Bruce Wayne was SECRETLY Batman.

Obviously, I got over this at some point.

My "how I see God now" picture was of an apple falling, a reference to how I see Gravity as the most useful metaphor for God. Most of the youth saw God in either nature or the connections between people, though the majority of the group considered themselves theist in one sense or another. We talked about the differing ways people see God and and found a certain amount of common ground. It was interesting how we really didn't have much in the way of actual atheists in the group, though I did mention atheism and how an atheist can still appreciate some of the things theists see God in.

It was really neat stuff, y'all.

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