The Big Picture has a fascinating set of photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Well worth looking at.

I have wanted an e-reader since before such a thing was much more than the dream of sci-fi writers. When the Kindle came out, I was excited, until I held one and then discovered if I wanted to use any number of common formats, I’d have to pay Amazon to convert them for me … and they’d lose some important formating. Oh, and the whole paying-way-too-much-for-abridged-e-books-from-Amazon angle was annoying too. In short, my excitement about the Kindle died about a week after it was out in the wild. I’ve been waiting patiently for someone to come up with something better, but so far, no luck.

Well, someone is coming up with something better, and the prototype they have unveiled is wicked cool.

I want one. I want one now.

I grabbed this image off the web cam pointed at Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas. That lake there? It’s the parking lot.

I have got to clear off my desktop, so here are a collection of links I intended to get back to and post but never did. In no particular order either. I’m going to open the link, determine if it’s even worthy of posting anymore, and post or not post it. I’m in a hurry. I want to get out of the house and enjoy they day … and save my husband from overdosing on TV news.

The Sarah Palin FAQ

Court: US can block mad cow testing

58 Signs of Alien Abduction

McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin

An Apostle of Alaska

Campaign Tests Giuliani-McCain Friendship

Think Again: The Costs of Enforced Sexual Ignorance

Cats on a bank-owned roof: Bobcats claim foreclosed house

Obama and McCain Tax Proposals

Obama Lists His Earmarks, Asking Clinton for Hers

Palin’s Small Alaska Town Secured Big Federal Funds

Jewish voters may be wary of Palin

Palin on Running Wasilla

Is the McCain-Palin Campaign Violating Operational Security?

Cats for Obama

Feminists for (Fetal) Life

Barack Obama Answers Science Debate 2008

Texas still leads nation in rate of uninsured residents

What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan’s Perspective.

Lookie there! I do have a photo on my desktop, and now I can see it! Time to go have fun. I’m sick of listening to the talking heads on the TV driving my husband insane. He needs to get out of the house, and so do I.

Party platform reading is never fun. They are long. They tend to be tedious. All the same, it’s important to read them. In November, when one party’s candidate takes the required number of electoral votes and wins the presidency, it isn’t just that person American voters are voting into power. It’s also that person’s party platform, a document all party members, elected or not, are expected to adhere to, fight for, and promote, whether they personally believe these things or not. Therefore, anyone who cares what direction their government will be taking in the future should at least give them at least a cursory look.

Today, I am reading the Republican Party Platform (pdf), and will point out things that annoy me as I run across them.

Most of the things they are complaining about and believe should be changed are, in fact, things the Republicans could have very well changed at any time when they were in power. The Budget Act of 1974 is an excellent example. They don’t like it. They want to change it. Well, why haven’t they done so at some point since 1974? It appears they would have me believe that at no time since then their party hasn’t had the power or the votes to do so. They have, and they simply chose not to bother. Until now, of course.

They are also in favor of adopting the Balanced Budget Amendment. Hey, me too! Alas, they have an added caveat to their support of having a balance budget: “except in time of war.” That caveat wouldn’t mean much, if we were at war right now and expecting to be at war somewhere with someone for quite a while to come. Therefore, their support of the Balanced Budget Amendment is just so much lip-service.

Then there’s a statement that confused me.

Additionally, as important as returning power to the states is returning power to the people. As the Declaration of Independence states, our rights are endowed to us by our Creator and are inalienable: rights to life, liberty, and property.

I have more than a passing familiarity with American history and historical documents. The Declaration of Independence does not mention property. “Life, liberty, and property” appears in the Declaration of Colonial Rights, a document that predated the Declaration of Independence. When the Declaration of Independence was written, “property” was changed to “pursuit of happiness” for reasons perhaps only Jefferson knows, though it has been thought it was to broaden the scope of our inalienable rights. Anyway, misquoting the Declaration of Independence is, in fact, ignorant — about as ignorant as thinking the founding fathers had anything to do with the Pledge of Allegiance.

The job of modernizing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid calls for bipartisanship, not political posturing. Through the last four presidential terms, we have sought that cooperation, but it has not been forthcoming.

How is it the Republican Party can have control of both the House and the Senate, as well as the Presidency, and they still can’t do what Bush said they were going to do when he first got into office? I am not at all for any of the changes to these programs Bush set out to changed, but I fail to see why they failed to get this accomplished when they had full control of everything. I know they’d like us to forget they were ever in control of two branches of the government, but they were.

And that brings me to page 79 of 120. There are a few more things from the first 79 pages I want to mention, but they tie in with things mentioned further on in the document, so I’ll save them for later. Also, I’m not posting everything. Not even close. These are just the things that inspired me enough to type them out. I encourage everyone who plans to vote in November to read both party platforms for themselves and draw their own conclusions.

Enough reading for now. I want to go peel my husband’s butt off the couch and go do something fun. He’s been glued to the TV news this whole time, and he needs to do something other than listen to talking heads all day. I’m going to try to finish the Republican Party Platform later today, so I can get to the Democratic one tomorrow, but no guarantees on that. I might end up having too much fun this afternoon, which would be a good thing. Too much politics can rot the brain anyway.

This is really old news, but I just ran across it, and it bears mentioning.

In April of 2006, McCain was speaking to members of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department. When he started talking about immigrant migrant workers doing jobs Americans wouldn’t do, the crowd turned on him. There were shouts of “Pay a decent wage!” I guess he didn’t consider his audience when crafting his speech. Then he said the following:

“You know I’ve heard that statement before. Now, my friends, I’ll offer anybody here fifty dollars an hour if you’ll go pick lettuce in Yuma this season and pick for the whole season. So, ok, sign up! Ok, when you sign up, you sign up, and you’ll be there for the whole season, the whole season, ok, not just one day. Because you can’t do it, my friend.”

First off, it’s really just one more example of how out of touch McCain is with the real world. Surely he doesn’t think the people picking lettuce in Yuma make anything close to $50 an hour, does he? More like $50 a day, if they work for someone who actually bothers to pay minimum wage. Not all employers of that type do, even when they hire Americans to do the jobs. Sure, minimum wage is the law, but it gets ignored, even when the employee is a bona fide American citizen. Trust me.

Secondly, standing in front of the AFL-CIO, a collection of people who do very physically oriented jobs — ironworkers, plumbers, construction workers, and other laborers — and telling them they wouldn’t be able to pick lettuce for a whole summer seems like yet another completely out of touch statement. Does he have a clue about the working life of an ironworker? A construction laborer? No. Those jobs can and often are just as taxing as picking lettuce, sometimes more so, and they don’t get $50 an hour either^†. They don’t sit around in air conditioned offices with their feet up on desks, and there are a lot of Americans who do those kinds of jobs, as well as picking vegetables.

One final complaint about his lack of knowledge: lettuce isn’t grown in Yuma — or anywhere, except for some northern climes — during summer. The Yuma Lettuce Days festival is held near the end of January, pretty much the middle of the November to April growing season in Yuma. Looking at the weather statistics for Yuma, I can see quite clearly it isn’t exactly blazing hot there during that time of year. Picking lettuce would still be physically taxing, but heat stroke would be the least of anyone’s worries. So, poor choice of vegetable, if he wanted to go for something really awful.

And in closing, Lin and I would like it known that if anyone wants to pay us $50 an hour to pick lettuce or any produce, we would gladly do so. We’d even stay for the whole season — winter or summer — because we could most certainly do it. And if McCain would take $50 an hour to pick lettuce, Lin and I would gladly pay him to do so. He’s older, so we’ll cut him some slack. He doesn’t have to stay all season or even all week. I just want McCain to pick lettuce for one single day, and let’s see if he can do it. I’m betting not.

Here’s the video of McCain making his stupid, out-of-touch statement:

1. † In fact, I’m trying to think of some kind of job that would make $50 an hour. I’m drawing a blank. [↩]

I would like to rant at the moment. I’m too tired now. Here are a few not-so-random thoughts to be considered as the build-up of one lengthy rant in the near future:

Are the sorts of people who think being a “community organizer” is a laughable and ridiculous thing to be the sorts of people we, as a country, really want in power?

Since when has the position of Senator been seen as lowly, contemptible, and worthy of ridicule? Zeros? Have the Republicans forgotten the guy at the top of their ticket is a Senator and, according to their own standards, is therefore supremely unqualified for President?

When will people learn that if you talk into a camera and/or microphone today, that footage continues to exist and can be pulled up days, months, or years later? There will be a clip from The Daily Show tomorrow that must be watched to be believed. I’ll post it as soon as I notice it’s been put online.

Then there’s this little nugget:

“But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the state senate.”
–Sarah Palin

Oh really? Not one? None? Not even in the state senate?

Also, Giuliani should be careful about recycling talking points from his primary race stump speeches and interviews. It’s tiresome to hear the same things over and over again, especially when applied to different people as the mood and situation demands.

“But he’s [Obama] never run a city. He’s never run a state. He’s never run a business. He’s never run a military unit. He’s never had to lead people in crisis.”
–Rudy Giuliani, September 3, 2008

“She’s [Clinton] never run a city, she’s never run a state. She’s never run a business. She has never met a payroll. She has never been responsible for the safety and security of millions of people, much less even hundreds of people.”
–Rudy Giuliani, October 16, 2007

“John [McCain] has never been — he has never run city, never run a state, never run a government. He has never been responsible as a mayor for the safety and security of millions of people, and he has never run a law enforcement agency, which I have done.”
–Rudy Giuliani, November 12, 2007

I’m going to bed while I still feel like sleeping. If I don’t go to bed now, I’ll just sit here ranting and fuming, and I’d rather do that on a full-head of well-rested steam.

The candidates were pressed on their stances on abortion and were even asked what they would do if their own daughters were raped and became pregnant.

Palin said she would support abortion only if the mother’s life was in danger. When it came to her daughter, she said, “I would choose life.”
– Anchorage Daily News, November 3, 2006

Carey asked about teaching alternatives to evolution - such as creationism and intelligent design - in public schools.

PALIN: “Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information.
“Healthy debate is so important and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.
“And, you know, I say this, too, as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject — creationism and evolution.
“It’s been a healthy foundation for me. But don’t be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides.”
– Anchorage Daily News, October 25, 2006

And now, my absolute favorite:

11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

I do hate to point this out to Mrs. Palin, but the Pledge of Allegiance wasn’t written by the founding fathers, and the “under God” bit wasn’t even originally in it. What do they teach them up in those Alaskan schools?

OK. I have read enough comments and news stories lambasting Obama for having a stage design resembling an “ancient Greek temple” for his acceptance speech — enough for the rest of my life. I can’t believe how many people, McCain’s campaign included see something like the photo to the right, in a political setting, and instantly think gods and temples and get bitchy and outraged about it.

An “ancient Greek temple” like the Lincoln Memorial? The Jefferson Memorial? The National Archives? The Supreme Court Building? Or maybe even the U.S. Capitol itself?

Washington DC is just crawling with Greek architecture. I’d think people might have noticed that at some point or another, what with many of these buildings appearing on various forms of currency and not being terribly obscure for anyone with a modicum of education. I guess they are ancient Greek temples too and therefore evil in some way? Or could it be that for a very long time, Greek architecture has been something of a symbol of democracy and government in the U.S.A.? No, it couldn’t be that! It must be because Obama fancies himself some sort of pagan god!

I’d say it’s hard to believe people could be so stupid, but it isn’t that hard to believe, seeing as I actually know people in my own life who still believe very strongly that Obama is some kind of Muslim Manchurian Candidate out to put all the women in burqas and convert us all to Islam. Who cares about the issues when there are “ancient Greek temples” and “secret Muslims” to get outraged about.

Some collections of photos from the Beijing Opening Ceremony:

The Big Picture
The Telegraph
The Daily Mail

And an interesting article about the director of the production:

For the master of China’s ceremonies, a great leap forward

Two small complaints:

It would have been really great had the talking heads on NBC mentioned the music being played during the procession of athletes was being played live by a variety of musical groups. I assumed it was recorded and piped in, especially when it looped the same songs again. But no … it was all performed live.

Also, was it really necessary for the USA team to have huge Polo logos on their jackets? Stay classy Ralph Lauren and keep pushing your brand! Additionally, I thought the USA outfits made us look like a bunch of hob-knobbing, sailing, and polo class snobs, but at least it was slightly better than the year they dressed like cowboys.

One funny quote from during our viewing of the procession of athletes:

“Wait. Rewind it. I didn’t look at the people from New Zealand. I was too busy looking at their strange clothing.
–Orb

Their clothing wasn’t all that strange, but it was eye-catching!