A young Barack Obama

They’ll Let Anybody Vote

I remember being at a party a few months before the election. I was in a side conversation when politics was brought up (not by me, I swear!). An early-twenty-something schoolteacher voiced his enthusiastic support for Obama. To this point the only topic this fellow seemed knowledgeable in was hard liquor (seriously — and indeed this party of mostly church-goers talked more about hard liquor than any other topic… astounding… but I digress).

So, intrigued, I prodded him for a few details of why he supported Obama. His faced turned uncomfortable, but he managed to mumble something about “feeling” Obama was a good choice and would “bring change”. Unsatisfied, I asked for which of Obama’s proposed changes he favored the most. Astoundingly (or not so), this schoolteacher — this young “learned” instructor of my community’s children — could not name even ONE THING Obama professed to change.

His ignorance is not without healthy company…

Electric Justice

A man kept having his McCain signs stolen… so he set up a camera and electrified the sign. [article link] Turns out a local neighborhood liberal had coerced his young son into crime… replacing local McCain signs with Obama signs. But this time he got “caught”.

This is a wonderful, feel-good story. It’s beautiful… really. This man, an electrical engineer, used his skill to electrify his property and brought joy to the world. Joy in the form of pure, justice-honey. Mmmm. Poetry… a balancing of the universe… like the dawn’s light pouring over green hills.

She Said What?!

So What Does Change Really Mean?

Change Means Socialism

Mugshots for Change

Let me leave you with a collection of Obama supporter mugshots? Indeed, this is the kind of thing you’d probably never be able get from a conservative candidate. Behold the faces of change!

Some Obama supporters

My state, New York, wants to give legal state driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Yep… you heard me correctly. That should be a twisted joke, but it’s a twisted reality. Among the ir-rationale is the standard drivel about “they’re just here to work” and “this will let us keep better records on them”. Better records? Why would we need better records… are we going to be using these “records” to arrest them? Then why not just arrest them when they apply for the license? How is it that the laws requiring known illegal aliens to be detained and deported don’t apply at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles)? This is lunacy… yet elected cronies taking in high salaries (compliments of the taxpayers) support this madness because it BUYS THEM VOTES.

And of course this issue runs much deeper, but let me say that there is no comparison between a United States citizen from Mexico, and an illegal alien. They are two totally different people. They both may be hard workers, but one is duly and lawfully eligible for all the rights, freedoms, and opportunities of every other American citizen – while the other has not only disrespected our borders, our immigration rules, and broken our laws, but is also stealing health care, welfare, and pretty soon driver’s licenses. Mexico doesn’t tolerate illegal border crossings INTO Mexico (just as no country does, nor should they)… but Mexico gets on us for protecting our border. And why? Follow the money… Western Union money transfers from the US are Mexico’s third highest source of income!

Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize. For what? A documentary? A movie of questionable science? For parading an entourage around the globe in private jets to talk about the dangers to the environment from parading around the globe in private jets? And the rationale why global warming would have ANYTHING to do with peace is that global warming will “eventually start conflicts”? How about the conflict between “An Inconvenient Truth” and the actual truth? How about Al Gore preaching that society needs to start living more simply and efficiently – while Al goes and buys another mansion to visit in his private jet (read mega-petroleum-guzzling sky-beast). The Nobel prize has become a bit of a joke, I guess. I actually think Borat was a much more accurate documentary… we should have given the peace prize to Sacha Cohen.

I’m already done with the Presidential campaigns. They have used up my entire allocation of bicker-absorption. I can’t listen to it any more. Does that make me “disenfranchised”? I think it does. I think in the name of all that is good and right I shouldn’t have to see Hillary’s, Osama/Obama’s, Rudy’s, or McCain’s face for another 12 months. At the very least I want to see the candidates actually work for their air-time… like perhaps in a “Survivor: Washington DC” or “Fear Factor” style reality show where Hillary would have to drink monkey snot while wearing a slinky little bikini in order to earn 5 minutes of sound bites. Obama and McCain would have to wrestle in a tub of broken glass while eating scorpions to see who gets to speak next. Or how about the Price is Right? That would be sweet… watching politicians who haven’t shopped for their own groceries in decades try and guess the price of baking soda or cooking spray. Ha!

And again… on my recent trip to Chicago… I got to watch airport screeners hassle aged World War 2 vets and little old Asian ladies so that the TSA doesn’t look “insensitive” towards male 18-34 year-old Arabic-speaking non-US-citizens who have legal support agencies ready to sue the city, county, state, and federal government at the drop of a Koran. Another example of how not having the moral courage to be a jerk to non-citizens means having to be a jerk to EVERYONE… which then quickly erodes into usually just being a jerk to people who you know aren’t carrying bombs (e.g. World War 2 vets and little old Asian ladies).

Fatigue.

Here are some pics (and you can view the full photoset here):

During the conference Adobe released new and highly anticipated versions of many of their software products, the most exciting for me being Flex Builder 3 Beta 2. They also demo’ed some prototype software they are working on for future release, such as an application called Thermo that allowed a developer to convert a designer’s comp into an actual front-end user interface with relative ease [here's a video clip].

Each night of the conference included “After-hours lounges” featuring 8-player LAN Halo 3 on Xbox 360′s, and 4-player LAN Quake 4 on high-powered PC’s. I sampled both with pleasure.

Here are some random observations I made during the conference:

• More guys had pony-tails than girls did
• More female attendees were divorced than were married (I assumed – based on their age, lack of any “ring”, and propensity to prattle on about their kids)
• Many of the featured conference speakers sported the casual look (jeans and a button up shirt)
• There was constantly a source of food and drink from 8am until midnight each day

But baseball just lost a legend. Kirby Puckett, who played his whole career under one uniform (the Minnesota Twins) just died yesterday, at the age of 45, after suffering a stroke. He’s the second youngest player ever to die as a living Hall-of-Famer (Lou Gehrig, 37). He was also one of the most popular baseball players of the 80s… with his short, stocky build and his infectious smile you knew the guy loved what he was doing and it was hard not to cheer for him even when he was on the “wrong” team. In a 2004 Sports Illustrated survey of Minnesota residents he was ranked as the greatest athlete in state history. And in baseball circles it is still marveled how — in Game 6 of the ’91 World Series — Puckett pretty much, for all intents and purposes, won the game himself.

What they say about someone after they go is truly telling… here’s what they say about Kirby:

I could see how much he loved playing the game of baseball. His enthusiasm rubbed off on all his teammates including me. It was fun being his teammate.
- Bert Blyleven, longtime teammate of Kirby Puckett

It’s tough to take. He was one of those guys. Man, he was a good human being. He had some faults, we knew that, but when all was said and done he would treat you as well as he would anyone else. No matter who you were.
- Terry Ryan, Twins general manager

There was no player I enjoyed playing against more than Kirby. He brought such joy to the game. He elevated the play of everyone around him.
- Carlton Fisk, Hall of Fame catcher

See his Major League Baseball tribute here: CLICK.
See his Sports Illustrated tribute here: CLICK.

I wore one uniform in my career and I’m proud to say that. As a kid growing up in Chicago, people thought I’d never do anything. I’ve always tried to play the game the right way. I thought I did pretty good with the talent that I have.
- Kirby Puckett