'Freedom’s just another word'

The events of three years ago were a terrible shock. Terrorists do want to attack us, and they do need to be fought. But the artificial hysteria I found when I was back in America over the last month contributes nothing positive in a battle that has to be waged in a real world full of gray areas and seeming contradictions. The fact is, allies do not cooperate just because you tell them to. Dictators do not pose a clear and present danger just because you think they might. People do not feel liberated just because you say they are. They won’t love you for intentions. They will judge you by your actions.

When Newsweek runs a story with the opening sentences of 'I can tell you the week the United States lost the war in Iraq. It was 18 months ago,' I think that one can hopefully judge that mainstream media are beginning to report things somewhat reasonably. Of course, this is just print media. This implies that people might actually be reading. The more important thing is what are the talking heads on TV saying. That I can't speak for. It continues to boggle my mind that people would even consider to vote for Bush. I can't think of one thing that he's attempted to do in the past four years that had an even remotely good result.

But then I went to watch his most recent political ad. It scared me enough to want to vote for him. Against images of happy Americans being happy and American, the narrator says 'History's lesson: strength builds peace. Weakness invites those who would do us harm. Unfortunately, after the first World Trade Centre attack, John Kerry and Congressional Liberals tried to slash six billion dollars from intelligence budgets, and tried to cut or eliminate over forty weapons now fighting the war on terror, and refused to support our troops in combat with the latest weapons and body armour.' Then, the tag line comes up on the screen: John Kerry & Congressional Liberals. Putting our protection at risk.'

After I got over my momentary fright, I realised, 'Wait a minute.... They said the FIRST WTC attack. That was in '93!' But how many people do you think are going to make that connection? They hear 'world trade centre' and 'attack' and automatically think 2001. Then they think, 'Kerry did all this after September 11th? There's no way we can support him! If we support Kerry, we might die!'

I'm going to Carlos's to watch the debate tonight. I'm afraid. Very afraid. I may cry.

In other news, Bush also has this new Spanish ad called 'Mi familia' which is basically this kind of catchy 30-second song about how great it is to be hispanic and american and republican, I think. I need to get Carlos's to translate it for me.

'Soy George W Bush y apruebo este mensaje.'

Which Sesame Street Muppet's Dark Secret Are You?

The Count's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder


It started with a simple affection for counting and
the terror it induced in others, didn't it?
But now it's turned into a full-blown
life-consuming chaotic nightmare of order,
repetition, zealousness, and perfectionism.
You used to be so grand, but now you find
yourself obsessively worrying over the littlest
things--like, maybe if you don't check the
light switch at least once every two minutes,
the electricity will go out (and damnit, you're
a vampire--that shouldn't be a problem!), or
maybe if you don't wash your hands until your
seams are coming out, you'll get some fatal
disease. Get yourself some treatment.


Which Sesame Street Muppet's Dark Secret Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

To quote my inner voice...

'It's not so much that I want to "kill her", it's just that I want her "not to be alive...anymore." '

Just for the record...

I despise the two receptionists at Health Services. Despise, despise, despise. And yet, miraculously, whenever I'm on the verge of flipping out, they whisk me away to see the nurse.

I'm sure that they've got it all figured out.

Feel free to post Health Services horror stories in the comments.

The Iconoclast endorses its choice for president.

The re-election of George W. Bush would be a mandate to continue on our present course of chaos. We cannot afford to double the debt that we already have. We need to be moving in the opposite direction.

John Kerry has 30 years of experience looking out for the American people and can navigate our country back to prosperity and re-instill in America the dignity she so craves and deserves. He has served us well as a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and has had a successful career as a district attorney, lieutenant governor, and senator.

Kerry has a positive vision for America, plus the proven intelligence, good sense, and guts to make it happen.

That’s why The Iconoclast urges Texans not to rate the candidate by his hometown or even his political party, but instead by where he intends to take the country.

The Iconoclast wholeheartedly endorses John Kerry.

That's the CRAWFORD, Texas, Iconoclast. (Just for clarification, that's Bush's hometown.)

Because enquiring minds want to know

This is perhaps the most important quiz I've ever taken on quizilla. Perhaps.


Your anime hair color is green.


What is your anime hair color?
brought to you by Quizilla

Blog borrowing

Okay. So I've been busy. The crazy work schedule is now over and I have to get down to business with classes. And grad school applications. Oy. So, that's why I haven't been posting a lot. I'm going to see Y Tu Máma También tonight. Finally. Yay. I'm excited. And I get to see it with my Mexican boy, which is even more exciting. Tee-hee. It's been two months now. That's like a year in straight-years.

As for the borrowing implied in the title of this post, the below is from Daily Kos.

Exactly one year ago, Richard Perle said:

And a year from now, I'll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush. There is no doubt that, with the exception of a very small number of people close to a vicious regime, the people of Iraq have been liberated and they understand that they've been liberated. And it is getting easier every day for Iraqis to express that sense of liberation.

Somewhere in Washington D.C. today, Richard Perle is very surprised.

Because I need a new way to waste time...

Saturday Morning Political Ads

Just because I'm that kind of guy, I've just been watching Kerry and Bush ads at their websites. Based on the ads alone, we're screwed. Putting myself in the mindset of an average middle America, middle-class voter, Bush's ads tell me everything I want to hear. Kerry promises some good things, but then Bush's ad deconstruct them and tell me about the wide gap between what Kerry says and what Kerry does. Never mind the gap between what Bush says and what Bush does...and never mind the fact that the majority of these 'flip-flop' statistics that the Bush ads are using are often a decade old or more, when the nation and the world where in rather different circumstances. Middle America isn't going to bother to read the fine print.

As I've said before, I think that the debates will be very interesting to watch. And I think that they'll be key.

I'm going to be a wreck on election night.

la la la!

I just woke up. Wide awake. For no reason.

RIP Johhny Ramone

'Far graver than Vietnam'

The closing lines of the article, from the Guardian:

General Hoare believes from the information he has received that "a decision has been made" to attack Fallujah "after the first Tuesday in November. That's the cynical part of it - after the election. The signs are all there."

He compares any such planned attack to the late Syrian dictator Hafez al-Asad's razing of the rebel city of Hama. "You could flatten it," said Hoare. "US military forces would prevail, casualties would be high, there would be inconclusive results with respect to the bad guys, their leadership would escape, and civilians would be caught in the middle. I hate that phrase collateral damage. And they talked about dancing in the street, a beacon for democracy."

General Odom remarked that the tension between the Bush administration and the senior military officers over Iraqi was worse than any he has ever seen with any previous government, including Vietnam. "I've never seen it so bad between the office of the secretary of defence and the military. There's a significant majority believing this is a disaster. The two parties whose interests have been advanced have been the Iranians and al-Qaida. Bin Laden could argue with some cogency that our going into Iraq was the equivalent of the Germans in Stalingrad. They defeated themselves by pouring more in there. Tragic."

Also, does anyone else see Osama becoming a sort of Emmanuel Goldstein/3-Minutes-Hate sort of character, à la 1984? I mean, this would imply that Bush actually started talking about him again, but he fits the profile: vague shadowy character who is 'the enemy'. Just pull him out when you need to focus attention on something other than what's going on at the moment. Then start to get office workers to assemble once a day to denounce him. It'll be great.

'Our savage numbness'

A report from inside the imperium from one who was until recently outside. It's about those things that change without you realising. And then one day...bam! You realise.

The US has definitely changed in the past three years. I've noticed it every time I've gone back. It's gotten more and more bizarre, in a way. More and more like some kind of bizarre-o world. Saying that makes me feel a little better about it, because that way I can convince myself that it's not actually reality.

Blech

I am sick. I've gotten the cold that everyone else at work has had. The world must now stop for me. Flowers, soups and other nutritional supplements may be sent to the usual place.

Thank you.

Chartwells Not Do

I'm happy to report--for those of you who are no longer McGillers, but who worry about these things--that both the Architecture Café and the Arts Café (Veggirama) are still alive and well and free from the influence of the Evil Empire that is Chartwells. Bring on yummy hot meals in Arts and cheap, yummy fair trade coffee in the Architecture Building. Conveniently enough, I have my History of Latin America class in a GORGEOUS lecture hall in the Architecture Building, just next door to the Architecture Café.

The Chartwells take-over of the Bookstore Café is being pawned off as not in violation of the student-administration agreement by saying that it's not a new Chartwells establishment since it's to be a 'satellite' of the new Chartwells Management Bistro, which was agreed upon in the Spring. Um...right. And pigs might, at any moment, fly out of my ass. Maybe. It could happen.

(As an aside, I just spell-checked using the Blogger spell checker--at home, I have spell check right in my browser [I heart Safari] and it suggested replacing 'bistro' with 'bigotry'. I didn't realise that bistro was that uncommon of a word. Hm.)

When golf gets ugly...

I just read a news story on the BBC about the Ryder Cup, which is a golf tournament taht takes place every two years between a US and a European team. Two times ago, it was held in the US, in Brookline, MA, actually. I remember it. For some reason, I don't remember hearing about how horribly the US crowd acted, booing good shots by the Europeans and cheering bad ones. Last year, they started implementing new rules for the crowd, such as less access to boos.

England is known for their soccer hooligans. Leave it to the US to create golf hooligans. At least soccer is potentially exciting, something to get up in arms about. But golf? *yawn*

Golf hooliganism. Honestly, people. Don't you have anything better to do?

from TomDispatch: 'September 33rd'

[Bush & Co.] have a deep desire to be in a new age of 'world war.' It suits their vision of power and dominance, and so they've done much to create a world at war; but they also want to be able to cycle endlessly back to their version of September 11th, 2001 as if time itself had stood still. It hasn't. We are no longer in the world that existed on that terrible day, a world from which there were undoubtedly a number of paths to take, a number of responses open to us all. They took one path. They willingly stepped through the door to carnage that Osama Bin Laden had so thoughtfully left open for them, and so stepped into the world as imagined by a minor Saudi figure, a wealthy young man seized by fundamentalist belief. He had played a modest role in the CIA's and the Pakistani intelligence services' successful attempt to turn Afghanistan into the Soviet Union's Vietnam. He was a man without a home, who had wandered the world making what once seemed grandiose, even ludicrous, pronouncements, but now seem anything but.

It's kind of nice to see someone echo something I've written, though in a rather better and more eloquent and knowledgeable way.

Remembering and thinking ahead

I don't want just to post my memories of three years ago. I was at the dentist. It was going to be a bad enough day as it was. I remember thinking that, essentially, the world was going to end. That the US was going to launch its nukes and that would be the end of it. The dentist isn't where I would have chosen to be for the end of the world, but I guess we don't get to choose these things.

The world did end that September morning three years ago.

The twentieth century was brought powerfully to a close. I suspect that, historically, the twentieth century will be seen to begin with the First World War and to end with 11 September 2001, in the same way that the nineteenth century--in the Atlantic world, anyway--is seen to begin on 14 July 1789 and to end with the First World War.

Nothing could be the same following that tragic day. The world as a whole struggled to understand what it could mean. Nous étions tous Américains. I think that Preisdent Chiraque's statement was perhaps the most powerful of those that came out following the attacks. America's complacency had been shattered. It's sad that it took this attack for that complacency to be shattered, however. The attack on Pearl Harbour fifty years before had proved that the largest ocean in the world was no protection.

I immediately mistrusted Bush. I hadn't liked him to begin with and I instinctively knew that this would be turned to his advantage. He would find a way to use this tragedy to lead America and the world down a very wrong path. Maybe I'm just too much of a conspiracy theorist at heart, but I do feel vindicated three years later.

I was in Ottawa when the bombing of Afghanistan began. It was Thanksgiving weekend. I stood with my boyfriend at the time and watched through the window of an electronics store as they showed the green-tinted night shots. It was the middle of the day here, but the dead of night there. The world was being led further into darkness.

I guess one of the most difficult things for me to understand about all this is the use of violence. I'm a non-violent person and I would go so far, probably, to call myself a pacifist. I concede that, sadly, violence must be used. But, it must always always always be a last resort. Always. They told us that the Taleban were harbouring those responsible for the attacks and that the US had a prerogative to bring those responsible for the attacks to justice. As well as those harbouring those responsible. Because you were either with the US or you were against them. There were to be no sidelines in the new war on terror. In a way this makes sense. It's difficult to see how one could be against the idea of terrorism while at the same time against the idea of attempting to end it. Of course, this leaves no wiggle room. If anyone questions the methodology being pursued, it is a very short leap to say that they must be against the whole idea. To have a binary world leaves no room for the third way.

When the Department of Homeland Security was created, I cringed again. 'Homeland' had such a totalitarian ring to it. They could have called it 'domestic security' or 'internal security' or 'national security'. Even the word security was slightly troubling for me. Security implies not only defence but also regulation. The US already has a Department of Defence (responsible for war), so looking solely at the names of the two departments (and not necessarily what they actually do), the Department of Homeland Security would be concerned mainly with regulation of 'the homeland', and not with the defence of the nation, since that was the concern of the Department of Defence.

Then, of course, there was the US PATRIOT Act. Civil liberties are over-rated anyway. As always, The Onion, managed to hit this right on the head when they ran this headline: 'Bill of Rights pared down to a manageable six.'

Fast-forward to today.

The War in Context is running a headline today 'Three years later...':

Bush claims that over 3/4 of al-Qaeda's key members have been killed or captured. Without presenting any evidence.

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, declares that the US faces defeat.

Almost 60% of the deaths related to terrorism in the past three years have occurred during 2004. That's 1,709.

The US and its allies have killed between 3,400 and 4,000 civilians in Afghanistan.

The US and its allies have killed between 10,000 and 30,000 civilians in Iraq.

It's easy to get upset about the one thousand US soldiers who have been killed in Iraq. And it's absolutely necessary to get upset about these deaths. But that pales in comparison to the amount of death that the US has inflicted on these two nations which it claims to be liberating.

I'm constantly worried what four more years of Bush might mean for the nation and the world. Likely, it would be little short of catastrophic. I can only hope that enough people feel the same way--or at least feel that the path that Bush has led the world down during the past three years is the wrong path--that they vote against him on 2 November.

From Daily Kos

A Fitting Commemoration for September 11

by Meteor Blades
Sat Sep 11th, 2004 at 06:47:30 GMT

I know that September 11th is supposed to be a sacred American day, "our" day to mourn the innocent victims--the 3000 dead and thousands of maimed and permanently traumatized--the day on which everything supposedly changed.

At the risk of being once again called unpatriotic, however, let me suggest that we turn this date into something more than an all-American day of remembrance. For one thing, Americans weren't the only people who died in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania three years ago. Moreover, another September 11 lives in infamy because of the terrorists who toppled the Chilean government three decades ago and proceeded to kill an estimated 3000 of their countrymen.

I'd like to see September 11th transformed into a day of mourning for victims of terrorists everywhere, whether they live in Northern Ireland or Darfur, Cambodia or Israel, Indonesia or Guatemala, Oklahoma City or Madrid, Beslan or Kuta.

Some people, I suspect, may think I seek to downplay the loss that we--both as a nation and as individuals close to the victims--suffered on that dark day. To dilute the memories of our grief and rage and despair. No way. I'll never forget where I was when I heard the news. I'll never erase the memory of watching people leap from the flames to certain death on the streets of Lower Manhattan. I'll never forget the two days I waited a coast away, wondering if a woman I knew had escaped the killers aboard Flight 175. (She did.)

Appalling and spectacular and searing as those events three years ago were, however, we do a disservice to ourselves to pretend that America suffered uniquely from the machinations of terrorists. What better commemoration than henceforth to remember ALL of terrorism's victims, planetwide, on September 11?

And what better way to set an example--a standard for those in the world our leaders so often lecture about civilized behavior--than to pledge, as I suggested earlier today, never again to overtly or covertly authorize, order, support, promote, fund, train or wink at terrorists whatever their cause, excuse, justification, rationalization, religion, ideology or helpfulness to real or alleged U.S. interests?

For the United States to renounce terrorism as well as denounce it would take the world that much closer to the day when terrorists are the least of everyone's concerns.

Vote for Bush or Die

Now if only the mainstream media would report things like this.

*snicker*

This was posted to the Tangmonkey Forums. Look carefully at the third picture.

All hail Dick Cheney

CINCINNATI (AP) - Indicators measure the nation's unemployment rate, consumer spending and other economic milestones, but Vice President Dick Cheney says it misses the hundreds of thousands who make money selling on eBay.

'That's a source that didn't even exist 10 years ago,' Cheney told an audience in Ohio. 'Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay.'

--

In other words, all those people who have lost their jobs because of the bungling of the economy just need to start selling their possessions on eBay. I get it. THIS is the economic strategy that Bush has been keeping secret, waiting in the wings for the right time. This is BETTER than going down to the pawn shop because no one will ever no, so you don't have to face the indignity of pawning your wedding ring so you can eat. Or something.

I'm really starting to warm up to this compassionate conservatism thing.

Other bothersome things.

The number of soldiers dead in Iraq has passed 1000. God knows how many civilians have been killed. I'm sure it's far higher.

And the assault weapon ban in the US is set to expire in about a week. I always did want my own AK-47. Go here if you're in the States to send a message to your Congresspeople and the President to do something about this: http://www.moveon.org/savetheban/

Yay. Boo.

This makes me happy: the Log Cabin Republicans have voted not to endorse Bush for President. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to support Kerry. Alas.

This makes me unhappy. My brilliant-in-her-own-special-way roommate from BC started an oil fire in the kitchen last night. She makes popcorn in a pot, which I support, because it can turn out quite yummy. Except that she doesn't know how to. Usually, she just puts the oil and the kernels into the pot and leaves it covered on the stove. This is bad, since all the kernels on the bottom burn and get stuck to the pot and then pots get ruined. The key to popcorn on the stove is shaking the pot. Last night, I got home from the worst day at work every (no, seriously, the worst day ever), and I was standing in front of the sink drinking a glass of water. The roommate was in the living room and I could see that she had a pot on the stove with a cover on it and figured she was probably making popcorn because all the seasonings that she usually puts in were on the counter. The pot started smoking and she came back into the kitchen. When she removed the cover, the oil--there was only oil in the pot--burst into flames. Luckily, I was still in front of the sink, so she couldn't get to it. I said calmly, 'Put the cover back on. Put the cover back on.' Her first instinct had been to douse it with water. She explained that she thought that if she heated the oil first that it wouldn't burn the popcorn to the bottom. I explained to her that if she was going to make popcorn on the stove that, yes, she had to heat the oil first--not that much, though--and that she had to shake the pot. I'm a horrible person for part of me wishing that I wasn't there to prevent her from trying to douse it with water, right?

The pot is still on the stove and it looks pretty well ruined. It's mine. Well, it was mine anyway.

I guess I'll go see if I can wash it. No, I take it back. I'll just tell her to buy me a new one. And not one from the dollar store. One of whatever brand it was.

Another thing that makes me unhappy is my lack of coffee. This is a horribly bad thing that must be rectified. Soon.

Today's random thought

I just finished reading The Great Instauration by Francis Bacon, one of the founding texts of modern science. It's an outline of the new foundations and direction that Bacon thinks science ought to take.

As he describes it, modern science is essentially the violent rape of nature for the benefit of man.

Just thought I'd share.

And now to our Johns...

...my running commentary from the Kerry speech following the chimp-in-chief's speech.

Edwards's thrusting thumbs up kind of bothers me.

The crowd is a lot more enthusiastic. There've been a few articles that I've read talking about the crowds who show up for Bush's campaign speeches: they all have to sign loyalty oaths to prove that they're going to vote for Bush, and they often have to pay for tickets. Kerry's been big on open, public spaces, as far as I can tell. Actually, you know, meeting the people

I think Kerry-Edwards need to be elected, just for Edwards's sex appeal. Come on, people. Cheney versus Edwards. No comparison.

Edwards's daddy was a mill worker...Edwards's daddy was a mill worker...Edwards's daddy was a mill worker. Got it. I guess it's important to get these things across.

Kerry hasn't said anything new yet.

'We need a president who fights as hard for your jobs as he fights for his own job.' Pretty good.

All this talk about energy independence--even Bush mentioned it--but why don't I believe them?

Kerry, I just realised, because I'm not watching the video fully, but mostly only listening to the audio, has left the podium and has just been walking around on the platform with the microphone in hand, talking from memory or just from an outline. Probably from memory. In any event, he hasn't made any major flubs. I'd love to see Bushie try.

He just called this the most important election of our lifetime.

He also just quoted a sign he saw on one of his trips, when passing through a small town on a train, 'Give us eight minutes and we'll give you eight years.': 'I never knew I could stop a train so fast.'

I always find it interesting the insistence on playing to the middle class. It makes sense, right, as the largest economic bloc? And yet, it's almost as if it's taboo to talk about the lower classes, to acknowledge that anyone might not be middle class. Perhaps it's too socialist in a way?

Well, in the end, Kerry didn't really say anything new. He stuck to his guns and played to his strengths. When I said yesterday that I found Bush's speech to be politically astute, I probably should have pointed out that by saying that I meant that he completely ignored anything that he has failed on, which is pretty much everything. He suggested that he had a plan for education and for the economy, but his success stories were few and far between.

The most remarkable thing about this speech, I think, is the fact that the Johns descended from the platform to just let themselves be swallowed up by the crowd. Accompanied by the secret service, of course, but I just can't see Bush or Cheney pressing the flesh with the same comfort and ease.

Bagels, coffee and Bush

Just a running commentary as I spend my morning watching the Chimp's acceptance speech.

First off, he can't even say 'Chairman'.

It seemed like whenever CSPAN showed the crowd at the DNC, it was an ocean of colours.... So much white at the RNC!

Oh, enough with the Reagan hijacking already.

Catch phrase of the speech seem to be 'Nothing will hold us back.'

Yay! Reduce regulation and cut taxes further! It didn't work all the other times we've tried it, so let's try it again!

A few times now, he's talked about reducing frivolous law suits. All well and good. In talking about health care, he says that he's met too many doctors, OB/GYN's in particular, who are being pulled into frivolous law suits. In other words, the women are getting uppity and demanding good service and proper service from their doctors.

Oh, now we're aiming for an 'ownership society' so that people can own their homes, their health care plan and a part of their retirement. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Accountability in education. A good thing. (Ooooh! A black face in the crowd!) However, don't deny funding to those who under-perform. Standardised testing in education. Not sure about that. But, again, don't deny funding to those who under-perform. Heh. Doing anything to get kids across the finish line. That's why there was a school in Massachusetts that helped its kids cheat on the state tests so they could get more funding, right?

He just said, 'We will leave no child behind,' in Spanish. Clever monkey.

Health care for poor children. A good thing. But why not health care for everyone else? And segue to a plug for his website. What the fuck?

Now he's criticising Kerry for his proposed government spending and his proposal to pay for it by raising taxes. Hm. Somehow this is worse than spending and cutting taxes so we can't pay for it. But, apparently this is the 'path to the future. And we're not turning back!' Cue the 'Four more years!' chant.

Yay for religious charities and the Federal Marriage Amendment! Yay for (lack of) separation of Church and State!

Excellent: 'I support the protection of marriage against activist judges, and I will continue to appoint federal judges who know the difference between personal opinion and the strict interpretation of the law.' Bye-bye Roe v. Wade! Bye-bye gay marriage! Bye-bye social progress!

Cue 9-11.

This use of 'homeland' bothers me beyond end. It always has. It just feels so wrong. So...totalitarian in a way.

He just grins that stupid monkey grin of his as the crowd goes wild as he talks about his wars. Disgusting.

He's talking about his 'careful diplomacy' in dealing with terrorism. Um.... Not much I can say about that.

It's no longer East/West, but Civilised/Uncivilised it seems. Good/Evil. Right/Wrong. Us/Them. I love non-limiting definitions, don't you? Pluralism is so over-rated.

Heh. He can't say 'harbour' either. As in 'to harbour terrorists'.

He talks of bringing the troops home with the honour that they have earned. Does he have any kind of viable exit strategy for Iraq or Afghanistan? If they're calling up soldiers near retirement back to active duty, that would seem like a no to me.

'Because of you, people in Iraq no longer fear being executed and left in mass graves.' No, they just have to worry about being sexually humiliated when imprisoned by you.

'Because of you the world is more peaceful.' No comment.

Someone just held up a pair of flip-flops in the crowd, as Bush was criticising Kerry. Cute. I have to give the woman credit for that.

Hm. The signs in the crowd say 'We salute our troops.' not 'We support...'.

Also, America apparently is still the strongest force for good in the world. Which is why the majority of the world thinks otherwise.

Oooh. He's admitting that he can't speak. 'I knew I had a problem when Arnold...started [correcting my English].'

It's odd (well, probably not): when the Democrats spoke about the courage and honour of the troops and the sacrifices that they were making, I actually felt something. When Bush talks about it, it feel nothing.

'Here buildings fell. Here a nation rose.' Hm. Catchy. Maybe. Still, when half your speech is about the military, I don't trust you.

There's just no energy on the floor. None. They're clapping and all. But no real energy.

Ooh! He's co-opting Edwards's hope theme. 'This is a time for hope.'

This is to be Liberty's century. So, stop restricting out civil liberties.

I can't trust his smile.

As bad a speaker as Kerry is, there was so much MORE energy on the floor. This speech and the reaction from the floor just seems so terribly scripted.

In all, I have to admit, that it wasn't quite as bad as I expected it to be. It was fairly politically astute, not too horribly evil. Which isn't to say that I agreed with anything he said. But, I'm trying to be fair an objective here.

So, the race is on, then. Officially. The debates will be interesting. Now I need to find the video--or at least the transcript--of Kerry's midnight speech in Ohio. Though I should really do my reading for my conference later on. Which means that I should get my ass to the library.

The Canadian Test...

I've recently discovered OK, Cupid! which has lots of fun and exciting tests, like over at Quizilla. I just took the Canadian test and did fabulously, of course. The fun thing about OK, Cupid! is that they give you interesting stats about the other people who took the test, comparing you to them. Stats like this: 'Of the users who took the test and are male, gay, and in your age group, 100% scored lower than you did.'

Apparently there are no other gay guys from Canada on OK, Cupid! (at least who have taken the test).

In other news, the two classes I had yesterday were a waste of time and they were too small for me to sneak out of. But I think I'm going to take History of Latin America instead of one of them.

And work sucked. A lot.

I've been up since 7 again, though I don't have class until 1. I'd set my alarm for 815, but woke up early. Now it's off to the library to start the research. Woohoo! Party! Heh.

Ooh! Before I forget. My favourite picture so far from the GOP Convention: