Hm

So much for compassionate conservatism. (Yes, I know that went out the window a long time ago, like yesterday's campaign promise.)

Lisa Dupler, a 33-year-old from Columbus, held up a rainbow-striped John Kerry sign outside the Nationwide Arena on Friday, as Republicans streamed out after being rallied by George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A thickset woman with very short, dark hair, Dupler was silent and barely flinched as people passing her hissed 'faggot' into her ear. An old lady looked at her and said, 'You people are sick!' A kid who looked to be about 10 or 11 affected a limp wrist and mincing voice and said, 'Oh, I'm gay.' Rather than restraining him, his squat mother guffawed and then turned to Dupler and sneered, 'Why don't you go marry your girlfriend?' Encouraged, her son yelled, 'We don't want faggots in the White House!'


The throngs of Republicans were pumped after seeing the president and the action hero. But there was an angry edge to their elation. They shrieked at the dozen or so protesters standing on the concrete plaza outside the auditorium. 'Kerry's a terrorist!' yelled a stocky kid in baggy jeans and braces. 'Communists for Kerry! Go back to Russia,' someone else screamed. Many of them took up the chant 'Kerry sucks'; old women and teenage boys shouting with equal ferocity.

...

When the crowd came pouring out of the arena, the vitriol only increased. One clean-cut man, holding his son by the hand, yelled 'coward!' at one of the protesters. I asked him what made him say that, and he said, 'Because he's demeaning our troops by saying they are fighting a lost cause.'


'Jesus! Jesus!' screamed 26-year-old Joe Robles, pointing to his Bush-Cheney sign. 'The man stands for God,' he said of the president. 'We want somebody who stands for Jesus. I always vote my Christian morals.' Robles, a student at Ohio State University, told me that Kerry's daughter is a lesbian. I said I thought that was Dick Cheney's daughter, but he shook his head no with confidence.


Robles said that Kerry would make it illegal for preachers to say that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. In California, he informed me gravely, such preaching has been deemed a hate crime, and pastors who indulge in it are fined $25,000, which 'goes to lesbians.'


A few of the protesters, meanwhile, were red-faced from yelling at their antagonists about homophobia and budget deficits and a senseless war. Republicans were incensed. A blond woman dragged her young redheaded son toward the protesters, pointed to them, and said, 'These are the Democrats,' speaking as if she was revealing an awful reality that he was finally old enough to face. As she walked away with a group of other mothers and children, she was so angry she could barely speak. A friend consoled her by promising her that Bush would win. After all, she pointed out, 'Look how many more Bush supporters there were on the street!'


That calmed the angry blond woman down a little. But she was still mad. 'We,' she said, stammering and gesturing contemptuously at the demonstrators, "we are the way it should be!"

Random Pulp Lyrics

This song just came on my iTunes. It's odd. Thought I would share. More like a poem with musical accompaniment. It's all spoken. Gotta love Pulp.

Inside Susan

Susan catches the bus into town at ten-thirty a.m.
She sits on the back seat.
She looks at the man in front's head and thinks
how his fat wrinkled neck is like a large carrot sticking out from the collar of his shirt.
She adds up the numbers on her bus ticket to see if they make twenty-one, but they don't.
Maybe she shouldn't bother going to school at all, then.
Her friends will be in the yard with their arms folded on their chests, shielding their breasts to try and make them look bigger, whilst the boys will be too busy playing football to notice.
The bus is waiting on the High Street when suddenly it begins to rain torrentially and it sounds like someone has emptied about a million packets of dried peas on top of the roof of the bus.
"What if it just keeps raining," she thinks to herself, "and it was just like being in an aquarium except it was all the shoppers and office-workers that were floating passed the window instead of fish?"
She's still thinking about this when the bus goes passed Caroline Lee's house where there was a party last week.
There were some German exchange students there who were very mature; they all ended up jumping out of the bedroom window.
One of them tried to get her to kiss him on the stairs, so she kicked him.
Later she was sick because she drunk too much cider.
Caroline was drunk as well; she was pretending she was married to a tall boy in glasses, and she had to wear a polo-neck for three days afterwards to cover up the love-bite on her neck.
By now the bus is going passed the market.
Outside is a man who spends all day forcing felt-tip pens into people's hands and then trying to make them pay for them.
She used to work in the pet shop, but she got sacked for talking to boys when she was supposed to be working.
She wasn't too bothered though, she hated the smell of the rabbits anyway.
"Maybe this bus won't stop," she thinks, "and I'll stay on it until I'm old enough to go into pubs on my own.
Or it could drive me to a town where people with black hair drink Special Brew and I can make lots of money by charging fat old men five pounds a time to look up my skirt.
Oh, they'll be queuing up to take me out to dinner."
I suppose you think she's just a silly girl with stupid ideas, but I remember her in those days.
They talk about people with a fire within and all that stuff, well, she had that alright.
It's just that no-one dared to jump into her fire; they would have been consumed.
Instead, they put her in a corner and let her heat up the room, warming their hands and backsides in front of her, and then slagging her off around town.
No-one ever really got inside Susan, and, and, she always ended up getting off the bus at the terminus and then walking home.

Election Protection — You Have the Right to Vote!

Having Trouble Voting? Call 1-866-OURVOTE

It's really sad that there needs to be an Election Protection Committee. I thought the United States was all about promoting democracy and shit. Sigh.

Forecast for election night: heavy drinking with a chance of tears.

barf! (and 100th post!)

The BBC reports this morning that both NBC and ABC are planning to turn the 9/11 commission report into a mini-series.

WHY?! WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE SO DISGUSTING AND STUPID!? THAT WOULD BE LIKE TRYING TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOUR. Oh, wait....


Grr.

In other news...

...someone keeps phoning me from Toronto. I ran the number through a reverse look-up, but it's not listed. I figured the first time it showed up it was a wrong number, because they didn't leave me a message. They've been calling a few times a day every day for the past few days. It's gotten to the point where I just wan to answer and say, 'Who the fuck are you and why do you keep calling me? If it's not a wrong number, why don't you leave a fucking message?!' But they have a tendency to phone either when I'm in class or when I'm somewhere other than where my phone is. Like just now, when I was in the kitchen and my phone was in my bedroom.

Reading Parliamentary Debates

I am saddened by the fact that back in the early days, Hansard's didn't record the 'sound effects' during the debates as they do now. I.e., the jeering and the yelling in favour, etc. It's also kind of annoying that they report it as indirect discourse: 'Lord Althorp said.... He further stated that....'

Ah well. You know me: I always need to complain about something!

To quote the Boston Globe

AT LAST! Pigs can fly, hell is frozen, the slipper finally fits, and Impossible Dreams really can come true. The Red Sox have won the World Series

As for me, I'd forgotten how boring I find baseball.

'No team in World Series history has blown a 3-0 lead.'

But these are the Red Sox we're talking about. I'm sure the stadium in St Louis will sink into the bowels of the earth or something when they're one strike from victory or something.

Or Bill Buckner will appear in the crowd and run out onto the field in some kind of berzerker rage and murder the entire team.

It could happen.

Wouldn't it be, like, so cool if...

...like, the Red Sox won the world series AND John Kerry won the election. It would be, like, double big winning for Boston.

Gratuitous baby photo from Boston.com:

NY Times story

The man who insists that the world is now safer has lost 341.7 metric tonnes (that's 753,319.55 pounds) of heavy explosives--the kind used to blow up buildings and planes, the kind a pound of which was used to blow up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbee--in Iraq.

Do you feel safer now?

The best America has to offer

So, the Guardian set up this little programme whereby people could get the address of a voter in Ohio, a swing-state. They could then write to that voter as a concerned non-US citizen to plead the case about how important this election is not only to the US but also to the rest of the world. Here's a selection of my favourites (to be fair, there were some positive responses but, well, I think these ones are slightly more representative).

Dear wonderful, loving friends from abroad,
We Ohioans are an ornery sort and don't take meddling well, even if it comes from people we admire and with their sincere goodwill. We are a fairly closed community overall. In my town of Springfield, I feel that there are some that consider people from the nearby cities of Columbus or Dayton, as "foreigners"- let alone someone from outside our country.
Springfield, Ohio

Have you not noticed that Americans don't give two shits what Europeans think of us? Each email someone gets from some arrogant Brit telling us why to NOT vote for George Bush is going to backfire, you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies ... I don't give a rat's ass if our election is going to have an effect on your worthless little life. I really don't. If you want to have a meaningful election in your crappy little island full of shitty food and yellow teeth, then maybe you should try not to sell your sovereignty out to Brussels and Berlin, dipshit. Oh, yeah - and brush your goddamned teeth, you filthy animals.
Wading River, NY

Consider this: stay out of American electoral politics. Unless you would like a company of US Navy Seals - Republican to a man - to descend upon the offices of the Guardian, bag the lot of you, and transport you to Guantanamo Bay, where you can share quarters with some lonely Taliban shepherd boys.
United States

KEEP YOUR FUCKIN' LIMEY HANDS OFF OUR ELECTION. HEY, SHITHEADS, REMEMBER THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR? REMEMBER THE WAR OF 1812? WE DIDN'T WANT YOU, OR YOUR POLITICS HERE, THAT'S WHY WE KICKED YOUR ASSES OUT. FOR THE 47% OF YOU WHO DON'T WANT PRESIDENT BUSH, I SAY THIS ... TOUGH SHIT!
PROUD AMERICAN VOTING FOR BUSH!

Real Americans aren't interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions. If you want to save the world, begin with your own worthless corner of it.
Texas, USA

Hey England, Scotland and Wales,
Mind your own business. We don't need weenie-spined Limeys meddling in our presidental election. If it wasn't for America, you'd all be speaking German. And if America would have had a president, then, of the likes of Kerry, you'd all be goose-stepping around Buckingham Palace. YOU ARE NOT WANTED!! Whether you want to support either party. BUTT OUT!!!
United States

Please be advised that I have forwarded this to the CIA and FBI.
United States

THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS HAVE SPENT TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS PROTECTING THE PEOPLES OF THE EU, AND WHAT DO WE GET IN RETURN. BETRAYAL, BETRAYAL, BETRAYAL. I HAVE BEEN TO YOUR COUNTRY, THE COUNTRY OF MY ANCESTORS, AND I KNOW WHY THEY LEFT.

MAY YOU HAVE TO HAVE A TOOTH CAPPED. I UNDERSTAND IT TAKES AT LEAST 18 MONTHS FOR YOUR GREAT MEDICAL SERVICES TO GET AROUND TO YOU. HAVE A GREAT DAY.
Harlan, Kentucky

Keep your noses out of our business. As I recall we kicked your asses out of our country back in 1776. We do not require input from losers and idiots on who we vote for in our own country. Fuck off and die asshole!!!!!
Knoxville, Iowa

Who in the hell do you think you are??? Well, I'll tell you, you're a bunch of meddling socialist pricks! Stay the hell out of our country and politics. And another thing, John Kerry is a worthless lying sack of crap so it doesn't surprise me that a socialist rag like yours would back him. I hope your cynical ploy blows up in your cowardly faces, you bunch of mealy-mouthed morons!
United States

I used to visit the UK every year. I love the history and culture of your country. But after I heard about your campaign to influence our elections, I've decided that neither myself, nor my family will ever visit again. I'm offended by your campaign and because of it, I'm remembering more of the negative aspects I've seen in the UK than the positive ones. Though I still love the castles!
Detroit

You radical leftwingers are worse than the Taliban. I suggest you stand back and take a good hard look at yourselves.

PS: When do you propose to add Michael Moore to your staff of lunatics?
United States

Cross-eyed but not yet drooling

I spent the morning slogging through an almost unreadable chapter in an almost unreadable book called 'The Age of Atonement'. Supposedly, it's about the influence of Evangelicalism on early-to-mid-nineteenth century English history. Sounds decent enough. My prof warned me that this guy couldn't write very well, but, jeez, Oxford published the book. That should count for something in the way of readability, shouldn't it?!

Then, I spent the afternoon reading selections from the Report of the 1832 Royal Commission on the Poor Law. That would have been interesting if not for the obscenely small print. And the noise from the construction on McTavish.

Now I think I will find something to eat as my tummy is rumbling. Then, I will buy a new copy card as I just used up the last of what I had on my old one. Then I will go home and read the opening debate on the New Poor Law of 1834. Another odyssey of small print and justified-type. I hate justified type. The debate wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't two columns to an already small page. Four columns across a legal-sized photocopy, with room probably for a fifth column, but the book doesn't go that far.

History is going to push me into early bifocals.

A sad, sad day for women and men across Canada

Justin Trudeau is engaged to be married. Where's my box of kleenex? Can we start a support group? How do we snag an invite?

Even better than the electoral prediction from yesterday that doesn't want to post

Electoral Vote Predictor 2004:   Kerry 291   Bush 247

Iowa is no longer tied: leaning for Kerry. New Mexico has flopped from barely Bush to strongly Kerry. Pollsters generally don't actually do that well. But, here's hoping. I really hope that more people have come to their senses. A strong win for Kerry will be a lot better than the non-win from four years ago.

Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

Electoral Vote Predictor 2004:   Kerry 284   Bush 247

Oh please god, please let it stay! The most recent polls have only Iowa still tied. Florida is barely Kerry and New Hampshirites have finally come to their senses and are leaning for Kerry now.

Quiet morning...

I'm sitting here reviewing for my Dante midterm in a few hours. The cat is sitting on my desk, next to my computer, under my lamp as she likes to do when it's cold: between the computer and the lamp, it's like a little kitty sauna.

She's just hanging out, not really doing anything, purring her little heart out. Then she tries to sit on my papers and I shoo her away since, obviously, I kind of need to study from them. She she wanders off somewhere else.

A few minutes later, she starts running back and forth along the whole length of the apartment. Zoom! Patter, patter, patter. Zoom! Patter, patter, patter. Zoom! Finally, she ran to my window and looked out, very excited, her head jerking back and forth looking at the cars, I guess.

Meanwhile, I'm reviewing Canto 33 of Inferno which opens with what is easily the creepiest line of the entire Canticle: 'La bocca solevò dal fiero pasto': The mouth rose from its infernal meal. Picture this: the very bottom of the pit of Hell. A lake of ice. Sinners trapped in the ice, some sitting up, some reclined on their backs, some completely covered by the ice. You approach one pair of sinners frozen very close together, front to back. The sinner behind is eating the brains of the sinner in front of him. When spoken to by Dante to learn of his sins, he looks up, wipes his lips on the hair of the sinner in front of him, and begins to speak. After this, and his tale in which the sinner in front of him locks him in a tower with his sons and starves them to death and then he cannibalises his sons to stay alive after they die, well, Lucifer is kind of anti-climactic.

The cat has now calmed down and is once again purring away aside by computer.

The New York Times endorses Kerry

We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted. Time and again, history invited George W. Bush to play a heroic role, and time and again he chose the wrong course. We believe that with John Kerry as president, the nation will do better.

Haven't posted much recently. Had a couple of mid-term papers due last week, one of which took a lot of time and careful thinking and hair pulling. Also, haven't really had too much to say, to be honest. It's mostly been the same old shit, different day syndrome.

I can't believe it's mid-October. Fuck. I have so much to do.

How rude!

I just got a spam text message on my cell phone! But, if you're single and in Montréal, there's apparently a new dating site you should check out: www.mtlhookup.com . I may as well spread the news. Or something.

This makes me happy...

Electoral Vote Predictor 2004:   Kerry 280   Bush 248

I realise that I've been writing a lot about politics lately and not a whole heck of a lot about my own life. Well, politics has been taking up a lot of the my free-time thought. But, as a brief update on the rest of my life: it's okay. The bookstore continues to suck the life force from me. Classes are going well, though I feel that I'm not nearly as on top of things as I'd like to be going into mid-October. Grad school applications are still in their preliminary stages, but I'm going to be asking for my recommendation letters this week, so that's a start. Then it's just a matter of writing a personal statement and deciding which paper to submit as my writing sample (I have it narrowed down to two different ones). The boy is good, as well. We're just not talking about the fact that he might actually be leaving the city in January before I do in May.

So, on the whole, nothing too bad.

On one last political note, though, the debate last night made me think of that line from Austin Powers: 'That makes me angry and when Dr Evil gets angry Mr Bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr Bigglesworth gets upset people DIE!' That boy from Texas needs a prosac, methinks.

CNN's Presidental Showdown Game!

Here's your chance to play political pundit. Pick the winner of the popular vote in each state. While George W. Bush and John Kerry battle for the White House as their prize, in CNN's Presidential Showdown Game, you'll have the chance to win a 30' LCD Flat TV HDTV.

Excuse me while I barf. The fate of the world is at stake...but you can win a TV!

Veep's

I watched the last half hour or so of the Vice Presidential debate just now. Not too much to say except that Dick Cheney reminds me far too much of Darth Vader and John Edwards is just so darn cute that I want to pinch his cheeks.

Oh, and Cheney was apparently a union member for six years and John Edwards's daddy worked in a mill.

One more thing before bed...

Uncle Donnie is now saying, 'To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links [Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden].'

$7.4 TRILLION is a lot of money

Debt Ceiling Could Be Hit This Month
By Leigh Strope, AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government should hit the national debt's $7.4 trillion ceiling this month, and the Bush administration told Congress again Monday it should raise the limit. That would be a politically sticky move just weeks from the Nov. 2 elections.

Treasury Department spokesman Rob Nichols said the government is on track to reach the limit in early October. He could not provide a more specific date but said the forecast is made 'on a day-to-day basis,' and Congress would be notified.

The government can juggle accounts to stay under the limit through mid-November to avoid default, as it has in the past. But the Bush administration is urging Congress, which expects to adjourn Friday, to go ahead and raise the ceiling.

'We've been calling on Congress to act now for months, and we think it's important that they do so,' Nichols said.

The government's debt was $7.364 trillion as of Friday, $18.3 billion from the ceiling. Congress last boosted the limit in May 2003.

Democrats this election year have cited the rising debt as evidence that President Bush is mishandling the economy. The administration counters that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and efforts to strengthen security at home have forced the increased government borrowing.

House Democrats sent a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow on Monday requesting a meeting to discuss the limit, when it would be reached and what options the department would pursue. It was the second such letter and noted that he failed to respond to the first.

'Our debt has been growing markedly faster than our economy's ability to repay it, thanks in large measure to tax cuts proposed and enacted into law by the administration and congressional Republicans,' said the letter, signed by Democratic Reps. John Spratt of South Carolina, Charles Rangel of New York and Charles Stenholm of Texas.

Nichols said Snow intends to respond to both letters soon. Should Congress fail to act before the limit is reached, Snow 'would take the appropriate steps to protect the full faith and credit of our government,' he said.

Let's not forget that the government had a SURPLUS four years ago....

One month.

The one basic question that faces all Americans in one month's time: 'Are you better off today than you were four years ago?'

In the end, that's what it comes down to. Bread and butter win the election over foreign concerns. Do you have more money in your pocket? Do you even have money in your pocket? Do you still have your job? Do you have better health care? Do you still have health car? Are you paying lower taxes?

In the post-9/11 world, of course, there are a few new questions: do you feel safer now than you did in the immediate aftermath of September 2001? (I think it's unfair to ask if you feel safer now than you did four years ago, because I doubt very many people do.) Do you feel safer with the Taleban no longer in power? Do you feel safer with Saddam no longer in power? How many of you have lost a loved one or know someone who have lost a loved one in Afghanistan or Iraq? How many of you sympathise with those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq--including those uncounted civilians?

We all know which side I'm pulling for here, but that's not the point here. The point is that you have to vote for who you think will do the better job. And, in the end, you have to vote. I didn't vote four years ago and although Massachusetts went securely for Gore, I still regret not having voted.

A month from now, if you're American, vote. And pray that the predicted problems with electronic voting machines--why does no want to talk about this?--don't happen.

Nickel and Diming Homeland Security

The war in Iraq so far has cost $150 billion; for the Department of Homeland Security, the administration has allocated $27 billion this year, with the bulk of that going to the routine operations of agencies like the Customs Service. When it comes to new programs to make planes, trains, ports, and urban centers safer, there's precious little left over—which is why a range of critics, from local firefighters to Republican members of Congress, have lambasted Bush for shortchanging the nation's true homeland security needs. Below, a sample of those needs, along with Bush's budget allocations, compared with the time it takes to burn through the same amount in Iraq.

There's really not much point in commenting on this. Just click through and read the numbers. They speak for themselves. (Don't worry, it's not long, just a small sampling.)

What band from the 80s are you?

You're in touch with the world, and you have a very
strong opinion on things like politics and war.
Even if you do end up changing your image in
the future, most of us will still like you.


What band from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

It's kind of odd how these things match so well sometimes.... These people have way too much time on their hands (unlike me, who uses them for procrastination).

Debates and More Thoughts on the Future State of the Union

First, I'd like to say that I find it fairly odd how, well, how patriotic I've become, in a way. Patriotic in the sense of being deeply concerned with where the States are headed as a nation and as a country (note the difference between those two words). I guess that as things have gotten worse and more ridiculous, it's made me realise how important the state of the nation is to me personally (because I care) and to the rest of the world. I wonder if I'd have so strong a sense of just how important the United States is to the rest of the world if I were still living there. Even a distance of 60 kilometres gives perspective, I guess.

I don't have much to say on the debates since the talking heads and typing bloggers have pretty much already said everything that might be worth saying. Check out the usual suspects. For my part though, I'm happy that I can say that Kerry kicked some ass. I personally thought it wasn't a spectacular debate myself after having watched it, but reading what other people had to say, I realised that Bush did look pretty bad. I guess I didn't really think he looked bad since I don't expect too much from him, even when he's reading from a teleprompter, never mind when it's impromptu.

As for the future state of the Union, I just read this ('Politics in the "New Normal" America' by Joan Didion) article. Although Scout over at 'And Then...' calls it a must read, I have to say that I'm not so sure. I don't find that it necessarily says anything new. It's a nice compendium of different things and for that it's probably convenient to have it all in one article. So, if you haven't been paying close attention, read it. Otherwise, just keep fighting against Big Brother.

The Onion's top headline this week is 'Documents reveal gaps in Bush's service as president'. It's sad when a satirical newspaper that bills itself as 'America's finest news source' really is, more often than it ought to be, American's finest news source.

I'm also quite bothered by the fact that the most relevant metaphor available for our times continues to be found in Orwell's 1984. I was deeply bothered by that book when I first read it in Grade 9. But, in the warm, fuzzy haze of the Clinton 90s--and perhaps also my own lack of knowledge and experience of the outside world--I felt secure in knowing that I had nothing to fear from Big Brother.

Now, the teacher who encouraged me to read that book, who encouraged me to always look at the big picture, who drilled into my mind that Knowledge is Power and that 'People who have no hope are easy to control, and whoever has the control as the power,' and, of course, that Power corrupts and that Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely, the person--without a doubt the most intelligent and brilliant teacher I had in high school--whom I credit with a very large portion of the way that I've come to think about the world, refuses to visit Montreal because it's a French city in Canada.

It's a sad, sad day when the Virgil of my HIgh School Inferno seems to have come to love Big Brother.

Things need desperately to change in the United States and the fate of the world rests in the balance.

(I'd keep going, but it's almost two in the morning and I'm tired and probably am starting to ramble and not make much sense.)