Laugh Before Bed

If you want to some more opinion on the upcoming election, that's more detailed and more biting, check out my brother's blog.

However, for another laugh before bed...from last night's Saturday Night Live.

You Know It's Bad When...

I have no love lost for Karl Rove, the architect of the modern American election campaign, where bullshit, lies, and groin kicks are more important than little things like the issues. That's why I was shocked when CNN reported today that even Rove thinks McCain's campaign has gone too far with the lies and mistruths in their ads. Amazing when the stench of bullshit prompts the bullshit master to make a comment.

Hopefully, the Big Lie technique will remain a relic of the past and die a quick death in modern election campaigns. Enough is enough.

Thar She Blows - Part 2

The upcoming American election is sadly more interesting than the Canadian one...and for all the wrong reasons. The Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin has taken the old Bush strategy of misleading the public one step further by flat-out lying. Lying about their own records, lying about Barack Obama's and lying about pretty well everything they can lie about.

You can't just make shit up!

I repeat, you can't just make shit up!

Up to this point, the media has been pretty lax in holding them accountable, but Paul Krugman of the New York Times had a pretty good op-ed piece out today. According to the GOP ticket, not only did Sarah Palin not support the Bridge to Nowhere (bullshit), and not only did she not go after earmarks (bullshit), but Obama supports giving sex-ed to kids (bullshit) and plans on increasing taxes to 95% of Americans (also bullshit). The recurring theme of bullshit stinks. And what's worse is that Republican strategists think this is a good way to run a campaign...and what's even worse than that is that some Americans are actually falling for this.

How can two candidates running for the most powerful office in the free world be allowed to get away with this? How can their supporters tolerate this insult to their intelligence? Considering the utter failure of the Bush regime in nearly every area from the economy to foreign relations, it is unbelievable that a Republican ticket that is this out of touch with reality is even in the game. I sincerely hope and pray that the American people are not this easily manipulated and make the right decision. At this point, conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, whites and blacks, men and women, and rich and poor need to get past these stupid labels and in a collective voice, tell the GOP to stop making shit up.

Thar She Blows!

The big news today, of course, is the impending landfall of Hurricane Ike. We're in the midst of the busy hurricane season and we've probably got a few more to go before it's all over. From where I'm sitting, in a nice dry living room in Eastern Canada, it looks like the poor folks in Texas are going to be in for one hell of a night.

What I can't understand are those people who insist on staying put, knowing full well that if they're lucky, only their homes will be lost and not their lives. Having survived Hurricane Juan several years ago...and considering that was only a Category 1 storm and our lives were not in real danger, I can't even imagine sticking it out through one of these. I guess people who live along the Gulf Coast are more accustomized to this sort of thing, but I still wouldn't test Mother Nature. Godspeed.

Hate to State the Obvious

I know, I know. I'm a bad blogger. I get excited for a day or two...sometimes only for the odd hour, and then you don't hear from me for a month. Not that I have a huge audience to begin with, but my brother claims that keeping your blog up to date is one way to attract readers.

I've had a few things on my mind, so I won't waste anymore time and will get to it!

Phelps Wins 18th Gold!!!

You know, perhaps I should be less sarcastic, but unfortunately the Olympics bring out the worst in me. As many of you know, by this time next week, American swimmer, Michael Phelps, will likely have won more medals than 90% of the countries competing in the Games. So, to put that in perspective, Phelps will have more medals than a country like...say....Nigeria. That wouldn't be a big deal if Nigeria were the size of the Cayman Islands, but Nigeria is actually the eighth most populous country in the world with a population of 140 million people.

I've seen enough of Phelps on TV to know a couple of things. One, he seems like a really nice guy...someone who you would cheer for to do well, and two, he's the best swimmer in the world today and is certain to be a legend in the sport. But eight gold medals? Come on. Why not ten...or fifteen...or twenty? The Olympics has become such a marketing juggernaut that it has lost it's soul. When a team of athletes (ie. basketball, water polo) or an individual (ie. boxing, tennis) has to endure a grueling two week competition to win ONE medal...doesn't it seem a little unbalanced that one athlete can come home with eight? Obviously, if you're Michael Phelps, you're a damn good swimmer....but do we really 100 meter, 200 meter, 400 meter, medleys, team relays, butterflies, freestyle, etc., etc., to prove it again and again? Some people will disagree, pointing out that you'd train differently for each event, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference to a multi-medalled Olympian.

Personally, I hope Phelps wins his eight...and I hope they add a 150m race for him to win a ninth...why not? He's a great swimmer, a great athlete, and he deserves to take pride in his accomplishments. But the IOC really needs to take a hard look at itself and decide if the Olympics are to be a world showcase of amateur sport...or a commercial venture designed to ensure mass numbers of medals going to a few select nations with near professional athletes fighting to be Coca Cola's next ad campaign.

The Damn Wife Comment

Back on my July 9th's post, I made reference to the damn wife. That may have been unfortunate as the damn wife has insisted that I do not refer to her as the damn wife anymore. In fact, I am to refer to her as Her Majesty or Her Royal Highness to give proper respect to her position. In referring to Her Majesty as the damn wife, I nearly forfeited my privileges at court and was forced to work very hard to obtain an audience with her where I could apologize for my improper syntax. Afterwards, I was taken to a dark room and beaten. Severely.

In all fairness, my damn wife of just over two months is indeed a true princess and did not deserve such an uncouth reference. On a sidenote and to update that post, I finally did finish Assassin's Creed and am now working on an oldy, but a goodie, GTA: Vice City!! So, I'll let you know how that works out when I finally finish it in early 2011!