Obama's Speech

Damn. I said, damn. This was more than a home run, this was a grand slam. I have to admit, having this guy as President wouldn't be so very bad.

More Southern Photos!

GOATs01, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

I'm going to post more picture on Flickr tomorrow, that's my plan at least. Here's a quick post of two goats we named Wilburrr (on the left) and Fiona (on the right). They were deuling... literally butting heads over a third goat, who I just named Elouise. Elouise was pretty freaked out by the whole affair so she scooted away pretty darn quick. These two were pretty impressive going at it. GOATS! In the SOUTH! Yeah!

New Favorite Political One-Liner

There have been lots of barbs tossed around this week at the Democratic Convention, and I hope people are starting to feel satisfied that the party is really going on the offensive against McCain, the Republicans, etc. Still, I missed this great line and only caught it today when Andrew Sullivan posted about how he missed it.

Peggy Noonan caught it, as did, apparently everybody out in Denver:

"By the way, the best line of the convention so far? Ted Strickland of Ohio, when he echoed the 1988 Democratic convention joke about George H.W. Bush, that he was born on third and thought he hit a triple. Strickland said of George W. Bush that he was born on third and then stole second. It didn't get much attention in any of the commentary, but it's all people were talking about in the bars of Denver that night."

Rootlessness, America and Identity

A couple days ago the NYT had a fascinating article about Barack Obama (and John McCain), rootlessness, wandering, and the American identity. A someone who has only just passed the two year mark living in Connecticut (a tenure of residence in one state unparalleled since since the day I graduated college) I found the read interesting and engaging.

They offer a lengthy meditation on the subject, weaving together literary references, discussion of the wanderer as essentially American, but also the wander as feared and mistrusted. Towards the end they also present an alternate take, asking if Obama, who has lived in Chicago for years now, is once married, has a seemingly stable family, and wants to maintain his ties to Chicago, is in fact more rooted than your average politician.

As I think about it, I also now wonder how the Obama/Biden ticket offers an interesting sampling of wandering with rooted-ness. Biden certainly, as someone who regularly commutes home to Delaware even while the Senate is in session, displays strong roots and ties to the community that has elected him many times over.

The article is worth a read, and I'd love other peoples' reflections on it, if you have any to share in comments!

Round Mound of Obamanation

So there's clearly a good bit of Democratic Convention related stuff a person could be blogging about today, but instead of weighing into the, "Did Hillary do enough?" conversation, or the "Was Mark Warner at all interesting?" conversation or the, "What the hell was Ed Rendell thinking calling Obama Adalai Stevenson?" conversation I'm going to take up the Charles Barkley conversation. "What with the what now," you might say. That's right, former Philadelphia 76ers basketball great Charles Barkley has tended to lean republican throughout his life, but is a big-time supporter of Obama this year, and HuffPo has all the details.

Celebrity endorsements, who cares, right? I agree, but I just thought this was kinda fun, in part because of the very direct way in which the very opinionated Barkley describes what he sees as appealing in Obama, "We're a country of haves and have-nots. America needs a new leader. Someone who can give poor people a chance"

Abides does the Dude

Rolling Stone Magazine has a nice writeup called the Decade of the Dude, sending up the 10 year love affair many in our generation have developed with the Big Lebowski. They spend some time with Jeff Bridges and the article, among other things, includes the following priceless quote from Philip Seymour Hoffman:

"There's a freedom to The Big Lebowski," theorizes Philip Seymour Hoffman, who played Brandt, the wealthy Lebowski's obsequious personal assistant. "The Dude abides, and I think that's something people really yearn for, to be able to live their life like that. You can see why young people would enjoy that."

Thanks to Tyler for posting this on Facebook!

V.P. Drama? Right.

CNN goes a little nutty over the Obama VP drama... or well, not drama exactly, really just their impatience. Check it out.

Remarkable Woman, Remarkable Speech

I imagine most folks who caught it last night were touched and impressed by Teddy Kennedy's speech at the Democratic convention. He seems to be doing remarkably well for someone who has endured the sort of surgery he recently went through, and he was impressively powerful and clear in his words and presentation. I missed Michelle Obama last night, but I'm watching it this morning, and I'm so pleasantly impressed, but not surprised. She is an incredible person who has achieved remarkable things in her own life, so I think none of us should be surprised she can deliver an incredible speech. If you're up for spending 20 minutes with her, check out the full video below:





From Purple State Blog's Live-blogging of the convention last night:

"I had thought going into tonight that Ted Kennedy's speech would be the one that could bring Democrats together across the Obama-Clinton divide. I was wrong. Michelle Obama proved herself a dynamic, captivating, and fantastic public speaker. I will post the video tomorrow. If you didn't see her speech tonight, watch it."

Another wonderful reaction documented by Saramerica: young girls who aren't interested in politics find Michelle Obama inspiring.

Water water everywhere and you thought Face-off was just a B-Movie

I am a B-movie fan. I love them. They give me interesting ideas for my own stories and thoughts. Sure they often take a bit more suspension of disbelief then other movies but if you can get there you will experience a fun time.

Face-Off was an initial exception, I just couldn't wrap my head around it the first time I watched it. It took a second watching sometime later to get my suspension to the level I felt it needed to be to enjoy the movie. Well low and behold I need not have suspended anything at all!

You too can get your face transplanted with someone else's! How wonderful! and with an implantable voice synthesizer, you can sound like them too! Electronic Voices

A quick point on bottled water: STOP USING IT! Seriously!
Bottled water in the vast majority of cases is no cleaner or healthier then tap water! There have been numerous instances where bottled water often has been tested as having higher amounts of potentially dangerous bacteria then any U.S. tap water. Not to mention the amounts of particles that come off the plastic itself. Ever notice the interesting taste and smell a bottle of plastic water has when it heats up a bit. Yeah, thats the plastic degrading.

Those are health risks, lets look at the actual monetary costs. Your average 20 oz. bottle of water costs between $0.70 and $1.50 depending on brand and location. The average cost of tap water in the united states in 2000 was between $0.07 and $0.40 per gallon. That is a milk jug of water folks. Inflation has not affected this cost significantly. Modern water treatment plants are top of the line and in most of the civilized world provide perfectly safe drinking water to millions of house holds. No bacteria, no harmful build up of chemicals.

Lets say you live in an older section of town and you have old pipes which do tend to harbor strange tastes smells and potential bacteria. You can get yourself an in house water treatment system that will provide mountain spring clear water for a fractional increase in cost over your standard tap water. These eliminate the 'taste' often associated with with older pipes.

Let's look at the environmental impact. I will just give you this fun fact. Despite the fact that recycling is continually growing through out the country in 2004 only one in six bottles were recycled. Check out some figures: Bottles Bottles everywhere

And you don't have to take my word for it, listen to two one of my favorite two man acts, Pen & Teller, call out the BS.
Bull $%*&

-J.R.

Editorial Note from John:

First, a big thank you to J.R. for a tremendous post. I really enjoyed the combination of two interesting and different topics, and what you had to say on both. If folks click through there are some great links here, and the bottled water issue is one J.R. and I both agree on and have talked through many times in the past.

If you're looking for a little multimedia to drive home the point, check out this video on where some of the plastic that doesn't get recycled goes. Warning, this video and the series that follows it are actually very disturbing. To give a quick synopsis they document a crew sailing out into the Pacific Ocean to document "trash island" a mass of swirling trash (largely plastic) and other debris that swirls around way out in the middle of nowhere unclaimed and unaddressed by governments to date. I posted this a little while back, but I think it really reinforces J.R.'s point.:

Energy Independence

Some of the most annoying politicking of the current era revolves around "energy independence." Everyone assures us that he or she will break "American dependence on foreign oil." Everyone seems to think this is a good idea and why not? It ties into two strong urges: environmentalism and protectionism. The problem is that energy independence is a totally different goal that, say, producing energy in an environmentally safe way. And as for the protectionist urge to be independent from other nations, well, this strikes me as naive at best.
I read an interesting, if over-stated, editorial about this today. Check it out.

Biden Time

Well, turns out it was Biden after all. My first, pre-coffee reaction is one of relief: given all the ballyho about "the pick" I was beginning to worry that it might be someone else. The reaction to Biden's Veephood and Obama's handling of the announcement is uniformly positive. Maybe this will help the jitters among Democratic circles that Obama's campaing is on the wrong track.

I'm pretty pleased with the Pick, since I am a Biden guy from way back. It says a great deal about Obama's judgement that he went with someone like Biden and not a flashier, demographic-pleasing pick, like Kaine, Strickland or Clinton Herself. This gives credence to the idea that Obama will make up for his relative unfamiliarity with statecraft by surrounding himself with the best and brightest. Of course, Bush did the same thing on paper and look how that turned out. I suspect, though, that Obama is a good bit quicker than our Texan friend. All in all, this move will help Obama in the crucial me demographic.

Brooks On Biden

David Brooks has a nice opinion piece today in the NYT about the wisdom of picking Biden, yet more fuel on the fire, I believe. At this point I'm basically keeping my fingers crossed because I think Joe is a pretty great pick. Any thoughts to the contrary? Ideas of folks who might rival the strengths of the Senator from Delaware?