Finally!

Tomorrow is election day in the United States, and all of the disgusting, lying, mudslinging ads come to an end...for a while. It's about time!

Gettin' all Mavericky One Last Time

I won't miss the smarmy and lying attack ads after Tuesday, but I surely will miss all the great stuff on Saturday Night Live this political season. It has arguably been the best political season on SNL since Chevy Chase portrayed a bumbling Gerald Ford. Here is last night's appearance by John McCain and Tina Fey, portraying John McCain and Sarah Palin.

States To Which I Have Been

I have enjoyed traveling to many parts of the United States, and find something I like everywhere I go. So for grins, I decided to color code a map of our fifty United States of America. The code is as follows:

Green - States where I have lived for at least a year
Purple - States where I have lived for less than a year
Blue - States I have been to
Yellow - States I have flown over, but not been to on the ground
Red - States I have yet to visit or traverse by air

I Love Early Voting

Two years ago, the lovely spouse and I had to stand in line for over two hours to vote. This morning, it was a different story. We got to participate in early voting.

We first went to the town hall, and while it had a line, it looked to be fairly short. But the LS also knew of another early voting place located in the clubhouse of a nearby apartment complex. So we decided to go there. Walked in, showed our IDs and went straight to the voting machines. Done! It doesn't get any easier than that to participate in our republic. So, after voting for President, U.S. Senator, Mayor, Town Council, retaining judges, state constitutional amendment proposals, a few referenda, and some local ballot initiatives about taxes and debt for public schools and libraries, I was done. All in about 5 minutes. Of course, I had my cheat sheet to make sure I was ready.

The voting machines used here also print a paper copy that you can review and approve after voting electronically. No dimpled or hanging chads here!

I'm Randy, and I approved this message!

Meant as Humor, But Makes a Good Point

Technology is just getting too hard for many of our older citizens. It used to be you turned on the tv, flipped the dial to the channel you want, and presto, you had TV!

Nowadays you have to mess with multiple remote controls, converter boxes, cable or satellite boxes, home theater receivers, and to top it all off, television stations in the United States will cease to broadcast in good old analog NTSC in February, rendering any TV over a couple of years old useless without a converter box of some kind, be it cable, satellite, or over-the-air.

The following video was meant to be humor, but I fear that it is all too true for many. The closer we get, the more I think this whole conversion to DTV is a scam to make money for the government, the consumer electronics industry, and others who stand to gain from this conversion. For young folks who grew up with iPod earphones stuck in their head and a cell phone in their hands, it is no big deal. But not everyone can handle the intricacies of the change. And with DTV, instead of a little snow but a perfectly watchable picture, we get no picture with a weak signal. We also are subjected to compression artifacts and pixellation.

As to the video, I actually had the two cable boxes on the first two TV sets you see...the one with the knob and the one with rows of push buttons.

It Has To Stop

I have thought for a long time that there are nutcases out there who would cause harm to Senator Obama if they could, for reasons ranging from rabid racism to pure hatred. Yet I have not spoken about it for not wanting to even entertain such ideas. Yet today, the BATF broke up a plot by some neoNazi skinheads from Tennessee to murder 88 black Americans, 14 of them by beheading, then topping off their murder spree by taking the life of Senator Barack Obama. There were also previous plots that have been foiled, such as one to kill the Democratic Presidential nominee during the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

While it is true that these sick and twisted excuses of human beings don't require any encouragement, the rhetoric from the GOP is not helpful. Calling your political opponent a socialist, saying he "Pals around with terrorists", and other vitriolic nonsense only feeds the fires of hate. It is time that such hate mongering to stop in American politics. Now. If something horrific were to happen, I would hold people who spew such garbage for potential political gain partially responsible. When your crowds shout "Kill Him" and "Terrorist" about your opponent, something evil has taken hold in the nation.

And it isn't just extremists. Look at the video below to see the inane comments by the crowd going to a McCain-Palin rally. Unbelievable. It has to stop.

Arizona's Vietnam Veterans Memorial

As with all of my photos from the recent trip to Arizona, these are not up to par, as they were taken with my mobile phone camera. The location again is the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza.

This time, we are seeing the Arizona Vietnam Memorial. Much like the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, this one involves names inscribed into black rock, but rather than a wall, these are monoliths arranged in a semi-circle, surrounding a series of plaques in the center. The plaques are mounted on a stone pedastal, and describe milestones during the America's involvement in the Vietnam War. This monument was placed by The Vietnam Veteran Association of Arizona.

USS Arizona Artifacts in Phoenix

An anchor from the USS Arizona on display in Phoenix

Earlier this week, I was in Phoenix on business. On the way back to Sky Harbor Airport, I had a few minutes, so I stopped off at the Arizona state capitol complex. Across the street from the capitol building is the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, a park containing a variety of monuments. The series of photos to follow were taken on my Motorola Q9 mobile phone camera; therefore they are not up to the typical quality of the pictures I usually post. Still, they are able to convey their contents effectively, so I will share them here.

Two of the items in the park deal with the USS Arizona, a battleship of the United States Navy that was destroyed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The ship, commissioned in 1916, saw service in World War I, and underwent a modernization during the 1930s. Upon her destruction, 1177 lives were lost. Today, the USS Arizona Memorial is a part of Pearl Harbor.

But back in Phoenix, the signal mast of the ship, along with one of her anchors, are prominently displayed among the myriad memorials and monuments in the park. Below are two views of the mast, followed by a photo after the ship's 1930s updating, where you can clearly see this mast on the ship.


USS Arizona signal mast, with the state capitol in the background


Flags displayed on the signal mast


USS Arizona following her modernization in the 1930s

Quick Hits on a Friday Morning

Well, it's been another busy, busy week, hence the lack of postings. More to come this weekend, but let's take note of a few things.

Wall Street Roller Coaster

Unbelievable insanity continues in the economy, as the DJIA drops over 400 points in the opening minutes this morning. As always, it will be the people who just work hard every day will pay the price in decimated retirement and job losses. This is bad news for the Republican ideals of "I got mine, too bad for you", as people who have jobs and health insurance suddenly find themselves with neither. Maybe the greed will finally give way to real compassion and the realization that we are all interconnected, and that freedom from want is truly an American...and yes, a human, ideal.

Wasting Political Donations

Did you give donations to the Republicans? If so, are you angry that over $150,000 of your funds went into new outfits for Caribou Barbie? Governor Palin claims to be a typical hockey mom. How many hockey moms can drop that kind of cash at Neiman Marcus and Saks? I suspect real hockey moms are starting to abandon even shopping at Kohls and Mervyns, and heading to the Goodwill Store in today's economy. I guess it takes some mighty fancy lipstick to dress up a pit bull!

If you want to play along, you can dress up Governor Palin by CLICKING HERE.

Good News on the Horizon for MS Patients

British scientists at Cambridge University have found that alemtuzumab, a drug used to treat leukemia, can not only stop the effects of Multiple Sclerosis, but actually can reverse the damage caused by this horrible disease. Further testing must take place, but this is potentially great news for people who suffer daily with MS. CLICK HERE for more on this story.

Colin Powell's Endorsement of Barack Obama

I have been quite upset with a man I have respected for years since he went before the United Nations and made a presentation based on bad information in the run up to the invasion of Iraq. That man is former Secretary of State, General Colin Powell. Today on NBC's Meet the Press, General Powell redeemed himself. In a most eloquent and reasoned manner, he laid out why as a life long Republican, he is endorsing Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama for the Presidency of the United States.

General Powell echoes the main reasons I also support Senator Obama. These include:

• Senator McCain's poor judgment in selecting Governor Palin as his running mate, when she is obviously unqualified to be President
• The possibility of at least two more Supreme Court appointments of a conservative bent
• The low road taken in these closing days of the campaign by Senator McCain's team
• Not only the misrepresentation of Mr. Obama as a Muslim, but that it even matters what his religion may be, when there explicitly no religious test for public office, as stated in the Constitution of the United States
• Barack Obama is a new generation, a transitional figure in American history, when the nation can ill-afford four-to-eight more years of basically the same failed policies of the past eight.
  

General Powell, I salute you for your taking a stand, and in spite of your long standing friendship with Senator McCain, putting your country first.

I have embedded today's Meet the Press below.

Hop To It!

Between battling a major round of insomnia, and the most hectic times at work in quite a while, I have not been posting as regularly to the blog as usual. Politics have reached new lows of slinging mud...no, more like slinging crap...especially from the McCain campaign. So let's look at something a bit easier on the brain.

Today, one of the little bunny rabbits that live under our trees was sitting out in the yard, looking all fat and happy. I don't know if this is a pregnant bunny, or just one that is well fed on my poor lawn, but in any case, it is cute. That said, if times get tougher, this could begin to look less like a cute little bunny, and start looking more like dinner and four "good luck" keychains, cotton tail notwithstanding!

Poor Pa Kent! Killed Off Again!

Let's take a quick break from politics and economics. Too much of that can make your head hurt!

As I was growing up, the Superman mythos was an important part of my childhood. When comic books were from 10 cents to 12 cents each, even my modest allowance of 75 cents a week would buy several comics. I loved the characters of the DC line; Superman the most, but also Batman, Aquaman, and Green Lantern.

The Superman story line and continuity was as familiar as if it were my own life. Jor-El, the leading scientist of the planet Krypton, which revolved around a distant red sun, warned the Science Council that the planet would soon explode. No one believed him, so Jor-El and his wife Lara, placed their baby son, Kal-El, into an experimental rocket and sent him to Earth, where he was adopted by the elderly Jonathan and Martha Kent, who lived on a farm just outside Smallville, U.S.A. The Kent's named the space child Clark, and he had a career as Superboy. After his foster parents died, Clark moved to Metropolis to work for The Daily Planet newspaper. All this was immutable comic book reality. Then came John Byrne.

Byrne was hired away from Marvel Comics to do a total reboot of Superman in 1986. While in some ways the reimagining of the character was a welcome relief to bring about a more interesting and limited version, it was a major change, doing away with such characters as Superboy, Supergirl, Krypto, the bottle city of Kandor. In fact, the entire DC Universe was redone via the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" storyline crossing all DC titles. But two characters came out of the relaunch better than before...Ma and Pa Kent were still alive back in Smallville, and Superman was able to go home for visits.

The 1978 film, Superman, starred Glenn Ford as Jonathan Kent, who died of a heart attack. Not even his son's super powers could save him. In the television series, Smallville, Jonathan Kent, as portrayed by John Schneider, has been killed off. So this week, Jonathan is killed off once again in Action Comics #870.

So the moral of the story is, it isn't good to be either Superman's real father, who died on Krypton; nor his Earth father, Jonathan Kent, who is now dead for the fourth time. Much better to be Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen.