I think I’ve figured out a universal truth. A lot of days I look at the polls and see, yay, Joe Biden’s ahead, but only by five or seven points. Never more than ten in any state. It’s always close. That means 45% of America is voting for Trump. 148 million Americans saw the past four years and want more. And it boggles my mind. What do they see in him? What do they like about him? Have they not been paying attention? Tax cuts for the rich, quid pro quo in Ukraine, impeachment, children in cages. Children in frickin’ cages. It should have stopped there. Twitter wars, name-calling, petty…
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The Return of Bill and Bob
I thought I was done with them. I thought maybe they’d died or run out of money. But nope, they’ve put up a new billboard. Granted I was sick of the Lord Fletcher’s one that had been there for years. All it had was an image of a walleye dinner with “Wally Wally” as a caption. Didn’t make a lot of sense to me, and all it did was make me hungry. But when I saw it, I was usually on my way home to dinner anyway. And after two or so years of looking at it, it started to become unappetizing. Two years is about the same amount of…
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Pawlenty as Governor Part 2: What I Do Care About
I talked before about things politicians keep bringing up that aren’t things I care about. Here’s what I do care about. Education – this is, and always shall be, my number one priority. Because my biggest fear is living in a country of ignorant. Ignorant people are like play-doh–they have no substance and even a mediocre leader can mold them into zealots. Smart children grow up to be smart adults who make smart advances. They make life better. They make medicine and businesses and inventions and because I don’t want a world where being “ig’nant” is a symbol of pride, or you’re supposed to hate school, or be a slacker/disengaged…
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So Pawlenty as Governor…
So I used to ignore politics. But in my state, the governor race has begun. This is going to be interesting because, for the first time in my life, I’m scrutinizing candidates and vetting policies. I even sent in a ballot for my Homeowner’s Association election. So revel in the bantling thoughts of a guy coming to government as unsteady and moist as a newborn calf. In my state, Tim Pawlenty is running for governor as a Republican.This is noteworthy because he already served from 2003-2011 (and then took six years off to go backpacking in Europe?). I don’t know why he wants to run now. Is he afraid the…
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What is the Point of the Sith?
What is the point of the Sith? They don’t seem to have a goal they’re reaching towards, except for opposing the Jedi. Meaning they seem to be one-dimensional villains that only exist for the purpose of story. They act as a counterpart to the Jedi. In fact, their credo exactly mirrors all their traits. No empathy, just ambition and power and victory. But to what end? What do they want? Keep in mind, Sith is not the Galactic Empire. The empire wants control over all planets in the galaxy so they can have power/unity/order. Or so other planets with a resource can’t just say “mine, you can’t have”. But the…
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Why I Shall March
When Donald Trump became president in January, it became immediately apparent that this was not going to be a run-of-the-mill presidency. Iran-Contra scandals and blow jobs in the oval office–those are issues that reach far away and don’t affect me. Let the kings play their game of thrones, I have a family to maintain. But this one’s different. I worried about George W. Bush, but he played a political game. This one has made promises that will affect my friends. They will worsen the lives of people I know, people I work with, creative people like artists and authors, even porn stars I like. To say nothing of making others…
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Bill and Bob and the Billboard of Shame
So where I live in the sub-sub-suburbs, there are often political billboards in the farm fields. (Mostly speaking out against abortion, like the “I had fingerprints at two months” kinda stuff.*) But there’s one right where I leave my neighborhood in the morning. They started about a year ago, maybe two. It’s always some political message in the form of a letter, and signed “Sincerely, Bill and Bob”. The message is always some trite phrase like “Dear Mr. President, LEAD, don’t follow” and “Dear Congress, Political correctness is NOT correct”**. But this most recent one broke my camel’s back. And keep in mind I’ve got to stare at this every…
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How Do You Convince Someone Not to Vote for Trump
Allow me to get political for a second. I haven’t done so in over 900 posts, so I think I’m permitted one. And believe me, I don’t like to do this. I’m not politically minded. I don’t care much about politics or governmental elections. I care about policy, but the system to create that policy has succumbed to corruption – lobbying, partisanship, etc. When it comes to presidents, there are candidates I like and candidates I don’t. When George W. Bush was first elected, I was disappointed – the election was controversial to begin with, but also he was not very intelligent and didn’t understand consequences for his actions. He…
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What I’ve Learned About Guns from Video Games
Obviously, this is a joke. Video games can’t perfectly duplicate real life or no one would play them. No one wants to go through the complex process of reloading, counting bullets, weight management, kickback. That takes the fun out of it. There are limits to what video games can offer, in terms of fun AND available choices. The programmers have to restrict you, because they want the game experience a certain way. If you want to play, you have to fight. You can’t talk them down or wave a white flag or tell your AI partner to circle around and garrote him. (See my article on Shadow of the Colossus)…
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The Books I Read: September – December 2011
Wow, it’s been a while since I did one of these, I almost forgot about them. The reason was that I hadn’t read enough books to necessitate a post. And you can blame this sucker: The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss I started this in August and didn’t finish until December. That’s unusual for me. If I buckle down, I can read a book in a week, average. But this mother fucker is 750,000 words, 1,000 pages long. More on that in a second. This book continues the adventures of Kvothe, the redheaded magic-user who can do no wrong, but somehow still seems to. Half of the book continues…
