Election minus 2.

I know that nothing that I say or do at this point can make any difference, but I still feel the need to do something, so here, watch this and pass it on:



And now that it is November 2, let me tell you the truth: although I have been asking people to vote without regard to whom they were voting for, I really can't understand how any person could, in conscience, vote for McCain/Palin. Even if one could have voted for McCain, a person who loves our country should be unable to vote for a ticket including Palin. No one I have asked to explain their choice has been able to do so in any rational way. So if you vote the other way, please don't tell me.

This describes my condition

It is sort of pitiful.

It is sad. But it is also frightening.

On religious intolerance and misogyny...

The candidates and some of their views:

As for Palin, watch the video of Kenyan pastor Thomas Muthee asking God to protect Palin "from every form of witchcraft." Muthee actually claims he saved a Kenyan village by chasing away a witch. As ridiculous as this video seems. persecution of women as being witches has been around for thousands of years, causing thousands of women to be excecuted, burned at the stake. Nothing could be more anti-woman, more bigoted or biased than to accuse a woman of having a compact with evil spirits. Why didn't Palin walk out on Muthee?
Why didn't she renounce David Brickner, Executive Director of Jews for Jesus, when he spoke earlier this year at Palin's Wasilla Bible Church and described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.
Yes, religion matters in an election because belief matters. What does McCain really believe about "agents of intolerance" such as Robertson. Does Sarah Palin really believe -- as she seems to have said -- that God wants her to build an oil pipeline? Or that the Iraq war is a mission from God? She believes in Creationism and the End Times. These are not trivial matters. We are talking about religious beliefs that could have a huge impact on major domestic and foreign policy issues.

Happy Walpurgis Nacht! And amazing political pumpkin templates.

picture credit

The man who brought Halloween to Germany, and why.

Check out these fabulous pumkin templates: Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin.

These are even better: YesWeCarve

Plantar fasciitis revisited, and bronchitis as well.

Sometimes I am amazed to turn around and realize that another week has gone by. When I worked 16 hour days, and even when I worked 9 hour days with a commute, I would never have dreamed that it would be possible to have no time to get everything done if I didn't have an outside job.

This was a moderately challenging week.

Last Friday, after being sick for a bit, I went to a Dr. R that the German had found. He was an orthopod, but German doctors are not as specialized as those in the US and he was able to check me out for bronchitis. After a bit of back and forthing, as he kept saying that I should have an infusion (which I thought was some type of herbal tea), it turned out that he meant an antibiotic drip. That was ok with me. With my history of bronchitis, pneumonia and bacterial superinfection, I take my lungs quite seriously. But since I was there anyway, I decided to speak to him about my still painful foot and to show him my new, expensive, prescription orthotics. He whipped out an ultrasound and examined my foot, which I found intriguing, since the last Dr. had not done so. Then he X-rayed my feet and indicated we would talk after the drip.

What an easy way to get antibiotics (plus lovely energizing electrolytes). I lay down, the Dr. put the needle in (and very well indeed, showing the practice German dr's have compared to their American brethren), and then I read a magazine for 40 minutes.  I can absolutely see why American dr's don't do this: they would never waste the time and space when they can just write a prescription and see five more patients in that time.

Then we took a look at the X-rays and he pointed out the heel spurs on both feet and that the one on the left was pushing into a ligament, which was causing the pain. He rewrote my orthotics prescription so that the ones I had would be modified and gave me an antibiotics script and a physical therapy script for my feet and I ran home to get the kids. Wow. It is so hard to get anything done! It has been about 5 months, I think, since I started having pain in my feet and it has really played a number on my sightseeing desires.

An informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy...

The kids from the Ron Clark Academy performing live "You Can Vote However You Like," a parody to TI's "Whatever You Like". Atlanta Georgia Ron Clark Academy.
for full interview click
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEKNAZ...
Lyrics:

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

(McCain supporters)
McCain is the man
Fought for us in Vietnam
You know if anyone can
Help our country he can
Taxes droppin low
Dont you know oils gonna flow
Drill it low
I'll show our economy will grow

McCain's the best candidate
With Palin as his running mate
They'll fight for gun rights, pro life,
The conservative right
Our future is bright
Better economy in site
And all the world will feel our military might

(Obama supporters)
But McCain and Bush are real close right
They vote alike and keep it tight
Obama's new, he's younger too
The Middle Class he will help you
He'll bring a change, he's got the brains
McCain and Bush are just the same
You are to blame, Iraq's a shame
Four more years would be insane

Lower your Taxes - you know Obama Won't
PROTECT THE LOWER CLASS - You know McCain won't!
Have enough experience - you know that they don't
STOP GLOBAL WARMING - you know that you won't

I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA
Stick with McCain and you're going to have some drama
We need it
HE'LL BRING IT
He'll be it
YOU'LL SEE IT
We'll do it
GET TO IT
Let's move it
DO IT!

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

I'm talking big pipe lines, and low gas prices
Below $2.00 that would be nice

But to do it right we gotta start today
Finding renewable ways that are here to stay

I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA,
Stick wit McCain you gone have some drama
MORE WAR IN IRAQ
Iran he will attack
CAN'T BRING OUR TROOPS BACK
We gotta vote Barack!

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

What a great Ad

Ads like this make me remember when advertising and marketing were actually exciting.


edited to let you see the original from 2000, when an American icon still existed and the world was a simpler and happier place

No Kidding?

Greenspan admits a mistake.

Mr. Greenspan conceded a more serious flaw in his own philosophy that unfettered free markets sit at the root of a superior economy.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.
Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”
Mr. Waxman pressed the former Fed chair to clarify his words. “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Mr. Waxman said.
“Absolutely, precisely,” Mr. Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”

We are One People: Please Vote