I didn't think he could do it, but I'm very impressed. Obama won Iowa, and his victory speech was goosebump-inspiring. I caucused for Ron Paul, but I'll be switching my registration back to Democrat now, and hope to vote for Obama (or Edwards, though that seems unlikely) next fall for President:
Today is my wife's birthday, and we're celebrating it in Montreal. She didn't know we were coming here until a few days ago, but was happily surprised (I hope). We had numerous delays on the trip here, arriving about 8 hours later than we were supposed to, due to delayed and cancelled flights due to weather, but we made it, and spent yesterday shopping in the Underground City, ice skating, eating copious amounts of meat at Le Milsa, and finished the day off with a pint of cider at Hurley's, before collapsing into our beds. On today's agenda: The Montreal Biodome, and the fine art musuem.
Great article here from Tucker Carlson, talking about Ron Paul:
One thing you can say for certain: The crowds at Ron Paul rallies aren't coming to be entertained. Stylistically, a Paul speech is about as colorful as a tax return. He is the only politician I've ever seen who doesn't draw energy from the audience; his tone is as flat at the conclusion as it was at the beginning. There are no jokes. There's no warm-up, no shout-out to local luminaries in the room, no inspiring vignettes about ordinary Americans doing their best in the face of this or that bad thing. In fact, there are virtually none of the usual political clichés in a Paul speech. Children may be our future, but Ron Paul isn't admitting it in public.
Paul is no demagogue, and probably couldn't be if he tried. He's too libertarian. He can't stand to tell other people what to do, even people who've shown up looking for instructions. On board the campaign's tiny chartered jet one night (the plane was so small my legs were intertwined with the candidate's for the entire flight), Paul and his staff engaged in an unintentionally hilarious exchange about the cabin lights. The staff wanted to know whether Paul preferred the lights on or off. Not wanting to be bossy, Paul wouldn't say. Ultimately, the staff had to guess. It was a long three minutes.
Wow, Rudy's commercial was cringe-inducing, but Hillary's is just... well... it makes me want to puke. She needs to do a follow up ad that shows her having to pay off the credit card bill for those gifts in January...
By comparison, Ron Paul's Christmas video seems genuine, and he wears the requisite red shirt:
Mike Huckabee's commercial also plays as genuine, to me, though the "floating cross" is a bit disturbing. That said, I find it hard to believe that they actually came up with that ahead of time, it was probably a happy accident for them.
I think Huckabee and Paul have good Christmas ads, won't win them many new voters, but they don't turn people off. Rudy's ad is just plain creepy and weird, and Hillary's reinforces her image as calculating and her humor always just seems so forced...
I hope this is intended as a joke, and not a real ad, but I fear I'm wrong:
I'm saddened by the news that author Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with an early stage of Alzheimer's disease. If you've never read his Discworld series, they're quite funny, a very British skewering of modern society set in the typical fantasy setting of wizards and trolls. He also uses excessive and hilarious footnotes. Hopefully he'll have time for many more books before his symptoms worsen, as he's obviously still got his sense of humor:
"I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think.
"I know it's a very human thing to say 'Is there anything I can do?' but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry."
If you're looking for a great gift for an avid reader in your family, pick them up a copy of The Color of Magic, the first in the Discworld series. If you're intimidated by getting into reading a whole series (which isn't necessary in this case, the books are all related, and feature many of the same characters, but it's not a continuous story line, by any means) then read Good Omens, which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. It's probably my favorite book of the last few years.
I went to a screening of King Corn last night in Waterloo, and it's being shown elsewhere in Iowa in the coming days. Admission was free (popcorn wasn't) and the three guys who made the movie were there for question and answer following the screening. It was an interesting film, about two easterners who move to Greene, Iowa to raise an acre of corn. They then attempt to figure out where their corn is going in the food supply, and try to examine the implications of our massive grain production. I was expecting this to be a more radical movie trying to convince people to give up meat, go Vegan, and only eat organic bean sprouts, but I was happily surprised to be wrong, as it's far more even-handed, and Aaron Woolf made it clear after the showing that they didn't claim to have all the answers, they just wanted to start the discussion.
View the trailer here, and here are upcoming screenings in Iowa:
* Cedar Rapids, Iowa — December 12: CSPS, 7pm
* Eldora, Iowa — December 13: Grand Theater, 7pm
* Cedar Falls, Iowa — December 14: College Square Theater, 7pm
* Clear Lake, Iowa — December 15: The Lake Theater, 4pm
* Fairfield, Iowa — December 16: The Co-Ed Theater, 11 am
One of my favorite weekly rites now is listening to the latest video game review from Yahtzee Croshaw. This week is Assassin's Creed. Warning: Profanity and general hilarious bad taste jokes ahead:
Our Christmas lists are up, Holly posted hers on her blog a few days ago, but I also updated the master list today.
While this frankly doesn't strike me as any more implausible than most other major religions, seeing this, um, summary of Mormon doctrine (much of which is out-of-date, I'm sure) is rather hilarious, in a scary Christian propaganda sort of way. I found it via Wonkette, who has some good commentary of her own on the situation:
Perhaps the Mormons were onto something with the long-disavowed polygamy of the 19th Century. Having multiple wives turns out to be good for the environment.
