Cheese & Rice!

Watching the news all morning (Spongebob wasn't on) I have seen a LOT of stuff I want to talk about and wish there was a way to have an almost Instant Messaging session with anyone who happens to read this. Like you hear housewives do with soap operas, how one calls another and they watch the show together saying to eachother "I can't believe he just did that!" or "Oh my god, did you see that coming?" That's what I want.

Ah, but it won't happen. For one thing, I'm now tethered to the wall for the internet. For other reasons, my computer's a POS that wouldn't be able to work fast enough even if it had wireless, I'm usually at work when all this stuff happens, and if I'm not, surely you are, right?

So, I'll have to settle for a summary and miss the stuff that only temporarily got my attention.

Lots of talk about Palin these last few days. I was watching the news last night and a story was talked about saying that her youngest son, the one with Down Syndrome might not actually be her child, but her oldest daughter's child (meaning that besides the one in her stomach right now she already has a kid). To prove this story a picture was released of her just talking to someone with a pregnant belly and a date at the bottom of the picture. But there was a problem that only a super huge geek could point out and it's this: The picture showed Palin talking to a reporter and in the picture was the reporter's camera man. OK? The camera that the camera man was using was said to have come out no less than two or three months AFTER the supposed date on the bottom of the picture. You've got to be pretty invested in the camera world to catch such a thing. I guess the stars aligned for that one.

But honestly, why should this matter? Isn't there enough ammo out there for the bloggers (of whom, I guess I am though just in the smallest sense, I promise) and critics to throw at Palin without making stuff up? Her 20 months as Governor maybe?

Now look, I'm going to come clean and be brutally honest right now: I'm not a Democrat nor a Republican. I'm very much a Libertarian and as such I like to say I lay no claim to a specific party purely out of heritage or habit. I think that people latching on to things that don't really matter like personal issues at home are very much missing the point. There's no reason to do that when everyone is doing such a fine job of tearing her down with credible points like being the Mayor of a town of 5,000 and how does this compare to being the runner-up to the President of the United States? That's a logical question and one that matters. This stuff at home... It just doesn't matter.

Moving on.

Fox News has been going on all morning about how great Palin and McCain are. Obviously. For a news agency that is "fair and balanced" they sure do sway to one side. And that's fine. I really don't think they're pulling the wool over anyone's eyes with that one. My issue lies with the fact that so many of the reporters are morons. I don't get it. It's like they went on a talent search, looked at the appearance of the hopeful and said "Do you have any interest in being a newsanchor?" and if they said yes a contract was slid in front of them.

They're the reason I'm pro-choice.

And while Fox seems to have the market on morons cornered, CNN has a different market in mind. Flipping over to that channel (I won't lie, I prefer CNN) I saw the lady reporting the news was seated in a chair that was leveled ABOVE the desk. Perhaps they lowered the desk? Or maybe raised the chair to hilarious heights but the result was the anchor showing a LOT of leg. It's not like this wasn't a welcome break from Fox's bleach blonde, always ready with the deer in the headlights stare, usually pastel wrapped lady anchor. Kind of a bad girls of news reporting. But it seemed a little... transparent that they were just trying to give you one more reason to keep it tuned to CNN.

Ah, but all of this is small beans to what I think no one is addressing right now (and it's a shame): Palin is a pawn. A poker chip. McCain is told he's too old, too out of touch and the youth, well, they just don't care. They're enticed by Obama, lured by his message of change and seduced by his cries of hope. The more time that goes by and the less questions he answers and the more bad press he steers you away from like a lame magician always waving his empty hand saying "look over HERE! HEY!! LOOK OVER HERE!!!" to get you distracted, the more fanatical his fans become. And honestly, it's no shock (be honest) that he's so popular. He's young, he's well spoken and he's black. We as a society have been called racist for a very long time and even the youth of today are called racist for not always saying "African American" and saying black. We have grown up being scared of what to say because we're scared of what might be said about us.

On a side note: I think this is why there is so much optional segregation in today's society. You don't have to worry about what to call the friends in your circle if you're all the same race. No worries about different terms or sensitive issues or different points of view when you're all the same.

Anyway, we have no balls. But more than that, we are so eager to please the powers-that-be by declaring ourselves NOT racist by electing a black man to President based on little more than skin color.

Come on, people! This is true! Don't try to lob racist grenades at me, I'm all for electing a man OR WOMAN that is right for the job but not based solely on appearances. I don't care about race but about QUALIFICATIONS. I won't say I'm color blind, that's ignorant, but I'm saying you need to look a little deeper than (literally) the surface.

So anyway, what does this have to do with Palin? McCain sees what's going on with Obama, saw the tears of people at the Democratic National Convention as they watched Hillary's speech saying "I wish she was the candidate" and he (McCain) snatched up his opportunity, enlisting the help of a young woman who mirrors his own political standings but in a much younger, MUCH more attractive package. Everyone says she's a young McCain (they're even calling her a Maverick) and that's what I'm saying too "SHE'S A YOUNG MCCAIN!" Is this GOOD? That's up to you. But I'm saying that she was put there because she's a woman and because McCain's not an idiot, just really see-through. "I'll see your VP pick of someone that is on par with me, Obama, with a VP that is on par with YOU." This is MERELY his attempt to get more votes by trying to show that he's progressive, and while he might not be so hip, the lady that could pass as the hot librarian sure is. She shoots guns, lives in an exotic place, and oh yeah, has boobs. You can see, it's painfully obvious, that he expects the women voters to come to him JUST BECAUSE SHE DOES NOT HAVE A PENIS.

It's ridiculous.

The funny thing about this as I see it anyway, is Obama still has the edge. We've always been a sexist society and we're a lot more comfortable with this than we are with out racist heritage. This isn't to say it's right or anything like that at all, but you hear a lot more sexist jokes around the water cooler than you do racist jokes.