So based purely on Facebook status messages from my more liberal "friends", their reaction to Palin is along the lines of, "Is McCain on CRACK?!?" and "Palin has GOT to be a joke."

Well, now they know how conservatives feel about Obama.

There are two dimensions when evaluating the Palin pick: Will she help McCain get elected, and will she actually do well as VP. In my estimation, the answer to the first question is "Yes", but I'm still a little concerned about the second. Based on what I know about her, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt--which is exactly what Democrats say in response to charges of Obama's inexperience.

But hey, Democrat and not-your-average-feminist Camille Paglia digs her.

McCain is running a better campaign than his most merciful, hands down. If you look at his most merciful, and really begin to analyze it--it's egomaniacal. He can't use the US flag--he has to use his own. He can't use the presidential seal, he makes it his own. Even his chair on his custom airplane (sans a US flag on it) has the word "President" on it... His most merciful hates America so much that he can't even use our symbols. Instead, he makes symbols fashioned only after himself.

McCain's catch-phrase? Country First. (As opposed to Me First, Country Second.)

And his most merciful's greek temple / Nuremberg rally--that will backfire on him. (The set was made by Britney Spears' set designer, by the way.)

McCain will not win. His most merciful will gloriously self-implode.

By the way, McCain's VEEP has a child w/ down's syndrome. Any bets that angry liberals will bring that up re: a pro-abortion stance? It's sick; I don't like thinking about it... but I bet it'll happen.

And perplexingly, his most merciful is already citing that McCain's VP is too inexperienced. I guess his 153 days in the senate really counts. Not a single bill written. Not called into session a single committee meeting.

I actually feel sorry for the delusional egomaniac. McCain (whom I really have a hard time getting excited about) is going to run circles around him. Watch it happen. It won't be like 1984, but i'll be like 1980.

She's a better speaker than Hillary. She can pull off being "firm" without being "shrill". Still thinking that Biden will likely get the better of her.

Tales from liberal-land...

I'm not even sure if the choice of Sarah Palin for McCain's VP had been 100% confirmed yet, but I was sitting at a lunch table at school, and one woman said, "Did you hear that McCain chose a woman as his VP?" Some had heard, and some hadn't. Then a different woman said, "Yeah, I hear there's been this thing with her, where her sister is in a messy divorce from a state trooper, and Palin asked the trooper's boss to fire him, and he wouldn't, so she fired the boss, etc, so... interesting choice."

Someone's been pinging DailyKos about as often as I've been pinging The Corner today...

The people at The Corner seem to like the choice overall, but at least one contributor to Powerline does not.

Hey--did anyone find it sadly comical that his most merciful's stage is built to resemble a Greek Temple?

And Scott--I'm more than happy to take the time to give you pages of evidence demonstrating how his most merciful's platform is, indeed, anti-American. Dates and all. I just don't want to go through the research if you really dont' care all that much.

And here's my final thought. Two words: Anti-Christ?
A guy from church wondered out loud if someone like Oprah would resemble the anti-christ. At first I giggled, but the guy's making a little more sense to me now. Oprah, maybe not. But an elected national leader--I can see it now.

On a separate note, it really bugs me to no end that the Obama campaign has co-opted the music of U2. First it was "City of Blinding Lights," now its "Beautiful Day."

Alright, this thread is getting too interesting to confine to the comments section of another thread. Both of you (Greg and Matt) are actually ready to call this election as a 1980-style runaway in favor of McCain! That is absolutely staggering to me.

Now don't hear me wrong. I am also somewhat perplexed by Obama's failure to run a convention that generates some momentum in the polls. But part of me wonders whether that failure is more due to the fact that this party was still divided over the primary campaign. Moreover, Obama has yet to take the stage (not including the "preview" he offered last night). So I think its too early to say that there will be no bump in momentum because the early days have been taken up largely dealing with intra-party squabbling.

Lastly -- and I say this with a growing sense of fervency -- McCain is just lame. For a man who built his career on being an "independent" who can "cross aisles," he sure does spend an awful lot of time backtracking and just giving prickly interviews in which he can't even admit stylistic changes. So I am not even remotely confident that he can hold it together through the end of a general election.

Which leaves me with this thought: will this potentially be our weakest President post-Nixon? I know the knee-jerk response is to go with Bush, but to be honest, there is still a piece of me that respects the guy. He reminds me in a certain way of Winston Churchill. Churchill fought all sorts of political battles at home and he was hated by many in England. But he knew the cause and he had an unbreakable iron will. In some ways, I think Bush is the same. No matter how low his approval ratings go, he does not bend on the war. And I think that's critical if there is to be any hope of leaving that country in any semblance of shape when we finally do pull out.

I know this will shock all of you, but I will not be voting for Barack Obama in November. His whole candidacy, to me, is ridiculous. He's truly the emperor with no clothes, and no one in the media wants to call him on it. (Speaking of emperor, I thought this was hilarious.)

However. I like to try to make a note of times when I honestly think that a liberal is getting a raw deal, or that a conservative is being ridiculous. Helps keeps me out of the so-called "fever swamp". That emperor picture in the above link made me think of it. On his shield it says, "BECAUSE AMERICA JUST SUCKS". This is a charge that gets leveled against BO quite a bit, and I don't think it should.

Did any of the Republican candidates believe that America is perfect just the way it is? They wouldn't change a thing? I don't think so. Does that mean they hate America? No. It means that they love the country, and want to fix it and make it better.

I believe Obama feels the same way. Now, THAT BEING SAID, the intersection of his idea of "better" and my idea of "better" has measure zero (non-zero, but very, very, very small). And you could argue that his foreign policy instincts would lead to very bad things for this country, but I would argue that that's more blithering ignorance than malice. To my ears, the charges of America-hating ring a little hollow.

And speaking of ignorance (my own and in general), I recently came across a couple of quotes from early American writer Josh Billings--of whom I'd never heard--that I'm surprised I hadn't seen before:

It's not ignorance does so much damage; it's knowin' so derned much that ain't so.

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.

Good stuff.

Operation Marmaduke Update:

Contact was made with the enemy this morning at approximately 08:00 hours. The hostile perp was sighted in our backyard, taking yet-another ginormous crap. Upon confronting the enemy, the combatant aggressively growled at the homeowner. Clearly, it was a case of self-defense. Rounds were deployed in the general direction of the enemy, although the light-caliber ammunition was not shooting straight. (This issue is being resolved by HQ, as Walmart is shipping heavier caliber rounds up to the front lines.) However, due to the CQB nature of the skirmish, the enemy felt the wrath of the M1911. Inexplicably, the enemy was so stupid that it just stood there, thereby allowing for more rounds being deployed in its general direction. Every hit resulted in a bark, each more pissed-sounding than the previous. Finally, the enemy sought refuge beyond the property line, and hostilities ceased.

Speaking of the games--have you guys been following the whole chic-gymnastic thing? I mean, anyone with half a brain can tell that the chinese contestants are not 16 years old. I know that chic-gymnasts "often look young", but this is ridiculous. They look like they're in the 5th grade. And now, the bloggersphere has uncovered cached documents citing otherwise. I hope china gets nailed on this one. They're a bad country doing bad things--and the US press doesn't have the balls to admit it.

I've watched some of the games, and I enjoy the coverage that I see. It's just that I've never been busier in my life--so since Phelps won his last one, I've been out.

In a totally unrelated thread, I've purchased an M1911. Side arm to US troops from WWI through 'Nam. Actually, it's just the pellet-gun version. Why, you may ask? Because this dumb dog next door continues to crap on my PGA caliber lawn, as well as aggressively growl at my 3 year old child. I'm starting with .2 g bbs, and we're moving up from there. It's a shame I can't legally shoot the handlers; they're the ones at fault here. Yes--it felt strange to do "research" and look at unboxing videos posted by 12 year old kids. But if a .2 gram bb traveling at 240 feet per second doesn't get Marmaduke's attention, then we'll just have to take it up a notch.

Finally--this is going to be one heckuva year. As you guys may or may not know (or care), my chair got removed from power last year. A lady in my dept got moved to chair, and I'm GPC. (#2 guy in the dept.) (I'm the youngest GPC on campus--by about 10 or 15 years...) For whatever reason--probably just to torture me--the ex-chair won't leave. And she's just a miserable, miserable person. I can't stress that enough. Just an ugly miserable (in every way) person. A saboteur of her own life, and everything around her. The students hate her, the staff can't stand her, she's got no friends...truly one of a kind. And it's hard guys--having to: 1) put up with her, if not (2) try and continue to demonstrate Christ's love. In any event, this is the first crop of students that are 100% ours--so it's put-up or shut-up time. Dang do I ever hope this is a good year; it will be a direct reflection on me. Who gave me all this responsibility, and where can I return it?

So is anyone actually grooving on these Chinese games? Right now, I feel like the only guy in America who doesn't really care. Sure, watching Phelps swim is kind of fun, but than again, I like swimming. And I will admit to having enjoyed Mays-Trenor/Walsh in beach volleyball. But seriously, how can you not enjoy dominance on the level that they display it?

As for everything else, I really don't care. Am I alone here?

Has anyone else seen this? I did for the first time back in, geez, 2000 maybe? Once every year or so I'm reminded of its existence, and watch it again. Still cool.

Sorry guys--Mac question.

Scott--have you noticed any shutdown problems w/ 10.5.4? I've had it "sleep" rather than shutdown for two days in a row. So when I go into my briefbag to get the MBP, it's like--1000 degrees and at 30% battery.

Hey Scott--get the MBP yet? And when are you going to send me your sermons?

As an aside, I've been watching more TV this past week than I have over the entire summer (combined). It's been great watching the States kick some butt in the pool. Have you guys been keeping up with these animals? (I swam in high school, and it's a shame that I didn't discover the sport prior to my jr. year.) Makes me want to join the pool at the U and begin swimming again...

On the heels of purchasing a most excellent Wii, I just picked up a brand new 17" MacBook Pro. The sweet thing is, it usually retails for $3000 and I picked it up for $1899. Add in the resale value of my current machine and I'm down to $1400 in terms of cash outlay. Can't wait 'til it arrives next Monday.

Speaking of Apples, have any of you made the move towards adopting an Apple TV lifestyle. There are certain elements that I find intriguing and yet I'm not sure. Anyone?

How's this for scary? Obama is saying that he's going to fund another economic stimulus package by stealing from the oil companies. I'm also reading that Pelosi is blocking a vote for us to increase our energy independence.

How these knuckleheads get elected in the first place is.... it's beyond me.

On a positive note--my lawn is approaching PGA quality. It's almost scary how much I find myself staring at it. I've finally got it figured out: (1) Water every 3 days; (2) Water at midnight; (3) Water the important zones twice (with about an hour in between each watering) for maximum (deep) saturation. (4) Use a lawn service that knows when to fertilize, and how much to fertilize.