Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony

I can't stand elections. I really can't. I hate that campaigns will lie and squabble about the tiniest things. I hate it even more that our idiot citizens just accept these lies and vote accordingly. Calling anyone who criticizes Palin sexist is so stupid, and in itself is a result of obvious sexism on the part of the Republicans. They assume that women will vote for a candidate just because she's a woman, make a huge deal out of the fact that she's a women, and then lampoon anyone who doesn't give said woman a free pass without making her answer for any of her policies, because to not do so would be 'sexist'. It's just aggravating, the obvious hypocrisy in politics. If McCain wins this election, i'm going to give serious thought to staying in Portugal, or maybe migrating up to the England for a couple years. I could get in touch with my roots. I realize this looks like obvious partisanship, whiny Ammon doesn't want another republican, but it's really not that. I had so much respect for McCain the last time he campaigned, i thought he was everything that is right with politics, but it turns out he's just another man willing to sell his principles for votes, and do whatever it takes to become president. In doing so, he's offered himself up as a tool of the Republican party leaders and Karls of the world, and lost pretty much all my respect (i'm sure my respect mattered a lot to him.) I wonder if he ever is ashamed of his campaign. I would be.

P.S. - I think the lipstick on a pig comment was extremely clever, and yes, it was an obvious insult on Palin and McCain, but it wasn't sexist, unless any mention of lipstick is sexist, and it wasn't calling her a pig. In this metaphor, she's obviously the lipstick and, by extension, a pit bull.

P.P.S. - I'm also disappointed with how willing the Obama camp has been to go back on his decisions when it's in the best interesting of the campaign. Campaign finance and off shore drilling come to mind. Don't say I'm holding one campaign accountable and ignoring the others rhetoric, because every time Obama engages in standard politics (i.e. deceiving americans) I die a little inside. However, the McCain campaign continually cheapens this election by its increasingly negative tactics and empty attacks. It's a shame that democracy ensures that the person most able to lead will always lose to the person most able to campaign. I can understand why the founding fathers didn't trust the huddled masses enough to leave them full control over who leads the country.

Those of weak constitutions may want to turn away

I spent the last two days sleeping at the church house, which was a little surreal. As a shelter, it works pretty great for us, quiet, cool, not too crouded, comfortable, and filled with people i don't mind spending several hours around. It gave me lots of time to read and play risk and do all sorts of fun things. At one point, while playing risk, someone brought up politics and was slamming Obama, not on any relevent issues or attributes or policies (well, they called him a Marxist, but whatever) and it got me thinking. I really don't understand people. Not at all.

A quick aside: I don't talk about politics generally, because I don't feel a need to alienate myself from people who might hold idiotic political beliefs. It doesn't help that i call their beliefs idiotic, so it's generally best for me to avoid stuff like that, however, this is my blog (oh, and a quick shout out to my Uncle Ken, who might be joining the ranks of people vaguely interested in what's up with me), so prepare yourself for:
RANDOM POLITICAL RANT 2008!!!


Anyway, back to the point, i don't get people. I don't see how people don't recognize how terrible the Bush administration have been, and that it isn't just them. It's not like Bush is this crazy rogue republican that has somehow betrayed the party into going somewhere it didn't want to go. It seems as though the Republican party molded him into what they wanted him to be. I don't understand how people don't see through the lies and half truths that are our election process. Factcheck.org should be required reading for anyone wishing to vote.

There was this girl I knew whose family firmly believed that Obama was the antichrist, or at least a antichrist. First of all, how absurdly melodramatic is that? Secondly, as someone who thinks Obama has a good chance of changing our country from the embarrassing, hypocritical joke it has become in international and domestic affairs, the idea that he's conspiring with the armies of evil is a bit far fetched.

But i'm not talking about them really, i'm talking average, decent people who i generally respect but who still firmly believe that voting republican is not only the best thing to do, but the only morally correct thing to do. A party whose two basic principles are legislating morality and helping the rich to become richer at the expense of the poor. A party who has lied without blushing in order to start a unjustifiable war. A party who has somehow managed to claim my religion as theirs. I really just don't get it.

I should say now, that i don't think voting republican is somehow morally wrong, and i don't think all republican politicans are bad people, i'm sure most of them are great people. I just don't see how the idea that those born into poverty deserve it, and those given a free ride should be helped along, became synonymous with conservative moral values. It bugs me, especially, that Mormons vote so unanimously Republican.

This seems a good a place as any to tackle morality (heh, attacking morality, i must be a democrat). I share a lot of beliefs with the conservative demographic. I'm generally opposed to drinking, smoking, pre-marital sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, homosexuality, all manner of lasciviousness, and most types of fun. That said, i strongly support personal choice and accountability. I don't think that our government ought to be in the business of creating laws to enforce my, or anyone else's religious beliefs. I think morality and religion have to come from somewhere other than the government.

By the way: Whats the deal with capital punishment? A book i read had a long discussion of the obvious contradiction in supporting the death penalty and opposing abortion. I don't think we, as a country, should be killing people generally. And trying to make a distinctions to say when it's ok to kill people and when it's not is pretty slippery, as far as slopes go. Whatever happened to loving our enemy, turning the other cheek, and judging not. Preventing crime is important, but the death penalty has always seemed a little too much like revenge to me.

These are the types of things i would say if i didn't care about offending people, or if i had a few political vertebra. Most of this came out of reading a some political discussions on my family's website, and an overabundance of free time over the past couple days. Maybe later i'll make a more autobiographical post, but i think i've vented enough uninformed teenage angst for one post.

~Ovaltine <- (this isn't actually completely random, gold star to anyone who understands why)

P.S. - I found out today that the republican vice-president lady has an unmarried teenager who is pregnant. Now i'm not saying that that will have any major effect on her merits as vice-president. i do think her own 4 month child will. A lot of people are talking about how great she is because she knows what it's like to raise children, especially one with disabilities. But if she's planning on moving across the country to take on one of the most important offices in the world, all i see her knowing how to do is being prepared to leave her a child in the care of someone else for her own career. hm, that's pretty cold. I almost took it back, but then i found out she doesn't believe global warming is man made, and supports aerial hunting of wolves (so that there will be more mooses for hunting, duh). I don't think all this prying into candidates personal lives is necessary or healthy, but i think a lot of people do. I also think she was a terrible choice for McCain and seems to be almost construed to undercut his message in every way possible. If he needed a woman to pander to whiny Clinton die-hards, it seems like he could have chosen someone who was qualified for the job, and who had a little less baggage. Bonus points would have been awarded for picking a woman who wasn't the ideological opposite of Clinton, but why should that make any difference? Silly people.

And I'll form the Head!

I've been reading a lot lately. Today i finished the Tipping Point, and yesterday i finished The President of Good and Evil. Both were good, although the latter was really depressing and made me sad that America is going to crap. It's also sad that politicians running for office are unable to criticize the country without seeming anti-patriotic. I think real patriotism requires working to make the country better. So i'm hoping that the next president will be willing and able to make hard unpopular decisions and convince Americans that the rest of the world matters to and we can't just ignore treaties that we don't find advantageous. So after reading a book about the inconsistencies and hypocrisies it felt good to read a book that was more cheery.

Hillary Clinton is in no way photogenic. I think this is a serious flaw on the part of her campaign staff. Maybe part of it is personal and media bias, but it seems like every picture of her she's on the verge of a psychotic killing spree. She just doesn't have a very nice looking smile.

Look at that baby, it's terrified. And how could it not be? That face is scary.

by the way, this made me laugh, the caption is good too.

Last night i had a dream that i was batman. But i was also billionaire playboy ammon perkes, or actually just normal guy ammon perkes, and there was some sort of snaffoo going on, it seemed like maybe a concert or something. At first there was that rubber fence stuff all around it, but then they let everybody in, and there were lots of people i know there, and they were all playing baseball, but i'd come late so i didn't get to play, but i did distract alex long enough to make him get an error, which was recorded for some reason. Meghan was also there. Also most of the soccer team. I tried to find some food. It was an exciting dream, but then i got to the more superhero-ish part of it, with me in my bat cave, but i had lost all my strength or something, and i needed to break out my prototype armored robo-batsuit that allowed me to fight without requiring me to actually be in good physical shape. At somepoint in here, n'sync came and they were all super heroes. I really don't know what happened there, i remember thinking at the time that they were really lame. I think i might have been robin actually, or else i was taking over for some older batman, but for some reason or another i didn't know the password to the bat suit, luckily there was another way in. For some reason it was stored in a tiny hole. Anyway, just as i was about to break out the batsuit and start fighting crime, i woke up.

I dunno what this dream means, except that i have weird dreams when i sit in bed for a long time in the morning, and apparently said dreams are prone to being disappointing in many ways.

In other news, life down here continues in much the same way. My Mom's back from Cambridge, which is nice. My papers should get submitted sometime soon, i'm a bit tired of waiting to start waiting for my call, so i'm glad it's finally getting moving. Otherwise not a whole lot is going on, my netflix finally got here, so i think i'm going to break out the Eureka. I watched television for the first time in a long time a couple days ago (i've been watching dvd's and online). I was shocked when the commercial lasted more that 15 seconds. One of these days i'll get a hair cut, it's starting to get a little silly.

Scantron Armor, ASSEMBLE!

~More likely to succeed.

Almost there...

Tomorrow i have my second physics midterm, and i'm a little worried. I know pretty much everything he's taught us, but that's never stopped me from failing a test before. In happier news i got a 92 on my math midterm, one i was pretty worried about. Over the past couple of weeks i've very dramatically discovered a new group of friends, and i have to say, it's pretty rockin. Dollar bowling, mafia, midnight eating, it's good stuff, this is the end of something that's been going on for quite sometime, but i'm surprised how suddenly i found myself in this group, so yeah, fun stuff.

In other news, this week has been rough. It seems like i'm just staying just ahead of this wave of work and tests and stuff, trying to make it to the weekend without crashing. But i'm doing ok for the most part.

In political news, it looks like Obama is pulling ahead of Hillary, which is awesome. I think i might donate some money to the campaign, since his facebook group asked me so nicely. I figure since i'm not voting in the primaries i'll feel like i'm having some influence. It's been a pretty crazy week in the world, Kosovo declaring independence, Castro quitting (i'm still convinced he's been dead for years), Allegations of a McCain affair (which if it pans out, could mean a Huckabee Colbert ticket), this afternoon while walking around campus and looking at some construction i thought about how different everything is going to be in two years when i get back from my mission. madness.

I think that's all that's been going on with me. I can honestly say i'm getting a little antzy for spring, grass and warmth and all that jazz. Just as long as i get to go snowboarding a few times before then i'll be great. Well, i'm off to bed. Until the next time i don't feel like going to sleep, adieu.