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Long Lost Family

Great-great-great-great-...-grandpa!

I have family! Or, rather, more family than I thought.

I received a call last week from a woman who, it seems, is a second cousin on my father's side. She stumbled across us in the search for her family tree. Because my paternal grandmother died long before I was born, and because she had emigrated more or less by herself, we having had any contact with that branch of the family expect for one short visit that my father made to an uncle back in the 1970s (pre-me). But there they are. Some of them apparently came to the U.S. a while back, and others have come to visit, seeing cities that I happened to be living in at the time. It is very strange to think that I could have bumped into a lady in the train station and then walked away utterly unaware that I had just come closer to a paternal cousin than ever before.

On the other hand, I recently saw a paper that claims that each unique person on this planet is related to me (and every other person, for that matter) in 40,000 ways. So I guess I probably bump into second cousins thrice removed or something like that nearly every day ...

Thoughts on the recent election (and excuses for poor bogging)

I haven’t blogged in a while. That much is clear just from glancing at my blog history. Not only have I had very little “blog worthy” news to relate in recent weeks, but I have also poured far more energy into my old journal lately. I suppose I have been missing the sturdy, old-fashioned feel of a pen in my hand. The sight of an ink-stained pinky and the ache of too many pages, too, have been missing. As readers of this blog can attest, I do not have a whole lot of talent, but I somehow can imagine myself as more of a literary savant when I can hold up pages and pages of untidy scrawl as proof of my (mediocre) genius. Maybe I am getting old, but lately those pages seem more tangible than breezily directing people to “oh, look at my blog.”
In any case, here I am once more determined to have a go at it. I am sure that the vast world of the internet has been feeling so deprived of my random thoughts and commentary lately …
________________________________________
And now onto my second topic du jour: the election. First of all, allow me just to say this: thank God. Hearing Sarah Palin daily struggle to form coherent sentences for the next four, and possibly eight or more years, might just have killed me. I really did not have that much against John McCain expect for some disagreements on some main policy issues until he chose Gov. Palin as his running mate. I suppose I could have dealt with her occasional gaffes or infuriating way of trucking over the English language almost every time she opened her mouth, but my patience stopped at her pointed disdain for educated and intelligent engagement with the issues. I’m sorry, Ms. Palin, you cannot harp on the inestimable value of good judgment and then condemn a man who worked hard his whole life to put himself through the nation’s best countries in an effort to better inform that judgment. In fact, all your possible claims about the merits of Sen. McCain’s judgment basically went out the window when he selected you as his running mate. Only in his concession speech did he regain some measure of the dignity and self-assurance and conviction that had been lacking in the weeks before. It must have been very difficult, indeed, to run a campaign that attacked so many of the principles upon which he had based his life.
But on to happier matters, we have a new president! And for anyone who knows how rabidly I followed this election, you can well imagine my satisfaction. In fact, many of my friends will likely join me in my profound relief that this election is finally over. I don’t think I could have sustained that kind of intense interest in every political outlet I could think of logging on to for much longer, and I am sure my friends would not have sustained their patience with me much longer.
Of course, as we move forward from the euphoria of the election, the problems facing this president seem even more dire. I am hoping that Obama will prove the right man for the job. After the surreal moments of his election and acknowledgement speech, when all of America stood back in awe of their first bi-racial president, you can tell that a more sober atmosphere has set in. In many ways, that makes me respect the somber tenor of Obama’s speech even more. As an intelligent and self-aware man, I have no doubts that he was aware of the momentousness of the moment, but there was no dazzling gleefulness in his speech. Instead, he spoke in measured tones of the challenges and accomplishments that face us. Many people since then have remarked how presidential he seemed up there at the podium, protected by a wall of transparent bullet-proof glass. But how more remarkable is it that he stood there as exactly the sort of man with exactly the sort of temperament that our country needs right now. After years of apparently arbitrary decisions on any number of issues – torture, patriotism, the firing of federal attorneys – a calm, deliberate approach seems exactly the right prescription. I have always thought any man who wanted to run for president had to be just a touch crazy to want all the awesome and grave responsibilities that come with the office, so it is refreshing to note that Americans have elected (by a landslide) a man who seems to fully grasp the weight of the duties that lie before him. And not three sentences after praising the opportunities that this country affords, he was immediately to work; he turned his mind and the mind of the country right back to the task at hand.
I am eager to see as this transition moves forward how Obama will work to keep the glossy promises of the campaign trail and how he communicates to a nervous country the realities of our situation. I hope that with a president who shows this much promise, Americans all over will devote themselves to making sure he lives up to it.
I know I am prepared to write a couple of op-eds.

Dumbest shoes in the world

Like any self respecting fashion lover, I like shoes. In fact, many an outfit is planned from the shoes up. That said, I shudder to think what kind of outfit would appear above these monstrosities ...

Honestly ...

Thank God for libraries ....

Nearly a week ago, as the $50 fill up and $4 eggs tighten the beltstrap on my already meager savings account, to say nothing of my addiction to Starbucks non-fat lattes and the general penury that most grad students enjoy, I came to the conclusion that I am going to have to be more thrifty this summer. As the spirit of responsibility struck me one afternoon as I sat reading in my apartment, I brought up the transaction history on my debit card. Both the problem and the solution to my finance situation were evident immediately. My bank statement read something like this:
6/1 - CHK CARD PURCH. - GENAURDIS (a grocery store)
6/3 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BORDERSBOOKS&G
6/6 - ATM WITHDRWL
6/12 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BORDERSBOOKS&G
6/13 - CHK CARD PURCH. - BARNES&NOBLE.COM
6/13 - CHK CARD PURCH. - AMAZON.COM
Well, you get the idea ...


Now, that pesky little webpage forced me to acknowledge that I have a serious weakness for the buying of books. It could be worse, I suppose. I could buy the books and never read them. Or buy ones only with certain color spines so as to match my apartment decor perfectly. Or - my personal favourite - I could be buying only cds, trashy magazines and yoga mats at these alleged "book stores". But no, I fear that I have merely been buying and reading large numbers of books (and, I will admit, quite a few pieces of awesome Papyrus stationary).

Nevertheless, this poses a serious strain on my finances. The situation has worsened the past couple of weeks, too, because I actually have a break from classes. Months' accumulated guilt has now forced me out into the world to buy all the books I have been meaning to make time for since the semester began. I could borrow these books, it is true, and give either my school or local library a purpose of existence. But there is something so utterly satisfying about buying a book you know you will enjoy, that it makes up a hefty percentage of the actual enjoyment. Also, I very much like having the ability to lend beloved books to friends, despite the danger of never seeing the darlings again. In fact, sometimes lending a book to a disorganized and forgetful friend is an excellent way to pare down one's own collection. Recommending a book, growing excited as you remember and tell of your favourite lines or scenes or characters, realizing that there's a chance your friend will relish those parts as much as you did, and then actually being able to hand over that book is part of the reason I read (and have friends) in the first place. Glancing over to see the book sit on my bookshelf day in and day out, like an omnipresent kind of friend who's always there when I need him is very comforting as well. And when you borrow a book, the sad reality is that you are eventually going to have to give it back, leaving a depressing gap in the symmetry of the bookcase.

Necessity, however, has propelled me back to borrowing. I've calculated that I will spend 1/3 as much money in the month of July simply by curtailing my book-buying-habit. And so I trudged back into my local library yesterday, a place I have not seen for a couple months at least. I really don't know why, either. I mean, I should really visit the place sporadically anyway, just to visit with the local characters, who are easily as entertaining as those in nutty nearby coffee shops.

Nestled in a quiet Jewish neighborhood, my library seems to attract the oddest and dissimilar people into its musty walls. Tiny, frail older couples, the Yarmulke-ed husband leaning on his cane, move slowly to the philosophy section while a sullen teenager, his hip hop blaring out of his iPod headphones, stands by the new dvd releases. A boisterous woman with enormous plastic-framed glasses, jingling under the weight of her many necklaces, loudly asks the woman in circulation about a recent mystery novel. Nearby, another librarian talks hurriedly into an ancient rotary phone to the person on the other end, who one can assume to either be a veterinarian or a cat-sitter, based on the content of the conversation. My favourite, though, is the older gentleman who comes in daily, I believe, and sits on one of the sofas, his panama hat balanced on one knee and a neat necktie under his vest, the picture of refinement as he quietly reads his book. In amongst the chaos and general disorder of this decidedly un-silent library, he creates for himself a cozy little haven of peace and good books. He seems very erudite, a retired professor or amateur academic perhaps, and I have see him there often over the past year. I secretly believe that he enjoys the chaos, sitting there just letting it wash over him.

Not nearly as disappointed as I thought I would be, I walked out of the library that day with three new novels, a book on intuition, and a big book on foreign policy that I am going to study for my exam. The latter, at least, was quite the find , since it is now out-of-print, and all the copies on Amazon or the used bookstores, when I could find them, looked very shabby indeed. So it seems that libraries do have some very pointed and redeeming qualities. And I know my bank account is pleased ...

The Problem with Iraq

We have come to view our victory or defeat in Iraq as just that – a win or loss on our own part. We have forgotten about the great vested interest had by the people in their own country. It has become personal. What started as an offensive to protect ourselves from Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and liberate the people of Iraq from tyranny has morphed into a desire to draw the war on terrorism away from our own shores. We seek now to fight our war in already conflict-drenched Middle Eastern lands.

But Saddam is gone now, and he certainly does not have any WMDs with which to hurt us. The people on Iraq no longer bear the yoke of his oppression. And yet we are still there, losing brave men and women in small but seemingly unlimited installments. What had begun as an ostensibly objective and prudent plan has disintegrated into a reactionary and zealous desire to get the terrorists in Iraq before they can get us here. Never mind that as a direct result of our actions, Iraq undoubtedly contains more bona fide terrorists now than it did before the invasion. Never mind that we have now stuck our oar into an already resentful Middle East, ensuring that even more moderate Muslims see our goals as imperialistic and patronizing. Never mind that we have sacrificed what could have grown into an important ally after a timely and natural death of Saddam Hussein. He had never had an ironclad grip over the country; too many of the citizens remembered the freedom and prosperity that were theirs before his dictatorship. No – despite all this our official policy is still to demand an unconditional victory from our war.

In short, we have grown too close and heated when it comes to Iraq. We are blinding ourselves to the value that concession and accommodation could bring to the situation. In a scene disturbingly reminiscent of the missteps taken in Vietnam a generation ago, we are determined to press forward with force, believing that we need to witness an ultimate defeat of an opponent that was never really ours to begin with. We have committed ourselves to a protracted battle with no end in sight, refusing to negotiate until we see terrorism driven totally from Iraqi boundaries. Our continued presence, however, seems to inspire little beyond escalating violence and a renewed determination of quasi-terrorists from around the Middle East to fight us to the death. A Baghdad once full of palm trees and sidewalk cafes may be Saddam-free, but it is also riddled with bullets and an aura of death and violence. And to top it off, we have a presidential candidate who has vowed to continue the fight for 100 years if need be. We have lost sight of the reality that concession does not always spell defeat.

In many ways we have achieved what we set out to do in Iraq. Saddam is gone and there are no weapons of mass destruction. But because those goals were flawed from the beginning, we have also created a great mess in the meanwhile. As much as we can ultimately benefit from analyzing those mistakes so as to avoid them in the future, we need also to look to the requirements of the future. What we need to do now, our professed objectives achieved, is to begin the process of pulling out to let the Iraqis determine the course of their own country. If they decide that course is one that ends in democracy, so much the better. But with centuries of a history, customs and a philosophy so different from our own, if they decide they prefer another course, we must be ready to accept that. Our role cannot be that of a sculptor taking a damaged bit of clay and smashing and kneading it until it miserably forms the shape we like. The bottom line is that peace in Iraq is best for everyone – better for us and better for the whole Middle East.

Let the Iraqis quibble over their differences against a backdrop of relative peace, as we had the luxury to do for nearly two decades before September 11^th. More true and lasting solutions come out of equable peacetime negotiations than under the duress of conflict. If we desire democracy in that part of the world, let us instead offer up our best and most appealing version of what we preach, and allow a committed people choose to follow in our footsteps. We will find more genuine allies and partners that way that flexing our muscles as global cops or bullies.

In any case, the bellicosity of the bin Ladens of the world is losing favor across the Islamic world. Research shows that devout Muslims throughout the Middle East support tactics like suicide bombings and kidnappings less and less than in years past, preferring to deal with disagreements through political channels. The militant Hezbollah and Palestinian groups have seen support from Syrian and Saudi Arabian neighbors fizzle. Even the most conservative of the Muslim ruling clerics are prepared to make concessions; Saudi Arabia plans to send its first women’s Olympic team to London in 2012. If we can show ourselves of the world as a wise and magnanimous nation, giving the Iraqis our assistance but letting them decide their future as befits their traditions and values, we can seize upon this shifting allegiance and form important bonds with a host of Arab countries. This in turn would allow us not only to contain the threats posed by Iran, but to involve the Middle East in the rebuilding of a country to which it has a significant stake it. This will of course be complicated, but if our true objectives are a stable, productive and allied Iraq and an end to the threat of terrorism, this path affords us at least the chance of success.

My grass is greener than yours

Awww ... now is that not cute?!

I've taken on an independent study at school, basically immersing myself in all of the virtual worlds or techie applications that exist now promoting environmentalism. So I have spent the last couple days scouring the internet for all the environmental causes on the web that I can find. They really run the gamut from cutsie to militant, earnest to chastising showing how many motivations people find to "go green." One thing's certain, though. The time has come when it's finally cool to be a green girl or boy. These aren't your parent's treehuggers.

I'm quite excited about this project really. I believe I have finally discovered a way to put all the business acumen that I have been studying for the past year to work in the real world and still retain my sense of decency and idealism. Because I have finally discovered that good businesses, that is non-profits, agencies and even profitable businesses who are working to bring necessary goods or services to people who need them, need marketers just as much as all of the profit-hungry, materialistic corporations we all love to bash. The omnipresent "catch" is that all those jolly non-profits probably do not realize that they could benefit from marketing, and can seldom afford to hire many of us even if they do.

All the same, it is enormously comforting to know that I could actually bring myself to work in the field in which I have been studying for the past 12 months. I had my worries there for a while. I just have a fundamental ethical dilemma in selling people shit they don't need. And most marketers make their living doing (or trying to do) just that. The trick, I've found, is to find a business that is selling things people actually need.

In other news ...
- still have not reflected about my awesome trip to China and Japan. or put up photos. utterly shameful.
- actually have at my disposal two and a half weeks with no school. two weeks to catch up on all the nonsense I have put off now for a whole semester. what more could a girl want?
- have become attached to writing entire sentences in lowercase script. except, of course, for the "proper nouns" like 'I' because to not give them their due capitals would just be improper.

How Obama Can Win

Hurrah! After an excruciating run of the primary season, Obama has finally locked it up, and in all honesty, I think he's a stronger, more sophisticated candidate for it. The constant spotlight and the locking of horns with Clinton has given him a deal of experience, and helped demonstrate that he does have what it takes to be on the national stage day in and day out, a major flaw his retractors had pounced on.

Now, according to Robert Creamer, he's got to do the following to win in November. Either way, I am glad to finally have a reason to care about national politics again.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/ten-key-steps-to-put-obam_b_105126.html

Where has all the shame gone ... ?

Look around at the world today. Does it seem to you that people have lost the ability to feel shame when they'd done something stupid? A cursory glance around forces me to conclude that yes, it's true . . . we've desensitized ourselves to feeling shame. By and large, people are willing to say more, do more, and publicize more than they ever have in the past. I am not necessarily opposed to this, as it certainly makes life all the more amusing for the rest of us. But I truly worry that by refusing to feel shamed by our thoughts and actions, we might in the end be losing more than a bit of our dignity.

Take, for example, the very talented Amy Winehouse. Her records: wonderful. Her success: undeniable. Her personal life: admittedly unbalanced. Her apparent nonchalance in the face of the irony that she's won a Grammy for a song about how she won't be sent to rehab, "oh, no no no", while, in fact, accepting the Grammy while on a day leave from, well, rehab: shameless. And we also have our inestimable commander and chief, who just cannot seem to work up any degree of shame over mounting evidence that he has screwed things up big time in Iraq. It's quite clear from the almost daily bombings, the disintegration of the Iraqi government, and the corruption in the US-installed police force, that things aren't going to well. Yet he blissfully struts around, proclaiming that "all the spending we're doing on the war is actually providing jobs," link
It does not shame him, it seems, that those "added jobs" have come with a price tag that kills American soldiers, undermines our national power and security, and has ravaged an entire country. I'm not arguing for any particular course of action ... I merely want to point out that it would be both appropriate and correct that he express some small morsel of shame for the way things have turned out.

And I won't even mention the media frenzy that surrounds the every move of Britney Spears. It's all too sad.

The best recent example, however, may be Hillary Clinton. I do not know from where that woman summons the gall to suggest that the ballots cast in the Florida and Michigan primaries should actually be counted, so as to give her a slight edge in the popular vote for the Democrat nomination. These were elections at which few people turned out to vote, knowing before hand that they would not count at the convention. These were elections for which little campaigning, little talking to voters, and no debating was done. These were elections everyone knew would. not. count. And these were elections (one of them, at least) in which her opponent was not on the ballot. And yet she claims a decisive victory, and she does so on national television, where millions of people can watch her do it. I know I would be ashamed . . . But in her willingness to do anything to win, it seems Clinton has forsaken quite a bit of her dignity.

So it worries me, this distancing ourselves from feeling shame. I strongly believe in and support freedom of speech, but the right to speak should not be coupled with freedom from shame when it's obvious that you've said something foolish. Rather, the prospect of shame is one of the great, natural methods of self-censorship. It is what makes freedom of speech so attractive, because we each know that we are inextricably tied to and responsible for the words that come out of our mouths. By claiming a right to free speech, we also claim the right to laugh at ourselves afterwards, and to have others laugh at us if the occasion warrants it. It's what raises the level of discourse -- people don't just say every little thing that pops into their heads. And it's what gives value to our dignity.

I say bring back the shame. It's a healthy part of the human life.

A daily dose of irony ...

As I study more about China, I keep running across marvelous news stories.


"Free Tibet" Flags Made in China
This one in particular caught my eye. Its a gem about how China's production capacity seems to have gotten away from them. Also, how just about anything you can get these days could bear a "Made in China" stamp.


It seems a factory in southern China was discovered to be turning out lovely, brightly coloured "Free Tibet" flags. Many of these flags were manufactured, packed, and shipped off to Hong Kong where they will likely make an appearance in anti-China protests later this week. It's all too delicious, and I would chuckle just as much if it were the American government falling prey to its own contradictory interests.

China Escapades

I've barely had a moment to catch my breath the past couple weeks, except to take a frantic look at my agenda and notice that I leave for China and Japan in three weeks. That wouldn't necessarily be a problem, until one realizes that between now and then I have a) my last week of classes b) finals c) commencement and d) the times spent breathing and eating that need normally to be associated with living. Whew. I will likely not get an opportunity to do the shopping I need to for this trip until a day or two right before the trip.

Part of what prompted the first frantic dash to the agenda was all the studying and reading up that I've been doing in preparation for the trip. We are scheduled to visit about ten different companies in both of the countries, as well as numerous planned cultural visits. Consequently, we've been encouraged to print a small tree's worth of articles about and analyses of these companies and the areas they're in. I feel like I have a pretty good image in my mind now of what Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an look like, only I know that the minute I get there, that tidy little image will be blown out of the water. Still, I can take comfort in the thought that I certainly know Beijing and Shanghai and Xi'an better than I did before. I'm also going to see if I can't whittle a piece of the Great Wall and smuggle it past customs disguised as an incidentally acquired pebble. I feel that this will add greatly to my historical and cultural understanding. Although with all the news about China's crackdown on dissidence of all kinds in the run-up to the Olympics, this may not be the best time to challenge the Chinese customs officials. I have little desire to see the inside of any jail, let alone that of one in a communist country whose government isn't fond of mine. The professors leading this trip gravely reminded us that we would not be permitted to bring along all of our Free Tibet tee shirts, jewelry or knickknacks, thinking somehow that any of us were prepared to be that daring. I think I want to see a bit of the world before I am ready to get arrested trying to protest in part of it. I could be wrong about my assumptions, you see, and would have no way of knowing it without the benefits of added perception that traveling bring.

In addition to all the news articles on the present state of business, consumers and the Olympics in China, I have also managed to pick up some random and entertaining facts about that country. For example, did you know that despite its size and east-west spread, the Chinese government refuses to acknowledge more than one time zone? Russia, with a similar location, has 11. Also, there are more English speakers in China than in the U.S. That's what happens when you have 1.3 billion people. Also, the Chinese really like American Idol. Go figure.

So I hope with all this information stored in a hopefully accessible part of my brain, and the ability to count to ten in Chinese, I can get through my trip and back into the U.S. tanner, wiser, (and heavier by one suspicious looking pebble).

Contact from years gone past

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
- Sir Arthur Eddington

My pearl of wisdom for today. I received a phone call last night from a friend I have not seen or talked to since we were both in kindergarten. I barely ever called her by her name, which I had difficulty remembering. Instead, my five-year-old self cooked up the wonderful title "the little girl across the street." But this little girl now grown up somehow managed to hear about my father, and then track down my mother, and from there me. She lives in Hawaii now and just finished her masters in geology at an Icelandic university. It was wonderful to talk to her, even though we don't in essence know each other much better than if we were to bump accidentally on the street. But somehow those shared playdates all those years ago grounded us in an easy familiarity and we talked for nearly two hours about anything and everything that came into our minds.

But as lovely and charming as the whole event was, I am still forced to recognize that a world in which that kind of thing is possible is a strange world indeed.

Political Musings

Alllll right folks. After a good sound dinner, some undivided time with my Newsweek, and a blessed end to a difficult midterms week, I am impassioned and ready to go. And I actually do have a lot to say. I'd been so proud of myself back in January when I was this lively and engaged political creature, well read on the latest electoral challenges for the candidates and determined to take an active part in this election cycle. I felt as though I was taking my place inside that miracle of the American democratic process. I lulled myself to sleep with grand visions of attending rallies, organizing voting drives, and basically living an early episode of The West Wing. Then I was hit with inertia. And loads of work. And midterms. The last of which, however, should deeply gratify my professors, so at least a couple people will be happy about it.

I think my fervor for Obama waned a little though February as well. Ever the cynic and the rebel, I found myself starting to rethink his qualifications just as everyone else became sure that he would pick up enough Feb/Mar wins to sail right into the nomination. All the talk of experience and the looming economic recession made me think that the choice between the two couldn't possibly be as cut and dry as it had seemed to me before; there were just too many problems facing the country for the decision to be that easy. But now that I have finally had a little time to slip back into the world of political chaos, I am once again consoled by the conclusion that it can be that easy. When it comes right down to brass tax, I find that I am perfectly content to place my vote on some belief of integrity of character, sense of optimism, and drive to look for the best options even with it means changing a whole lot about the present system.

For all that talk about experience, it struck me forcefully today that Hillary Clinton cannot claim that much more experience than her opponent. Her use of her days as First Lady come like a double edged sword -- if she claims them as examples of deeper experience than she must also claim the mistakes and inconsistencies that go along with them. The scandal over the 11th hour pardons, NAFTA, the shade of secrecy and duplicity left by the Lewinsky mess -- all of it. But the fact remains that she didn't answer any of those 3 a.m. phone calls herself. It was her husband's place, however much he may have sought her guidance. If the call for experience is going to be made, it needs to be experience that has prepared one of the for the top spot, not some kind of domestic attache to the top spot. The presidency of the United States has to be quite unlike any other job on earth, or at least that's what Clinton would like us to believe. This isn't some part-time gig flipping burgers.

And when it comes down to it, I think the tasks and realities of being president are quite beyond what anyone can realistically prepare for. When that point is taken away from her, all my previous concerns about Clinton come back to glare into the harsh light. I don't think I can ever say that I would trust her absolutely. She's got the Washington game down too well; she's been around the Clinton administration of '92-'99 so long, in fact, that she could not help to pick up some of its slickness, its oiliness. I do not dispute her intelligence, or even her qualifications to run for the nomination. But when she stands next to Barack Obama, each of them with policies so like the other, I cannot help but to place my bet with the optimist and the one who has demonstrated that he is willing to go against the political grain when it means standing by his convictions. He was in the midst of a tight IL Senate race when he chose to oppose the war in Iraq, staking not only a possible future reelection, but his very election itself on the fact that he saw the war as illegal and ill-advised policy. Unfortunately for Clinton, she has had enough experience in Washington to show us all that she will be swayed by popular opinion and re-electoral math. And I come back, too, to Obama's foreign policy beliefs, which are well documented in his books and the speeches he's given at various events and commencements. For me, those positions show far more sound political instinct and judgment than any amount of experience can bring. Because the truth is the experience game is hard to play -- it's impossible to get any more of it without someone giving you the opportunity to get some in the first place. And we don't really know how either candidate will act or deal with a job when they actually land what has to be one of the most intricate on the planet. So we are left to look at their history, their character, and the policies they've espoused. Policy-wise, Clinton and Obama are similar enough for the differences not to matter in any material way. And when it comes to character, I think Obama is the clear winner. I think he's far more willing to look at things that are happening, see that the system is clearly not working, and then irregardless of political precedence or past experience, begin to look for entirely new solutions. That's what we need ...

So congrats, Barack Obama. Now that I'm finally paying attention again, you've won back my vote. Now I hope you can do the same in Pennsylvania.
____________________________

P.S. It's occurred to me that I may want to reconsider the title of this blog. People seeing "whatever comes to mind comes to blog" might assume that I blog whatever comes to mind at all times, thus leading them to the unfortunate conclusion that not much goes on in my mind. Not the kind of idea I want to promote, least of all in my own writing ...