Turn on the heat.

Well, we didn't quite make it as long as I would have liked, but October 20th isn't too bad.  We finally turned on the heat in the house tonight.  I think last year we made it into November and before Michael was born we'd let the house get down to around 56° before turning on the furnace.  Yeah, Julie and I like it cold in the house.  It was actually two degrees warmer in the house today (66°) than it was over the weekend, but the rain and humidity today just chilled us to the bones.  So I set the heat to 70° until it got the chill out of the air and then set it back down to 68° for the night.  Tomorrow it'll go off again until we need it, but judging by the weather forecast that will be soon enough.  Oh well...

A prediction, but hopefully not.

Well, Julie and I finished watching the last debate last night and I've come to realize that we're probably screwed regardless of whether Obama or McCain wins the election.  I think they're both wrong more than they're right and both have too many problems.  I won't go into all my problems with both candidates again, read my past posts if you're interested, but I will offer a prediction...

Now let me preface this by saying I hope to God that I am wrong about this...  But I fear that regardless of who wins the election we're going to have another terror attack on US soil within the first year of the new president's inauguration.  Hopefully it'll just be a foiled attempt, but I think an attack or at least major attempt at an attack is inevitable.  Both candidates have been saying that the other candidate's policies on fighting terror are wrong, the economy is in shambles, and we already have our military spread pretty thin across the entire middle east.  A successful attack next year would probably throw our political arena into a mad house of finger pointing, accusations, and hysteria.  I can see it now, the losing party pointing at the winner saying, "see, if only we had done things our way".  Our economy would probably suffer even more than it is.  And, if the attack looked like it was masterminded from another region (maybe Africa or Asia, like Indonesia) it could serve to force us to spread our military even thinner. 

We're currently in a situation in our country where all the ingredients are there for a disaster.  Hopefully any terror activity will be successfully thwarted by US intelligence, Homeland Security, the military, and all the other forces that serve to protect our country.  Or better yet, I hope I'm wrong about a future attack completely.  But if one does come I pray that our country is strong enough to pull together and survive and that the damage done isn't so severe that we can't persevere. 

Like millions of others, I'll give my opinion on the debates...

OK.  I'll make this brief, because after all, who really cares what one more voice in cyberspace has to say.  But I do want to put my opinion out there.

I get it, they both have fundamental differences on everything, but you both have the country's best interest at heart!  McCain lacks judgment and therefore makes bad decisions, Obama lacks experience and therefore will make bad decisions.  I'm not extremely happy with either candidate.  I don't think either of them has all the right answers, but here's what I really don't like about each of them.

Obama first:

1. What are your true motivations and ideals?  I don't like the character of Obama's associates, both past and present.  There are too many extremists in his circle of friends, too many stories (true and/or rumor) of connections with fascists, communists, terrorists, and religious extremists.  I understand that someone with political ties will run across a few bad eggs, but Obama seems to attract them like flies to...  well, you know.  When someone has this many close friends, mentors, and influences with the extreme views that Obama's pals have, it makes me question that person's ideologies.  I'd like some answers (I'd love to see these connections come up in a debate), but at this point I don't think the answers would be anything more than political garble.
2. Be straight with us!  Don't be hypocritical.  Don't use double talk.  Don't tell one thing to one party and another thing to someone else.  I said it in a previous post, but I'm tired of the political games Obama is playing.  He twists facts so that they make himself look better.  I don't want distorted stories, I want the truth.  And for cryin' out loud, answer the questions posed to you.  Don't spit out one generic sentence and then twist the conversation in a completely different direction just to avoid a question!  That reeks of the type of politics you say you want to change!
3. Stop taking credit for things you had no control over.  Instead tell us what you've actually accomplished!  If I hear that Obama opposed the war in Iraq while McCain thought it would be a quick victory one more time I'm going to scream.  Obama didn't have any influence whatsoever on the decision to go into Iraq; he was an Illinois State Senator at the time, not part of the Federal Government.  I'll write more on this later...  I have a lot to say.  Instead I'd like to hear about things that Obama has actually accomplished.  What reforms has he actually proposed.  How has he changed things in Washington in his few years there?  What did he actually accomplish as a State Senator?  As a community organizer?  Last I remember, the community and district that he was in charge of was one of the worst areas of Chicago.  Why's that?

OK.  Enough about Obama...  Now for McCain.

1. Give us some details!  Obama has given us detail on his economic plans, reform plans, foreign policy strategies, etc.  The details coming from McCain are very sketchy at best.  I keep hearing from McCain "I know how to do this..." and "I've reached across the aisle...", or "I know what out troops are going through...".  But are we really supposed to just take him at his word?  I understand if McCain doesn't want to broadcast his plan to track down and kill Bin Laden, but give us some details on how you want to help the economy besides "We need to revitalize the housing market".  I know McCain has some plans, but Obama keeps hammering us with details.  It would be nice to hear some counter plans from McCain, too.
2. When your plans are attacked, have a response!  Now, I don't think either candidate has all the right answers, but at least whenever the details of Obama's plans are questioned he comes back with a response.  Increased spending?  Obama says it's actually a net cut because the increased funding to "vital" programs would come from cuts in other programs.  Raising taxes?  Obama says 95% of Americans won't see increased taxes and those making under 200K will get tax cuts.  Taxing small businesses?  Obama says most small business owners make less than 250K so they won't see tax increases.  Over and over Obama refutes McCains attacks.  But when Obama criticizes flaws in McCain's plans there's no response.  $5k credits for healthcare actually mean people will have to pay more for their healthcare?  No response.  700k tax cuts for fortune 500 CEOs?  No response.  McCain may have some good ideas, but when Obama punches them full of holes and McCain can't come up with a response it makes me worry.
3. Separate yourself from the Bush administration!  I get it, you're a maverick and have opposed your own party.  You've reached across the aisle and worked with both parties and independents to accomplish stuff.  But what exactly?  And what did you oppose the Bush administration on?  McCain's best blow tonight was when he spoke of the energy bill stuffed with benefits for oil companies proposed by Bush/Cheney which Obama voted for and McCain opposed.  We need more of that.  And it's pretty obvious that the war in Iraq was mishandled.  The surge seems to have worked, but why wasn't something like that done years ago?  There's nothing wrong with saying it seemed like the right idea to go into Iraq at the time, but things were mishandled and now we need to start cleaning up our mess.  If McCain says he knows how to clean up the mess in Iraq I think it'd give him some credibility and distance himself from the decisions of Bush and Cheney.  That is unless he actually did support Bush and Cheney all along.  But I'd like some details.  And if he's opposed Bush on other things, let us know what they were, especially if they were things that Obama supported.

Anyway, it's late and I could rant on and on.  But now it's time for bed.  The more I watch these two in debates and the more I learn the more I'm convinced that we're screwed either way.  I was hoping this would be an election worth voting in, but it seems like it's turning out to be an attempt to figure out who is the lesser evil.

How I currently feel about politics...

Threadless T-Shirts - Everyone Poops by Chris Lee Jones

To Facebook or not to Facebook...

I joined Facebook about a year ago but never really did anything with it.  Then when Julie and I got our new laptops a few weeks ago we both started playing around on it more.  I have to tell you, it's addictive.  Up to a bout three weeks ago I think I had eight friends listed.  I accepted friend requests, but never bothered asking anyone to be my friend.  I don't know, there just seems to be something pitiful with sending a message to someone you haven't seen, talked to, or emailed in years and saying "be my friend".  But as I started browsing the communities I started seeing more and more people that made me think, "Wow, I always wondered what happened to so and so."  So I started sending friend requests.  Then the other day I noticed that another friend from high school just joined Facebook.  So I sent him a friend request.  And I started thinking, hey, I saw these people every day for four years (in some cases 13 years!).  So what if I haven't seen them in over a decade.  They were friends and acquaintences for a large portion of my life.  And it's not like I'm asking them to be the guardians of my kid or to drive a getaway car, I'm just saying hi to old friends...  So now I'm up to 75 friends.  I feel so popular...  It's nice to see what everyone's been up to over the last dozen+ years.

So now I'm fully engrossed in Facebook.  It's addictive, it really is.  But I think it's worth it.  So many people cross my mind and now I don't have to wonder, at least for some of them. 

So to all my old friends and new facebook buddies, "Hey!  how's it been!"

My thoughts on Fringe

Julie and I have been watching the new FOX show Fringe the last two weeks.  I have to say, we're both a bit disappointed.  The show could be intriguing and interesting, but the attention to detail in the show is nowhere near the detail on Lost (Abram's other current show on the air).  Fringe is a little bit too unrealistic in the details that keep it in the real world.  I'm talking about the forensic investigations, classified operations, and scientific procedures.  The actual stories are pretty good, the characters have potential (especially the mad-scientist Walter Bishop), and the idea of investigating paranormal, supernatural, and just plain odd happenings is interesting.  But Julie and I just can't get past the real-world inaccuracies.

Why in the world was Bishop's lab at Harvard still around after 17 years?  In my experience good lab space is at a premium in academia.  I would have thought his lab would have been repurposed pretty quickly after he was committed.

And why were Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop the only ones examining the hotel room in the second episode?  We saw from the first episode that, while everyone may not have had top clearance to know what was going on, the resources available to the team working on The Pattern were pretty extensive.  Don't tell me they couldn't have a proper forensics team exaining the room.

And speaking of Peter Bishop, if everything they were doing was so classified that Dunham didn't have the clearance at first, why in the world does he get to tag along everywhere?  Walter is out, you'd think that Peter would be set up in some hotel where he could be out of the way and uninformed, at least until after he signed the confidentiality paperwork.

These are just a few of the problems we have with the show.  There were a bunch more, like how did they get permission to move a comatose, quarantined body from isolation in the hospital to an old dusty lab, or why was the last thing the girl looked at a bridge when she was kissing the killer and later was staring at his face when he killed her (that's a lot of images between when she saw the bridge and actually died), or why the Miami Bank of America Tower was called the Boston Federal Building, etc. etc. etc...  In a show like this details make all the difference.

People have been comparing Fringe to The X Files, which I can see.  But The X Files was slightly more plausible in some respects.  At least Mulder was doing investigations alone (or with Sculley) because he was a rogue agent and besides that, other agents thought he was nuts and didn't want to work with hi anyway.  In fringe there's supposed to be this group of people all working on figuring things out, they obviously have vast technical and human resources, but they have a single agent and a mad scientist's son tracking things down alone?  I just don't buy it.

I hope the show doesn't get as involved as Lost or Alias where if you miss a week or two you're totally confused.  If that's the case we'll probably tune in when we can.  It's right after House, so there's a chance we'll keep watching, but after two episodes I'm not impressed and wouldn't miss the show if it was gone.  Sorry Fringe fanatics, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Meatatarian and proud!

Eating Red Meat Beefs Up Brain
Scott Reeves Sep 15, 2008 11:30 am

Brain shrinkage linked to B12 deficiency. Vegans beware.

This just in: Hamburgers may be health food.

Scientists at Oxford University in England have found that adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet may be bad for your brain.

Researchers found that those who adopt a meat-free diet are 6 times more likely to sustain brain shrinkage than those who gobble hamburgers, chicken or liver.

See, eating meat is healthy!  Say goodbye to lentils and beans and hello to burgers and steak.

Here's another article: Meat, fish and milk prevent memory loss