Whether it’s Michael Phelps and 8 golds, obviously allegedly underage Chinese gymnasts, how much bling Jeremy Wariner will be wearing, whether Usain Bolt will break the sound barrier, or how on earth BMX even made it into the games, every single minute of the Olympics has been more interesting than this year’s presidential election. I nevertheless feel I should make a few observations.

Last night, Obama announced via text message that Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) would be his vice presidential running mate. This strikes me as a yawner, unless Biden does what he has a penchant for doing, which is open his mouth and firmly plant his foot in it.  There is a part of me that secretly hopes he says some crazy things just to liven things up.

What does this mean for the McCain campaign, if anything?  Probably ups Romney’s stock for VP.  Biden is an excellent debater and the GOP will want someone who can at least hang with him in the VP debate.  Romeny never did poorly in the primary debates.  Also, Biden will help shore up Pennsylvania for Barack (it’s where Biden was born and raised).  Romney would help McCain shore up Nevada and Colorado (there are lots of Mormons in both), as well as become more competitive in Michigan (Romney’s dad was governor) and New Hampshire (Romney was governor of neighboring Mass. and spent a ton of time and money there during the primary).  Not that I really like Romney; I don’t.  But I think this pick helps his chances of becoming McCain’s VP candidate.

Might I add, it was genius for the Obama campaign to announce this via text message — it’s personal and makes people feel a part of the campaign.  People give a lot more time and talent when they feel like they are a part of something.  I’m sure thousands signed up to receive the text, and now the campaign has their numbers to make fundraising and get-out-the-vote calls.  Also, I doubt McCain even knows what a text message is, and I can’t imagine he has ever sent or received one.  This announcement was another subtle way to communicate that Obama will take us to the future, while McCain is stuck in the past.

The Democratic convention this week should be entertaining.  The first couple nights will be the Bill and Hillary show.  Lots of pundits have speculated that the Clintons may have some shenanigans up their sleeves, but they are smart enough to know that they cannot appear anything less than enthusiastic about Obama’s nomination.  In the event Obama loses, Hillary is sure to make another run in 2012.  She cannot hope to get the nomination then, if she is perceived to have contributed to Obama’s loss now.  In every public appearance, she will be a dutiful cheerleader.

So, that’s it for commentary for now.  I have 36 more hours of Olympic coverage, and I intend to enjoy it all.  After that, I may start paying more attention to the election.

It’s been a long time since I wrote anything on here and I have gotten some flack for it, but I’m back and I’m going to try and make this a lot more consistent.

 Anyway, here are my thoughts on a few things in the news these days:

 1)  Who is McCain going to pick for his VP?  I’m not sure it really matters.  The odds are stacked so heavily against a Republican winning this year that whoever it is will likely go the way of Jack Kemp (Do you even remember when he ran for VP?).  Nevertheless, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are doing all they can to get on the ticket.  Why, I’m not sure.  If they were on the ticket and McCain lost badly, they would likely share in the blame, which would not be the best place to start the 2012 campaign.  I think it might be better to sit this one out, play the dutiful cheerleader, and then rally the Party with bold new ideas after what could be a massacre come November.  The Democrats are likely to have substantially increased majorities in both the House and Senate, as well as the White House.  Republicans will be looking for a fresh new face from far outside the beltway because the losses are going to be blamed on the Party establishment’s faithlessness to conservative principles.  My bet, watch for the governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, to start getting a lot of attention.  He’s the only Republican on the national scene that shows much promise.

 2)  Obama resigned from his church today.  What took so long?

 3)  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is terrible.  The old Indy movies were smart and had tons of character development.  This one is cartoonish, weak on character development, and tries to be too slick with references to other movies.  Even the soundtrack wasn’t up to par, which is really sad considering it was composed by movie-score-genius John Williams.  If I were Siskel & Ebert, it would get four thumbs down.  Don’t waste your time and money.

That’s all for this time.  See you again soon.

Do you ever get tired of hearing bad news all the time?  It’s all the media seems to care about, and it can be depressing…unless you learn how to look for the positive in any story.  Today’s post is dedicated to teaching you how to look at the bright side of any situation.

Item 1:  Britain’s Department of Health released a report today stating that thousands of people in the United Kingdom will die of heat stroke in the coming decade because of global warming. 

Terrible, right?  Not so fast.  We have been hearing reports for years about how overpopulated the world is and how we need to take steps to curb population growth.  China has even gone so far as to make it illegal to have more than one child and many other countries stress about the moral and ethical dilemmas of instituting policies to effectively curtail population growth.  Well, it looks like Mother Nature may just take care of the problem and save us the headache.  Two birds with one stone, eh!?!

Item 2:  In California, the Berkeley City Council voted to force the city’s Marine Corps recruiting station to close because they believed the Marines were “uninvited and unwelcome intruders.”

Your first thought was probably just like mine, “What a bunch of unpatriotic, ungrateful swine!”  And while that is certainly true, how many quality recruits do you think the Marines actually got in Berkeley?  I mean, guys who wouldn’t just get in a slap fight with the enemy–it would be like having a recruiting station in France.  Having sissies like that in the Marine Corps undermines our image abroad, encourages our enemies, and weakens troop morale.  We are all safer as a result of that station closing.  Thank you, Berkeley.

Item 3:  A retired San Diego teacher revealed today that he taught school for 17 years while being illiterate.  He was unable to read, write, or spell until he was 48 years old.

So all those years you thought your kid was as dumb as stump because he couldn’t read, write, or spell, he probably wasn’t.  I mean, if the teacher can’t, how can you expect the kid to?  Be happy!  Your kid isn’t stupid after all; his teacher is the idiot!

Item 4:  Dolly Parton postponed her concert tour for 6 to 8 weeks today because of back problems.  She blamed her breasts for the back pain saying, “Hey, you try wagging these puppies around for a while and see if you don’t have back problems.”

Better late than never, and since she offered…  Never mind, this blog is going to stay PG.

There you are; a few examples of how to look at the news with a positive spin.  I hope this has proved helpful to you.  If you ever see a news story and have trouble seeing the silver lining, let me know and I’ll try to help.  Peace.

The presidential election is still nine months away.  Some lady could get pregnant, gestate, and deliver before its over.  As for me, I’m ready for both sides to have definitively settled on a nominee so we can have a break from the day to day who’s up and who’s down coverage.  It’s grating.  So, here’s a little something else…

This summer I want to take a trip, but I don’t know where to go.  Tanzania?  Middle East?  Jackson Hole, Wyoming?  Chile/Antarctica?  They are all attractive options, but only one (maybe two) will win out.

In Tanzania, I’d be part of a team ministering to a leper community.  We would help build a library and provide books for a local pastor and ministry, as well as provide other practical and spiritual ministry.  In the Middle East, I’d lead a small team of men teaching how to blend spiritual and business principles.  Jackson Hole would be a personal retreat to really refocus and journal through a lot of stuff.  It also has the benefit of having the best apple pie known to mankind at Signal Mountain lodge.  And I’d love to go skiing in Chile and Antarctica (it’s winter there when it’s summer here).  What do you think?  Comment away.

Also, I watched a couple hours of some modeling show today.  I normally wouldn’t watch that kind of junk, but this one sucked me in for some reason.  It was about a modeling agency and how the business works.  It was one of the saddest things I think I have ever seen.  All of these guys and girls consumed with the way they look, people wanting them only if they lost another 5 lbs., and all the while they were getting treated like trash.  Why does society put such a premium on physical perfection?  Where did we go wrong?  So many young men and women are really hurting themselves in pursuit of some look society has deemed “perfect.”  But honestly, who cares if you are pale or short or have a little jelly on your belly?  That was hot in Renaissance Europe, and maybe it will be again some day.

“A minefield of terribleness.”  That’s how the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls was described to me by a good friend last night.  I have to admit that I pretty much agree.  But it’s important to understand why this sentiment is true for so many conservatives in 2008.  To aid in this, I’m analyzing my thoughts on each candidate, starting with who I think is least likely to get the nomination and going to who I think is most likely. 

Ron Paul.  It’s actually a pity that Ron Paul gets so little respect from the other candidates.  He has by far demonstrated the most thorough understanding of a need for sound economic and tax policy (e.g., free markets, low regulation, low taxation, limited government).  In fact, he’s the only one on stage who sounds like he has actually studied economic theory instead of simply memorized sound bytes.  Yet, he is disrespected and made the butt of jokes by all of the other candidates – they should have enough decency to not take cheap shots.  That said, there are numerous problems with Ron Paul.  Chief among them are the racist statements published in his newsletter back in the late 80s and early 90s.  He’s free to believe and say whatever he wants, but I will not support a candidate who has demonstrated such disrespect for his fellow man.  This doesn’t even take into account his isolationist foreign policy, lack of support for the war on terror, and hostility towards allies such as Israel.  Paul is also completely unelectable because (in the media age) things like a quirky personality and odd voice are virtually disqualifiers.  I don’t think they should be, but they are.

Rudy Giuliani.  Rudy is far too liberal on far too many issues (e.g., abortion, gun control, gay marriage).  That alone disqualifies him.  There will be at least one (Stephens) and probably two (Ginsburg) vacancies on the Supreme Court in the next two years.  If they are replaced with young, strict-constructionist jurists (ala Roberts, C.J., and Alito, J.), we would finally have a solid Court majority that understands its proper role.  I simply do not trust someone who has demonstrated a total lack of understanding on Constitutional theory to appoint someone who does.  He’d probably make a good Secretary of Homeland Security, but not president.  

Mike Huckabee.  There is a lot to like about Huckabee, but there is also a lot to dislike.  Having a man of faith in the White House is very important to me, but Huckabee seems to want to take things a step (or two [or twelve]) too far.  The government was not designed and should not be used as a tool for correcting all of the social ills in society.  Families and churches should be on the front lines.  From healthcare to immigration, however, he seems to confuse the proper role of government.  Instead of divesting government of so much that it has wrongly assumed, he would create a whole mess of new programs and pump more money into the already failing ones.  No thanks. 

Mitt Romney.  He’s a moving target.  I truly have no idea what he believes about anything.  Had he held any belief for more than a decade, I would be more inclined to trust him now.  Maybe (all of) his conversions are genuine, but man were they all conveniently timed.  We need a president with firm convictions, not someone who bends with every political wind.  Something else that is a subtle but major impediment to Romney is how he always looks and acts and talks so perfectly.  He’s the opposite of Ron Paul.  His looks and personality are almost a detriment because (in the media age) we want people to be human and we want to see that they have some flaws.  (I literally saw a report the other day on how Romney takes the skin off fried chicken before he eats it.)  I know that shouldn’t be a factor, but it is. 

John McCain.  Where do I begin?  Perhaps with the fact that McCain considered becoming a Democrat and even considered running with John Kerry in 2004 as his vice-presidential nominee.  How, do you ask, could a Republican like McCain consider such apostasy?  Well, he has introduced legislation that would allow Congress to regulate large portions of US industry to combat “global warming,” he struck a deal with Democrats that would preserve their right to filibuster conservative judicial nominees, his name is attached to one of the largest (and thankfully most ineffective) attempts at restrictions on free speech in history (McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform), he supports allowing illegal immigrants to stay and become citizens with very little penalty, he has shown a very strong aversion to tax cuts, and he consistently demonizes corporations and wealthy individuals who have worked hard for what they have earned.  And for me, it goes even further.  It’s not just that McCain isn’t a conservative, but it’s how much pleasure he seems to take in jabbing conservatives in the eye. 

In a nutshell, that’s it.  Who will I vote for?  Honestly, I have no clue.  Maybe no one.  Truth be known, my preference would be to amend the Constitution so as to allow non-citizens to run for president…Thatcher ’08! 

It’s always odd to start something like this because I feel like it should be profound.  Probably won’t be, so don’t get your hopes up.  What it will be, however, is honest.  I plan to use this space to talk about whatever I find to be interesting.  So you can plan on posts about God, politics, food, sleep (or lack thereof), Lost, travelling, the Cowboys, good books, etc.  And you can probably plan on very few, if any, posts about law firms, calculus, insects, basketball, 99% of movies, 99% of t.v. shows, etc.

Right now, I’m interested in driving gloves.  Last winter I put a pair of gloves in my car to wear when it’s cold, and they are awesome.  It used to take the better part of an hour to warm my hands after driving to work in sub-freezing weather.  Now, they are toasty the whole time.  Get some driving gloves today; they are classy and functional.

What does not interest me at all right now is the presidential race.  I am not jazzed about any of the candidates running, Democrat or Republican.  Each of them seems incredibly flawed.  Let’s run them down:  (1) Hillary Clinton.  She’s a retread and would socialize a good chunk of the economy.  No thanks; (2) John Edwards.  His haircuts and manicures would triple the national debt in four years.  We can’t afford him; (3) Rudy Giuliani [play The Godfather theme].  If he weren’t so liberal, I may actually vote for the guy; (4) Mike Huckabee.  Seems like a nice guy, just like Gomer Pyle seems like a nice guy.  I wouldn’t want either to be president; (5) Alan Keyes.  Bet you and no one you know has ever heard of him.  That’s why he won’t be president; (6) Dennis Kucinich.  Yes, he’s still running.  Yes, he still wants to abolish the Department of Defense and replace it with the Department of Peace.  Yes, I want to abolish the Department of Defense and replace it with the Department of War.  Therein lies the problem; (7) John McCain.  Old.  Kooky.  Creepy.  Nuts; (8) Barak Obama.  He says nothing as nice as anyone I have ever heard; (9) Ron Paul.  Why do people like this always have to be from Texas? (10)  (Catcher’s) Mitt Romney.  Flippity floppity fool.

That’s it for the first post.  As I said, not too profound.  But before I sign off, I need to give a shout out to the guy who help me set this up.  Austin Mann is a great friend and was the inspiration and brains behind this.  So if you hate it, send your complaints to him.  You can check out his page at www.austinmann.com.  Peace.