If you were a train, what kind of train would you be? I’m not sure but here’s what the candidates for President and Vice President would be.
Year: 2008 (Page 12 of 18)
Just got back from Fen Con V. Had a great time. It’s a very well run convention. This is the third one I’ve been too. Saw a lot of people there that were at Denvention (WorldCon). The Brobdingnagian Bards performed at the con for the last time. Alas, Marc and Andrew are going their separate ways. They have one more performance in Austin. I look forward to seeing how their individual careers progress. Got to see Greg Benford, Jay Lake, and Brad Denton. Also got to see Caroline Spector, The Three Weird Sisters, TM Wagner, Gerald Burton, and David Lee Anderson. Alas Howard Waldrop was not able to attend. He was doing better but the doctors advised against him traveling just yet.
Fen Con has one of the best hotels for holding a convention, Crowne Plaza in Addison, TX. I really liked the way the meeting space was laid out. There were a lot of room parties. I think it would have been nice to consolidate the room parties in one or two of the hotel wings rather than spreading them all out over the floor. It’s the second year at the hotel and it’ll be there next year.
Tulsa fandom was well represented. Saw Curtis & Marylin; Richard & Lynn; Fran, Randy and his wife. There might have been others but didn’t know they were from Tulsa. Mel & I plan on returning for Fen Con VI. Lois McMaster Bujold will be Guest of Honor. It was Mel’s first time to Fen Con. She had a great time too. In fact we liked it so much we are going to adopt it as our home con.
So Sarah Palin has been listening to Joe Biden’s speeches since the second grade. That would have been 1972, the first year Biden was elected to the Senate. In 1972, I might have known three politicians: Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew and Jim Jones (only because one of my class-mates dads worked for Tulsa’s representative at the time). And for a second grader that was pretty darn good. I know in the second grade I was more concerned about going to recess than listening to a politician.
I think Sarah was using hyperbole and implying she’s been paying attention to Biden for a very long time though not as far back as second grade. I can’t remember when I first became aware of Biden’s existence but it was probably sometime in the 1990’s. Another likely possibility is that she doesn’t give a flip about Joe Biden and just said what sounded like a good sound byte.
It’s interesting to watch how Sarah answers questions. She’s not giving meaningful answers to the questioner. She’s giving non answers that plays to her base. She says it the way she wants them to hear. And they can howl with outrage at how mean the “Liberal” media was to her. For playing to the ultrareligious neocon base, Palin was a good selection made for John McCain.
I’ve been a fan of TED for a while. It’s an amazing conference of the worlds most influential geeks. They’ve been posting their videos for a while and this one is as interesting as it is relevant. It’s about 19 minutes.
Talks Jonathan Haidt: The real difference between liberals and conservatives
Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we’re left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.
OK. Apparently I cannot embed video from TED which sucks. So here’s the link:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html
TED has a lot of other great talks online be sure to check it out: http://www.ted.com/
For the record I do not consider myself liberal. I consider myself a progressive (which has far more in common with liberals than it does with conservatives).
I saw two clips of Sarah Palin yesterday. Both are from Katie Couric’s interview. She made Sarah look like a complete lightweight. Let me repeat that so it can sink in. Katie Couric that heavyweight paragon of journalism made Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska and VP candidate, look like a complete lightweight. The other clip Ms. Palin did her best to channel Bush on why Iran was the bad guys and we were the good guys, only slightly more articulate.
If you watch these clips, try not to blink or wince or cringe or run screaming out of the house yelling “We’re dooomed…dooomed I tell ya… if she becomes President!”
Couric 1: Palin Talks Russia With Katie Couric (VIDEO)
Couric 2: Palin’s Bush-like Interview: Foreign Affairs Is Good v. Evil
I thought the reason why the McCain campaign was controlling the presses access to Governor Palin was so she could bone up on foreign policy for her debate with Joe Biden. She’s went to the UN and met with Kissinger and Uribe and Karzai. It was like the Model UN in high school, only for real.
Speaking of the debate Dahlia Lithwick over at Slate.com has excellent advice on how Biden should debate Palin.
After seeing those clips I feel I need to watch something uplifting. Like Fargo. Yeah!
Update: I just saw another painful to watch clip of Sarah Palin from Couric’s interview embedded within this TPMtv video of John McCain entitled The Dog Ate My Debate. After watching it all I want to know is what is wrong with John’s eye?
Update II: Sarah is the gift that keeps on giving. Watch
Jack Cafferty Tells Us How He Really Feels About Sarah Palin.