Who in the %$&! am I supposed to vote for?

Okay, so I've been watching the debate tonight, while at the same time researching third party candidates. Now I've come to a definite conclusion...I don't know who to vote for.

I don't want to vote for a Republican or a Democrat. To me, they represent corporate politics and represent no change for American government/politics. They have been selected by wealthy and powerful politicos and have been set out for us to choose. The current party system works to perpetuate itself and maintain barriers to entry for other parties. For this reason alone, I feel compelled to vote outside the norm.

On the other hand, all of the "third" parties that are on the ballot here in Nashville have serious things that make me hesitate to support them --

- Libertarian Party: I thought this was going to be my party when I first started reading the Libertarian views. The idea of protecting personal liberty and property and minimizing the government's involvement in the lives of the citizenry is really attractive. The thing is that I think it is actually good to have some government involvement to help take care of members of society that need aid and to prevent damage to the whole society by individual parties. The Libertarian idea of eliminating government regulations would encourage increased oil drilling rather than helping to drive the economy toward new energy resources. I really thought I was a free market guy until I read their platform.

- Green Party: I really do like the social justice and sustainable living aspect of the Green Party. I really would love to have the country be more influenced to move in that direction. What really holds me back with the Greens though is the amount of spending and programs that they are in favor of. I don't see it as additional spending, but I really feel like the government needs to drastically reduce spending and drastically reduce the tax burden on the people.

- Constitution Party: Similar to the Libertarians, these folks are primarily concerned with personal liberties. They do believe that if government is left unchecked, it is in its nature to usurp the liberty of its citizenry and become a major violator of human rights. The Constitutees are interested in addressing some so-called social issues with federal legislation (e.g., marriage). Gun rights are huge for them.

Anyway, I feel stuck. I'm still checking out Nader...maybe he'll be the guy.

In the meantime, consider a third party candidate. Break the cycle of the status quo!

Two things: The Sword In Concert -and- Boring Conference Calls.

The Sword in concert was one of the most fun concerts I have ever been to. Shawn and I went Wednesday and saw them at Cannery Ballroom. They opened for Clutch…I wasn’t familiar with them, or any of the other opening acts, the only one we saw was Graveyard. The Sword exceeded all expectations that I had, after seeing them at Bonnaroo. Somehow, they are a mix of Metallica and Black Sabbath with a little bit of Rush thrown in. The highlight of the night was their cover of the KISS song “She.” That and jumping into the mosh pit. While I have to admit that it was a pretty tame mosh pit, it was still exhilarating to do it. By the end of the night, I was on such an adrenaline rush that I got home at 12:45, but couldn’t go to sleep until 1:45! For anyone into classic metal, check out The Sword .

Boring conference calls should be outlawed. For a call that opened at 2p with the phrase, “I want to make sure we keep this short,” I was surprised (not really) when, an hour later, we had completed item 1 on the agenda. I really feel sorry for the 4 people on the call that did not have any business with item 1. I guess to be honest, I should admit that right now (3:12) I am still on the conference call.

…

I had to break and come back. Now I’m on call number 2. This one seems to be going forward a little more quickly. Anyway, I need to know if either Obama or McCain has voiced ideas for changing this dire situation.

Thirdly (I know it wasn’t in my title…let’s step outside of the box), I feel like I have to say something about the idea of the government bail out of “the economy” … come to think of it, I’ll save that for later.

Shine on Doc.

Presidents - Campaigns and Politics

I was reading a friend's blog moments ago about presidential candidates financing their campaigns, and I felt compelled to give my two cents on the American presidential election and candidates.

It seems like the nation doesn't realize that there really isn't that much difference between the republican and democrat candidates in our general elections (and there really hasn't been in any of the elections in the recent past.) A candidate for either of the 'major' political parties can be easily characterized: wealthy with lots of wealthy "friends" and political supporters. Both parties are primarily supported by money from wealthy individuals and narrow special interest organizations, whether they are the National Rifle Association, the AFL-CIO/Teamsters, the tobacco lobby, or the trial lawyers association. The candidates live in the same neighborhoods and send their kids to the same schools, and are members of the same clubs (the last may not be true for the current candidates given the continued existence of racism among the societal 'elite'). Their 'business' is politics. Once either gets elected, his next job will be to focus on getting re-elected, after that they can worry about 'running the country.'

Remember Senator Ted Kennedy, democrat and supposed environmental supporter who didn't want wind-electrical generation units off of the coast of Martha's Vineyard where he lives. On the flip-side, I'm sure that there could be a Republican who doesn't want the prison or the nuclear power plant built in his back yard.

This, however, is no reason to advocate our duty to vote and continually participate in the political process. I am hopeful that with the advances in the internet in the past decade that it will become more plausible that a third party candidate could be elected to a federal position. Keep up the forums, blogs, mySpace's, and Facebook's! Maybe we can improve our choices!

I love The Deadliest Catch!

The Deadliest Catch -- man, this is my favorite show on tv right now. It is FREAKING AWESOME! A bunch of men on boats catching crabs - I can't even explain what's so great about it. We make sure that we're in front of the tv every week when it comes on.

The crab fishing fleet in the Bering Sea is reported to be the most fatality prone fishing fleet in North America. Deckhands make anywhere from $25,000 to $60,000 for several weeks worth of work. Last week they were fishing in a hurricane strength storm! It finally did get bad enough that the captains called their crews in from the deck. There are so many things that can go wrong, and the consequences are serious. We cheer for their good fortune.

In case you're interested, it is on Discovery channel on Tuesday at 8pm central.

Friday and Medications

It's Friday and I'm on some medications, while I await a root canal next Tuesday. I'm like a zombie right now...typing a whole bunch of fffffffffffffffffffffffff and ddddddddddddd and so on.



I'm really digging Facebook. I got an account three weeks ago, mainly to become acquainted with it before my daughters asked for it themselves. Now, I'm adding friends and writing on walls and checking stuff out. Leslie has her own account now too. I'm gonna have to get my Mom on next - and Kent and Lori (brother and sister-in-law).



Because its taken me so long to post anything, some of the stuff from my initial post doesn't even make sense now. Of course 300 still rocks. For instance, we bought a PC instead of a Mac and I use Google Maps instead of Mapquest. I don't even know what is happening with cable and telephone companies in Tennessee.

Some good news :: only 1 and a half months until NFL pre-season games begin!!

Question :: Is it wrong that one of the ingredients in Gatorade is 'glycerol ester of wood rosin??'

So its taken a little while for the second post...

After such a triumphal entry first post more than a year ago, I am finally going to try to get this train on the track.

I will have to get down to it later, but for starters here's a link to Shawn's blog entry about our weekend excursion to Bonnarroo...

http://sh4wn.wordpress.com/

Welcome to The SMacDown!

Hello fair (and few) readers. Hopefully this, my second attempt, at blogging will be more successful and consistent than the first one that died some time ago (a death that was rather quick and painless.) It'll probably take me a while to get things up and going here.

I've got a lot of things to hit, but its gonna take me some time, here's a few of them--

• The most lethal disease in Africa is a virtually non-existent disease in America...
• 300 has possibly topped my list of "be a man" movies...
• Tennessee may actually have competition in the cable tv market (welcome Adam Smith's invisible hand)...
• I'm trying to decide whether to buy a mac or pc laptop (used)...
• It really bugs me to hear people who live in America talk about what a crappy place America is...
• Google Maps vs. MapQuest...
• Have you seen the work of Motke Dapp?...(http://myspace.com/motke)

As for now, two quick things--

My two daughters are running the Country Music Kids Marathon tonight. They've been training for the past few months, running and walking the first 25.2 miles with the East Academy Cross Country Club. They will run the last mile tonight with approximately 3000 other kids. Leslie and I are very proud of their hard work and commitment. I can't wait to see them finisht the last mile tonight.

The other thing, my friends Richard and Cheryl Westberry had a baby boy this week. Welcome Elijah Blade Westberry!! Congratulations to Richard and Cheryl!! (even though Richard DIDN'T like 300)