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Wednesday, July 28, 2004

The DNC Convention

So the media seems to be on some blog-promotion trip. Seems like all 15,000 media people in Boston are writing a blog. For the record, I'm not in Boston :)

I spent the better part of last evening watching the speeches. Barak Obama blew me away with not just the flawless delivery, but also the carefully crafted content. I don't understand the media hype about speeches. Yes, they are supposed to move you, but there's more to it than that. They're supposed to be a window into the candidates' character - revealing nuances, adding dimensions. They're not meant to hide the truth under a veneer of theatrical genius. Yet theatrical genius is exactly what the media rewards. Al Sharpton is a perfect example of that.

Last night was the first time I heard Teresa Heinz Kerry speak. I had no idea about her Portuguese/Mozambique background. America couldn't ask for a more fitting first lady in this time of international distrust and isolation. How well she'd go down with the average, small-town, stay-at-home mom is a key question.

Why does an election come down to appeasing the middle-ground, undecided voters? Is it a result of the two-party system? It sucks because candidates cannot speak their mind and the whole campaign gets reduced to a scripted production designed to appease the middle.

And boy - could Terry McAuliffe get his nose any more brown? You should've seen him kissing up to O'Reilly  tonight! "Your network is fair and balanced", he said, "you let me come on your show". Take a ficking stand - you spineless, slimy #%^$^&%.

More on Edwards later - over and out.

Monday, July 26, 2004

The Rule of Four

What seemed like an intelligent, Da-Vinci-Code-esque thriller has turned out to be a soporific, pretentious, Ivy league drama about ultra-intellectuals who spend weeks, possibly months, researching the meaning of a 500 year old text that - hold your breath - holds the clue to civilization - or so the marketing on the cover leads you to believe. I am not a fan of ultra-intellectualism (I just coined that term - does that make me one? help!). There are people who spend an entire lifetime trying to understand and uncover truths from our past - so that we have a better understand of who we are. Then there are people who chase arcane topics just to feel superior - immersing themselves in a world of fancy vocalubary and European cultural trivia. The authors of the Rule of Four seem to fall into the latter.

On the bright side, it sure helps me sleep :) I last about 1 chapter each night. At that rate, I will have finished it by Winter. Lets see how long I can keep this up.

I meant the blog - what did you think?

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Beginnings

So I thought of giving these things a shot. Lets see how it works out. It's funny how fertile the mind gets when you're trying not to pay attention to the instructor.