The Latest

Liberals vs. Conservatives: A Tie

A loop of thought I regularly have is triggered almost daily by all of this election madness. Generally I subscribe to the idea that at some level we are all one, and everything that reality presents us with is also inherent us. There is no there ''out there' that is not also 'in here'. To create world peace, we must create peace in ourselves. There is no 'us' vs. 'them', ultimately we are all one and the same.

But lately I find myself thinking thoughts that are peppered with phrases such as  'Those people...', 'What's wrong with them?...', 'Those dummies...', 'Idiots!', 'Flyover zone'- a lot.  So this video on TED arrived not a minute to soon. Some very interesting ideas on the real differences between liberals and conservatives.

Post-Palin Freak Out

I sent an email out awhile ago urging some sort of action or another. I got a lot of  humorous (and encouraging) emails back from friends near and far:

From a former Munich expat colleague now in Seattle:
"I'm throwing Baracktoberfest in Seattle. Go Obama!"

Also from Seattle:
"Trust me, I'm all over this election! I have extra voter registration forms at work and make sure that the young people here are registered..."

From L.A.:
mccain does not want to be close or slightly tilting obama because the democrats have the bigger surge in new registrations and turnout, knowmsayin'? in a few states during the primaries, can't remember which, more votes were cast for obama than all of the leading republican candidates combined! the polls only tell part of the story, the rest of it is who actually shows up and obama has a nasty habit of stirring up the little people to come out in droves (caucus wins over hillary, donation record this month, filling stadiums on each of his stops, etc). obama only has to fear those old cryptkeeper mummies who are in their coffins at home answering polls and only arise on nov 4 to vote.

i would also be shocked if the debates matter much in the end unless someone really gets a whoopin' and starts crying with full snot coming out of their empty heads. people honestly see what they want to see. but if i were to guess, i'm thinking mccain would rather the election end today while palin is still wrapped in her media burka of silence and he is still remembered as shouting his depends off in a mavericky way at the convention. -t

More from L.A.:
" oy to the vey is right.  We spent the weekend phone banking for Obama. We tried to go to Las Vegas to register voters since Bush only won it by 2% last time, but our car broke down :( (It all turned out fine though).

Obviously we are very motivated to do as much as we can to get Obama in the oval office. The Palin pick and speech was so horrifying it really lit a fire under my ass. The good news is that our experience at the LA Obama headquarters was great - people are very energized and it's run like a swiss watch - which is a reflection of how well he'd run the govt.

I think it will be close, but I think we can pull this one out of the hat. And if not, I'll just dig a hole, Saddam Hussein style, and not come out until 2012 - just in time for the end of the world!"