Ichiro and Obama

Here is a great picture from the White House photo stream on Flikr.

Wassup?

Found this on the NPR blog Vox Politics. Tragi-comic humor and a message. It's great

Go Barack Go!

I just finished reading The Audacity of Hope. I usually avoid books by politicians and celebrities, because they tend to be a rehashing of stories widely available in the press, or just bad writing. Not so with this one. I am glad I read it - it makes me more enthusiastic about Obama, and more hopeful that he can help to get this country back on track if he wins. On that point, however, I am very worried. I am just terrified that McCain will win and then become incapacitated somehow, and then Sarah Palin will be acting president. Please folks, don't let this happen. Vote for Obama and encourage all your friends and relatives to do the same.

We watched the presidential debate last week with a group of other like-minded people. I got a free t-shirt, the cops stopped by a couple of times to make us turn the TV down (we were watching outside using a projector and a garage door), and people drove by, honking car horns and shouting racial slurs at us. Welcome to the south. Sigh.

I am a feminist

There, I said it publicly. I have been reading Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti this week, and it has made me mad. Do you know how much absolute junk and lies about women are out there? Do you know how much our lives are controlled by old white men? Don't let them. Get out and vote for Obama this election - and yes, I know that Sarah Palin is a woman, but she is a woman with mad wack, ignorant, hateful opinions. Just because she is a woman doesn't make her automatically good.

The book was making me reconsider my choice to change my last name when I got married. Benjamin said I didn't have to, but at the time I couldn't see not changing it. Now, it would take a lot of work to change it or even just to hyphenate. Besides, I didn't completely get rid of Donovan, I just made it a middle sort of name. It was a choice I made, so now I will live with it. But it was a choice made harder by all the insane rhetoric that I managed to absorb and all the worry I had about what people would think about me. Totally bogus. As I get older, I am slowly learning that it is better to, in the words of the snarky advice on a video game I play, "Don't worry about what others think; they don't do it very often." Hmm. Maybe we will just make something up for our (hypothetical) child. Or just stick to pets.

Anyway, if you want more information about being a full frontal feminist, you can check out Valenti's web site feministing.com.

Debate, debate!

Friday night is the first of the presidential candidate debates between Barack Obama and John McCain. I have avoided the debates of this political season until now, but since this is shaping up to be a very big election, I will be watching. In fact, we are planning to go to a debate watching party. Whee! To continue my politicizing of this blog (just for now, I promise), I encourage you to watch also. Get to really know what the candidates say, and perhaps more importantly, how they say it. You know it is going to be all talking points and prepared answers, but just how hard will they try to dodge the actual question that is being asked? Will McCain sweat and look shifty? Will Obama? Will one of them be poked and prodded so much that they turn into the Mayor from Buffy Season 3? Only one way to find out - watch!