Wow, I am really shocked, and almost appalled at McCain. I didn't see this pick coming at all.
Is this a desperate attempt by McCain to show he is still a maverick? No, I really don't think so.
Having the party's support firmly in place, except by those who are closer to the middle or independents, etc -- people not die hard right wingers -- this pick actually makes no sense. Palin herself is a very conservative Republican, from the reddest of (I shudder to say, for I hate the term) red states.
Superficially, and I suppose only time will help me see further, for I really see nothing else in this pick, it seems like a desperate attempt to take the PUMA votes. (For those who don't know, PUMA stands for Party Unity My Ass, and is made up of Hilary's most devout supporters).
On the one hand, I see this maybe working. The generation of feminists that Hilary belonged to, and that makes up the majority of PUMA may appear to want a woman in charge at all costs, at least much more than I can see a black man voting for Obama because he himself (or herself, to be fucking politically correct) is black.
On the other hand, the larger one, the dominant one, I really do not see this plan working. To keep with the Obama vote comparison, I think it could compare to, though not as strongly, Having Alan Keyes or Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court being selected to have some major role on the party ticket. Demographically, and purely demographically, the glove fits. However, these men I suppose could be bloodstained with the ideals that do not fit said demographic. In other words, the glove does not fit, but it might, might, stretch.
McCain is getting too old. Party politics have left him a beaten man, and frankly I do not want a beaten man as President. If this were the McCain of 2000, I probably would've, me perhaps being the right age, voted for him in a heartbeat over Gore. He has changed drastically since then, and moreso appears to be the man involved in the savings and loan scandal of the late 80's than the man who voted alone and wrote legislation across the aisle.
2004 has taught me never to vote for someone to vote against them, so I will not vote for Obama to vote for against McCain. The one caveat to me doing that would be Pennsylvania being in dire, dire trouble of losing to McCain.
It is up to Obama to give me a reason to vote for him, and so far most of what I have to go on is Biden. I am not yet set, and am still searching for third party candidates. I prefer to vote for people rather than policies, and I want to see that Obama is more than a product of the Chicago democratic political machine before I cast my vote for him.
VP's in this election may be more important than ever, as I believe there is a strong possibility neither candidate may be able to finish his first term -- McCain due to age, Obama due to threats from anti-black hate groups (yes, they still exist in America, there was in fact even a half-assed attempt on his life in Denver). So what it tells me when McCain picks Palin to be his veep is that McCain really doesn't know what he's doing anymore.
8.29.2008
8.23.2008
Joe Biden for Veep!
Having read the news online at about 1 O'clock in the morning/midnight-ish, I was one of the first to hear about it. I believe the websites all said something to the effect of posted 10 minutes ago.
In any case...
At this moment in time, this cements my voting for Obama, as a way of voting for Biden. While I didn't hate Obama during the primaries, my first choices were the oft neglected Representative Dennis Kucinich, Governor Bill Richardson, and Senator Joe Biden. Of the three front runners (Obama, Hilary, and Edwards), Obama was the only one I didn't want to see run in front of a speeding bus/truck/train.
Hilary is too Clinton, even with the Rodham. She's set in her ways as a politician of the 80's and 90's, when Bill was Governor and then President. Furthermore, I didn't appreciate her tearing away at Obama's experience, when in fact I think she had only two more years of Senatorial experience -- I think, though may be wrong, that she started in '02, while he started in '04. Being the wife of a political bigshot, no matter how involved you are, simply allows you to bypass the electoral process. Essentially she had alot of experience as a bureaucrat then.
Edwards, where to begin ... Simply put, his only shot of getting elected to anything is on the national stage. He only had one elected term as Senator, and that is all of his governmental political experience. His home state of North Carolina would never re-elect him to any sort of position, well, maybe representative from the Raleigh-Durham, or maybe Ashville, area. After his one stint as senator, where the only thing I can recall him doing was being part of the Clinton impeachment proceedings. Before being a senator he had stints as an ambulance chaser and was also part of a hedgefund. So pretty much, before being the "most liberal" senator of the south, he tried as hard as he could to be the most despicable human being in the world. Tell me, how does being part of a hedgefund help the labor movement? POSER. So what if he came from nothing. Until he wanted a political career, he spent every waking moment trying to erase that fact.
Both of those two, I would suspect, would try and do anything to become President of the United States of America. I still remember when I voted for Kerry/Edwards '04 (simply to vote against Bush/Cheney, I will NEVER vote AGAINST someone again) I felt as if part of me was dieing, as half of that vote essentially went to him. The other half of that vote wasn't much better off. As much is made of Bush being an idiot, Kerry actually had a significantly worse GPA than Bush at Yale, while I'm not one to make a big deal about GPA, for someone with the intellectual appearance of Kerry, I can't help but think about how little caring for school work that would have required.
But enough talking about how much the other Democratic candidates sucked horse balls, the important thing is now I don't have to try and find a third party candidate to vote for.
Next post, why Obama/Biden is/will be better than McCain and his running mate.
In any case...
At this moment in time, this cements my voting for Obama, as a way of voting for Biden. While I didn't hate Obama during the primaries, my first choices were the oft neglected Representative Dennis Kucinich, Governor Bill Richardson, and Senator Joe Biden. Of the three front runners (Obama, Hilary, and Edwards), Obama was the only one I didn't want to see run in front of a speeding bus/truck/train.
Hilary is too Clinton, even with the Rodham. She's set in her ways as a politician of the 80's and 90's, when Bill was Governor and then President. Furthermore, I didn't appreciate her tearing away at Obama's experience, when in fact I think she had only two more years of Senatorial experience -- I think, though may be wrong, that she started in '02, while he started in '04. Being the wife of a political bigshot, no matter how involved you are, simply allows you to bypass the electoral process. Essentially she had alot of experience as a bureaucrat then.
Edwards, where to begin ... Simply put, his only shot of getting elected to anything is on the national stage. He only had one elected term as Senator, and that is all of his governmental political experience. His home state of North Carolina would never re-elect him to any sort of position, well, maybe representative from the Raleigh-Durham, or maybe Ashville, area. After his one stint as senator, where the only thing I can recall him doing was being part of the Clinton impeachment proceedings. Before being a senator he had stints as an ambulance chaser and was also part of a hedgefund. So pretty much, before being the "most liberal" senator of the south, he tried as hard as he could to be the most despicable human being in the world. Tell me, how does being part of a hedgefund help the labor movement? POSER. So what if he came from nothing. Until he wanted a political career, he spent every waking moment trying to erase that fact.
Both of those two, I would suspect, would try and do anything to become President of the United States of America. I still remember when I voted for Kerry/Edwards '04 (simply to vote against Bush/Cheney, I will NEVER vote AGAINST someone again) I felt as if part of me was dieing, as half of that vote essentially went to him. The other half of that vote wasn't much better off. As much is made of Bush being an idiot, Kerry actually had a significantly worse GPA than Bush at Yale, while I'm not one to make a big deal about GPA, for someone with the intellectual appearance of Kerry, I can't help but think about how little caring for school work that would have required.
But enough talking about how much the other Democratic candidates sucked horse balls, the important thing is now I don't have to try and find a third party candidate to vote for.
Next post, why Obama/Biden is/will be better than McCain and his running mate.
8.15.2008
The awesomeness that is pre-season football
There are really only two times in the year that football is watchable
-the post-season
-the pre-season
Now, the reasons for post-season football awesomeness is pretty self-evident. Anyone should be able to figure them out by themselves.
Pre-season football is another beast entirely; and that is what makes it so good.
During the regular season, a team/player plays for money. During the post-season, a team/player plays for everything.
During the pre-season, a player plays for their own job, for their roster spot. This is also the reason why the 3rd and 4th quarters are the most enjoyable parts to watch.
Some may argue that the talent level simply isn't there. That is a bullshit argument. If people only watched sports for talent, then why the hell do we have collegiate sports, or at the very least anything below division 1?
Talent doesn't mean a dime on special teams, unless you're a kick returner. It's about heart, dedication. Having a successful run coverage unit is about having a team that will run at full speed down to the other end of the field and knock out whoever has the ball, not about having the fastest people who can get down there the fastest.
But pre-season is about the rookie quarterback who didn't go to a d-1 school, so he has to prove he can play against pro-level backups, to be a backup. It's about the journeyman who wants to show he has one more year in the tank (not you, brett favre).
It's about playing the sport because you want to play the sport,
not cos you're good at it.
Truth be told, a lot of them could make more money doing other things, to stay specific to football -- coaching college and high school, but realistically, anything.
These are the real players. These are the players with guts, with heart. If only they were the ones born as physical freaks of nature, perhaps our sport would be better, or sadly perhaps they would also grow weary and play for cash.
--knuttel
-the post-season
-the pre-season
Now, the reasons for post-season football awesomeness is pretty self-evident. Anyone should be able to figure them out by themselves.
Pre-season football is another beast entirely; and that is what makes it so good.
During the regular season, a team/player plays for money. During the post-season, a team/player plays for everything.
During the pre-season, a player plays for their own job, for their roster spot. This is also the reason why the 3rd and 4th quarters are the most enjoyable parts to watch.
Some may argue that the talent level simply isn't there. That is a bullshit argument. If people only watched sports for talent, then why the hell do we have collegiate sports, or at the very least anything below division 1?
Talent doesn't mean a dime on special teams, unless you're a kick returner. It's about heart, dedication. Having a successful run coverage unit is about having a team that will run at full speed down to the other end of the field and knock out whoever has the ball, not about having the fastest people who can get down there the fastest.
But pre-season is about the rookie quarterback who didn't go to a d-1 school, so he has to prove he can play against pro-level backups, to be a backup. It's about the journeyman who wants to show he has one more year in the tank (not you, brett favre).
It's about playing the sport because you want to play the sport,
not cos you're good at it.
Truth be told, a lot of them could make more money doing other things, to stay specific to football -- coaching college and high school, but realistically, anything.
These are the real players. These are the players with guts, with heart. If only they were the ones born as physical freaks of nature, perhaps our sport would be better, or sadly perhaps they would also grow weary and play for cash.
--knuttel
8.11.2008
12 minutes to Madden-night
In roughly an hour, there will be Madden opening parties at videogame selling stores across the country. How so much of our nation can follow such a folly escapes me truly.
The truth is, the game has ceased to be exemplary in any way. I don't wish to point to a specific year, but I want to say it is sometime around the McNabb cover that marks the downfall of the franchise. A more specific date would be the one where the NFL, NFLPA, and EA Sports got together and decided that this would be the only game made for professional American football.
Madden would become a videogame monopoly.
In some cases this has turned out relatively well. Other EA Sports franchises -- FIFA and NCAA Football come to mind -- have been dedicated to improving the game year in and year out, making adjustments to the new game easy instead of frustrating. Madden simply does little positive besides update rosters to some fixed date in the summer, while free agency is still very much open, and training camp drama is nowhere close.
Madden idles in its own state of languor. Competition is what made the franchise in the first place. FIFA and NCAA almost never had competition, at least in recent memory, and thus they were forced to improve themselves to remain relevant. Madden had several titles with which to compete, and ultimately came on top, I want to think because of its franchise mode. It seems from the moment they became sole owners of being able to make a NFL videogame, they gave up all hope on being able to create a good one. Having no other options leaves me with the only option of playing NCAA instead.
What really puzzles me is why people keep flocking to this game. Is an abusive relationship really that worth it? I mean, it left Terri in a coma.
Perhaps I'll post some more thoughts on this later. maybe.
oh, and the title is not a reference to Linkin Park. if you ever say that name in my presence I will shiv you.
It's also not a reference to Iron Maiden. But I'll at least accept that response.
It's a reference to an old scientific journal, I believe on atomic science, and they would get together and arbitrarily decide how close the world was to nuclear holocaust.
btw, when i first started writing this, it was maybe 10:30. not getting published until 11:15 is solely on the blame of people not being able to leave me the fuck alone when I'm writing.
-Knuttel
The truth is, the game has ceased to be exemplary in any way. I don't wish to point to a specific year, but I want to say it is sometime around the McNabb cover that marks the downfall of the franchise. A more specific date would be the one where the NFL, NFLPA, and EA Sports got together and decided that this would be the only game made for professional American football.
Madden would become a videogame monopoly.
In some cases this has turned out relatively well. Other EA Sports franchises -- FIFA and NCAA Football come to mind -- have been dedicated to improving the game year in and year out, making adjustments to the new game easy instead of frustrating. Madden simply does little positive besides update rosters to some fixed date in the summer, while free agency is still very much open, and training camp drama is nowhere close.
Madden idles in its own state of languor. Competition is what made the franchise in the first place. FIFA and NCAA almost never had competition, at least in recent memory, and thus they were forced to improve themselves to remain relevant. Madden had several titles with which to compete, and ultimately came on top, I want to think because of its franchise mode. It seems from the moment they became sole owners of being able to make a NFL videogame, they gave up all hope on being able to create a good one. Having no other options leaves me with the only option of playing NCAA instead.
What really puzzles me is why people keep flocking to this game. Is an abusive relationship really that worth it? I mean, it left Terri in a coma.
Perhaps I'll post some more thoughts on this later. maybe.
oh, and the title is not a reference to Linkin Park. if you ever say that name in my presence I will shiv you.
It's also not a reference to Iron Maiden. But I'll at least accept that response.
It's a reference to an old scientific journal, I believe on atomic science, and they would get together and arbitrarily decide how close the world was to nuclear holocaust.
btw, when i first started writing this, it was maybe 10:30. not getting published until 11:15 is solely on the blame of people not being able to leave me the fuck alone when I'm writing.
-Knuttel
8.10.2008
i suck
wow, i've gotten lazy
psuedo-busy recently i suppose, but it's been said writing is just busy idleness, so i dont see why i couldnt make room.
fuggit.
more soon
psuedo-busy recently i suppose, but it's been said writing is just busy idleness, so i dont see why i couldnt make room.
fuggit.
more soon
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