John McCain: The Constitution Established America As a Christian Nation

How embarrassing for Mr. McCain to demonstrate so little knowledge about the history of the country he'd like us to think he can govern (or the Constitution, for that matter). It's painful to watch him stumble over his thoughts, as though he were trying to remember something someone had told him to memorize but was drawing a blank.

"I just feel that my faith...mumble...mumble"

Unfortunately, the only accurate conclusion to that sentence is "...is unimportant with respect to my ability to govern." Too bad no candidates on either side have the balls to say it.

Seriously, if I see this man elected, I'm one step closer to leaving the country.

I just ran across this interesting blog entry by a Swedish archaeologist today. I already knew this, but it's still depressing: Even the most far-reaching left-wing politics in the US would be considered right-wing in Europe. To Europeans, this is alarming. (It goes without saying that it should be alarming to us too.)

85% Mike Gravel
85% Dennis Kucinich
78% Barack Obama
76% John Edwards
76% Bill Richardson
75% Hillary Clinton
74% Chris Dodd
73% Joe Biden
41% Rudy Giuliani
35% Ron Paul
31% John McCain
28% Mitt Romney
24% Mike Huckabee
22% Tom Tancredo
15% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Whoever the heck Mike Gravel is. Thanks to jeniferrobin for the link!

Yay, more snow is coming tonight! This is starting to feel like a genuine winter after all. The past few winters have been pitiful. Unless it turns tropical between now and next week, we ought to have a white Christmas.

Jonas took the car in this morning, and they think it will take about a week to fix it up. He'll probably get a rental at least through Wednesday -- after that, we might be able to manage with just one. I would have to drive him to work on Friday, and he'd have to drive me on Saturday, but the money saved may outweigh the inconvenience. We haven't quite decided on that yet.

So they've unearthed Mr. Hussein, although I don't see where it makes much of a difference anymore. It certainly doesn't make me feel any more optimistic about the future or what's going on over there. It's obvious there is a significant opposition to everything the U.S. is doing and is planning to do with respect to the Iraqi people and their government. When the U.S. pulls out -- and you know it won't be long, they've been itching to bail since November turned out to be a complete disaster -- everything is going to fall apart. It is not going to be a nice little do-it-yourself democracy. After decades of being brainwashed and taught to hate, people don't just wake up one day and think, "Yes, why didn't we realize sooner that democracy is the best thing since sliced bread?!" No, eventually the government will again be run by those with their own private agendas to support.

On the other hand, who are we to assume that a democracy is the ideal form of government? I think it is, but is that because I have been told so all my life? From the moment I was born I've been bombarded from every direction with the idea that I should be proud because I live in the greatest country in the world. That the founding fathers were geniuses when they devised the perfect system of government. That all other countries revere us and only wish they could be nearly as wonderful.

Now who's been brainwashed?

God.

I'm so embarrassed to be an American sometimes.

So I watched like 10 minutes of the State of the Union address. And watched several hundred men and women make complete fools of themselves.

Sure, go ahead and applaud when you hear something you really like (or even when you don't, but everyone else is applauding) -- but do you really need to stand up and sit down like carefully choreographed marionettes every 5 seconds??? It totally negates any actual merit the president's speech might have had in the first place.

I admit I'm not a fan of the president. In fact, in most cases I enjoy seeing him look like a fool (he's pretty good at it). But it's quite another thing to demonstrate to the rest of the planet that an addition to the president, the rest of our government looks like mindless puppets as well.

I don't know when the excessive ovations began; I'm certain it didn't begin with the current president. Perhaps when the addresses began to be televised, or broadcast to the rest of the world (Look how much we love our president! Nyah, nyah.)? Unfortunately, the rest of the world is laughing its ass off at the inanity. How embarrassing.

I woke up in the morning to discover that everything concerning the election is still up in the air, and it doesn't look like it will be resolved anytime soon. The results of the recount in Florida so far as showing a difference of less than 1000 votes between the two candidates, some numbers apparently down to about 200. With all of the absentee and military ballots still to be totaled, it will be even longer before an exact determination of the final numbers can be had. That's about all I'm going to say about it until something more final comes out, since I'm getting tired of all the uncertainty. I'll just focus on regular daily life instead.

Since Wednesday is my day off I had lots of time to myself. I did all of the laundry and tidied up the kitchen while playing Pharaoh. There wasn't much else happening around here.

I went and voted GORE at about 8am. They even let Jonas stand at the booth with me, even though he was not allowed to vote on account of not being a citizen. Democrats all the way, except on the backside with all of the judges I hadn't even heard of I left it blank.

I went to work and Jonas came to have lunch with me. After I got home I turned on the TV in the livingroom and listened to the coverage while at the computer. I'd wanted to play Pharaoh and have some fun, but I kept being distracted by the news when the state results would come in. By the end of the night, I just had a splitting headache from it all.

In the end it was down to Florida. Whoever won Florida was going to take it all, and sadly, it looks like Bush did, although it's mighty close. They have called for a recount in Florida to ensure that no one can later say there were errors and that Gore should have won, so there is still hope, but I don't feel there is very much. Part of the problem is all of the idiots who have mindlessly jumped on Ralph Nader's bandwagon. The idea was that the more votes Nader gets, the more funding his party can receive in future elections. And in Minnesota, for example, there was little doubt Gore would take the state, so people thinking about the future decided to use their useless Gore vote to instead vote for Nader. While this worked in states overwhelmingly Democrat or overwhelmingly Republican, Florida was neither. The Nader votes in Florida ended up being more than the entire difference between Gore and Bush. Won't they all feel like idiots tomorrow, wasting their vote and allowing Bush to win.

As I said, there is still a slight glimmer of hope, but who wants to get their hopes up only to have them crushed yet again?

Ho hum day. Worked and came home. Tidied up the kitchen a little, had a sandwich and played AOE. Now Jonas will be home any minute and I'll start heading to bed. Probably read or something.

More crap junkmail from the damn Republicans in our box today. I wish they'd leave us alone! We've gotten about 10 flyers from Republican candidates and not a single one from any Democratic ones. What a waste of money, I can't imagine it's doing much more than just annoying people.

That's all. Nitey nite.