Going Tribal

An interesting thing about the presidential election this year is that the candidates aren't all old white guys. (You probably noticed that, clever folk that you are.)

For the first time we're reading about the implications of candidates drawing from 'their' tribe or losing votes from those not in their tribe.  Will the women stick with Hillary?  As the wife of our first black president, will African Americans stick with her? Or switch to one of their 'own'. Are Latinos antipathetic towards blacks and as such more inclined to vote Clinton over Obama now that Richardson is gone?

Interesting times.

Obama '08

With Edwards out of the race, I'm supporting Barack Obama for president.

It's interesting to me that the dynamics of what qualifies as experience for our Republican friends are so much different now. In 2000 the Republicans embraced a man who had 'run' a baseball team and had been a governor for 5 years. A man who had hardly been out of the country. Somehow that made him qualified to be president.

The people who talk about qualifications, like they're on the interview committee for a senior position at the plant, miss the point. It's not how we vote. (For good or bad). If we did, George Bush (the first) would have beaten Clinton and Al Gore would have beaten George Bush (oh wait, he did. sigh.)

On the Republican side, I hope McCain beats Romney. I like McCain's stand on immigration, for one, and his recent pandering to the religious right pales in comparison to Romney's complete upside down conversion from his actions as Massachuset's governer.

Obama has demonstrated his ability to invigorate an otherwise apathetic electorate. He has laid out policy goals that I have no problem supporting. He promises change within what statasticians wouuld identify as normal, unlike, say Denis Kucinich or Ron Paul who are entertaining, but outside the bell curve.

It seems to me that Obama really is "America." White mother, Black, African, father. Briefly raised in a predominantly Muslim country. He has to understand our diversity. And consequently he isn't going to fear it as others do.

Obama may inspire crowds all day long, but if he can't get legislation through Congress, his impact will be modest. It wasn't Caroline Kennedy's dad who got the Civil Rights Act through Congress, it was Lyndon Johnson, the former Senate Majority Leader.  Between now and November I want to find out who Obama's Rumsfeld and Cheney will be.

Great Minds

Jeff Bridges has a unique web site. It's rare to see different forms anymore. Most of us do the same ol, same ol.

Check out his links page.  One of the sites he links to is an old favorite of mine.

Thanks to BAG for the tip.

Sister Update

The sister's cancer is responding to treatment. We got Petscan results today and she's still carrying around the Big C, but the tumors are smaller and fewer in count. The chemo is trashing her blood counts (we're tracking white and red blood cells and platelets.) She gets booster shots, intended to increase one of the cell types, which makes her bones ache. The bones ache because they're pissed off at the mixed chemical signals they're getting. Shut down, speed up. yeesh.

Anyway, she's had a good week. She was supposed to have another chemo tomorrow (21 day cycle) but the doc is postponing it for a week to let her bone marrow start carrying it's share of the load. So, she gets another week to recover.

The other thing that happened was an application for a disabled parking placard and short-term disability.

Here's my new cause. If you've got cancer and it's bad enough that you can't work, everything you need ought to be free. The sister has a $125 co-pay for prescribed meds intended to give her an appetite. Because you don't really feel like eating in the middle of all this. $125 for a pill (it's liquid, actually) to make her hungry. For crying out loud. I'm volunteering to chip in an extra $50 a year so cancer patients don't have to worry about finances on top of everything else.

My Wallet is Safe.

I got a MacBook about six weeks ago or so. I was slightly anxious buying anything that major that close to Macworld. The last computer lasted about 3 years, and if Apple hadn't made the Intel switch I'd still be using it, so I don't upgrade often. (But the Intel Macs are soooo much faster.)

Anyway, the MacBook Air was rumored then, but the rumored price was higher than a plain MacBook by several hundred dollards (although the rumors I saw said about $1,500, not the $1,800 it came in at.) And it was just a rumor, so I bought when I did.

And I'm glad I did. The MacBook Air is clearly not intended to be a primary computer. (or rather, if it is your primary computer, you don't need a computer.) Limited output options, limited RAM, limited storage. This is a portable executive's machine. Someone who just needs Office, Web, Email, etc. So, good for them.

The iPhone software got revved, but not the hardware. I can sit tight for a while on that one as well. I'm in on round 2.

AppleTV I don't get, still. Frankly, I'm all toyed out on the Home Entertainment section. I gots my TiVo, I gots my DVD player. Finally got an HD TV in August. (The first TV I've had to buy. All the previous ones, including the 15 year old it replaced, came from dad.) AppleTV doesn't scratch any of my itches.

Time Capsule is interesting, but I don't need it.

Corporate Socialism

On yesterday's road trip I listened to this episode of FreshAir.  It's an interview with the author of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill).

To summarize, Corporations get more from the tax payers than that Cadillac driving welfare mother ever did.

The most interesting discussion was around GW's ownership of a Texas baseball team. The sale of the team is the primary source of Bush's wealth and the total profit from the sale of the team was less than the government subsidy of the team's stadium. Which leaves us with two points. 1) Bush squandered the subsidy, i.e, he lost money, and 2) he owes his wealth to a taxpayer subsidy.

Sometimes Dave Winer is right.

Dave Winer suggests we should watch this every so often:

How I spent my Amazon gift card

The last of my Amazon orders have arrived. This is how I spent Mom's Amazon gift card (ok, and a bit of my cash.)
The first group covers professional development. I've been a one-trick-pony for a long time. On one hand, if you need that trick, I'm your pony. On the other hand, if you don't, I'm not. This is to expand my horizons.

• MySQL, Second Edition
• MySQL Cookbook
• The Definitive Guide to Django: Web Development Done Right

And because I might find myself working on corprate America again.

• Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams

These are for personal devleopment.

• Pillar of Fire : America in the King Years 1963-65
• Walking with the Wind

Because I wanted the DVD I bought the real version instead of just downloading it.

• One Man Band

Ron Paul on the Republican Party.

RON PAUL: Well I've been elected as a Republican for ten times. And Republicans have a platform, and had a better platform in the past. They expressed these views. Matter of fact, George Bush, if you remember ran on a foreign policy not too far from what I'm talking about. So, it's not like I'm completely a stranger to the Republican ideas of-- you know, they talk about balanced budgets and they're strict Constitutionalists.

And I think the ones who are in charge right now have left the Republican Party and the platform, which makes it more difficult, because people in the party, the hard core base, which unfortunately for the Republicans is getting smaller. But they stick their loyal to the leader. And they're loyal to maintaining power. They're not loyal to a principle or the Constitution and saying doing what is right, you know. They can't reverse their trend, you know. If we're in a bad situation in Iraq, "No. We can't be disloyal." And so they're not objective enough. So-- but I think I can be a good Republican and fight for these ideals, because they have been in the Republican Party in the past. And the question is, is will these ideas be revived once again in the Republican Party? Will people like myself be excluded? There's indeed a lot of people would like to exclude me from the Republican Party. But the party is awful small. Why would they want to exclude is, if we want to work within the Republican Party?

Now, I'm a yellow-dog Democrat, so, I'd be the same way were it the other way, but still.
Bill Moyer had Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich on his show. Highly recommended, as always.

Huckabee, friend of the downtrodden, because he looks like them.

I was wondering how Mike Huckabee's class warfare comment went over. He said (and god save me, I'm relying on Peggy Noonan for this quote):

"People are looking for a presidential candidate who reminds them more of the guy they work with rather than the guy that laid them off."

Wasn't hard to find out.

Better Diet, Better Health

It's not news that eating better means living better and perhaps longer.

This TED talk, however, makes an interesting point. Dr. Dean Ormish says, about 1:54 into the talk, that they've significantly reduced the progression of Prostate cancer by making changes in patient's diet. Sadly, he doesn't go into details in the talk.

Doing some googling, I found this. Pomegranates, Benjamin. There must be more. But I'm throwing this out there for what it's worth.

Here's more.

(Dad had two surgeries to tame his prostate gland. I'm interesting in avoiding the same, if I can.)

Oh please, let it die a quick death.

NYT reports that Fox's Business Network is attracting an average of 6,300 viewers a day. About what a community access cable show might reach. As a comparison, CNBC averaged 283,000 viewers a day from 10/15 to 12/15/2007.