Remember…Remember

That the fifth of November is always my birthday.

I’m actually doing a somewhat political post, since the election is over, I'm not going to sway anyones vote. As a pretty middle of the road guy, I admit, liked both candidates and choosing between the two of them was a bit difficult but in the end (well 3 weeks ago) I mailed in my vote. I liked that they didn’t seem lean heavily one way or another and if you listen closely, a majority of their disagreements were just semantics. My takes?
Being from Arizona and being in the Military, John McCain has always got my vote for Senate and in 2000, I was excited that he was going to run and it was the only time in my life that I wished I wasn’t an Independent so I could vote during the primary. He’s a class act. This time around though, it’s a much more complex world then the one of 2000, lots of moving parts in the air and gratuation 695 out of 699 at Annapolis and his age, I wasn't sure he could handle it.

Obama, stuck a nerve with me, he’s a mixed breed American Mutt like myself, raised by his mother with his father out of the picture. Being the editor of the Harvard Law Review is a fairly big deal, with the list of problems the next President is going to receive, he's going to need to be smart and quick on his feet.

So up until maybe a month and a half ago, I was still undecided. Then the emails started coming out, claiming he was Muslim, sworn into office using the Quran, the test messages with video of him turning into a monkey, the anti-Christ, a terrorist and some just racist, talking about lynching, more lies then I could shake a stick at. Were they trying to swift boat him? Growing up, I had my share of racism around me, I was one of the few non white kids in my school, it didn’t matter that I grew up there, I looked different and it became a regular thing to trip me or try fighting me. I have friends on both sides of the isle, but didn’t receive anything as mean and viscous as these emails, well a few Palin jokes which were actually funny.

There are other reasons why I choose to vote for Senator Obama which I won’t get into, but the reason here had nothing to do with the candidates, both of whom I admire, respect and believe would do a great job. No, this part of my vote was against the bigots and narrow minded people who came up with this crap and are feeding it to the people who forward everything. Please, before you forward an email, perhaps you should fact check them at someplace like http://www.factcheck.org/ or http://www.snopes.com/ , not all of us are sheep who believe what these emails say and to us, for whom truth is important, sending us a lie is a big deal.

So sorry, Carla, Wendy, Jason, Toni, Teresa, Ronnie, Jim, Matt(s), AWTM, Kim, Dad, Amy and actually most of the who’s who of my sidebar, sorry for not hopping on your band wagon and for being a disappointment. I had to make my own path. And for the other people, congrats, let’s hope we made the right decision.

Silver Lining

The bubble has burst and watching the news, they make it almost seem like we’ve reached a point of no return. After a decades of the stock market going up and millions of American's joining the ranks of home owners, the tide has turned. Words like deflation, recession, depression are catch phrases that are flowing off people’s tongues. In the midst of this, some people are breathing a sigh of relief. The people who have rented instead of buying, who have lived paycheck to paycheck, who didn’t listen to the advice of their elders, didn’t gamble their money on stocks, the slackers, this time is a blessing, in the short term anyways. If you do have a job that hasn’t been affected the downturn, you’ve lucked out and your hard earned dollars are reaching further then they were just a few months ago. The horrid term called deflation has kicked in, gas prices are falling and the price of goods are going down. Businesses are worried, deflation is horrible for them but for us the consumer, tired of inflation, this is a windfall that we should take advantage off.

I admit it, I’m a renter, I don’t own a single stock but I do own some property in Arizona. When I first moved to San Diego, my wife and I had a roommate and we rented a 4 bedroom house in Mira Mesa for 2200 dollars a month. The house was for sale for 700,000 which would have given us house payments close to 5000 dollars. I couldn’t imagine spending that kind of money on a place to live plus not buying saved us 3800 a month and for the year we lived there saved us $45,600. Not that I see that sitting about but I’m sure I would be a poorer person right now, both emotionally and financially then I would have been if I had bought. While many people I know did opt to join that dream and buy a house, I knew it wasn’t my time. I had people all around me saying that I should buy a house but I held tough. I don’t know where I’m going to end up after I retire but I doubt it’s going to be in San Diego unless I become independently wealthy but I’m not holding my breath. I love the city but living here comes with a premium price tag and a body needs to work too hard to just make ends meet plus, I’ve seen too many people who couldn’t make that cut. I’d rather survive then have to live through some of their stories.

So enjoy this reprieve we’ve been granted and hope the genius’ in DC can fix what ails our financial market without causing further inflation or the total collapse of civilization. Remember, it’s political season and I’m not telling you who to vote for, just vote.

Something new in the air

In one corner, the United States is taking part in a conference of Iraqi neighbors which included Syria and Iran. I think this is a fairly big deal considering our government hasn’t talked to Iran in decades. If you think about it, I’m surprised that our government is ran by men considering it’s usually a woman who can hold a grudge better (no this isn’t sexist!). We’re known for not talking to governments for years because at some spat in the past they blackened our eye somehow. That’s something a woman would do, most guys would get over it and be drinking beer together by the next weekend.

Back on the subject, in the other corner look what’s happening in North Korea. We’ve actually been involved in peace talks with them along with other nations and there’s an agreement in the works. The US accusing them of counterfeiting a while back (which is probably true) and locked down one of their bank accounts with the money in it so foreign banks were afraid to invest and since then, North Korea has been pissed. Do you know how much money it took to ratchet up the entire region to the brink of war? Fraking 24 million dollars! That’s a drop in the bucket of any defense budget, that’s not even the price of an F-16.

While the military is fighting on the ground, in the stratospheres of government, the powers that be seem to be using diplomacy to wage peace all over the place. I haven’t really seen anyone out there really putting a connecting to the two cases but is something going on? I’m totally pro-military but wouldn’t have a single problem with peace braking out and we all get to spend Christmas at home with our families. Even so, I don’t agree with the idea that we should totally pull out of Iraq. Most of the Marines I’ve talked to think Iraq is the next Okinawa, the place you go to do your 6 month deployment. Keep the bases, most of them are in the middle of no-where, we’ve already stamped them, built them up and they are fairly safe. Why throw away that money, I hate wasting money but the idea that we should pull totally out is just that, wasting money. Most of the service members who die, die going around the countryside either by helicopter, foot or truck. Taunt the bad guys and let them go after these bases so when we wax them, there won’t be any talk about us hurting civilians.

Whatever happens with these two peace processes going on, I don’t want to go back to a peace time military footing without Osama’s head sitting on a platter somewhere.

I'm actually part of that 6 percent

This is a poll that Glenn Reynolds ran on Instapundit on the 6th of November,

Selection Votes
Republicans win both houses 61% 3,850
Republicans win one, Democrats the other 34% 2,145
Democrats win both houses 6% 349
6,344 votes total

It gives you sort of a demographic about his readers, I don't think he agreed with them though, I was just reading the signs. Lots of small issues over the last few weeks, months and years adding up.

Walking the Line

Watching the wave of political attack ads showing up, it makes me glad to have mailed in my ballot weeks ago so I didn’t let any of these angry people sway my vote one way or another. Being a middle of the road guy and seeing everything around me become polarized it’s hard to find a middle ground without stepping on the toes of everybody I know. Following the flock of the left or right doesn’t seem to be the answer anymore and I think sometime soon there’s going to be a political shake up of voters becoming tired of for or against politics. The problem with our political system is there is more then 2 paths to a solution and if you don’t agree with one of the choices that the politicians offer then the only choice you have as an individual is to not vote or choose the lesser of two evils. It also scares me that religion is taking a larger part in our politics when we are a nation established on religious freedom. It’s no wonder that many people are feeling a disenchantment with voting. Where the final four or fantasy football is more important then who’s thumb is on the red button. How can we decide on who’s going to lead us in the middle of a war when all of the politicians are arguing about issues such as stem cell research and abortion rights, what in the hell do those issues have to do with how we deal with the world at large?

The only people who are heard are the extremists screaming with the loudest voice or the politicians who have been taken down because of some scandal. You want to take over the news? Be a cute blonde young innocent Caucasian girl and disappear for a while or be killed in a mysterious way. This doesn’t say much about us as a nation.

As usual in life there is not a good answer.