"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

One thing that I've really missed, being computer-less for the past month, is rapping about the presidential election. It really is the perfect substitute now that the NFL season has ended. Seriously, watch the coverage on the cable news networks. Everything is always a contest of some sort, complete with gameplans, strategies, a round table of experts, on-scene reporting, and an eventual winner and loser. And it's yet to be definitive for the Democrats. No, after every primary we get to check the standings too!

So who do I support this late in the season? Overall, the field was predictably pretty piss poor from the start. If I could liken any candidate to my Philadelphia Eagles (as in, the ones who I really wanted to win from the beginning), it would have been Gravel or Kucinich. Unfortunately they suffered from a malady that will kill you in election politics - making sense when speaking. The Republican candidates were the biggest bunch of fart stains I've ever seen. The remainder of the Democrats were a bunch of ineffectual Washington lifers, and Barack Obama - who's kind of like the San Diego Chargers. After the Eagles season officially ended, I had to ask myself, who was left that I could get behind, and the Chargers seemed kind of cool.

Here, though, is where I break with the football analogies. Beyond the fact that Obama is charismatic, a deft orator, who's great at mobilizing people to come out and vote for him (and these things do matter), there are a number of compelling reasons to vote for him. Because elections aren't static, especially this year, I can only address a few points in this post.

There are a number of gigantic issues which need to be tackled by the next administration, mainly because they were made so much worse by the current one. For the sake of brevity in this post, let me just address one for now (I can get to the environment in the future), Iraq and the overall war effort. One thing that the 25% who still think Bush is doing a great job will say is that, "Well, look at the al Qaida attacks since 9/11. All have been much smaller in scale, more crude, and have resulted in fewer casualties." They'll say this is evidence that Bush is an adept commander in chief. As much as I disagree with these people on many other things, I do think there is something to this, however it misses the larger point. It is that it is all well and good to pat ourselves on the back for our short-term successes, but the larger goal towards which we should be striving since 9/11 is to create a climate in which Muslims don't want to kill us. It should be obvious to anyone that everything this administration has done, from invading Iraq, to torture and extraordinary rendition, to maintaining a permanent military presence on the Arabian peninsula, has made this long-term goal more unattainable. To me, Obama posesses the kind of necessary sober temperment that allows him to recognize this bigger picture. This is where he has a distinct advantage over his two challengers (McCain and Clinton). One feels the need to pander to a certain base in order to maintain some fake credibility, while the other is so paranoid that they're better judgment is often obscured by trying to fend off some perceived conspiracy.

Let me share this story. Back in January I spent some time with my father who had served in the British Royal Air Force during WWII. He spoke about those lamentable days during the 1940s when the British citizenry dealt with hardships during wartime like rationing and living under the threat of being bombed. In order to get through this, people had to make real sacrifices. Unfortunately times have changed. Most Americans can't be that bothered with happens elsewhere in the world because it doesn't affect them on a daily basis. I don't mean to make some condescending indictment of our country. I do think this is largely due to the way this war has been sold by this administration. Their attitude seems to me like, "Oh, don't worry about it even if it costs a lot of money and it seems like we're not making any progress. Just keep buying shit and it'll be fine."

The reason I highlight Obama's quote from his Super Tuesday speech in the title of this post is that it speaks across generational lines (as opposed to gender and race as the media pundits would like you to believe what this election is about). There are millions of Americans in their 30s or younger who are downright jaded by their government. And rightly so. It is meaningful to have someone who can motivate an entire generation of younger Americans to care about politics and world affairs. Which brings me back to my theme of sacrifice from the preceding paragraph. I think Obama is capable of making people understand the necessity of sacrifice .

I'll concede that he may very well be all talk an no action. I'll concede that I don't expect him to truly revolutionize our government. I'll even go so far as to say there are even stances that Clinton takes on certain issues where I believe she's more in the right. This isn't some myopic endorsement. But candidates need to be judged on the sum of their parts. If surrounding yourself with "yes men" and cronies, while perpetuating nepotism didn't bother you about the Bush administration, then vote for Clinton because you're going to get more of the same. But if you want your vote to be a true repudiation of the last seven years, Obama is the sane choice.

Still getting used to the MacBook

Just noticed there's only one "delete" on the keyboard. Not sure how I feel about that yet.

One thing that's pretty cool is I don't have to adjust the size of the YouTube clips in this blog. They automatically fit within the post on a Mac. Kick ass!

Set your DVR

I've been thoroughly enjoying watching the Science Channel's replay of Carl Sagan's Cosmos this year. Even though it's not like I don't have the entire series on DVD, it's made a nice distraction during my computer crises. Get your science on every Tuesday at 9m. Here's a moving clip about evolution from the last episode.

Starbucks closed and who cares?

Sorry, but I haven't had a computer for the past month. I'm going to be a few days late on some things.

Yeah, Starbucks closed for three hours this week. So what? And during the closure, Dunkin Donuts lowered its price of coffee to $0.99, so that "no coffee lover is denied a delicious espresso-based beverage."

This comes as news to me - that Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts are the only two places to get coffee to go in Manhattan - as I've been getting something that tastes suspiciously like coffee at this place called The Roasting Plant on Orchard St. It's great. Small means small, medium means medium, and so on. And all they serve is coffee (with tarts and shit). No fruity lingo, just good coffee.

Seriously under-rated. Seriously.

Last Sunday I went to see the metal band, W.A.S.P. Don't write them off as being lame 80s hair band metal. They actually are way better than that. Here's the video for "Wild Child" which was played during the encore, and while I saw some guy get his clock cleaned in the mosh pit causing his nose to shoot blood in every which direction. In fairness, the dumbass threw the first punch.

Don't ever buy a Toshiba notebook computer (or buy or have anything serviced at Circuit City)

Today I put to rest my Toshiba Satellite Notebook computer that I only bought in August of 2004. What a piece of shit! It turns out that nearly a quarter of all Toshiba laptops have a defect in them that causes them to overheat and shut down automatically. Long-term effects include the eventual crapping out of the computer's heat sink, and frying of the motherboard.

Anyway, to make a long story short, my Toshiba took a shit on Feb. 1st, I took in into Circuit City in Union Square for service (because, like a dumbass, I let the warranty expire) and only today found out that buying a replacement heat sink was not the problem - as I was originally told by the technician at Firedog. No, it turns out the motherboard was actually shot...ergo, I'm a Mac-owner now.

Yes, I'm now the guy with the messy hair and cool clothes who carries his white Apple notebook with him to coffee shops in Manhattan. Well, not yet actually. I am having trouble with this switch, though. I'm the kind of user who doesn't like to take his hands off the keyboard, so I'm trying to figure out these new function keys. I have learned that hitting"enter" doesn't necessarily do what you want it to, you cannot right click, and you actually have to click the button on the mouse pad, rather than tapping the pad. Oh well. All small things to overcome for having a computer that should last me five years. If anyone has Mac tips for me, let me know.

Currently updating my iTunes while watching the episode of Metal Mania I DVR'd last night.