Shotgun

Well, it's Fall and the activities schedule is in full swing, so it's really hitting the wall. With two kids playing rec soccer and one of those also taking 2 dance classes, there's no such thing as free time in the evening or on Saturday. Then there's the fact that I'm coaching and U8 coordinator for the younger one to add the hassle of calling and e-mailing parents to keep them informed, my own workouts, the occasional 5k race, my wife's schedule... It's a wonder I have any time at all. So, with that whine, you'll pardon if I'm a little all over the place here.

I hear from Jim that Noble Causes is coming to an end with issue 40. I kind of hope it's not true, as last week's issue didn't mention any such thing and talked about all the things that would be happening in the future in the letters column. I was late getting into reading Noble Causes, and actually started with Dynamo 5. Separated at birth sister of mine, Vaneta, clued me in to Noble Causes when I mentioned Dynamo 5. Anyway, it's been a good read, and I've caught up with most of it with trades, the last two of which I just got this week. (Not that they were the last two published. It was volumes 3 and 4. It took me awhile to find them.) It's a series with character development done right. Not artificial elements heaped on one after another, but a sort of logical progression of "if x happened to character A, then characer A would react in this way and cause y". Interweaving such progressions through a large cast has been done extremely well through all the stories I've read. And with the recent 5 year leap forward, it's taken on a whole new life, in that there are new questions to ponder and developments to flesh out.

Anyway, if Jim's right and it's coming to an end soon, maybe it'll help delay that if more people buy some floppies. So go buy some issues if you haven't yet. Buy some more if you already have.

On an unrelated topic, I'm throwing in my voice in here for a political opinion. I know Jim likes to back Ron Paul, the dark horse Libertarian running under the guise of a GOP candidate for president, so I'm going to advocate my own candidate. I was a Bill Richardson supporter, but all good things must come to an end. Some sooner than others. Like my preferred candidate, I've thrown my support behind Barack Obama. Not that my support is worth anything more than one vote.

While Obama has tried to run a campaign about moving the country forward, the GOP has engaged in aught but diversions. While Obama proposes new ideas and new approaches to various issues facing the nation, the GOP creates false issues out lipstick on pigs. Even the GOP VP pick is nothing but a diversion from the fact that John McCain, a man who once stood on princile, whether I agreed with his stand or not, has doubled back on himself nearly as much as Mitt Romney in order to sell himself to the evangelical base of the party. While Obama challenged his party base to leave the old planks behind if they no longer served the country, and this week came out in opposition to the largest single union that has supported the Democrats, namely the teachers unions, McCain has run harder to his base while trying to make people believe he'll be a change from Bush, aka the Simian.

McCain will keep the country in the "war" in Iraq until we've run out of blood and treasure or killed every Iraqi. That seems to be the only criteria for withdrawing, considering that the Iraqi government itself has stated that Obama's idea of phased withdrawal is its preference. Oddly enough, it's Obama who advocates a foreign policy that looks out for US interests, while McCain wants to follow the idealized "spread of democracy" philosophy of the neo-cons.

Which brings up another thing. How many people elected to office in this country know what kind of government they're a part of? And I don't mean some goofy conspiracy thing. I mean, really, do any of them know what form of government the US Constitution created? It's not a democracy. I really get irked by the constant calls of the Simian's administration (not that they're the only ones) for more democracy when we don't live in one, and for good reason. It's a Republic, people.

A democracy elects a parliament. Power is invested in that legislature, almost exclusively. Democracies are subject to majority rule, but have the converse effect of investing small, narrow interest parties with inordinate power if they're needed to form a majority for governance. A federated republic, such as ours, not only has power divided between executive, legislature and judiciary, it also divides power between the federal and state governments and the people themselves. A federal republic is what Iraq needed from March 2003 on. What it got was apathy and neglect, as it was supposed to miraculously stabilize on its own once Saddam was gone. Not a surprising policy for an administration whose leader thinks God is on his side, but not terribly useful when a miracle doesn't occur. As a wise person once said, you can pray for miracles, but you should plan for them not to occur.

If you want the policies of the last 7 years to continue, go right ahead and vote for McCain. He's not a bad guy. He's sold out his long term principles for the short term gain of being elected president, but he's not the first and won't be the last. If you really want to engage in an exercise in futility, you can vote for McKinney or Barr, polar opposites who stand as much chance of election as I do.

If you want a president who will think, act on well reasoned decisions, and alter course when new information or new circumstances warrant, then vote for Obama. And, look, I even managed to find a comics related image for him. Good thing he's not wearing the cape. It would have been Dukakis all over again.