Reading a book by someone who has never met the candidate you’re trying to get to know isn’t going to get you any closer to your goal. You want to get to know him I’ll give you my copy of “The Audacity of Hope” - it was a gift and quite honestly I can’t finish it. I have college textbooks that are a more interesting read. I got about a third of the way through it and gave up. :P I admit I am looking forward to the debates a great deal as well. I didn’t watch this weekend, perhaps I should go find it.

In my humblest of opinions, the people who are going to take Corsi’s book seriously were never going to vote for Obama anyway. That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t set the record straight, if for no other reason than to simply advocate for the truth. I think it is also important that he doesn’t let himself be trampled on by wing-nuts the way Kerry did in 2004. He’s applying for the most challenging and stressful job America has to offer, and it’s important for him to have some backbone.

Oh, I hated high school. There was a lot of tension between the teachers and the administration, which eventually turned into a full strike after I left. But it made the very atmosphere of the school negative. It was a huge school, around 3,000 students, average classes of 30-35. There was also a lot of gang activity which turned quite bloody after my sophomore year. The cliques were entirely out of hand, and the worst people in the school by far were the cheerleaders. So yeah, I wound up with a very odd assortment of friends, we were all basically social rejects, but in a school of that size there were enough of us to form a small little circle. Most of us are still friends, we talk to each other online and email back and forth. The internet is great for holding onto relationships like that. Most of them I rediscovered within the past year, and it’s been wonderful reacquainting ourselves and see both how much we’ve changed and how much we’re the same. I have to say I loved ROTC. I know that’s odd, but it taught me a ton about leadership and the kids all kind of grouped together in a very positive way. The average drop out rate was so much lower for ROTC kids. I also loved my freshman art teacher, but she retired after that year. I didn’t have a lot of boyfriends, just one that I dated over and over. This was before a wise friend came into my life and told me “Honey, recycling is for cans, not boyfriends.” We had a terrible, wonderful love-hate relationship. We’re still friends to this day, too. We finally figured out we make each other too crazy to be romantic, but we can be great friends who really stimulate and challenge each other. Am I that person today? Sure, I think so, but I haven’t been the whole way through. I went through a really hard time in my early 20s, and I made the mistake of letting that change me in ways that weren’t at all healthy. So now I’m becoming more like that kid I was - confident, smart, funny, but with the improvements of age and (I hope) a little wisdom.

I have to be honest here, yes his age bothers me. It’s nowhere near the top of the list of things about Senator McCain that bother me, but it does. That he’s let the campaign run on this long without naming a running mate is along those same lines. Looks like both of them are waiting on the conventions to do that.

Hah! Awesome.

Right now I’m in college and pretty much anything goes for the students. I have to say anyone in the student government usually dresses quite nicely, the men in suits, the women in business attire or at the very least modest dress, even if that includes blue jeans. When I worked in an office jeans were acceptable on Fridays, but they had to be in good condition, no holes, etc. If I get lucky I’ll hopefully be doing a legislative internship at the state capitol in the spring. Here’s what I’ve learned: You don’t have to break your budget to dress in office attire. You’d be amazed what you can find at a thrift store. I’ve found shirts, skirts, slacks, and some very nice vests. I have a thing for vests, if they are tasteful it’s a good way to express your individuality without breaking a dress code. If you need to wear a suit that’s a bit harder, but we women tend to have quite a bit more wiggle-room. I love shopping at Ross, they have quite a few hidden treasures most of the time. It helps knowing how to make minor fitting adjustments. Hair didn’t come up much, but it’s the one thing that gives me the most problems. I have very long hair, right now it’s down past my waist. There really isn’t a whole lot I can do with it outside of a French braid, if I leave it down it gets in the way constantly. I’m working my way up to a haircut, going to donate it to Locks of Love, but after taking a minimum of 10” off for that I have no idea what I’m going to do with it. It’s going to take a lot of playing with it to find some styles I’m both comfortable with and feel okay about in a business environment.

Of course there are no easy, quick fixes. I totally agree. Which is pretty much why I went with Thomas Paine - the colonies were in a great deal of trouble and kept looking for the easy answer or repeating the same actions and getting nowhere. He basically told them to take their heads outta their butts and accept the reality of the situation. Reality: We’re on the verge of recession, and stagflation is just around the bend if we aren’t careful. We’re in two wars, one was unnecessary and the other is not going well at all lately. We need real solutions to energy problems, everything from gas to power plants, and everyone is dragging their feet about it. The world is in the midst of a hunger crisis but we still pay farmers to let their farms lie fallow. There’s a huge healthcare shortage because we think of it as an industry and not a necessary service. Not a single one of those problems can be solved in a single year, though there’s potential to do so in four. We just have to get realistic about it and apply ourselves.

Star: Always be skeptical about numbers coming from politicians. There’s a huge difference between 90% of the number of contributions coming from small private donors, and saying 90% of his total funds come from small private donors. I’m sure he was referring to number of contributions, not total funds. Technically, it’s not a lie, but when you’re going with technicalities to define the truth we’re already in trouble. I still intend to vote of Obama in November, but I’m not suffering some starry-eyed delusion about the second coming of JFK.

Thomas Paine. When he wrote Common Sense, it was basically reminding everyone that the Crown in merry old England could not be trusted. The crown had made many promises, and always broke them. There was a huge difference in how British subjects were treated in England and how they were treated in the colonies. He gave a great deal of motivation to the patriots to finally make the decision to fight. One of my college professors told the class (though I never did check this one out for myself) that Common Sense is banned in Iraq. Now that’s Irony.

Happy birthday to you too, Lorraine. Hope you have a good holiday weekend. That’s a good wish.

Oh, I think this is exactly what she’s looking for in a response. Get people all upset, and then laugh at them. (I really hate her laugh.) On the internet we call them trolls. I see no reason to think of her in any other way.

Phyllis, Sherrie, I think perhaps you mistake my intent. I can’t stand that woman. She’s not worth my time, and I doubt she’s worth yours. We’re better than that.

Hey Frannie - Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. It’s been a hectic, hectic week around here. Yes, the Supreme Court can and has on many occasions overturned previous Supreme Court rulings. Another factoid, judicial review (the last word) is a tradition in this country, it’s not actually set down in the constitution. Of course different people, however well educated, are still going to have differences in opinion about what certain aspects of the constitution mean. I believe ‘separate but equal’ was once upheld by the court and later overturned. If one or two of the moderate or left-leaning justices were replaced with conservative justices, they might decide that the requirements of state responsibility occur earlier than previously ruled - right now it stands at ‘fetal viability’ meaning the state is responsible for the safety of this person as soon as it can survive outside the womb. There’s also medical advancements to be taken into account that have on their own made premature infant’s survival much higher than it was when Roe was originally before the court. The same could apply to flag-burning or federal funding for faith-based initiatives under the first amendment. Either could easily be challenged if the balance of the court swayed even by one justice. However, I find hope in the thought that when a previous ruling is overturned it nearly always means more freedoms and more equality, such as the overturning of ‘separate but equal.’

Good idea - and I envy you. All I have to look forward to around here is housework :P

It depends entirely on what kinds of role they want to play. If we’re talking about the traditional hostess role, then all I care about is if she has proper table manners and decent conversational skills. If she wants to be another Hillary Clinton, and undertake her own initiatives and set policy, that’s another story. I believe for Cindy McCain the former is true, but for Michelle Obama I really do not know.