here's a different way to look at the "election"

People need to stop listening to the "issues" and concentrate on the men themselves.

How can I say that? Simple - has any president, ever, lived up to their campaign promises?

Nope.

So, look at the men and see which one you trust. Pretty simple.

John McCain was legacied into the US Naval Acadamy (his father and grandfather were both admirals), he graduated 895th out of a class of 899. He was such a Mavericky pilot that if today's Naval standards were applied then, he would have been grounded for his stupid antics.

Obama was raised by a single mom, sometimes eating food bought with food stamps. He worked his ass off to get scholarships to very good schools and did a great job there, too.

Which one sounds like a better leader who can relate to the "common man"?

The guy who has seven houses and thirteen cars? Or the guy who shares one hybrid vehicle with his wife?

One comment on their policy claims: who do you like - the guy who is willing to raise his own taxes or the guy who is going to give himself (and his ultra-rich wife's family) a tax break?

Trickle-down economics didn't work the first time, either.

I'm back, baby!

After a self-imposed hiatus, I am back and hopefully better than ever. We'll get things started up slowly, with some simple posts and see how things are rolling before I start swinging away with the heavy ammunition (Mmmmm...mixed metaphors...yummy!) and get to the things that are really weighing on my mind.

I will do my best from here on out to try and post at least one book review per month and hope to create a couple of recurring weekly entries - one will almost definitely be 'This Week's Sign of the Impending Apocolypse'.

That having been said, here is a cute little story; we were discussing poetry in a Literature class I am taking this semester and the professor had us take five minutes to see if we could come up with a time-relavent haiku. Ask and ye shall receive:

A hockey mom

Does not a vice-president make

Go home governor

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Book Review

Most first-time novels can be seen as obviously that, a first novel - and it is difficult for the author to hide that fact. Not so in the case of Paco Ahlgren’s debut book, Discipline – Ahlgren writes with the confidence of an author who has been published for many years. He is unafraid to introduce to the reader many topics that are not part of most people’s everyday discussion…to say the least. It is not often that somebody can combine high finance, metaphysics, personal demons, chess, politics and psychology and make it digestible, but Ahlgren does that (and more), and does it with seemingly remarkable ease. The characters are well-constructed, but without the glut of back-story found so often in debut novels, as the author is struggling to make sure you get the minutiae. The reader does get a good look back at the life story of the protagonist, Douglas Cole, but that is integral to the story line. Ahlgren trusts you to engage in the story, learning about the characters as you go, thereby freeing up the pages for more action and intrigue, of which there is plenty. Told primarily in the first person from Douglas Cole’s point of view, Discipline takes the reader on a wild ride across the metaphysical map, between continents and through cities as Cole struggles to cope with his own personal demons while, at the same time, making decisions that could impact everyone’s economic future. The book gives its readers the opportunity to ask themselves some insightful questions, as well as to ponder some interesting “what-if”s in regards to the way our world is run.