We like the wool over our eyes. Really.

It amazes me (but perhaps it shouldn’t) that for the last couple of weeks, the major news media outlets have done their best to participate in a last-minute October surprise favoring John Kerry. In all cases, the media themselves have reported they were holding on to the stories until closer to election time—thus making it more difficult for the Bush camp to mount an effective response. And left-leaning voters are gobbling it up with ferocity. Are you so blind to reason, so willing to sacrifice any sense of personal ethics or morality, that you won’t speak out against this sort of blatant machination against our democracy? Are you perhaps waiting for Michael Moore to make a documentary about it, so he can tell you what to believe and why?

For decades, the Democratic Party has increasingly eschewed common American ideals in favor of its more radical, and less morally or intellectually rigorous, internal factions. Party adherents like to think of themselves as true thinkers, without devoting any actual thought to the actions taken by their cohort, and the philsophy that motivates them. When history judges this election, as it inevitably will, the Left will be exposed as a breeding ground of hypocrisy and, for all its pandering and blustering to the contrary, anti-Americanism.

Poll positions.

A refreshingly even-handed take on polling in political races. The truth is that, should President Bush win re-election, as most polling firms are projecting, it will not be by much. Therefore you can expect another knock-down, drag-out fight by Democrats and their army of attorneys. The winners will be the lawyers, who will reap billable hours by the millions; the losers will be the electorate, duped into believing that this legal wrangling somehow benefits them in the end.

What would really benefit us is knowing that the parties that claim to have our best interests at heart are willing to be sportsmanlike in their defeat. If President Bush loses his bid for re-election, and the Republican Party starts looking for mouse droppings in the voting booths, I will be the first to denounce them here. “They did it, why can’t we?” is a pathetic excuse for irrational, divisive and despicable behavior. If the Republican Party was so outraged by the Democrats’ behavior after the 2000 elections, then they should be willing to take the high road if they lose.

The best way to insure that elections are fair and square for both sides is informed participation by voters not just in the elections, but in the governmental process in general. What do you know about balloting in your district? Who drafts the forms? Would you know if the news media didn’t go out of its way to show you?

The ignorant American voter.

My friend Chris sent me a link to this editorial. I think a few weeks ago Andy Rooney made a related point on 60 Minutes, although probably less trenchantly and without pertinent supporting data. His point was that if you haven’t bothered getting informed until now, do all of us informed Americans a favor and stay home from the polls.

Armchair poll handicappers, rejoice!

Check out the Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004 for updated coverage of the latest electoral college predictions. The map data is based on the latest polls, as referenced in the data tables you can find on the site. You might also find interesting the animated version, which tracks the history of the site. The fact that it swings so wildly, however, is evidence that simply grabbing the latest polls is probably not reflective of the actual results, but rather reflective of which polls came in on that date. Note that on the map, Florida is indicated as an exact tie, while most polls are showing Bush ahead by a very slim margin, in most cases within the polling margin of error. A win in Florida likely means a win for President Bush, even if Senatory Kerry takes Ohio, which also looks likely at this point.

Recovering from rehearsal and porn stars.

Whoa, what’s with that tag line? Delirious from encroaching nap… Today’s the first day I haven’t had to spend hours on the road to Northern Virginia, so I’m taking it easy. Yesterday the band had a good rehearsal. Unfortunately our drummer Rich couldn’t be there, but I played Stick the whole time for a change. We found a couple songs that it really worked well on; for the other songs, Leah, Tom and Okorie suffered nobly in silence. I also swapped my rigs, so my larger rig is living at Leah’s house, and my smaller, more portable combo is home with me. Its 2×10 setup is smoother sounding for Stick, and perfectly wonderful for bass as well.

Last night Eleya and I watched The Girl Next Door, which was better than I expected… although I had set my expectations pretty low. Elisha Cuthbert was gorgeous, of course, even if she ain’t got no junk in the trunk, and more, came off as a character with at least 2-1/2 dimensions. Frequent comparisons to Risky Business may not be far off the mark, but at least we didn’t have to watch Tom Cruise dancing around in his underwear. Emile Hirsch took over the post of “bewildered, young, uptight high school student” with aplomb, even if an uneven script robs him at times of character consistency. I didn’t think much of American Pie—avoided its sequels, in fact—but if that’s your cup of meat, this film is probably worth a look.

A horse is a horse is a horse, of course…

Tonight Eleya and I watched Hidalgo. Not a bad little movie; it seemed a bit long to me, but I couldn’t figure out for the life of me where to trim the fat. The cinematography was exceptional; well worth seeing, especially if you dig… uh, horse movies. If you don’t, here’s a tip: every time the horse gets a one-shot, pretend he’s saying, “Balls!” Hey, it kept me going during the infamous fifth-reel lag; I’m thinking it might work for Surviving Christmas.

Get the hell off my driveway.

“One time I mixed up my car keys with my apartment keys. I got home, put my car key in the door and turned it, and the building started up. So I drove it around for a while. Finally, I parked it in the road and told everybody to get the hell off my driveway.”—Steven Wright

RH 401 this week was good. Getting there and back, on the other hand? Not so much. I am amazed at the level of commuting pain people people will endure. Do we value our time so little? I have worked hard to get my job closer to my home, and I am not embarrassed by that. On the contrary, doing so has given me much more time to do the things I want to do.

To attend an eight-hour class (and—let’s be fair—between breaks, lunch, and the amount of time I was done ahead of other students, it was more like a six-hour class) I spent between 3-1/2 and 5 hours on the road, daily. For the whole week I lost approximately a workday and a half—without breaks or lunch—in productive time, after you subtract what I normally spend commuting.

Madness, utter madness. I considered taking a job with Red Hat not too long ago, but the major factor in my deciding not to pursue it was the commute. I mean, look at the title of my blog, for Pete’s sake. And here’s a little hint to our state government leaders: Building more road is not the answer to the problem.

The future arrives. Sorta.

Provided that by “future,” you mean “the future as it appeared from 2003.” This is the conundrum resulting from Fatal Time Deficit Syndrome. This blog has moved to WordPress 1.2.1, so I now maintain total control over my data. Blogger was nice for the fact that it didn’t require me to do or learn much over the last 2-1/2 years. So I have no axe to grind with Blogger, especially since their acquisition by Google last year.

For the love of Pete, only read further if you are a geek.
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Ownaz and playaz.

One of the instructors at the Stick Seminar — and I won’t say who because I feel that the instructor’s words were passed to me in something approaching confidence — told me that there are too many Stick owners and not enough Stick players. I vow to always strive to be one of the latter.

Stick owners buy a Stick for many reasons, probably chief among them being that it is “off the beaten path.” They embrace the Stick for its novelty more than for its musical possibilities, or because someone they respect plays it, or because they like the idea that they will be one of a relatively small number of players. A Stick player embraces the Stick because it makes a useful vehicle for expressing the musicality the player already possesses. The Stick can even free the player from limitations of other instruments.

There were a number of seminar attendees who (only IMHO) didn’t seem to have a lot of natural musical talent, although the majority of these professed to play many different instruments. I would be curious to hear them play those other instruments, to get an idea of how many Stick owners are also guitar, piano, or bass owners as well.

It’s not a value judgment. There’s something very valiant about struggling against a disadvantage (such as a lack of natural talent) to become proficient at any skill. But to do this, you must first and foremot be honest. That is the only way you can start to improve — by honestly assessing your present level and making a personal plan of attack for shoring up the areas where you are weakest.

Do this insofar as it helps you attain your personal goals. If you are happy being more of an owner than a player, your goals will be different from a player’s goals. There is no shame in that. The only shame is in dishonesty, especially when it is dishonesty with yourself.

Are you a Stick player visiting my blog? Where on the spectrum do you fit?

For the rest of this week, I am at Red Hat in Tysons Corner for a RH 401 class in enterprise deployment and system management. I’m back with the same instructor from last month. She just moved here from Surrey (UK) but she’s actually Norwegian, originally. I am going to try and find a date to invite her down for dinner in November.