I Heart Olbermann

As I've mentioned before B and I are nightly viewers of Keith Olbermann, but I missed this last segment of the show last night because I fell asleep. Luckily my good buddy in all things trashy, Perez Hilton, posted it on his gossip blog and I was able to catch up.

Keith is obviously a political smarty-pants, but every once in a while he comments on pop culture and it makes me love him even more! This whole segment cracked me right up, but it's long (6 min.) and you really have to watch the whole thing to fully get his point, but if you have the time - enjoy!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Debating Creationists

B found this article the other day and it's so great and so funny that I had to pass it along. Of all of the cruel and dangerous things that were allowed to occur under the last presidential administration, I think one of the most dangerous has been the idea that science has been allowed to be politicized and discredited because of religious beliefs. Obviously, working in a natural history museum for two years heightened my aggravation at this problem because I was intimately connected to experts and facts on a daily basis, but it's definitely one of those discussions that gets me instantly furious. In light of that fact, it was good to read the following (true) exchange of letters to lighten my mood a little.

How to respond to requests to debate creationists

A professor at the University of Vermont, Nicholas Gotelli, got an invitation to debate one of the clowns at the Discovery Institute. Here's what they wrote.

Dear Professor Gotelli,

I saw your op-ed in the Burlington Free Press and appreciated your support of free speech at UVM. In light of that, I wonder if you would be open to finding a way to provide a campus forum for a debate about evolutionary science and intelligent design. The Discovery Institute, where I work, has a local sponsor in Burlington who is enthusiastic to find a way to make this happen. But we need a partner on campus. If not the biology department, then perhaps you can suggest an alternative.

Ben Stein may not be the best person to single-handedly represent the ID side. As you're aware, he's known mainly as an entertainer. A more appropriate alternative or addition might be our senior fellows David Berlinski or Stephen Meyer, respectively a mathematician and a philosopher of science. I'll copy links to their bios below. Wherever one comes down in the Darwin debate, I think we can all agree that it is healthy for students to be exposed to different views--in precisely the spirit of inviting controversial speakers to campus, as you write in your op-ed.

I'm hoping that you would be willing to give a critique of ID at such an event, and participate in the debate in whatever role you feel comfortable with.

A good scientific backdrop to the discussion might be Dr. Meyer's book that comes out in June from HarperCollins, "Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design."

On the other hand, Dr. Belinski may be a good choice since he is a critic of both ID and Darwinian theory.

Would it be possible for us to talk more about this by phone sometime soon?

With best wishes,
David Klinghoffer
Discovery Institute

You'll enjoy Dr Gotelli's response.

Dear Dr. Klinghoffer:

Thank you for this interesting and courteous invitation to set up a debate about evolution and creationism (which includes its more recent relabeling as "intelligent design") with a speaker from the Discovery Institute. Your invitation is quite surprising, given the sneering coverage of my recent newspaper editorial that you yourself posted on the Discovery Institute's website:

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2009/02/

However, this kind of two-faced dishonesty is what the scientific community has come to expect from the creationists.

Academic debate on controversial topics is fine, but those topics need to have a basis in reality. I would not invite a creationist to a debate on campus for the same reason that I would not invite an alchemist, a flat-earther, an astrologer, a psychic, or a Holocaust revisionist. These ideas have no scientific support, and that is why they have all been discarded by credible scholars. Creationism is in the same category.

Instead of spending time on public debates, why aren't members of your institute publishing their ideas in prominent peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Nature, or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences? If you want to be taken seriously by scientists and scholars, this is where you need to publish. Academic publishing is an intellectual free market, where ideas that have credible empirical support are carefully and thoroughly explored. Nothing could possibly be more exciting and electrifying to biology than scientific disproof of evolutionary theory or scientific proof of the existence of a god. That would be Nobel Prize winning work, and it would be eagerly published by any of the prominent mainstream journals.

"Conspiracy" is the predictable response by Ben Stein and the frustrated creationists. But conspiracy theories are a joke, because science places a high premium on intellectual honesty and on new empirical studies that overturn previously established principles. Creationism doesn't live up to these standards, so its proponents are relegated to the sidelines, publishing in books, blogs, websites, and obscure journals that don't maintain scientific standards.

Finally, isn't it sort of pathetic that your large, well-funded institute must scrape around, panhandling for a seminar invitation at a little university in northern New England? Practicing scientists receive frequent invitations to speak in science departments around the world, often on controversial and novel topics. If creationists actually published some legitimate science, they would receive such invitations as well.

So, I hope you understand why I am declining your offer. I will wait patiently to read about the work of creationists in the pages of Nature and Science. But until it appears there, it isn't science and doesn't merit an invitation.

In closing, I do want to thank you sincerely for this invitation and for your posting on the Discovery Institute Website. As an evolutionary biologist, I can't tell you what a badge of honor this is. My colleagues will be envious.

Sincerely yours,

Nick Gotelli

P.S. I hope you will forgive me if I do not respond to any further e-mails from you or from the Discovery Institute. This has been entertaining, but it interferes with my research and teaching.

Whiskey Yer the Devil

Maybe because it's early Monday morning, or maybe because the temperature is firmly in the single digits, but I watched a video that B's mom sent me this morning about Barack Obama being Irish and I couldn't stop laughing. I have a strange feeling that no one will find it as funny as I did, but for whatever reason it struck a chord of happy laughter. The back story is that his great, great, great grandfather emigrated from a small town in Ireland.



If you want to watch the video with the lyrics on the screen, click HERE.



* The blog title is a reference to an Irish drinking song that only about 4 blog readers will know. You should look it up and learn all the lyrics - we did.

Prop 8... The Musical

Billy just sent me THE best video EVER and I have to pass it along. It's from the geniuses at Funny or Die about Prop 8.

Bailout Article

I'm taking the easy way out this morning in my post. We spent the weekend with our friends D & Z in Rochester, so now there's some house catch-up to do. Here's an article on the bailout from September that I've been saving. Since the details of the bailout are still being worked-out, it's still a relevant read.

Consumers deserve greed bailout

Posted: Friday, September 19 at 01:05 pm CT by Bob Sullivan

When a college student who has just run out of money and maxed out her credit card gets that bailout from dad, what's the first thing she does? Throw a party, of course.

And so it is on Wall Street. The federal government just slapped its plastic on the table and said, "Put it on my credit card."

Banks, you see, recently cried "Uncle," and our money has been volunteered to save them. To no one's surprise, that means you and I are now going to pay hundreds of billions of dollars in small increments over several decades to backstop the excesses of the banking industry. My questions are: Will we at least get frequent flier miles and will they be worth anything?

Remember, this is the same industry that would show no mercy to a depositor who dipped 78 cents into the red when buying a hamburger with a debit card. The same banks that routinely charge $35 in fees to lend the shopper that 78 cents. I assure you, we will not get the same kind of return on our largesse.

And I don't want it. What I want is something much more valuable: In exchange for our money, I want the banking industry to behave. I want a sense of fairness and honor to return to the marketplace, and I want the industry to freely accept new rules, regulations and to learn a little restraint. A little humility would help, too.

Here’s what will happen as part of the Treasury Department bailout plan. No one is going to knock on your door and say, "OK, drop $5,000 in this hat please." We're just swiping that national credit card now and we'll pay later. As with credit card purchases, we won't really feel this immediately. We're not going to trade in a national park or a few fighter jets. Instead, we'll just print more money. That's because the federal government can quite literally print all the money it wants. The consequences of that are not immediate, but they are real. Higher debt means a higher "minimum balance payment," so there's less to spend maintaining that park, dilution of the value of the dollar, perhaps ultimately inflation and less value to your savings and bonds.

But that's probably a fair price to pay to stop the crazed unwinding of Wall Street and its entangling alliances—a trend that has been accelerating over the past 10 days. It's time to take all the bad mortgages and all the bad bankers and give them all one big national enema so we can start over.

What about all those bonuses?
There are some issues where silence is disturbing, however. Recall that many, many charlatans made sickening amounts of money by pushing the financial crack of bad loans around America over the past decade. For brokers, the commission checks were huge. On Wall Street, the annual bonuses were big enough to pay for new homes in the Hamptons . But no one, so far, has asked for the return of that money. These folks knew how to game the system, and they knew as long as they grabbed the money and ran, they'd get away with it. They have.

As many have suggested, we've nationalized risk but privatized profit. We've taken the two worst elements of socialism and capitalism and blended them. We encourage outrageous business practices -- the equivalent of playing the lottery repeatedly -- that encourage boom and bust cycles of soaring profits followed by ruinous results. As CNBC’s Jim Cramer says "We're all communists now." This must be the last time.

It is not hard to pick through the ruins and find irony. Investigators are still sniffing around trading patterns, but it appears a feeding frenzy of short sellers played at least some role in the takedown of Wall Street's biggest names. In other words, Wall Street almost ate itself, or rather was nearly eaten alive by shorts -- speculators who borrow someone else's shares in a company and sell them, betting that a company's stock will go down so they can buy them back at a cheaper price. When enough short sellers pile on, there's a feeding frenzy that can ultimately lead to a self-fulfilling prophesy, with all those outstanding shares of stock being sold by profiteers.

Fearing the virus-like band of speculators might continue to target other banks, Wall Street took the extraordinary step of banning short sales on Friday. That's odd, because those who talked about placing limitations on oil market speculators were often laughed at by investors as unsophisticated. Stock in double standards has exploded in recent days.

End the 'Great Divorce'
Still, we are better off making a deal and moving forward, as long as that deal bails out both homeowners and banks together. But a simple bailout is not enough. Now, things must change. The cult-like worship of unregulated markets must end. Never again do I want to hear someone preach to me about the market's infinite powers to heal itself. Stop arguing that all government intervention and regulation is bad, or that people who lose their home should just suck it up and deal with the Darwin effect. The high priests of unbridled laissez faire need to go take a long vacation now while reasonable people find a sensible middle course. Because you, Wall Street, and you, absolute capitalists, you could dish it out but you couldn't take it.

Today, I believe, we are offered a fresh start. We have an opportunity to set our economic system on a wise course for decades. And we have a chance to end what I call "the Great Divorce" between American companies and consumers. Remember when a Comcast technician renamed a customer's account "Bitch Dog." Ever read 1,000 comments in a blog about bank overdraft fees? Consumers and companies hate each other right now, and for decades have been engaged in a war that benefits neither.

It's time for a new social compact between government, industry and consumers that recognizes we're all in this together. Because now, we are all stockholders in many of these companies. It's time for an end to the mean side of America, the side that cheered while companies cheated people out of nickels dimes, quarters -- and eventually their homes. An end to get rich quick schemes and late-night infomercial hawkers who are enabled by mortgage backed securities. It's time for a "free market" that is not a free-for-all market. It's time for a transparent market where consumers have exactly as much information as the companies they're dealing with, so they can make solid decisions and the engine of the free market can do its work honestly.

In short, it's time for a return to honor, to a world where no company would ever base its business model on duping consumers, and a world where shoppers don't lie about defective products or emotional suffering. Tying new standards of fairness and transparency -- along with regulations and regulators with real teeth -- to any bank bailout is a way to get the whole country behind the plan. And, I believe, it's the only way forward. Because what happened to America this time is simple: We let the cheaters win for too long, and now we all have to pay.

Visual History

Awesome!


(via BB Blog)

President-Elect Barack Obama

We did it. It's such a huge moment and was such a life changing night that I still haven't processed everything. I sat on the couch and bawled through Obama's entire acceptance speech. And not the delicate, movie tears either... real, hearty crying. I think B summed it up best when he was looking at the television, glassy eyed, at nearly 1am after watching returns for a solid seven hours and said "This is life changing. This is a day I'm going to tell our children about."

God, I'm getting teary now just thinking about it. And it's not because, as so many of the naysayers have said, that I think Obama is a messiah, and it's not because of blind idealism, and it's not because he's a rock star, and it's not because I think he has every perfect answer. He said himself last night that there will inevitably be mistakes and missteps. But as they say, if you aren't outraged, then you aren't paying attention. And I've been paying attention, probably more than most.

There hasn't been a day in the last four years where I've gotten into the car and not turned on talk radio, and there has rarely been a night when we sat on the couch after dinner and didn't watch MSNBC, and it's rare that someone tells us about an independent political website that we didn't already know about - we've been paying attention. I've watched in stunned horror and disbelief as this administration invented rules for themselves to follow and then broke even those - as they sent young men and women my brother's age off to fight and die in a senseless war that had nothing to do with 9.11 - I've watched the heart of our country be stolen.

And the truth is, I've never considered myself a "patriotic" person. I don't own a flag, I don't feel that America is the best and most dominant country in the world, and I never ate Freedom Fries. But last night on the couch I felt like the reason I had never felt that way is because in the last eight years I've never had a President I could trust or believe in. I wasn't proud of America's face in the this world and I was never asked or expected to participate the way I am now. Chris Matthews said last night that the Bush administration wanted the aristocrats to be in charge and wanted the citizens to remain distracted. And it worked, that's how I've felt about patriotism - distracted and disenfranchised.

I think the main reason Barack Obama won is because he put politics back in the hands of the American public. He has truly acted as someone who's goal is to bring people together, to make people feel that we're not that different from one another. And the neo-con bent that the Republican party has taken is about nothing but division - the division of religions, the divisions of gays and straights, the division of rich and poor, and on and on, and I think it has finally failed. We're sick of feeling divisive and separate and distrustful; we were desperate for a sea change, and now there is the possibility of one.

In talking about McCain's loss last night Republican commentator Joe Scarborough said that it wasn't John McCain as a person that the voters were rejecting, it was the extremism that the Republican party has been showing for eight years that they were rejecting. He said that the politics of fear and lies is what they were (finally, in my opinion!) rejecting. That's why the Republicans lost all the way down the ticket, because it was about more than a person, it was about a party that has become out-of-touch with it's constituents. I can't believe it took this long to happen, but I honestly thought it would never happen, so the fact that it happened at all is a miracle to me.

Over the last year I've been saying over and over and over, Where are all the normal Republicans?!! Where are all the Republicans who think differently than I do, but want to have a real debate about the ideas without it immediately devolving into name calling about someone being a "Muslim" or a "messiah?" It didn't used to be like this, so they must exist, but I can't find any of them! Debate is healthy and the best policies often come from those people who work together across the aisle to make change happen, but I haven't seen any of that lately. I'm very hopeful that last night's election wasn't just a change for America, it was a change for the Republican party as well.

If I can return to the crying for a minute... I never felt that Barack Obama's race made a difference one way or the other to me, much the same way that I never felt that Hillary Clinton's gender made a difference one way or the other. I'm always baffled by people who find that to be a determining factor, positive or negative. But last night watching the acceptance speech and hearing about all of these people who are our parent's age or slightly older who spent their childhood's fighting for civil rights and marching in the streets... to hear about these people who fought so hard to use the same drinking fountains and sit in the same restaurants and go to the same country clubs, to think that in their lifetime those people will get to see a black man and his family live in the Whitehouse brings me to tears. I've never had to fight that hard for basic rights in my lifetime so I will never know what that feels like, but it makes me weep to think about how deeply that can change your soul.

If you haven't seen the acceptance speech yet, PLEASE watch it. Please, I'm literally begging you. Watch all 17 minutes and do it in a quiet place where you can pay attention. I'm going to rewatch it right now and I guarantee you that I'll start crying again. But I have to say, if it doesn't move your gut, then I don't think you've been paying attention. And I guess that's your choice, but I would urge you to start.




Additionally, here is John McCain's concession speech. He was gracious and very thoughtful and had his campaign been run in such a manner I think it would have been a far tighter race. He's not a bad man, but he lost his centrist beliefs and tried to pander to the extremists and it failed. I only hope that some of his rabid and hateful supporters will follow his lead.

Election Day

Well, it's finally here. I kind of can't believe it. There is so much riding on this election that I haven't let myself spend too much time thinking about either outcome. I haven't let myself believe that John McCain could genuinely win and do nothing but continue the Bush agenda with a vice president that is nothing more than a punchline, and I haven't let myself believe that Barack Obama could truly win and reverse the horrendous turn that politics in America have taken.

I will say this though - had it not gotten so bad with eight years of Bush and the way he has destroyed so many parts of America, we wouldn't be so mobilized for change. Humans are inherently lazy in certain aspects, myself included, and we don't want to "be the change we want to see in the world," we'd rather leave it to other people, be they activists, politicians, etc. And now that is changing a little. We've seen what not doing anything will get us because we were given an administration that railroaded civil liberties and moral behavior in a way that we never could have guessed.

So even if you haven't donated money, or made phone calls, or knocked on doors, as so many of our friends and acquaintances have, today is your one chance to do anything. And normally I would just assume that it's nearly impossible to find someone who isn't voting this election, but I have close friends who are not voting. They are not voting because they think their vote will be stolen anyway and so what's the point.

But here's the point - if you don't vote then you can't complain. You can't complain about what happens in the next four years because you haven't done anything to make it different. You've sat back like a child hoping that someone else will fix things while you don't have to do anything yourself. It's an incredibly dangerous way to go through life.

Additionally, you have forgotten your history. I would hope that women and people of color will feel more of a responsibility to vote today. What we now take for granted was once a cause that legions of people fought, sacrificed, and even died for. If we forget that and refuse to exercise our most basic rights, history, as they say, will certainly be doomed to repeat itself.

Lastly, I would like to say that every day for the last week I have seen lines of voters in Florida and Georgia that are hundreds of people long and are wrapping around the block. The people in these lines are standing for three, four, even five hours to cast their vote. Somehow, against all odds, they've gotten time off of work, overcome health ailments, gotten babysitters, and waited in the hot Florida sun for half a day just to cast their one vote. Every night when I see those pictures I feel blown away by the dedication and tenacity of those people. Regardless of who they're voting for, those people are absolute heroes.

"A Little Too Awesome"

This isn’t a very timely post since the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner happened two weeks ago, but all the computer issues put me behind. Additionally, I'm very behind in my online grant writing class due to some logistical problems, so posting might be a little light over the next few weeks.

Anyhow, I thought you should see the full footage of Obama’s hysterical speech at the dinner. Each of the candidates made satirical speeches (as is the tradition) taking jabs at themselves as well as their opponent. And while it’s clear the material was written for them, it’s so good that it’s forgivable. To really enjoy it though, you have to watch all ten minutes. Be sure to listen for my favorite part – strengths and weaknesses.

Given McCain’s anger problem and general demeanor, his laughs look a little forced, but he’s losing pretty dramatically lately, so I can’t blame him for not having a big sense of humor about the whole election. I heard that his speech was pretty good too, but I’ve only seen clips of it.

Colin Powell Endorsement

If you didn't get to watch Colin Powell on Meet the Press yesterday, you MUST watch this video. If this doesn't completely end all questions and debates as to who should be president, absolutely nothing will. There has yet to be a statement as clear, eloquent, and free from political bullshit as this video. Watch it.

Fact Check

Click HERE for an article out today in the NY Post which fact checks the new George Bush biopic, W, by Oliver Stone.


And if that's not enough to whet your appetite, click HERE to read a great op-ed piece by Frank Rich in the NY Times yesterday about the horrendous direction the McCain camp has taken.

Ouiser on MSNBC!

Ouiser is famous!! She's been doing a hell of a job lately volunteering for the Nashville democratic party and she continued that effort today by getting up at 3:00am to get the word out this morning and then went back this evening with Mr. Ouiser to stand at the MSNBC tent. She called us 20 minutes before Chris Matthews started and said that they were in the front row, so we stood two feet from the TV vigilantly watching the audience....

UNTIL WE SAW HER!!!!! B did an excellent job of catching some screen shots...

Yeah Ouiser!!! We're so proud to say we know you!! Don't forget us when they offer you your own show.

Palin Humor

Remember this video of Matt Damon? Here's Part 2, in a manner of speaking...

And just for good measure, here's a little Palin Flow Chart that B ran across:

Politikin'

We're headed up to Plattsburgh this weekend for one of the last trips of our Goodbye New England Tour. We'll be out at camp the entire time, which I swear to god is what heaven must look like. I'm like a little kid at the beach every time we're there - kicking and screaming and throwing tantrums when we have to leave. It's amazing. If you ever visited camp, you would realize why we chose to have our wedding where we did.

But all of that Adirondack beauty doesn't come with cell service, so I'll attempt to mobile blog some pictures, but I'm not sure if it'll work.


*********************************

 I don't have an inherent problem with Republicans. History has proven that countries are run better when there are various positions that are considered and acted upon. I'm not so arrogant as to presume that my party always has the right answers. I'm against Bush Republicans. And as Paul Begala was saying on The Today Show yesterday - McCain is now a Bush Republican. He wasn't always. As recently as 2003 he really was a maverick and he really was a centrist, and had he won the primary in 2000, I think he could have won with cross-party support. But that is not the McCain that has been involved in politics for the last five years. THAT McCain has voted with Bush 91% of the time, has overturned bills that HE put forth, and has pandered to the extreme right in ways that are frightening. In light of that, here's the video...

My 2nd husband is Wicked Smaht

When it comes to speaking about politics, I'm shockingly ineloquent. Every time we're in the car, B and I are listening to political radio, and every night from 8-10 we watch Keith Olberman and then Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. So I have a lot of political intellect in my head, but it farts and stumbles when I try to make it come out of my mouth. I'm usually pretty good with words, so it's a rare phenomenon for me.

Tonight Sarah Palin is giving her first interview to the press... kind of. According to the journalists, she has not only been sequestered from all media personnel, but when given access (like tonight), they have been given all kinds of criteria as to what they can or can not ask her in order for the interview to actually happen. It's yet another example of what the Republican candidates this election have turned this into - the campaign of distraction and PR. It makes me sick. And it makes me furious that the supporters of their own party are not calling for a more ethical and issues driven election. If I were a Republican, I would be furious right now.

And maybe if you aren't as up on the political ads and lies as we are, you don't realize what trash they're putting out there, but here's an example: Several years ago in Illinois there was a bill put forth NOT by Obama, that did NOT pass, that was aimed to teach kindergartners how to recognize child predators and what to do if they were approached. The ad running right now says that "Obama put forth a bill to teach comprehensive sex education to kindergartners. They don't know how to read yet, but he wants to teach them about the details of sexual education. Wrong for them, wrong for America." What?!

Anyway, I ran across this interview that Matt Damon gave to CBS News regarding his feelings for Sarah Palin and I thought it was spot on. I especially like the part at the end about the dinosaurs and the books because she is guilty of both, according to various sources.

Buh-Bye Hillary (almost)

Wow - rough day today. It's Board Meeting weekend in a few days and that's a big deal around these parts. And you know what makes it worse? When you look at your blog and see the really strange star-rating system that you never put there! I can't figure out how to remove it for the life of me and it's making me nuts. I've poured through every setting I can find and clicked the Help button, all to no avail. Grrr...

I am somewhat soothed by the political news today. I was really losing hope there for a while, with Clinton claiming she was going to pull out every dirty trick in an attempt to wrestle the nomination away from Obama. I had visions of Bush v. Gore all over again with small ruling bodies determining our electorate.

But alas, yesterday's election has sealed the deal. Even her most ardent supporters have finally come out and said as much. Now she just needs to come to terms with it. I hope she does it soon though because now she's just looking desperate. Even her speeches today looked like she didn't even believe her own words. I want her out so we can all rally behind one person and fight the actual opponent.

Well, it's 8:30pm which means bedtime is just around the corner! I need to be a good sleeper tonight so I can be a good worker tomorrow.


Update - Phew. I figured out the rating thing, the stars are gone. I mean really, when I write posts as riveting and worldly as this, do I need to open myself up to having people rate how interesting they are? That just seems like a bad idea.

Barack Obama Rally

AH!! Look at that picture!! Do you know where that's from?? That's a cell phone picture taken 10 minutes ago by my brother who is standing about 4 inches from Barack Obama's podium in Portland, OR. The arena sold out in about 20 minutes, but he managed to get one ticket off of Craigslist two nights ago. He'll hopefully be sending more pictures, so I'll keep you updated.

In addition to Barack, Bill Richardson (who endorsed him last night) is set to speak as well. If you threw in Keith Olberman, this would be like B's and my super nerdy version of seeing the Beatles! :)




Just got more pictures! One from outside the event waiting to get in and two from inside.


Update: My brother just called me and held his phone up so I could hear the speech! I had absolutely no idea what he was saying, but was freaking out and hollering just the same!! It was just so crazy to hear him "live!"

Update: Just got another picture! This is Bill Richardson endorsing Obama. The rally is over and my brother is sending me more pictures soon. Stay tuned!




Update: Just got the last three pictures. M said the event was absolutely amazing. Look how great!

Whoosh!

Where do the weekends go? Another one has come and gone and somehow very little got accomplished. I did workout both days, which is completely unheard of for me, but I was really starting to feel concerned about all the aforementioned Easter candy I've been inhaling :) Not concerned enough to stop, mind you, just concerned enough to sweat a little more.

We went to pick up our wedding rings, but B's was in the wrong size, so we have to wait another 4 weeks. Good thing we didn't procrastinate on this. So that errand, grocery shopping, and a sushi date night are pretty much all that comprised the weekend.

On to the world of politics... if you've been following the analysts, articles, and commentators, you may be concerned about the same thing that I've been very concerned about - that this long, drawn-out debate between Barack and Hillary is strengthening McCain's campaign significantly. He's begun his national campaign for the presidency and our side is still dueling it out. What a crushing loss it would be for Barack to finally win the nomination and then lose to McCain. So depressing... I can't even think about it.

On a related note, check out this great article in the NY Times about the grueling life of a campaign staffer. It's very interesting - it'll make you appreciate your day job!

I heart Barack

Just a quickie tonight. B is out of town with his computer (so I'm writing from work) and after getting my 2 cavities filled today, I'm not feeling up to posting. But I will direct you to a great op-ed piece in the New York Times today on Hillary and Barack. Great article! Did you watch the debate?? We sat glued to the TV for 90 minutes and then watched the commentary afterwards. It's just all so exciting!!

Mid-Week Reading Material

Well we're all warmed back up here, I'm happy to tell you. The boiler did continue to heat up throughout the day yesterday and we came home to a functioning house. B met with the repair man who said that in addition to a new boiler the house will have to be changed over from the original 1950s radiant heating it has now to a baseboard heat. A very big process, but I'm not sure if it'll happen now or in the future. Either way, I hope to not have to talk about it again!

I have some great videos I'll share with you later in the week, but for now I'll leave you with some reading material.

FAQs on the Election System - This is an excellent link my dad sent me that will answer any question you could have about the election system. And because it's organized by question, it's very easy to navigate and only read about the parts you'd like more information on. The only downfall is that it doesn't explain the super delegates. B and I have been passionately committed to learning about the nuances of super delegates this election cycle because they're going to be more important than ever. I'll do an entire post on it later.

2 Cats and a Paper Bag - On a much lighter note, this is a really funny article on 2 cats fighting over a paper bag from the famous satirical website The Onion. If you've ever wondered what goes on at our house having two hyper kitties, this pretty much sums it up.

P.S - Right now we're watching a documentary on TLC called "The Man Whose Arms Exploded" about steroid use. Holy crap I'm disturbed!!! If you're bored tomorrow, go look it up!