In the vein of my last post

I found this column from ABCNEWS.com interesting.

Do You Remember July 2004?

I took a trip down memory lane this evening. I was working out on my property installing a field fence, when I randomly thought about Barack Obama's keynote address to the Democratic convention in 2004. I had heard of Obama before that night as he was running for Illinois Senate, however I had never heard or seen him speak. Of course the speech he gave that night was widely hailed a triumph and really set Obama on the path to the Presidency. What I saw that night was a little different. I saw a caricature of the Democratic party and a person who was everything the Democrats had ever wanted. In a way a made for TV candidate, he was young, ethnic, intelligent, and well spoken. Little did we know it would be his only "great" speech. Eight years later he is still thought of as a great speaker mainly because of this speech, whether most of the public remembers it or not.

Thus, I decided to revisit history and watch the speech in its entirety. My first thought was "damn he looks young!" They say that Presidency is like dog years in terms of aging and I believe it. He looks 20 years younger back then not 8! He was introduced by Senator Dick Durbin and I remembered trying not to vomit as he directed a few platitudes in that old bastards direction. Then he launches right into his sing song cadence which we are now used to, but at the time wowed the pundits! We hear the story of his father an mother. What a crazy American tale! His father was from Kenya! Who knew? And his mother from Kansas! I'm getting sick already!

Anyways his mother and father shared a crazy love! And they believed in a tolerant America where someone named Barack would be equal to everyone else. Looks like his name didn't hold him back! Kudos to us! But, I want to go back to the dreams of his father or whatever that shit is he was talking about. I don't think his father and mother were that in love, I mean didn't daddy split back to Kenya? Maybe he didn't come to America to find the dream after all, but instead to take advantage of our first class education system and then return to his country of origin. But what a live he had! He sired an American President, he had a son who now lives in China and one who lives in a Nairobi slum! I think Obama's dad was the Kenyan Hemingway! What a life!

Okay, back to the speech! He lives the dreams of his parents now, I guess this is sort of a plug for his book. I bet it becomes a bestseller now! Then he talks about American freedom, blah, blah. That our votes are counted, usually. Shout out to Florida there! Then he starts talking about outsourcing, union jobs disappearing, health care, standard Democrat fair now. People can't do it without the government! People want to do it themselves, but they just need that little bit of help, government alone can't do it, but by God they just need that little bit of government! We are so close to utopia, just elect John Kerry and we can do it! John Kerry is the best America has to offer!

Wow, this is embarrassing now. I don't remember this. I can't believe what a saint John Kerry is! WHY DIDN'T WE ELECT JOHN FUCKING KERRY?!?!?! Maybe Obama is secretly sabotaging Kerry here so he can run in 08'? Seriously who is going to believe this stuff about Kerry?! Apparently a majority of Americans didn't in 2004.

John Kerry is Jesus Christ incarnate! Okay, anyways now he gets into partisan bullshit and I do not care anymore. The last thing I heard Barack say was "Shamus was a good looking kid."

Anyways that is what launched the phenomenon that is Barack Obama. I saw that speech, heard David Brooks orgasm on air and knew that he would be President someday. It was inevitable from that point forth, and here we are. The Hope and Change President. The man with the father from Kenya and the mother from Kansas, who was whatever we wanted him to be. He was everything to us and nothing at the same time. So why should we be surprised that this is what we got? Oh well, he is just fulfilling his fathers dreams. Good luck to him in November, he is going to need it, he certainly does not have a record of accomplishment to run on. But man, what a biography!

I love this new song by David Nail. A few other people I have played it for are not as positive on it as I am. What do you think?

Are the "Culture Wars" Over?

Or did they ever exist? Were they essentially a media creation (Paging Bill O'Reilly!), or are they just getting started? Is the gay marriage debate just beginning or is it already over?

I am going to be in Oklahoma the next few days so I am probably going to have plenty of time to work on my thoughts on some of the "cultural" issues facing us. Being in the heart of the "Bible Belt" will no doubt help me focus and find some clarity on the tough ethical issues of the day. No better place to think about hypocrosy and the increasingly irrelevence of traditional Christianity in our society. In some ways this saddens me. I sympathize with Christians, I yearn for order and structure in our society. Is the chaos we see today the result of people turning away from religion or an indictment of the irrelevence of Christianity in modern life. I would lean toward the latter.

I actually attended church this past Sunday and I have to admit that I genuinely enjoyed the message the pastor delievered. It almost made Christianity seem relevent! I was getting pretty caught up in the moment. "Finally!" I thought to myself. "Someone is explaining the Christian message in a contemporary and relevent way (And by this I do not mean new age, social justice, Jesus loves everyone and we can all be rich, bullshit. I mean old school/traditional with a modern twist. Once you start talking about J-dogg being my best buddy then you've lost me.)!" But then it kind of fizzled toward the end. I respected him for trying, but was a little disappointed that he could not quite get there. Oh well, maybe next time.

Anyways, I will have plenty of time to think about it over the weekend. I just hope I don't get caught up in an episode of "GCB" while I am down there...

Checking In

It has been a few days since I posted so I thought I would check in. A busy few days at that! My wife and I adopted an eight year old English Setter today. She has quite an interesting history. We found her up in the Portland area where she had come from Texas, though she is originally from Washington. She was a field trial dog and also was bred several times, but now she has come to Winters Hill to retire. She seems like a very sweet old Setter and hopefully she will fit right in. I believe our home will be a nice quiet place for her to live out her remaining years.

In other news, President Obama has been travelling around the globe, "spiking the football," about the one year anniversary of the killing of OBL. He has received harsh criticism from Republican circles (Predictably.), but honestly who cares? I could care less either way. He had OBL holed up in some shit hole Pakistani suburb and had been watching him for months, of course he was going to pull the trigger. As for the gloating, come on, would we expect differently from a politician? Do people really believe that someone like George W. Bush wouldn't be gloating about killing Bin Laden?! If Bush had gotten Bin Laden at Tora Bora we would have seen Bush/Cheney 04' campaign posters plastered with images of OBL's decapitated corpse. Instead of the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the aircraft carrier we would have seen Osama's body hanging upside down. I digress...But you get the point. Its politics, anything goes.

That being said, do you really think any of this is really going to have any influence on the election? I sure don't. Its just noise.

In other news, did anyone catch the Taylor Swift boob job rumor? It fizzled quickly, but was funny while it lasted. I think that Taylor Swift is talented (In a weird way. She is talented in that she knows how to write songs that girls/women ages 13-30 can relate too. Not that she has an amazing voice.), but sex appeal really isn't a big part of her appeal IMO. She is definitely not hideous, but from a career stand point the boob job would not have made much sense. Good to see that it appears TS still has at least one thing in common with the Great Plains.

On that note...Until next time.