Stuff happened today

So tonight we witnessed the first debate between the two main presidential candidates.

And the House of Representatives struck down a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would prevent people who love each other from getting married because there was a disproportionate number of penises or vaginas involved.

And 34 children died in Iraq, killed by terrorists. This was saddening, but not somehow not surprising. This is the sort of brutality we have all come to expect from terrorists.

Neither candidate mentioned the incident during the debate, nor did I expect them to. Those of us watching the debate discussed the bombing in a certain detached way, shaking our heads at the decadence of it all. A moment later, we were conversing about the twitch in the corner of President Bush's lip when he talks about certain things. Like how important it is to defend America. And how important it is to prevent gay people (he barely restrains himself from saying "faggots") from getting married.

One guy told us how had seen a young Iraqi boy on television, carrying what was left of a bicycle down the street. The bicycle once belonged to his brother. His brother had just been blown up. Wrong place at the wrong time, just like Kerry said. So then would he have lived if we hadn't invaded Iraq in the first place? Maybe five more years before being tortured, perhaps executed, by Saddam Hussein. Maybe 70 more years.

The world isn't easy. All I can do is whisper, "Busy, busy, busy."

Song lyric of the day:
"There's a lot of things I understand
And there's a lot of things that I don't wanna know"
-Splender, "I Think God Can Explain"

The trouble with CBS...

Okay, I know I haven't posted in a while. Sue me. I'm taking a break from work to write about this whole CBS producing false documents thing.

For those of you who've been in a cave (or in many cases, a dorm room) for the past two weeks, CBS recently claimed that George W. Bush used his father's connections to get into the National Guard and avoid Vietnam, and that even there he wasn't exactly the most diligent soldier. I personally have no doubt of these claims (and care about them about as much as I care about John Kerry's war record), but the problem is that the documents supporting those claims were bogus.

Now the issue to me here is not the decision to report on these unconfirmed documents - that's been pretty well covered in the media anyway, and CBS is trying to acknowledge that and move on, which I applaud them for. The issue here to me is that in rushing ot air this report, CBS (or at least Dan Rather) is perpetuating the myth of the liberally biased media.

People, wake up: the media is not that biased. The fact is the media happens to be composed of individuals, and individuals are inclined to incorporate their personal opinions into what they talk about. But they try. At worst, most media outfits may be slightly left of center, and Fox News might be slightly right of center. CNN does not stand for Communist News Network.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, "Only fools trust the liberally-biased media." You know what my first thought was? "Yeah, well only fools trust the conservatively-biased president." A little harsh, I admit. But let's face it: the president, or rather the White House, is our primary source of information concerning the issues that our nation faces. Until we have robots reporting to us (may that day never come), don't expect total objectivity. It's fool's gold.

And of course, there's the larger point that giving a flying shit about what the president did 30 years ago (much less 20 years ago when he was an alcoholic and possibly a drug addict) does absolutely nothing to advance the national rhetoric. I could go on about that forever, but I know we've heard it all before.

Song lyric of the day:
"I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives"
-Green Day, "Holiday"

And Dubya shocks the world by accepting the nomination!

Before watching President Bush's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, my dear friend Jeff Woodhead submitted the following prediction of the speech, in a nutshell:

"I guess I could probably sum up the rest of it... I'm strong on terror, two less terrorist regimes in the world, my opponent's a flip-flopper, keep America safe by voting for me. Also, gay people suck, No Child Left Behind was good, my tax cuts are excellent, and I like God."

For the most part, he was right. However, I would argue that the speech was, as a whole, disappointing. Jacob would agree, and he has the blog entry to prove it.

All in all, we agreed the speech would fire up his loyal supporters without really gathering many new votes. I expect a small amount of bounce in the polls followed by a return to the numbers we've been seeing. (Does anyone wonder how there can be so many people still undecided? These must be the people trying to figure out which candidate sucks less.)

Incidentally, I am still predicting Dubya will win in November. Call it a hunch.

Song lyric of the day:
"Nevermind the darkness, we still can find a way
'Cause nothing lasts forever, even cold November rain"
-Guns n Roses, "November Rain"