Ha! Remembered my login! On another note Marilyn just showed me her latest knitting project and it’s looking seriously dangerous. Okay here’s something cute until I can scrap together an appropriate blog post:

Last night I warmed up a jar of baby food for Evie and while feeding her noticed she was deeply enthralled with something on her exersaucer. She would keep her head down, obviously studying something intently and would only look up to take a bite of food then would put her head back down again. This went on for awhile and I didn’t catch on until I looked down to try to figure out what she was obssesed with and this is what I saw:

LOL!! She was looking at me the whole time! For the record she ate the WHOLE jar of baby food (usually eats half a jar) and wanted more. I’m going to eat her.

I’m in too good of a mood to smack down anyone this week so instead here are my thoughts on tonight’s election:

A little over 4 years ago I remember my wife and I attending a John Kerry rally at our loacl events center and remarking at how NORMAL the vast majority of people who attended seemed.  Living in a red state we were bombarded with anti-liberal propaganda and led to believe that all liberals were anti-gun, pro-legalized marijuana, pro-choice, anti-war/anti-troops un-American LIBERALS (pronounced with emphasis and with a touch of derision).  Marilyn and I knew that we didn’t feel this way on most of these issues but had been brainwashed into thinking that if we attended a Democratic Party rally that we would get a contact high and would spend most of our time avoiding eye contact with extremist tye-died psychopaths.  As we were standing in line I couldn’t help but remark that contrary to this popular notion most of the people there were like us and were talking about hope and change and how things could be so much better than they were at that moment.  My impression was that most of the people there took strong exception to being called un-American or anti-troop simply because we believed with everything in us that President Bush was wrong on Iraq.  We didn’t believe that the cost of battling terrorism was the violation of basic human rights and loss of individual freedoms guaranteed us by the founding fathers and Constitution.  We were all working towards a better tomorrow and a parents primal instinct to provide a brighter future for our children.  We attended another rally in a rural community a week later to meet in person General Wes Clark, a man we supported in his primary bid.  While we enjoyed the company of a small group of Democrats at the rally we also boggled at the mindless pro-Bush rhetoric and talking points in the community and how the election seemed to be taking place 40 years ago immediately after Vietnam rather than through the prism of time that wisdom and age provide.  We couldn’t believe the volume of robocalls as my parents phone rang literally every 15 minutes with pre-recorded messages from the Bush campaign and other conservative candidates.  Tonight I’m sitting here watching a very gracious John McCain concede the election and an equally gracious Barack Obama accept the Presidency and my mind boggles.  Did it really take 9 years to get to this point?  Why didn’t people listen to us in 2000 when we were pleading that Gore would be a better choice?  Why didn’t they listen to us in 2004 when w were screaming from the rooftops that America was in serious trouble?  I don’t know the answers to these questions (believe me I’ve run these through my mindmearly daily for 9 years) but tonight I feel reasured that there are now a majority of Americans that feel the way that we do and only want things to get better.  I also know there are alot of people out there that are very concerned about what it means to have Obama as President.  I get that.  To them I would ask:  How much worse could things get at this point?  The only real choice we have is to look to the future and place our fears and our hopes in God and pray that he will give Barack Obama the guidance and strength to do what’s RIGHT for all Americans.  That’s the best we can ever hope for.

None of this has really sunk it yet and I’m sure I’ll have more to say in the next few days once it does.  I’m equally sure that Obama/Biden will give me plenty of things to rant about in the weekly smackdown so I look forward to that!  In the meantime it’s bottoms up for me and mine as we celebrate and enjoy this moment that is better than our birthdays, Christmas, and New Years all rolled into one.  Good night and God bless.

This weeks roundup of the truly despicable:

- Bailouts - Someone please explain to me again why I’m bailing out banks and insurance companies.  I can’t think of two industries that have done LESS for me and in fact have even conspired to make my as hard a possible the past several years.  Now that they’re greed and opportuntistic business practices have driven them into the ground and my hard earned tax money is being to used to bail them out I can tell you one thing:  I don’t want to pay another ATM or overdraft fee for like EVER!  Oh and don’t even think about turning down my insurance claim as standard practice.  Here’s another thing that chaps my ass about this while thing:  The price of oil is dependent on the stock market and the banks and insurance companies caused this mess while oil companies have posted record profits for several quarters in a row.  Why in the HELL aren’t we making the oil companies bail out the banks?

- Sarah Palins wardrobe - Ladies, I’ve watched the Oscar preshows.  Do you all REALLY think that Sarah Palin could get away with wearing the same suit twice in 2 months?  Or have hair and makeup that was less than perfect?  The men can wear the blue suit Monday with the blue tie and the same suit Wednesday with the red tie and NOONE NOTICES!  Women don’t have that luxury…mainly because of other women.  Give me a break, the whole $150,000 clothes issue is a NONISSUE so get over it and get used to it because this will be the norm once we have more high profile women running for the highest offices.

- Joe the Plumber - Oh nevermind I’m so sick of this one even I can’t get worked up over it anymore.

- Melamine in China - At this point is there anything they eat that DOESN’T have melamine in it?  I propose we just start calling the country “Melamine.”

- Obama ahead in polls - You’d think this would be a good thing but unfortunately there are you giant MORONS out there that look at the polls and say to yourself “I don’t need to go vote if he’s so far ahead.”  GO VOTE!!!  Regardless of who you vote for your voice needs to be heard.

Next weeks smackdown could go very badly one way or the other depending on the election results.  Stay tuned…

An alternate title for this post could be “The one in which Kile sobers up enough from his scotch-induced coma to spout nonsensical rhetoric.” Heh. This weeks roundup of the truly despicable:

- Dean Heller - If you’re not from Norther Nevada you probably don’t know him but he’s running for one of the open congressional seats here. I have never seen such a deplorable, mud-slinging, low-brow campaign. And this from the guy who’s a REPUBLICAN running in a REPUBLICAN leaning district and leading by 13 FUCKING POINTS in the polls. Also, since when did the term “liberal” become a dirty word meant to be said with vitriol and derision? This guys a world-class jackass. I’d be embarrassed to vote for him even if I was a Republican.

- David Frum on Rachel Maddow - Dude, seriously I understand what you were TRYING to say on the show whcih was basically that we need to get away from low-brow politics. Bravo! Couldn’t agree with you more. But why in the world would you compare Maddows punditry with bigotry and lies? They aren’t even in the same fucking ballpark! When you were confronted with this fact by Maddow your response was to change the subject? Did you really think you were going to get the last word on that one? I’m so sick of that dismissive elitist attitude. Stand up and argue like a man you pussy (especially when you bring it up)!

- Obama-Ayers “Controversy” - Is the McCain campaign seriously going to pin all their hopes on deriding a professional relationship between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, the Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago? A relationship in which they first met and worked together on education reform and fighting poverty? FUCKING LIBERALS!! Always out there trying to reform our education fight poverty!

- McCain Campaign - You do know that pinning your hopes on the Obama-Ayers “Controversy” is the last nail in your coffin right? Just saying.

What the hell am I going to complain about once the election is over? Okay I need more scotch.

Okay sorry folks I’ve been MIA for a couple weeks but promise to start posting as much as I can again. I’ve been busy nursing a running injury and wrangling a two-year-old, not to mention having family in town and doing more shopping than usual. Time to get back to the business of blogging.

This weeks roundup of the truly despicable:

- Clay Aiken - You’re GAY? You have go to be fucking kidding me! WOW! I didn’t see that one coming. BTW I think you look like Liza Manelli, only less masculine.

- Bush Administration - Have I told you lately how glad I am you TANKED the economy and now not only am I paying for it on a daily basis but my kids will also have to pay. Thank you fucking asshats! Now let’s elect McCain so we can have 4 more years of this shit.

- Arkansas Evangelist - Okay moron where the hell in the Bible does it say to molest children? I can tell you what Jesus DOES say about children in Matthew 18:6: “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Go read your bible while I look for my millstone.

- Recent visitors to my site - COME ON!! There were like a bazillion of you Mac fanatics who visited my site and NOT ONE of you left a comment.

I’m still waiting for the phone call from Apple. I would totally move to the Bay Area to work for you! Maybe Guy Kawasaki will put in a good word for me?

I have to give Apple credit. They are one of the few electronics companies out there right now that are pumping out truly groundbreaking gadgets. However, I’m not sure they fully realize the potential of some of their recent releases. For example, while I love my iPod (have I ever mentioned this?) there are times when it would be nice to have the cell phone functionality provided by the iPhone. However, the iPhone is too bulky for a person who wants to use the Nike Plus kit especially when you stuff it into the available armband. It would be possible to provide a SIM card slot on the iPod so a person could get some limited cell phone functionality. Also, why don’t they just build Bluetooth in to all of their iPod products? This would make it much easier to connect bluetooth headphones and would also provide a wireless link to iTunes. Alas, the iPhone remains the pinnacle of Apples lineup since it provides all of the functionality you want and is really more of a small computer than a cell phone. I think Apple understands this but I’m not sure they really “get” it. With all the iPhone can do I’m always amazed at what it CAN’T yet do. For example, the built-in GPS is a really nice feature and great for getting directions to the nearest restaraunt. But where’s the full-blown GPS navigation software? I hope before they release another version of the iPhone or iPod that they will go and talk to some end-users and consider how these devices are really used. At a bare minimum they should at least read this post and offer to pay me an obscene amount of money to give them my opinion. Yeah I’m pretty sure they’ll go for that.