Friday, January 25, 2008

quote of the day

"The bitter will be punished because their lives are already punishment."

-Carolyn Hax


I think this is a super interesting observation. I cannot think of anyone I know who I would describe as bitter - and I do not think I have ever had a moment of bitterness (other negative emotions: envy, judgmentalness, self-pity, but never bitterness). And I hope that if I live to be 100 I never find myself with this emotion. For that matter, I hope I never find myself around anyone else with that emotion either.

Monday, January 21, 2008

America votes: 2008

I have been giving this a lot of thought lately - by which I mean some - and I am ready to come out and publicly declare that I am on "Team Hillary".

All things being equal, if I could vote, I would vote for Hillary Clinton. And all things are not equal and I think she is the best candidate. I appreciate that she is the "establishment candidate" and I do think, for America, it might be more radical to have a Black man in the white house than a white woman, and I also think that either a woman or a black man would be more electable as a Republican candidate (Colin Powell anyone?), but I would like to see Hillary Clinton win. If she is nominated I am not sure if she can win the election. But I am equally unsure if Obama or Edwards (not that he is even in it anymore) can win.

And I would vote for Hillary because I think she has experience, sound policy ideas, and yes, because she is a woman. If this makes me "sexist" (which it does not) than so be it. People forget how far we have come in just a few generations in terms of women's rights - and I think the idea of a female president is beyond exciting. And yes - it has been done before - successfully and unsuccessfully - by many women in many countries. However - that does not make it any less exciting for me, now, to imagine the US with a female president. I absolutely think we need more women in politics, I fully support switching to another electoral system to bring more women into politics. I support quotas for political parties in terms of fielding female candidates. I absolutely think having more women in politics makes an important difference - not to mention encourage more women to enter politics.

These are just some general points and not a fully thought out nuanced argument - but I think the underlying views are fairly clear. So in conclusion: Team Hillary!!

As a side note: Thank goodness it seems unlikely that Huckabee will take the nomination. Mitt Romney might be okay - but as far as I am concerned John McCain is by far the strongest, most crediable candidate and would make the best Republican president. It is only too bad that he wasn't elected in 2000 - because a) maybe the world would not be as messed up as it is today and b) he will be turning 72 later this year - which definitely makes him an older candidate - which I have to imagine will largely work again him.

P.S. Feel free to tell me why I am wrong :)

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Juno

"Charming" "Uplifting" "Smart" "Fun"

These are just a few of the adjectives that come to mind after seeing Jason Reitman's new film Juno.

Even though I had already heard many good things about, which can sometimes cause one to have overly high expectations, the movie really was very good.

Although as we were leaving the theatre I felt very old when I asked Devin "do young people today really talk like that?"

Of course, being older than myself he did not know either.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Matchbox

All day
Staring at the ceiling
Making friends with shadows on my wall
All night
Hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow might be good for something
Hold on
I'm feeling like I'm headed for a
Breakdown
I don't know why
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know, right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be
Me
Talking to myself in public
Dodging glances on the train
I know
I know they've all been talking 'bout me
I can hear them whisper
And it makes me think there must be something wrong
With me
Out of all the hours thinking
Somehow
I've lost my mind
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be
I been talking in my sleep
Pretty soon they'll come to get me
Yeah, they're taking me away
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy I'm just a little impaired
I know, right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be
Hey, how I used to be
How I used to be, yeah
Well I'm just a little unwell
How I used to be
How I used to be