Palin replaced by a deer.

This is a work of fiction written by comedian Andy Borowitz. And, like all great works of fiction, it rings very true. It also raises the question: is Sarah Palin the stupidest Republican VP candidate since Dan Quayle? That's up for debate. And it is a debate I would like to see, not Palin versus Biden, but Palin versus Quayle.

Cellphone fiction.

Centuries before the invention of cellphones and text messaging, Japanese poets came up with haiku, a poetic form perfectly suited for these modern forms of communication. Now Jakucho Setouchi, a Japanese novelist turned Buddhist nun came out with a cellphone novel. This novel joins others of its kind which are delivered via text messages and are popular with young Japanese women.

The Japanese have always been early adapters of new technology partly due to the fact that Japan is a major developer of new technology. It would be interesting to see if these cellphone novels would become popular in other parts of the world, like Europe for example, which are massive text message users.

Surreality.

These people now have their own show on TLC. And they are expecting their eighteenth (that's number 18) child. Does anybody have a time machine we can use to send them back to the Dark Ages?

Change is coming.

Land before time.

Sarah Palin was an inspired choice for John McCain's running mate. She is a hockey mom who became a mayor of a small Alaskan town and went on to govern the entire state. This might make you believe that she was chosen for something other than her gender. This might make you believe that you too can rise from obscurity to the second highest office in this country.

The truth, however, is far different than the Photoshopped official portraits and messages approved by the candidate might suggest. The truth is that she believes mankind coexisted with dinosaurs and that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. Despite what the religious right may want you to believe, there is no room for such ideas in government because such ideas are insane. And we, having had eight years of prime, grade "A" ignorance in the White House, can not afford four years of sheer insanity. I believe that everybody's opinion has merit, but ideas like this have no more room in the 21st Century America than the ravings of an Austrian failed artist who attempted to reshape Europe sixty years ago.

We neither need, nor can not afford leaders who will pray for a solution in a critical situation instead of thinking of one. In case the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street didn't serve as a wake up call or a hint, this country is in deep trouble. Besides a two front war we are waging, the economy is slowly taking a trip back to the 1930s. I am not an economist and can not predict if we're heading for another not-so-great depression, but it sure feels like the ship of state soon will not be able to afford the fuel it runs on and run aground.

In this situation we don't need to be told to vote for somebody simply because they are a woman. We need to be told the truth. The truth is that she is wrong for the McCain presidential campaign, for the Republican party, and, most of all, she is wrong for America.

Green ducks.

Paul Newman died.

Paul Newman has died. He was 83 and had cancer. I loved his collaborations with Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid as well as The Sting. He was menacing as Judge Roy Bean and as unbreakable as he was rebellious in Cool Hand Luke. Even though some people perceived him as a movie star, he was, first and foremost, an actor and he was great at his craft.

Election '08.

If you really want to know what other people in this country think about the upcoming election, Twitter has set up a page with you in mind: Election 2008. It moves pretty fast, but you can pause it by holding your mouse over a tweet.

Space walk.

China has reached the next milestone in their exploration of space. Even though it has been almost fifty years since Russia and the US achieved this, it is still an impressive achievement considering that China is only the third country in the world to put a man in orbit. I wonder if they are going to go to the moon next?

Sunset.

Show me the money.

According to CNN, the $700 billion that is needed to bail out Wall Street amounts to $2,000 per each taxpayer. That is not a lot of money if you think about it. What's $2,000? It's a used car, or a cruise, or a Swiss watch.

However, this is not the money I am willing to spend helping out the people whose incompetence and/or greed got them in this situation in the first place. If each taxpayer gives Wall Street $2,000 there is no guarantee that they will not blow the save and find themselves in this exact situation again.

So the best solution in this case is to turn the ownership of these troubled financial institutions over to the taxpayers themselves after the bail out. If the government, who officially will be bailing out Wall Street, does not like this idea, they need to take these banks over. This is the only way anybody will see a return on their investment.

Riding longhorn.

Making connections.

Email Our Military, or eMOM, a Miami based organization that supports American troops via email and other forms of morale boosting correspondence has partnered up with Tatango. Tatango is a Seattle based company which connects groups via text messaging. Read the eMOM blog for more details on this partnership.

Giant pumpkin.

Unofficial merchandise.

This is a sign that hangs by a booth selling Bloomsburg Fair t-shirts. If the significance of this picture escapes you, check out The Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks.

Talk like a pirate.

Today is the Talk Like a Pirate Day. So here is the picture of the two guys who came up with this holiday back in 1995. Now go out there and and talk like a pirate before I make ye walk the plank, ye bloody land lovers. Arrr!

Giving it away.

Rookie receiver started celebrating before making a touchdown. I know that the protective mask obstructs a player's view, but I don't think it would be difficult to tell you're not in the end zone. This, to me, is a typical Philadelphia Beagles moment.

To boldly go.

George Takei married Brad Altman, his partner of 21 years, in Los Angeles on Sunday. Forty years ago, when Takei was playing Sulu on the original Star Trek, this was an impossible dream even in the idealistic future depicted on that show. This was an impossibility even a few years ago, but it seems that, at least in a small way, the future Gene Roddenberry envisioned is becoming a reality. And this wedding, to paraphrase a famous quote, is a small step for two men, a giant leap for mankind.

Oops, she did it again.

It seems the Republicans might get more trouble from Palin than they bargained for. Alaskan lawmakers decided to subpoena her husband as part of their abuse of power investigation against her.

Read before you leap.

Recently I wrote about how it is important for bloggers to check their sources prior to posting. And then I almost did not follow that rule myself. This is what happened.

I was checking Twitter before leaving to go pick up my wife from work and saw this post:

BreakingNewsOn : Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin tells ABC News that war may be necessary if Russia invades another country.

Reading that made me nervous because the idea of a potential Vice President who supports a war with, or rather against, Russia scares me more than the idea of war with Russia. So I, upon arriving at my wife's work, proceeded to tell her about this gem of a news story. As somebody who is familiar with Russian history and its military I was convinced we're all doomed if Sarah Palin gets to be the second banana.

After we got home I sought out the article which would back up the quote I read. My search lead me to a number of videos I did not want to watch and then to a story that answered all my questions. The quote, it turned out, had to do with Georgia joining NATO and the US defending George in case of another attack by Russia. Palin was talking about defending one's ally which is a completely rational reason to go to war against a nation such as Russia.

I am really glad that I did not get on my little soapbox, waved my banner in the air, and proudly thumped my chest declaring for one and all to hear that the Republicans made a huge mistake with Plain as a running mate and that she, if elected, will upgrade this smoldering world wide conflict into global war.

So, like the title says, read before you leap. You'll be glad you did.