Election Day: You Can Vote However You Like!

Take a look at this delightful video. It is wonderfully bipartisan, and I *LOVE* how the kids say that you can vote however you like! (Aren't you tired by now of people telling you how to vote?)

And yes, this angry, tired, pessimistic little libertarian citizen-taxpayer will go vote after class today! It won't make much numerical difference -- my state is full of leftists and I'm vastly outnumbered -- but I'll vote anyway because, well, it's my right, dang it, and it's my one little ballot saying "NO" to the tide of high-taxing neo-statism. I don't care how pretty its newest face is.

But anyway -- look at this darling video and enjoy!




Lyrics here:

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

(McCain supporters)
McCain is the man
Fought for us in Vietnam
You know if anyone can
Help our country he can
Taxes droppin low
Dont you know oils gonna flow
Drill it low
I'll show our economy will grow

McCain's the best candidate
With Palin as his running mate
They'll fight for gun rights, pro life,
The conservative right
Our future is bright
Better economy in site
And all the world will feel our military might

(Obama supporters)
But McCain and Bush are real close right
They vote alike and keep it tight
Obama's new, he's younger too
The Middle Class he will help you
He'll bring a change, he's got the brains
McCain and Bush are just the same
You are to blame, Iraq's a shame
Four more years would be insane

Lower your Taxes - you know Obama Won't
PROTECT THE LOWER CLASS - You know McCain won't!
Have enough experience - you know that they don't
STOP GLOBAL WARMING - you know that you won't

I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA
Stick with McCain and you're going to have some drama
We need it
HE'LL BRING IT
He'll be it
YOU'LL SEE IT
We'll do it
GET TO IT
Let's move it
DO IT!

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

I'm talking big pipe lines, and low gas prices
Below $2.00 that would be nice

But to do it right we gotta start today
Finding renewable ways that are here to stay

I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA,
Stick wit McCain you gone have some drama
MORE WAR IN IRAQ
Iran he will attack
CAN'T BRING OUR TROOPS BACK
We gotta vote Barack!

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

Cute Political Humor of the Day: the Littlest Palin

Whether you like Sarah Palin or not, you have to admit that her "look" in hair and fashion has become very famous indeed!

Take a look at this delightfully humorous -- and cute -- interpretation.

Movie Fun: Casting Call For the 2008 Election

If the election were a movie, whom would you cast to play the different people? Here is an amusing look, even if the potshot at McCain is -- in my opinion -- unfair.

Political Humor of the Day: Camp McCain's Obama Cufflinks

What does McCain have up his sleeve? Obama cuff links, that's what.

I think this is really amusing. If I had to award the "Sense of Humor" award to one campaign during this election cycle, I'd have to give it to Camp McCain. Its spoof-y potshots at the (you have to admit) occasional excesses of Camp Obama have often been hilarious.

Note to Palin-Bashing Leftist Female Critics: Please Stop Embarrassing Yourselves

S.E. Cupp says everything that I want to say:

I have a message for the self-styled guardians of womanhood who have decided that Sarah Palin is public enemy No. 1 - please stop talking. You're embarrassing yourselves and women all over the country.

You are making otherwise thoughtful, careful, intelligent, tolerant and modern American women of every political bent look and sound ridiculous. As a woman myself, I'm begging you to stop. Put the pen down, close out the blog, push the E! microphone away. Your trash-talking is disturbing and humiliating. In fact, it's setting back the true cause of feminism - the advancement of women - far more than your imagined nemesis.

. . . Sarah Palin is of course fair game for critics - as a politician. Feel free to say what you will about her record and her positions. Feel free to arduously and passionately disagree with her. But to smear her as an embarrassment to women (nearly half the population) is, well, an embarrassment to women.

. . . Apparently, women like Sarah Palin don't have to worry about being slandered by men. Women are doing it for themselves.

Amen, sister. Can we please move past the stupid idea of "gender traitor"?

Political Humor of the Day: the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator

Those Palins have some pretty unusual names -- Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig . . . If Sarah Palin were your mom, what would she name you? Find out with the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator!

(It said that my Palin name would be Ladel Torque Palin.)

Political Humor of the Day: The Total Reductionist Campaign of Hate '08!

It's the Total Reductionist Campaign of 2008!

I'd laughed about the possibility a while back, and now some enterprising wits have created a video with the same idea (link via Reason). So, whom do you hate? Enjoy!

Krauthammer on Gibson, Palin, and the Bush Doctrine

Some folks are crowing in unashamed glee about Palin's supposed "gaffe." One lefty friend of mine said she was "an idiot" and proceeded to indulge in some happy Palin-hatred. I just sighed. The constant game of political "gotcha!" is widespread, and while it produces in its players a certain amount of juvenile glee or unhappiness depending on who made a gaffe or not, "gotcha!" has ZERO redeeming value or capacity for engaging in a real discussion about policy.

Krauthammer makes a decent point about the ambiguity of terms and the reductionism in their usage. This is especially true for controversial ideas and the rather arbitrary, hot-button labels used to describe them.

So . . . The Bush Doctrine and journalist Charlie Gibson. This could well be the Bush Doctrine and everyone else who wants to use it as a club against people who aren't lefties. The Doctrine isn't only about pre-emption, despite all the journo-babble about it. If you've paid any attention at all, you know that the Bush Doctrine is actually much more complex than that. Read the Krauthammer commentary.

THE BUSH DOCTRINE:
"You keep using that (term).
I do not think it means what you think it means."

Camille Paglia on Sarah Palin's Debut

The commentary is worth your time, though some of it is typically Paglia-pablum. Here's a bit of the good stuff as Paglia takes aim at the (fossilized and increasingly irrelevant) "feminist establishment":

I felt that Palin represented an explosion of a brand new style of muscular American feminism. At her startling debut on that day, she was combining male and female qualities in ways that I have never seen before. And she was somehow able to seem simultaneously reassuringly traditional and gung-ho futurist. In terms of redefining the persona for female authority and leadership, Palin has made the biggest step forward in feminism since Madonna channeled the dominatrix persona of high-glam Marlene Dietrich and rammed pro-sex, pro-beauty feminism down the throats of the prissy, victim-mongering, philistine feminist establishment.

. . . Now that's the Sarah Palin brand of can-do, no-excuses, moose-hunting feminism -- a world away from the whining, sniping, wearily ironic mode of the establishment feminism represented by Gloria Steinem, a Hillary Clinton supporter whose shameless Democratic partisanship over the past four decades has severely limited American feminism and not allowed it to become the big tent it can and should be. Sarah Palin, if her reputation survives the punishing next two months, may be breaking down those barriers. Feminism, which should be about equal rights and equal opportunity, should not be a closed club requiring an ideological litmus test for membership.

Also, this awesome bit:

The witch-trial hysteria of the past two incendiary weeks unfortunately reveals a disturbing trend in the Democratic Party, which has worsened over the past decade. Democrats are quick to attack the religiosity of Republicans, but Democratic ideology itself seems to have become a secular substitute religion. Since when did Democrats become so judgmental and intolerant? Conservatives are demonized, with the universe polarized into a Manichaean battle of us versus them, good versus evil. Democrats are clinging to pat group opinions as if they were inflexible moral absolutes. The party is in peril if it cannot observe and listen and adapt to changing social circumstances.

Too true! Secular fundamentalists.

Political Humor of the Day: Palin for President!

But it's not the Palin you're probably thinking of. Check this out! Hilarious.

Political Humor of the Day: Sarah Palin, Moose-Killer

The Cinema-Mad Sibling and I both got a big laugh out of Jimmy Kimmel's amusing spoof of all those life-of-the-candidate videos. Enjoy!

No More Monopoly For Hillary

Delightful. And long overdue.

Besides, Hillary doesn't even come remotely close to representing me or my political convictions. I wasn't going to vote for her in any case because of that -- and I wasn't going to be swayed by the entire "vote for a woman because I'm a woman" idea. (That argument is, I repeat, sexist.) I wasn't going to vote for her because I did not like her policies. Of course, on a personal level, she failed to "connect" with me, so that didn't help matters. I never identified with her.

On the other hand, if a woman politician has policies I support, then I will vote for her because of her policies and if she is the best candidate (male or female) for the job. In all seriousness, I'm delighted that Sarah Palin's on the national stage now. I'm delighted that there are more women in high politics -- and that there is now a woman VP candidate who more or less represents my political convictions. And that she is successful without turning into the angry, cold harridan that Hillary often seems to be . . . and that Sarah is successful on her own without the extra aid of a famous, politically powerful husband. (Oops! Did I say that out loud?)

In any case, as Anne Applebaum's piece concludes: ". . . the appointment of Palin does bring the Hillary Era to an end – she isn’t the archetypal Female American Politician anymore, she’s just one of many. "

The breaking of the Hillary monopoly is a very GOOD thing for both US politics in general and gender issues too. The entire populace of American women shouldn't have only one public "face." Maybe now folks might actually realize that women are not all one faceless monolithic block. Women do not all think the same, and they/we do not all vote the same. (And woe to the inherently sexist groups who think that women should. And yes, I'm talking to YOU, NOW.)

The ladies of America are all individuals, and all are different! Some women lean to the left, and many of them found their champion in Hillary. But not all women lean that way. Plenty of American ladies lean toward the center-right, and I am delighted that I as one of them have found a face, voice, and VP candidate in Sarah. She's strong, smart, confident, comfortable in her own skin and successful as an individual in her own right, and she does it with losing any warmth, charisma, humor, or sense of self. She's what I want to be someday: a working mom with both career and family. In fact, she's like "Everywoman" in suburbia all over the US, a place full of working moms. (A slow, subversive grin is actually beginning to spread across my face as I type this: Oh, yes, she's not part of the leftist, liberal orthodoxy. She's different. But . . . isn't "diversity" -- oooh, that buzzword -- supposed to be a good thing?)

PS, a half-humorous, rather tongue-in-cheek digression: Plus NO HORRIBLE PANTSUITS with Sarah! I always found Hillary's little suits kind of de-feminizing and just generally "blah." She always seems like she's slightly uncomfortable and trying too hard. (That orange pantsuit at the DNC was an eyesore too. The orange Mao suit, yuck.) I am, as you've noticed, enthusiastic about Sarah's sense of fashion, which seems to say that she's comfortable with herself and her femininity. How's that for some genuine feminism? I really like that; it resonates with me in a personal kind of way. I don't think a girl has to give up being a girl in order to be successful in today's world. Goodness, I'm not going to give up my own femininity in order to be successful in Nerdworld! No blocky, dull, androgynous-looking monochromatic pantsuits for me; you'll remember the scarlet suit and sassy heels from the last Nerdmoot and the outfit dreams for the next one. I'm thinking about pencil skirts and dark red heels . . . I'll enjoy the thought that the effect is that perhaps what you see isn't what you get -- or at least that there's more than meets the eye and that there's an actual personality inside the outfit. It's a decent enough sartorial lesson for any profession, perhaps.

Maybe in a future post I'll write about how the core conservative/libertarian ideas of individual rights, responsibilities, and freedoms, along with free markets and the opportunities of capitalism, are better for women (and, face it, for everybody else too) than the collectivist/socialist approach of the far Left.

RELATED POST: Gender Benders: Do Conservative/Libertarian Women Drive Far-Leftists Crazy? Plus Sexism From the Left

Geek Fun: DNC + RNC + Wordle = Fabulous Political Word Clouds

Simply awesome.

If you don't know Wordle, do take a look. It's a great way to play with words. Basically, you feed it some text, and in that given text, the more often a word occurs, the bigger it appears in the resulting word cloud.

(Interestingly enough, the biggest words in the Obama word cloud actually aren't "hope" and "change.")

UPDATE: Wordcloudmania! Belmont Club has his own analysis.

Political Humor of the Day: What's the Difference Between Palin and Obama?

This made me laugh:

Question: What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama?

Answer: One is a well turned-out, good-looking, and let's be honest, pretty sexy piece of eye-candy. The other kills her own food.

Plus I love how the joke takes the entire sexism-tinged media madness about Sarah Barracuda and turns it upside down.

The entire article, by the way, is also worth the time to read.

The Palin Speech at the RNC: First Impressions

Wow!

Sharp effective speech, delivered with style and confidence, not a shred of doubt or nervousness, not a hint of the amateur. Lots of excellent lines and plenty of nice touches and moments of humor and real charm.

Sarah hit this speech out of the park. If this thing were a baseball, it'd be out of the stadium and flying into the next county. Her opponents underestimate her to their own peril. She punctured the Obamessiah hype as though it were a child's balloon. And she did it effortlessly.

I'm . . . impressed. Really impressed. If you thought I was enthusiastic about the Sarah-cuda at her introduction, you should see me now.

And I'm wondering if I can get the same kind of shoes she wore tonight, because I'd love to kick butt like she did. She's smart, tough, and yet still warmly human -- eloquent without being pretentious, sharp without being cruel, in command of herself and of the issues. AND, a smart, tough, capable, independent woman who succeeded in politics on her own, without needing the name and influence of a husband who was a career politician. Heck, yeah. Dude, I want to be like Sarah!

The moment that made me completely euphoric: Palin directly telling the MSM and media establishment that she doesn't care about impressing them -- she's going to carry on doing what she thinks is right. Some of the MSM is going to go nuts. But the message underneath all that is: "You will not be able to shake, rattle, or upset me. I know your game and tactics, and I'm not going to dignify them by letting them distract me from what's actually important." It's a take-no-BS declaration. It was flat-out electrifying . . . and I loved it. I loved it even more than I love ice cream, chocolate, multi-touch computer heaven, and Tony Stark. OMG. Bring common sense back into government, Sarah!

I repeat now what I said when McCain chose her to be his running mate: "Awesomely awesome." Really. And I don't give many political compliments. That speech is one of the best political speeches I've ever seen/heard. It was verbal fireworks. On now to the debates -- as I'm practically thirsting to see if she can disassemble Biden . . . and do it with a smile and a dose of down-to-earth practical common sense.

UPDATE 1: The Cine-Sib just on the telephone. "Are you watching the Palin speech??" we yelled at each other. "She's kicking butt and taking names!" Now, my dear brother is never, ever interested in political speeches. But this time was different. Maybe Sarah Palin really is the kind of sea change that the GOP needs -- and that the Dems fear.

UPDATE 2: Sib on the phone again, chortling with glee and repeating his favorite lines from the speech ("I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities"!) He then proceeds to give the speech his ultimate accolade: "It was pretty good!" in tones of great enthusiasm. Plus now a text from him: "PS Palin kicks ***." Sarah is magic if she can inspire this kind of rapturous response from cynical folks who hate the political game, people like the Sib and me.

UPDATE 3: Here's the text of the Palin speech, but you really need to SEE it.

UPDATE 4: Response from Camp Obama is not just lame -- it's laughably so. Wailing about the speechwriter and moaning about Bush. More from Lorie Byrd.

UPDATE 5: Political jiu jitsu!

UPDATE 6: Best comment yet involving movies: "Sarah Palin is a force of nature. Like a Jimmy Stewart character channeled by Claudette Colbert."

Nerd Journal: Shoes for a Nerdmoot

OK, now for a completely frivolous post!

I am going to several Nerdmoots (i.e., academic conferences) in the near future, so I am thinking about what to wear. I have acquired a nice black skirt suit, and now I'm looking for shoes. Mmmm, shoes!

I had thought about wearing my usual beautiful-but-impractical black high heels, but now I have another idea. Did you see Sarah Palin's lovely shoes last Friday? They were dark red high heels, and I thought they were great with her black suit!

Ruby slippers for 2008:
"There's no place like home, and I mean the White House!"

SOOOO, I am thinking about following in her (literal) footsteps for the Nerdmoots. My black suit will say, hello, I am a professional. The shoes will say (I hope), hello, and I also have a personality. A little sass, a little class, all understated, please. Add matching dark red handbag/laptop case. Possibly add a simple necklace of small, small pearls. I just desperately don't want to be another boring nerd. (Ooooooooo, barracuda . . . with great shoes. *Giggle*) No, seriously, at Nerdmoots, I literally transmogrify into another person when necessary for self-preservation, which is often. You'd never know I was your goofy, playful hostess who likes baking cookies and watching movies. At Nerdmoots, I will kill you with my footnotes and documentation, rowr!

But back to the shoes, shoes, shoes. Here they are, the shoes I've been looking at: elegant dark red slingback heels. These are kind of cute too. Or perhaps these peep-toe heels with a fun little buckle detail. These are a bit more girlish, and I might feel the need to run away and join a Broadway chorus line. These just might kill me. Would The Manolo approve of any of these?

Gender Benders: Do Conservative/Libertarian Women Drive Far-Leftists Crazy? Plus Sexism From the Left

You know, I think there's some truth to this, if the utterly unspeakable filth now being thrown at Sarah Palin is any indication.

Non-leftist ladies seem, by their mere existence, by their daring to think for themselves, to be a provocation to the entrenched, deep Left. The nutty extremists get ALL bent out of shape. It would be almost amusing if their behavior weren't so unbelievably nasty and, really, unfit for polite, civilized company of any kind. If deranged hatred is a mind-altering substance, then some of these nuts are on a complete bender.

Now, rude sexism from the Left? A personal digression, perhaps. You'll remember that a leftist wingnut (who happened to be a white male, BTW) called me a "Republican oppressor" a while back, too. The trigger was me telling him that I was responsible for my own success. Ooooo, that was like poking him in the tail with an electric cattle prod! Hm, I think I shall wear my "oppressor" status as a badge of honor since "success = evil" for people like him.

Then later another white male leftist told me that I was "such a pretty girl" that I had to vote Democrat. He thought he was complimenting me, the patronizing little jerk. Somehow here in Nerdworld, the only reprehensibly offensive male sexist pigs I've met have been self-identified leftists and liberals. Why is that?

More recently, an open Bush-basher (another white male!) told me, in tones of deep compassion, not to worry about being single because I still have a few years left to find a man (!). And he didn't even know about my personal politics. He simply asked about my "status" and then offered that extraordinary piece of "comfort" as if I were some kind of poor little girl who needed a big brother to look out for her. Compassion or condescension or both? Ugh. I wanted to punch him right in his sympathetic, helpful smile.

And so far, we're not even talking about politics yet. Speaking of . . . FYI, loopy leftists and identity-baiters, I vote with my brains, not my ovaries. And -- gasp! -- I vote on issues and policies, not identity politics! I'm also not going to let ANYBODY tell me what to think or do, regardless of party or affiliation. I'll decide for myself, thanks. So what is MM, gender traitor, thinking about these days in terms of policy? Lowering taxes, growing the economy, cutting government waste, reducing government, and encouraging individual responsibility, a real work ethic, and reform. Plus NO tax-and-spend statism!

Sarah Palin Facts!

Watch out, Chuck Norris! It's Sarah Palin, and she's the reason the compass needle points North.

More hilariously funny Palin "facts" here. Enthusiasm mixed with humor are wonderful things.

Public Service Announcement: I Don't Care How Many Houses Somebody Has

I just thought I'd throw this idea out there. The moronic meme about McCain's multiple mansions (like that alliteration, did you?) is silly. The leftist soapboxing sounds more like, "How dare he have money! And how dare he use it as he pleases!"

You can probably see that I don't care about his houses or anybody else's house(s). (OK, unless it's Al Gore's loopy energy-sucking monster where he lives while purporting to tell the rest of us carbon criminals and Gaia-heretics to cut back on energy consumption. Oh, please. Welcome to Chez Hypocrisy. But I digress.)

Anyway, I for one would love having multiple houses. Yes, indeedy, I unabashedly declare my total disregard for my carbon footprint or anything else. If I had the money, I would happily plunk down some of it for houses or flats in various places. Because it would make travel SOOOO much easier. Plus, it'd be so fun to share them with my friends and relatives. I wouldn't get ridiculous castle-like AlGorean piles, but cute little flats or cozy little houses would be FABULOUS.

And I wouldn't care at all what people thought about what I was doing with my own money and/or property. By the way, I can fantasize if I want to, because as a nerd, I have neither.

So, let's take an informal survey of all you gentle readers. If you could have houses in multiple places, where would you want them?

Various friends in conversation have named some of their fantasy choices: something nice at Nerdworld, New York, Austin, London, Rome, Port Elizabeth (South Africa), Los Angeles, Taipei, somewhere in the English/French/Italian countryside . . . Or, as some other buddies suggested, choose by geographical feature: somewhere in the mountains, by the seaside, in the country, in the city . . . somewhere in Euroland and in the Far East . . .

Sarah Palin on Energy Policy

I like her more and more. She's saying everything that I'm thinking -- complete with a jab at the lack of a national energy policy. PREACH IT, GIRL.

And the really brilliant thing? She's governor of Alaska. If anyone is qualified to speak knowledgeably about that state and its energy potential, ANWR, wildlife concerns, and environmental impact there, it's her.

Listen and learn, grasshopper. Meanwhile, I'm amused by all the frothing far-leftist cranks who are diving into the depths of the ugliest sorts of sexism in their attempt to attack Palin with ad hominem (or should I say, ad feminam) assaults that have nearly nothing to do with policy differences. Obama could find that his own rabid supporters are his biggest liability. Meanwhile, Palin will go on being calm, cool, and collected. The contrast will be startling. Dirty Harry, after watching the Palin energy interview, is now practically daring the Dems to call Palin dumb and inexperienced. Clearly she is neither.