First Presidential Debate

Very unimpressed with the performance of both candidates. Neither answered the questions asked, but only recited policy positions regarding the themes of the questions. Once you begin to notice this tendency of politicians, watching these things becomes virtually unbearable. I realized that looking into Obama's eyes feels a lot like being hypnotized, and am unsure if that is a good thing. I am sure of one thing however, which is that I am completely unwilling to once again sign over the executive branch to a member of the McCain generation. Their time has come and gone, and their tainted worldview has left us with enough problems. The last thing we need is their creeping senility to influence political events. Ultimately it is time for them all to recognize where they belong, which is vegetating slowing in their local nursing home. 

This thursday's VP debate should make for some fantastic television. My hope is that they engage in this terribly awkward culture debate about the merits of being a hockey mom versus an eastern yuppie. Surely politics is not above that; DeTocqueville would be so proud. 

Welcome

As the title of my new blog suggests, this is a place for thinking out, and sharing, thoughts that you might not normally have a forum for releasing. I would insist that the topic of these thoughts are limitless; only the expanses of our mind can serve as a wall to block where this cranial exploration may take us.  I've been a pretty quiet person for most of my life (after a brief period of early talking-- as my mother likes to say, "what happened to that boy?!") and have been described as such several times recently. I would like to think that this blog isn't a rebuttal to them, but I suppose in some shape or form it is a reaction. It is to say, just because I don't vocalize thoughts, doesn't mean I don't have them. Initially the topics will naturally be limited to what I think about on a daily basis-- politics, philosophy, art, music, movies, relationships (or in my case the sheer lack of them)-- I would ideally like this to be a place where one can come and learn about the ideas that are floating around in the heads of others. If there is any hope for our flawed species in this toxic era of our brief existence, it exits in our willingness to set aside our differences and understand one another.  At the core of my belief here is that we-- sharing in a humanness-- are essentially alike. The things that separate us-- religion, race, background, etc., are constructed and ultimately malliable divisions that need not exist. In fact, when it comes to this type of forum, I would demand that they not.  Perhaps we will never really agree with eachother, but then, let us agree to disagree. Let us at least share the excess of our introspection; the overflowing sludge that pours forth from this crazy brain organ to bless the world with the mark of Man. 

I suppose I will go first.  I have been thinking a lot lately about the financial crisis. I suppose everyone with at least some stake in the market has. While the money I have there is really nothing to be proud of, my fear (and I think the pervasive one that is prompting this to be such a massive deal) is that things will spiral out of control and we will end up in some Kevin Costner Postman world too soon-- or worse yet, A McCarthian Road world. Thinking about the financial crisis, at least in my mind, quickly devolves into this crazy fragility fear-- that our precious day-to-day existence is really founded on such a shaky foundation. Like, when the electricity goes out. How the hell do we deal with that if it happens for days at a time? What if everyone simultaneously loses electricity? The other day I was walking to school from my bullshit internship and there were a group of people in the park handing out free "are you prepared?" t-shirts. On the back was a top-10 list for things you need in the event of a disaster. It included stupid, random things like "a first aide kit" and "three days worth of water" and "special medications." Thinking about people reacting rationally in the event of a disaster in which such a list would be necessary is so unrealistic. People can't even act civilly in the event of a newest yearly tickle-me-Elmo toy coming out at Christmas time. How can we expect them to do so when their whole world crumbles from beneath them? I think that an accurate top-10 list would resemble something like:

1- a handgun

2- ammunition

3- you get the idea

It's times like this I'm happy that I live with gun owners.