Something I Wish I'd Said

"McCain was a child of immense privilege, a son and grandson of admirals, given a prized education at the Naval Academy which he threw away - a performance he now touts in his favor. He dumped his first wife in favor of a fantastically wealthy heiress. He has had more money for a longer time than Obama has ever dreamed of. Obama, meanwhile, grew up on food stamps, was reared by a single mother and grandparents and by dint of sheer talent and hard work got to be the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He was given very little and made the most of it; McCain was given so much and began his life, as he concedes, by taking it all for granted." -Andrew Sullivan, commenting on John McCain's narrative of Barack Obama being an "elitist" and "out of touch with average Americans"

Barack Roll

It was only a matter of time until I posted one and I'm glad I waited for an Obama roll to appear:
For the less Internet savvy, you can read about the phenomenon here. And yes, it's going to be an all-Obama day; prepare yourselves.

RIP, Issac Hayes

Isaac Hayes was found dead in his Memphis, Tennessee home this morning at the age of 65. The police do not suspect any foul play. Hayes was best known by people over 40 for his sweet-ass rendition of the theme song to the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft, for which he earned an Academy Award for Best Original Song (the first Academy Award received by an African-American in a non-acting category) and two Grammys. He was best known to people under 40 as the voice of Chef on South Park.

For anyone who doesn't watch the show, South Park regularly and unapologetically skewers various aspects and institutions of culture, with religion being no exception. They've made fun of Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Mormonism and Hayes seemed to have no problem contributing to those shows but when they went after the relatively secretive Church of Scientology (making sure to tell the viewers in frequent captions that "This is what Scientologists actually believe") Hayes decided to quit the show. I have to say that as much as liked Isaac Hayes and his work I found this to be highly hypocritical; it was as if he was saying that there should be a different set of free speech standards when it comes to his religion and I highly disagree. Unfortunately, this seems to be a running theme in Scientology.

That aside, I do love the theme to Shaft and I miss his character on South Park. Matt Stone and Trey Parker commented on the departure of Hayes from their show in the episode The Return of Chef, so I'll let Kyle deliver the eulogy:

Zeus Takes His Time

This slo-mo lightning strike is beautiful and lethergic at the same time:

Obama's Olympics Ad

Despite all of John McCain's cheap shots and personnal attacks of late, Obama keeps to the high ground by running a national ad that focuses entirely on energy policy. In a general election in which both candidates pledged to run a clean race, we're starting to see which of these guys is running on actual integrity:

Old Man McCain

I really do believe that John McCain's age is a legitimate issue in this election. I've read countless comments on other sites by septuagenarians who all say that the last decades of your life are filled with these kinds of "senior moments" and I see no reason to believe that McCain is not as susceptible to this phenomenon of aging as any other elderly American. I remember my grandparents at that age: they would routinely nod off several times a day and lose track of the topics of conversations on a regular basis, and they were pretty sharp people (OK, my grandpa was pretty sharp).

McCain's continuation of some of the worst policies of the Bush administration is reason enough to vote against him this year but when you combine that with the fact that he's on the downward slope of his mental and physical faculties, the choice for me becomes obvious:

Strong Women In TV Awards

You've come a long way, baby:

Right Wing Fashion

This is the latest item up for sale on the conservative news site The Drudge Report from the company ThoseShirts.com, self-identified as making "the best conservative t-shirts". A quick glance at their website reveals that while they're anti Obama, Hillary, Che and whales, they're decidedly pro Reagan, guns, babies and torture. This is the cultural by-product of the modern Republican party.

Obama Takes The Negative Positive

John McCain has certainly morphed from the high-minded "maverick" he was proclaimed to be earlier this election year. Check out Obama taking the negative to the "wrinkly, white haired guy" in this new online ad:

Darwin Awards

Very high in the rankings; I'm going to miss these guys.