Somehow I managed to sit through the vice presidential debate last night.. well, part of it. Edwards honestly did a pretty good job, and I was forced to eat my own words as he slammed Cheney regarding Haliburton! There wasn’t a terribly clear distinction on many issues, but a few things set them apart. Jobs, taxes, health care and education proved that at least they’re not the same human being. Truthfully, as little support as I have for Kerry/Edwards, I must say that Edwards is the only human being of the 4 candidates. He’s a politician, yes, but a human.

Still, it seems to me that for a large portion of the population, this election is just another routine vote. Few people are even aware of the fork in the road we’re currently at. The way I see it, if Kerry’s elected, not much will change. The Iraq war will continue, the “war on terror” will pointlessly endure, health care will still be ridiculous and our basic rights will continue to be infringed upon. Bush would of course be a far worse situation to deal with, but what that could bring about amongst those of us who are paying attention might be a good thing. Our objections are slowly becoming more and more silenced. Our outrage seems completely futile. So would it be better to see Bush re-elected, just so more dramatic reforms could take place? Would they even take place? The P.J. O’Rourke book I’m reading right now names the three brances of the government: Money, Television and Bullshit. A major opposing force we as patriotic objectors face is the mass media. There’s almost no hope of reforming the way they do business, and therefore there may be no way to get truthful information to the citizens. The one upside I sincerely hope is available to us if Kerry is elected is that Bush and Rumsfeld could be tried for war crimes. I don’t care what court does it, if Bush was behind bars for the war crimes he blatantly committed, I would sleep better at night. Not to mention it would finally be a recognition that we had no business being over there, and even though we tried to stop him, he misled us. I think the Muslim world would appreciate that.

Honestly, I never liked Rodney Dangerfield. I thought his act was tired as hell. Even as a little kid, I was somehow upset by his very presence on my TV screen. Yet many comedians cite him as their inspiration, or mentor. I always saw him as unoriginal, but then again I’ve always been partial to the more abstract humor out there. I’m not really a big fan of jokes with punchlines. So I guess as far as winning me over is concerned, Rodney was screwed from the start. Still, I wouldn’t wish him harm, and I’m sure he’s gone to a better place, especially after having been in and out of a coma, and having several serious surgeries. Rodney Dangerfield, dead at age 82.

John Lennon’s killer was up for parole review again, and thank goodness they didn’t let that fuckstick out. I’m not even a big Lennon fan, but that fucking demented asshole deserves to spend the rest of his life in solitary. It sickens me to understand how senseless and self-serving Lennon’s murder was. Not only did we lose a great musician and philosopher, we lost someone that represented a lot of people’s views. Who even knows what John would have gone on to do if he were still alive today. So, rot in hell Chapman, you total fucking dickhead.

Older brother accused of cushion-fort prisoner abuse.

‘Twas a nice lookin’ morning in Cleveland. It’s been really clear lately, probably because fall is setting in and the humidity is heading out.

Tonight in Cleveland, at Case Western Reserve University, will be the Vice Presidential debate. Much like Obi Wan felt Darth’s presence, I sense a disturbance in the force that can only be attributed to the emperor himself, Dick Cheney. On Stern this morning, they kept saying that Edwards was going to put a boot up his ass, but come on… these are just as rigged as the presidential ones. It’s not like he’ll have an opportunity to bring up Haliburton or something.

Iran now has a missle that can reach 1,250 miles. Of course it’s unconfirmed, but if that were true it could reach Israel and perhaps eastern Europe. It’s non-nuclear, and they continue to deny the existence of a nuclear weapons programme. I don’t have much to say about this… let’s just hope it’s not used.

All r3tr0 readers are probably aware that, until we are able to travel between planets and galaxies, I will not be satisfied with our space technology. Still, now that SpaceShipOne has won the $10 million X-prize, I feel we’re making significant progress towards the average citizen travelling to space. Congratulations, dudes. Now, get me to Mars for under $500.

Why is it that the cutting edge of technology is always related to weapons and the military? As soon as planes were invented, they were being used in the military. Nuclear devices were used for weaponry before power. The Internet was invented by DARPA, which is tied to US defense. Now, when research on anti-matter is growing, most of the talk is centered around devastating bombs. The energy from colliding positrons and antielectrons “is 10 billion times … that of high explosive,” Edwards explained in his March speech. Moreover, 1 gram of antimatter, about 1/25th of an ounce, would equal “23 space shuttle fuel tanks of energy.” Now that’s fucking impressive. See, if I were President, I would demand that every speck of research be devoted entirely to space travel. I’m greedy like that. Plus, why do we need bombs that devestate humans with gamma radiation? Where 50-millionths of a gram could produce the same blast force as the Oklahoma City bombing? It’s frightening to know that somewhere people are calmly discussing the logistics of such efficient killing devices.

I still don’t really feel informed about global warming, but the evidence seems to be piling up. I know that Antarctica has been losing great sheets of ice, but I learned today that the Arctic Sea’s ice has also been shrinking. The latest satellite information indicates the September 2004 sea ice extent was 13.4 percent below average, a reduction in area nearly twice the size of Texas, said Mark Serreze of CU-Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center, or NSIDC. Dayum! Can we afford to lose that much? When will New Orleans just get it over with and sink into the Gulf? These questions cannot and will not be answered by me.

Alright, someone I know needs to call me up and convince me to purchase this. On Craigslist, someone in Lakewood is selling their ‘84 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with 250k miles for $1. ONE DOLLAR. I realize the title and whatnot would be much more, and the insurance would suck, but dammit… one dollar!!!

Here’s a really weird blog that’s generated by a Perl script which accidentally can speak awfully shitty english.

Another long weekend for me. I called in sick Friday and went to Katy & Bob’s farm with NDR. I have yet to look at the pictures, but I took a bunch, and I’ll post the good ones on here soon. So all day Friday we fished and lounged around the property. Saturday morning we went to the local farmer’s market, which is set up in a Rite-Aid parking lot. It’s actually quite sweet, and Katy’s booth was the best by far. I had to rush back so we could start recording after that.

The Moon is working on a new album, and Saturday we finished the drums for 9 of 11 tracks, so it is coming along nicely. I’m slightly pissed at myself because, when we’re not recording, I can always come up with an album name. Now that it’s crunch time, I got nothin’. In fact, the ideas that I have come up with are disturbingly idiotic. Oh well. It’ll come to us somehow.

Sunday I was awaken by my stepbrother Jay, and informed that the SmittyTour was about to begin! I was thinking it was next weekend, so I was in the middle of a rather strange dream. By the end of the round I had a migrane and my club heads were all dirty from hitting the ground before the ball… a new approach I seem to have involuntarily adopted. At least the Browns managed to soothe my aching head by winning against the Redskins 17-13. I didn’t see most of the game, but I did see us win! Afterward I went to meet Ken and Ev for some sustenance, and you could tell dudes were out celebratin’ the victory.

We all know FOX News is deplorable, biased, and is assisting this country in its downward spiral to utter mindlessness… yet they still found a way to take it one step further. They (supposedly) accidentally released an item that painted Kerry as a metrosexual obsessed with his nails. In doing so, they unknowingly unearthed a sub-genre of American citizens that I inherently despise: the macho, Bush-loving man. Not only just being macho, but seeing it in Bush, and recording it as a trait that a great leader should have. Both of those hypotheses are woefully incorrect. On top of that, the mocking tone suggests to me that there is a demographic of Bush lovers that are probably saying things like “Dude, Kerry’s a fag. Look at ‘em, he’s all fruity and Bush is such a hard-ass!” I’m fearful of just how big that demographic might be. Sadly, we can’t expect political discussion in this country to go beneath the surface, but in this case, the surface remains unscathed.

Baghdad Burning has been updated again. Please read.

Although I also read that Mayor Daley in Chicago relaxing marijuana laws, I am deeply saddened to read that police in Columbus burned $33 million dollars (24,000 pounds) of ganja. Actually, that must’ve been some shitty weed, because if it were really good stuff, it’d be closer to $76 million. Regardless, a moment of silence please .. for this huge loss of perfectly good weed.