Labor Day Weekend

Ah, this is the life. Went to the Sunset with Olin friends, had some delicious food, a caribe (coffee + coconut rum + creme de cacao), and a black o'lantern (Guinness + pumpkin ale). Good times were had by all. David also brought me some manga back from Japan, and with any luck I'll be able to read it (albeit slowly).

I've been expanding my podcast listening a bit lately. I started listening to Clonepod (an EscapePod-like sci-fi fantasy podcast run by some kids), and although it's not as polished as EscapePod (perhaps not a fair comparison). I've also picked up kmo's C-Realm Podcast (mostly interesting interviews and thoughtful discussion).

I also took some time this weekend to watch this lecture by Cory Doctorow and Obama's acceptance speech (which even impressed conservatives).

More Palin Facts

I take back what I said about her maybe being a (relatively) good choice:

1. If you don't believe the whole covering up her daughter's pregnancy thing, you have to assume that she took over 12 hours after her water broke prematurely to get to a hospital, including an 8 hour plane ride and a drive away from the major city with the best hospitals in her home state.

2. The Republican arguments for her experience make her seem less experienced. "Alaska is close to Russia"... is that really their argument?

3. The arguments for why Palin would be qualified totally undercut previous arguments against Obama.

4. Apparently some people really did believe that McCain was pro-choice, and are now changing their votes. Who's that gullible, I ask. But these are the same people who were swayed by the Obama is a Muslim canard.

5. Palin apparently believes some crazy version of Republican revisionist history.

6. There are serious questions of whether Palin would put the interests of Alaska over those of the rest of the US. She directly said that she would put the interests of her region first when running for governor, and was (still is?) a member of the Alaskan Independence Party.

7. She's under an ethics investigation for firing a police official who refused to fire a state trooper who divorced her sister.

Thanks, McCain?