You really have to be aware of your font, letterspacing, and use of all CAPS when you're printing the name FLICK.

Hope & Fear

The polls are still open in the "Potomac Primaries" of MD, DC, & VA as I write this and the question being asked everywhere is "what does it mean to Clinton if Obama (as expected) sweeps?" It occurs to me that Obama was almost left for dead by the media after losing by a couple of points in New Hampshire. If Clinton had won Washington, Nebraska, Louisiana, and Maine by 2 to 1 last weekend (as Obama did), the media would not be waiting for tonight's results; the punditocracy would be screaming for his withdrawal in the name of party unity. I don't expect anyone to be making that call of the losing candidate tonight. She still has her Giulianiesque reliance on the primaries of March 4th.
But that's not the point of my writing.

Barack Obama in Washington Square Park
in Greenwich Village on September 27, 2007

I wanted to write about Hope and Fear. I'm reading the Herbert Lottman biography of Albert Camus at the moment, and the mentions there of "Neither Victims Nor Executioners" ("Ni Victimes ni Bourreaux") were very intriguing to me, and the discussions seemed very contemporary in this age of Guantanamo's military tribunals. I found an English version of Camus' essay online this morning and was shocked by the first paragraph:

The seventeenth century was the century of mathematics, the eighteenth that of the physical sciences, and the nineteenth that of biology. Our twentieth century is the century of fear. I will be told that fear is not a science. But science must be somewhat involved since its latest theoretical advances have brought it to the point of negating itself while its perfected technology threatens the globe itself with destruction. Moreover, although fear itself cannot be considered a science, it is certainly a technique. (tr. Dwight Macdonald)

George W. Bush was the last President elected in Camus' century of fear (which technically ended on 1/1/01). Could the first new president elected in the 21st century actually triumph using something other than that most tried and true marketing tool??

The biggest fear-monger in this primary season, Rudy "Noun,Verb,9/11" Giuliani was quickly rejected for more than just his bad Florida strategy, though he had been the media-anointed front runner only six months ago. Really, they reasoned, how could such pure fearmongering without experience fail to excite the Republican, if not the American, electorate?

A quick Google search for the phrase "Hope and Fear" led me to this very interesting article by Andrew Sullivan in the December 30, 2007 issue of The Sunday Times (London): "America has a clear-cut choice: the candidates of hope or fear". It turns out that he identified only two candidates of hope in his review of the field (before the winnowing started in Iowa on January 3rd):

After following this race for an almost interminable preamble, all I can say is that I can’t imagine a more constructive race than one between Obama and McCain. The odds are still against it. But it is more imaginable now than at any time in the past year.

I may not totally agree with Andrew Sullivan's idea of John McCain as the candidate of hope (though his lack of anti-immigrant fearmongering and his principled attack on torture do put him head and shoulders above his fellow Republicans), but how hopeful is it that these two have now beaten the long odds (even if the candidate of fear among the Democrats will hold out at least until her campaign reaches the Alamo on March 4th)?

MoveOn.Org Members Have Voted

Click Here to read the details of the organization's endorsement of Barack Obama.

Ann Coulter will campaign for Hillary over McCain

I had another conservative woman say to me yesterday that Republican women will vote for Hillary in droves, but I thought she was joking until I saw this clip from last night's "Hannity & Colmes":



Is this the ugliest set and screen design that you've ever seen? I don't have cable (and if I did I probably wouldn't watch Fox), so maybe it's become the norm, but what is all that animated crap at the bottom of the screen??

Ann Coulter campaigning for Hillary?
Yesterday it was the New York Post endorsing Obama on its front page. What's up?

Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.

--Ghostbusters (1984)

This Progressive Blogger Has No Trouble Making His Choice

Barack Obama in Washington Square Park
in Greenwich Village on September 27, 2007

Bob Cesca wrote in the Huffington Post yesterday that "It's Time For Progressive Bloggers To Choose A Candidate". This particular blogger has no trouble picking Barack Obama as his choice of the remaining contenders (he was my choice when there were still 8-10 men and women debating each other).
I'm looking forward to voting for Barack next Tuesday, and again in November.

There's a Difference?

"In last week’s column, I mistakenly attributed a quotation from Michael Medved to Michelle Malkin. I regret the error."

--from Irving William "Bill" Kristol's
weekly New York Times rant, 14 Jan 2008

"In next week’s column, I will again mistakenly use the same reasons for attacking Iran that I used for attacking Iraq. I regret the error in advance."

--The disclaimer that should be run by the Times at
the head of each of Kristol's columns

Have you taken the Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz yet?

Here are my results on the 2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz taken earlier today (with recent dropouts crossed out):

95% Mike Gravel
95% Dennis Kucinich
84% Chris Dodd
83% Barack Obama
82% John Edwards
81% Joe Biden
80% Hillary Clinton
72% Bill Richardson
35% Rudy Giuliani
27% Ron Paul
20% John McCain
15% Tom Tancredo
14% Mitt Romney
14% Mike Huckabee
5% Fred Thompson

Before you laugh at mine, get your results here: 2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

403 Days Until My TV Dies, or Is anyone else looking forward to February 17, 2009?

This is what my television will be broadcasting from February 17, 2009 on, and I couldn't be happier.
Anyone else out there looking forward to DTV (Death of TV) day?

The Most Important Issue for Voters of Both Parties

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

What is the easiest thing you can do to help the environment?

... not only is it easy, but it will save you money.

The victory of expensive tap water in disposable bottles delivered by trucks and labelled by Coke ("dasani") and Pepsi ("aquafina") over inexpensive tap water delivered through (emission-free) pipes is a victory of expensive advertising and scare tactics over common sense and the common good. But it may, with just a little help like this editorial in today's New York Times, be just a temporary victory.