Red Sox and the Redskins

I'm not that big of a sports fan (too much corporatization, too much self-centered ego in many athletes) but watching an exciting seven-game ALCS and then a historic but boring World Series was, overall, great sports. The Boston Red Sox were able to break an 86-year old curse, which I was hoping they'd do. Great news for Boston, Massachusetts. This weekend, I'm also praying that the Washington Redskins will get pummeled in Sunday's game. Not that I have anything against the Redskins (except maybe for their antiquated racist name) but EVERY Redskins game the weekend before a presidential election has mirrored the outcome of who will be in the White House. For SEVEN decades. Since FDR!!! While the Redskins have been a good team this season let's hope that they absolutely forget how to play the sport when they take the field at 1:00 on Sunday.
This election, I must admit, though, has gotten out of hand. The presidency will not be determined on November 2nd but on a much, much later date. The thousands of lawyers waiting to file claims of unfair voting methods (something that only the Supreme Court itself has to blame for even hearing the 2000 joke) will keep the results tied up for months. People will be screaming, "we have to know who won and now!" "The economy will collapse!" "What will other countries of the world think about us?" I've heard them all. We have no problem, and in fact encourage other countries to take their time in counting ballots and investigate claims of fraud, yet if we can't find out by the time the next West Wing airs, the country's going to hell in a handbasket. That's America for you: a drive-through election. We don't have the patience to do things thoroughly and properly; we do them just to complete them. It's as if the mentality of the country as a whole is that of my juniors. I did it and tried, therefore should receive the full benefits of an A grade. This is part of what makes our "democratic" system a giant straw man. If we truly cared that the system was more important than either our candidate's victory or whether the damn thing was executed in a short amount of time, we would actually fix the loopholes and end voter fraud; we would keep absentee voter ballots from being stolen (which, by the way, was the case in Brower County, FLORIDA where 58,000 Democratic ballots are missing). Am I cynical? You bet. Do I have a right to feel that way? You bet. Will I still vote and uphold one of my responsibilities as a citizen of this country? You bet. Democracy, as Mark Twain said, is a terrible system, except when compared to all of the other systems. I hope Sam was right.
I'm giving further props to my friend, Chris Brown, who helped break a story in Fresno of a television network owner only giving free campaign air time to Republican candidates. Read his blog; you can still access it from the upper left of my page. Even made Eric Alterman's Altercation on the MSNBC page. Go Chris.

Bruce was out campaigning for Kerry today. Let's hope it helped. Probably won't, but EVERY vote does count.

Here's to Bush's planning that successfully helped the U.S. military lose track of a cache of 380 tons of fissile conventional weapons that will probably be used to detonate a nuclear weapon in the United States. This would be an absolute tragedy but another sign of the chickens coming home to roost. Let's just pray that the sign that there's no more room in the coop comes this Tuesday.

I've been waiting for October surprises, but Arafat? I never would have called that, even while watching last night's episode of the West Wing. Great t.v. Go watch it.

Non-sequitor: I'm on a major Dylan kick right now and am open for suggestions in trying out some Zimmerman that I've not heard; maybe something from the 80s or 90s. Can anyone help me out?

Tomorrow night is my place of employment and alma mater's homecoming. Maybe I'll see a bunch of girls I used to have crushes on who wouldn't give me the time of day that have since gone downhill and appreciate life even more due to all of the good karma. :)