Political/LA Times

I am so upset right now. Politically speaking, of course. This whole Sarah Palin thing is ridiculous, and I was, frankly, downright insulted when I heard she was McCain's VP pick. Not only does it seem like a rash, pandering, and cynical move, but I can just hear the pundits going, "But you said you wanted to vote for a woman, you know, break that glass ceiling! What?! I don't get it! What's wrong?" To which I can only reply, if you have to ask, you'll never know.

Fortunately, the people I admire over at Slog have neatly put my feelings on Sarah Palin into fully formed sentences. As has Samantha Bee over at the Daily Show (starting around 3:00, but I do recommend the rest of the video as well):



Away from the Republican side of things, at least Obama has responded to the Science Debate questionnaire. I am very pleased to see that his answers are not only intelligent and thoughtful, but demonstrate an understanding of the complexities of scientific issues. What utter, empty garbage that sentence is. Obama rocks my world because he listens to the current scientific literature and spells out concrete plans to fund more research and stop climate change. Hm, still full of weasel words. I've been watching too much internet (I don't do TV).

It seems now that McCain will also answer the questions, but hopefully both candidates will agree to the debate for which SciDebate2008 is calling. At last, as a science person (I don't think I'm officially "A Scientist" until I have my degree in hand), it feels nice to be pandered to.

Speaking of pandereing, since it's an election year it seems everybody's got a bit of Birthday Syndrome. What is this "Birthday Syndrome?" you ask. Well, let me take you back... way back... to a simpler time... your childhood: When you're a kid, what is the best day of the year? Christmas? No no -- your birthday. Because you get to be Queen (or King) for a day on your birthday. It's awesome! You get to eat whatever you want for breakfast, you get a cake, you get a party, you get lots of toys and shiny stuff, and best of all everyone has to be nice to you (not in the least because you got to bring cookies to class!). Your birthday's so great, you just wish it could last forever, or even just one more day would be nice. But it can't. Why? Because it's someone else's birthday. And the day after that it's someone else's, and then someone else's, and so on. For one day out of 365 you are the most important person in your world, which rocks, but face it, the other 364 aren't really that bad.

Birthday Syndrome, then, is the feeling that you deserve to have your birthday every day, the feeling that, even when it's someone else's 'turn', you still deserve to be the most important star in your little bubble. As for people outside your bubble, you don't even know they exist or care about them so long as they don't interfere with your birthday. Like I said, since it's an election year and the candidates have spent almost 18 months walking around, shaking hands and saying, "I care about YOU!", everyone wants a bit of the cake and pouts jealously when their persnickety demands ("I SAID I don't like crusts on my sandwich, MOM!") aren't promised to be fully met. I'm not going to name any names *COUGH*ReligiousRightEvangelicals*COUGH*, but I will say this to the party people attending the RNC: Can I have your sense of entitlement? Seriously. It seems to be doing wonders for you.

Anyway, they've got pretty good coverage over at my personal favorite, Slog, as well as perfect feminist analysis over at Jezebel. They're my political IVs that keep me going through the day until I can check out new episodes of The Daily Show or Campaign Update for a does of much needed comic relief. I can already feel myself entering political exhaustion... and it's not even November yet.

In other news, keep the music alive!

(I actually started this post a few days ago, and put this video in -- but after a few days hearing about the police crackdowns on protesters at the RNC it seems all the more scarily relevant.)

Enough with the politics... let's talk about parking. Right now I'm parking for free, theoretically, in Westwood. I'm not theoretically parking in Westwood -- I am parking in Westwood -- I'm theoretically parking for free. Well, free in terms of money, not free in terms of time and hassle, and as more people move back in to the neighborhood parking has gotten exponentially harder in the last week. In addition, I've racked up 2 infuriatingly dumb parking tickets in quick succession: once I was about 6 inches into the red zone (a very large red zone, I might add!), and the second was for being 7 minutes late (I kid you not) in moving my car from a 2-hour zone. Total: $115.

BAH!