I’ve haven’t been shy about telling people that I like Barack Obama. One of the things I’ve like the most about him and how he’s run his campaign is his views on campaign finance reform. When Feingold said that campaign finance reform was the biggest issue in politics today, people laughed at him. When Barack Obama opted out of public financing, McCain attacked him and called him a liar.
There are two clear sides of the issue here. Side One: Obama opted out so that he doesn’t have a maxium amount of money he can spend on his campaign. We already know he’s a money raising machine, but McCain is arguging that not only did he break his promise saying that he would use public funding, but he’s opting out of the money in order to spend basically unlimited funding on his presidential campaign. McCain is already starting to look for excuses for why he’s going to lose. What a cry baby. Side two is the the theory I’m buying into. Obama is opting out of public funds so that hes keeping his pledge on not taking money from lobyiests. Could you imagine a president elected that didn’t owe favors to every special interest group that donated money to them? Personally I think that kind of thing is huge. It seems like politics these days are all about paying back the favors that you called in to get yourself elected. What about a world where politics actually did their job? Where they voted in for what was best for the public and not what was best for them. That would be the day wouldn’t it?
Sadly George Carlin passed away on Sunday June 22nd. George was a beloved comedian. To me he represented a “real” comedian, someone who spoke about what he thought was funny, whether other people liked it or agreed or not. He was honest, forward, and had no fears about bringing that out in his comedy. He spoke from the heart and really hit home for a lot of people over his very impressive 40+ year career.
His Seven Dirty Words skit is probably what he’s most well known for, but my favorite has gotta be his “Religion is Bullshit”. Check it out below. Rest in Peace George, you will be missed.
It’s 8pm on Sunday and I’m wondering where the weekend went :). Damnit. Even though the weekend flew by, I can say that it was a pretty damn good weekend.
Friday I went down to Milwaukee and joined Bocko for a concert at his sister and brother-in-law’s place in Tosa. They hosted a solo artist named Justin Roth for the night, which was really excellent. It was cool being able to talk to Justin before the show as well as interact with him during the show. The concert was outdoors, so we got some lightning, thunder, and some big winds, but fortunately no rain. If you haven’t heard of Justin before, I suggest checking out some of his stuff on Amazon, he’s really good. Some of his guitar solos are just fricken amazing. I sware it sounds like he’s playing two different instruments at the same time. Good good stuff..
Saturday I went painballing with a bunch of guys for my friend Brooks’ bachelor party. We went to a paintball place in Fond Du Lac and spent about 3 hours shooting paintballs at over 170mph at each other. I have a few bruises on my body to say the very least. At least I wasn’t the guy who accidentally got shot in the balls. Heh.. After that we went out to the Highland house for some food, then went to a bar, where we got Brooks very very drunk. I think that’s what you’re supposed to do at your bachelor party, right?
Good weekend. It’s going to be really hard going into work tomorrow. Hope you all had a good one.
I’ve been in the market for a new cell phone, seeing as my VX8600 is working like beat up 1980 Ford Pinto. Until recently it’s been a great phone, but little by little it seems to be falling apart. A few months back my “OK” button started falling off, which makes txting a HUGE pain in the ass. I’ve superglued it 3 times now, and it’s not wanting to stay. Since my contract isn’t up til early next year, I have a few options..
Use my wireless insurance, pay $50 and get a brand new (same) phone
Cancel my service and pay an early termination fee (yeah right..)
Try to get out of my contract when they change a fee (has worked for others)
Keep whining about it, maybe somebody will feel bad for me
Whatever I do, I think I’m going to switch to Sprint or somebody else once my contract is done. Verizon isn’t bad, but it seems like I’m getting crappy service all over. Any Verizon users experiencing the same? I’m also looking to get more of a mobileweb device, because who doesn’t need to have the internets at your fingertips (like in the john for instance). If the Sprint SERO plans still exist early next year, I’ll probably get one of those. Can’t beat those prices.
I’ve also considered getting a 3G iphone from AT&T, but since my dad and I were able to do some minor surgery on my old ipod, the thing has been working like a champ, so I don’t really need it. Plus I do have concerns about having an mp3 player and phone all in one. Seems convenient to some, but a pain in the ass to me. What if you use all your batteries up playing music? Use a pay phone? I don’t think so.. So right now I’m leaning towards something blackberryish, treoish, or another variety of smartphone. Anybody seen the Samsung Instinct? It looks very cool.. Anybody got any other suggestions?
For those who don’t know, Firefox 3 is supposed to be released sometime Tuesday. What’s so good about Firefox 3? It’s got some drastic speed improvements as well as a ton of new features. I plan on jumping on the Firefox 3 bandwagon as soon as the official release is posted. Are you?
If you’re a dad and you’re reading this, Happy Father’s day.
My dad was up in Minocqua this weekend w/ my Mom, so I didn’t get together w/ him. For Father’s day, us kids are getting my dad a GPS unit for his car. It’s something that I’ve always been interested in getting for myself, but never have. Anybody have any experience w/ a GPS worth sharing? I’ve mostly been looking at Garmin unit’s, but am pretty open to anything.
I had a nice relaxing weekend, went up to visit a friend near Oshkosh on Friday, and then went to Milwaukee yesterday. I still gotta get to a Brewer game..
I added some pictures that I got forwarded to me from a crazy Chinese Ice Storm early this year. Definitely worth checking out. As scary as an ice storm like this has gotta be, I figure China has it coming with their whole trying to control weather thing. They’ve guaranteed no rain for the entire Olympic games. Should be interesting to see what happens.
Also I should be posting some pictures of my trip to Phoenix in the next few days.
I don’t remember time going so fast when I was younger. Can you believe that I’ll be with Kohler for 5 years in January? Sometimes I really feel like I could use a change of scenery. I’ve been talking about moving to the North Milwaukee Suburbs for some time, but with rising gas prices, etc, it’s hard to jump the gun on moving down there. A change of scenery would be nice though. I’ve got verbal confirmations on telecommuting two days a week and getting in on a carpool, but still I have my reservations.
There’s been an over abundance of rain up in this area over the past week. Fond Du Lac and Oshkosh got flooded out pretty bad. We didn’t get hit too hard, it just rained an awful lot. I lost power for about 90 minutes on Thursday, but just figured it was a good time to take a nap, which worked out just fine. :) I wish I had more good excuses to take naps.
In case you didn’t hear, Hillary Clinton is dropping out of the presidential race. Now Obama can finally focus on McCain and getting the nomination for president. I’m very excited about this, especially after some of the ups and downs of the past few months.
Also in case you hadn’t heard, the inventor of Pringles can is being buried in his invention. At least he’s didn’t have his head cut off and cryogenically frozen like Ted Williams.
Also how bout them Brewers? They crushed Arizona Dbacks (sorry David, Kate, & Sasha) twice in a row this week, including a game where they won 10-1 where Randy Johnson was pitching. Ooops? Probably better news is that they are on a six game winning streak, up to third in the NL Central, and up over .500. I really gotta get to a game. I should be around for the coming weeks. Who’s up for one?
I’m heading up north to Minocqua this weekend with my dad to work on some projects in the basement. Hopefully we’ll also have a chance to get out on the lake, do some fishing, maybe some kayaking. Should be a fun and relaxing weekend. I can’t wait to get up there.
