http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/ "A tradition of excellence for ___ years, and a tradition of mediocrity for even longer." en-US Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:25:58 +0200 Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:25:58 +0200 Blog.com http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3981106/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3981106/ RECOUNT, the story of how Bush stole the election from Gore, is a well-done movie but painful to watch. When you consider the state of the union eight years later and the state of the world, it’s hard to live through that again, watching the Republicans and the Supreme Court stand in the way of counting ALL votes and thereby hand the election to W., a man widely considered to be the worst president of all time. Snake Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:14:18 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3977441/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3977441/
Has anyone noticed that McCain looks unhinged (insane) during the debates? For some reason, none of the pundits mention it. He had that crazed look when he promised to take care of bin Laden (“l’ll get him”) and he had that same demented look when he said that fixing social security was easy. There’s nothing to it. Medicaid/Medicare is a bit harder but he had a plan for that too. Just get the smartest people in the country together in a room and lock the door. He can do it. We can do it because we happen to live in the greatest country in the history of Earth and maybe of the whole galaxy. Snake Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:04:28 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3975260/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3975260/ This is a warning to Osama bin Laden. (In case you’re not familiar with that name, he’s the man who wants to kill us all.) You’d better watch out, Mr. bin Laden sir cause John McCain is gonna get you. He knows how to do it. HE JUST KNOWS. And he’ll get it done. He’s gonna get it done. He’s gonna get you. We don’t have to worry about a thing. All we have to do is vote this guy into office and he’ll take care of the rest. Snake Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:30:50 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3972133/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3972133/ Years ago, while writing an article about drug addiction, I spoke with a researcher/activist with whom I’d talked many times over the years. At the time he was suffering from acute leukemia and from what he said about it, I thought he was a goner. I had not heard his name mentioned for many years which confirmed my hunch that he had not survived. But yesterday I read an article on the same subject about which I had written more than 10 years ago. The guy I was worried about is still alive and kicking--and still pursuing his research. Snake Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:41:54 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3964559/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3964559/ The house next door was on sale recently and someone was evidently quite interested--interested enough to want to know whether the garbage cans came with the house. This was a house that was selling for nearly half a million dollars. The garbage cans about which he inquired cost about $15 when they were new--10 YEARS AGO. I guess this individual was disappointed to learn that some of the garbage cans belonged to the neighboring house (i.e., my house) because he did not end up purchasing said dwelling.
Snake Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:29:13 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3961861/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3961861/ The Republicans have been playing the “expectations lowering” game for a long time. Why? Mainly because their candidates for the top jobs have generally been somewhat  lacking in intellect compared to the Democratic candidates. There’s been one excuse after another--”I’m not an Oxford debater” or “I’m not from Washington,” etc.,etc. Bush relied on this crutch for years; McCain is using it too, and so is his running mate.

The really maddening thing about it is that this strategy seems to work, time and again. As a result, Gore couldn’t beat Bush in a debate, Kerry couldn’t beat Bush in a debate, Obama couldn’t beat McCain in a debate, and now Biden couldn’t beat that hockey mom who was like a high school debater onstage with someone who actually knew what he’s talking about.

Expectation lowering only works for one reason: intelligence lowering.
Snake Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:19:36 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3953774/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3953774/ What a polite society we live in. I’d been getting junk email from Thrifty Car Rental for awhile and finally decided to put a stop to hit so I hit the “unsubscribe” button and took myself off the list. I got the following response: “Thank you for choosing Thrifty Car Rental.” And you get a nice note like that even when you’re choosing to have nothing further to do with them.
Snake Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:38:36 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3945919/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3945919/ My cousin and his daughter visited us this weekend from southern California. Feeling bad about the fact that we had three straight days of rain here in Boston, I told him that before that we had an almost unbelievable stretch of nearly two weeks without any rain. My cousin was not impressed. “Two weeks between rainstorms?” he scoffed. “That’s the rainy season for us. Snake Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:52:30 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3941128/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3941128/ Tonight’s debate was hard to get through; a bit of a snoozer, you might say. I was ready to turn it off early in the proceedings. Just one thing kept me going: I watched in the hopes that McCain might have a senior moment. But it seems he forgot to have one. Snake Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:04:01 +0200 http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3938618/ http://cambridgeguy.blog.com/3938618/ Just to set the record straight: John McCain is not a chicken. (Nor is he a pig with lipstick.) It’s just that there are more important things facing the nation right now than debates. There’s the financial problem for one thing, and McCain claims to be dropping everything--including his campaign--to fix it. (Or is he trying to fix his campaign?) The thing is, McCain is one of the people who helped create the financial mess we’re now in. So the job he’s now assumed is clear: He wants to take this huge problem, that is partly of his own making, and make it worse. Snake Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:00:03 +0200