Yes, John McCain has picked his running mate and it’s Alaska governor Sarah Palin.  umm…who?  Well, since I know absolutely nothing about her, I won’t provide much comment on the choice, but considering 99% of the American public probably doesn’t know anything about her, I don’t feel like I’m out in the cold.

I wouldn’t worry too much who McCain picked since he doesn’t see the VP role as all that vital.  Take a look at his response to that question from the Iowa debates a while back.

So there you go, he thinks the VP should do only two things.

1. Break ties in the Senate
2. Check on the health of the President on a daily basis

Given this, it sounds like he didn’t have a large set of requirements for his VP selection committee to go by.  To be fair, he was kind of joking, but his point is clear, he would be the President and only give minor responsibilities to his VP.

In some ways I agree with that, but I still think I want a VP candidate with some experience, I mean after all the man just turned 72 yesterday.  But again to be fair, I’ll give her some time to show who she is and how she stands on the issues before I pass any judgment.

There have been a few things written about her already today.  She is adamantly pro-life and wants to expand oil drilling and doesn’t think polar bears are endangered.  Other than that, I haven’t heard much and that’s really not enough to make any decisions about her.  There has been some comment that she is pro ID, but from what I’ve read so far, the jury is definitely still out on that one.

We’ll see how this plays out over the next month or so.  This could turn out to be the most brilliant choice ever or the most asinine, time will tell.

This is from theonion.com and it just cracked me up.

It’s entitled "Portrayal of Obama as Elitist Hailed as Step Forward for African Americans"

A friend of mine received a letter a few weeks back from Cindy McCain.  It was no ordinary letter.  Inside was a note from Cindy letting us know that John’s birthday was coming up, in fact it’s today!  She doesn’t mention his specific age (he’s now 72) but she does go on to say how it’s been an issue in the campaign and does her best to spin it as a positive saying:

“From the very beginning of this campaign, John has taken plenty of hits from late-night comedians and many of his detractors about his age.  Yet, as he travels the country he jokes about it just as much as they do…Thankfully, many Americans find John’s age an important asset in this year’s presidential contest”.

Also included was a birthday card along with a request to put a donation in it and send it to John.  I’ve included pictures of the cover and the inside of the card below.  Click on the images for the larger view.

It’s a nice picture of John don’t you think…they highlight his right side and put his left side in shadow to downplay the swollen gland.  The message is relatively benign as well, but I couldn’t help thinking that Cindy could probably fund the campaign herself.  I mean how much is SHE giving him for his birthday.

John has decided to give himself a running mate for this birthday…good for you John, now that’s a present that keeps on giving, well if you make it into the white house.  So happy birthday John and I hope you have many more.

I don’t know why the news media continues to report on this stuff, but for some reason they do.  It’s another report of someone thinking they see Jesus in something.  This time it’s on the back of a moth and of course it’s from Texas.  Now, I have a few questions about this, like, how do they even know what Jesus looked like? and why would he present himself on a moth or as he’s done in the past on pieces of toast, or in tree bark or in a piece of glass?

What I want to see is a news story that says Image of Jesus seen in pile of poo dropped by sacred Hindu cow on stairs of Mosque in Israel.  Now that would be news.

There’s actually a term for this kind of thing, it’s known as pareidolia.  Basically, it’s our brains trying to interpret random shapes/markings into something that has meaning.  It’s the same as seeing images in clouds.  Phil Plait over at BadAstronomy.com has a whole category devoted to pareidolia and he does a pretty good job showing the idiocy of these things.

Charlie Bartlett is another in a string of teenage angst movies where the protagonist plays a fish out of water.  In this version, his name is Charlie, a rich kid who gets kicked out of his prep school for making and selling fake ID’s and is forced to go to public school.  He doesn’t fit in very well when he arrives wearing his embossed prep-school blazer and tie.  He ingratiates himself to the school bully who promptly sticks Charlie’s head in a toilet and then ambushes him after school and beats the crap out of him.   All in all, not an unexpected first day.  His clueless mother decides to send him to the family therapist who quickly prescribes Ritalin and a business is born.

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I’m probably one of the last to post anything about Obama picking Joe Biden as his running mate, but hey, I do have a life.  The decision seemed to be fairly certain more than a few days before the actual announcement which came via text message at 3am…hmm…I wonder if that is somehow linked to that 3am phone call ad?  nah.  McCain seemed to know the decision early too given that they had ads ready to run as soon as it was announced.

So how do I feel about the decision?  Pretty good.  I think it’s a great choice to round out the weak spots in Obama’s resume.  I was a Bill Richardson fan during the primaries, but he doesn’t have the charisma to make it and certainly didn’t think as well on his feet.  Biden seems to be a likable guy, although he could never gain any traction himself toward the nomination either.  He has very respectable credentials in the area of foreign policy and served as chairman of the senate judiciary committee.  I guess you get to do many things when you’re there for over 30 years.  NPR has more on his background here.

Also, I like the fact that he’s a pro-choice Catholic.  Not that I care what religion he is, but it sends a signal that maybe this guy can separate his religious life from his public service life, something I wish all politicians would do.  I don’t care if he is anti-abortion himself, but letting others have the choice and not forcing his dogma on others is what matters.  Or maybe he’s just like most American Catholics who don’t agree completely with their churches doctrines.  You can read more about Biden’s religious leanings here.  A couple of highlights from that article, he’s for stem cell research and opposes a federal ban on same sex marriage.

One thing I don’t understand is why both candidates aren’t required to announce their VP picks simultaneously.  It seems to me this gives McCain a bit of an advantage.  It’s kind of like getting to take a peek at your opponents cards before placing your bet.  I wonder if the McCain camp has a huge decision tree that now is eliminating potential running mates based on the Obama choice.  Move and counter-move, that’s what politics is.  But we’ll have to wait another week to see who McCain picks.

Now it’s on to the convention.  I don’t know if I’ll watch much, but I probably won’t be able to escape the din of commentators posing as reporters trying to tell me what it all means.

Well, ok, maybe the title should be links from the last two weeks as I’ve been meaning to post this and just haven’t gotten around to it.  It’s a collection of links to stories I found interesting in one way or another and thought I would share in case you missed them.

• California University can reject inadequate Christian coursework – You can pick any school you want, but if they teach crap, don’t expect to get into a good university.
• How to teach Science to the Pope – I still think the Catholic Church is overcompensating for Galileo.  Although I do give them credit for trying to reconcile Evolution with religion.
• Iranian refuses to compete against Israeli in Olympics – Just imagine, you train for years to get to the Olympics and you let your bigotry prevent you from realizing your goal….asinine.
• IOUSA – This is a new documentary on the state of the US National debt.  This could be the film I was hoping Maxed Out would have been.
• Golf Astrology – I hope this is actually a novelty book and not meant to be serious.
• Bill Hicks Movie – I can’t believe this would actually get made.  Bill would probably be speechless.

Well, I may have to go back and give the Transformers movie another star…it seems that after watching that movie, my sub-woofer has decided to go on the fritz.  That’s a technical term for it ain’t working no more.  In fact, it likes to make noises on its own whether it’s receiving a signal or not.  Must have gotten too good a workout from all them splosions and stuff.  It’s probably just coincidence, but you have to blame it on something.

The sub is a Velodyne HGS-10 that I got some years back and it’s been a great sub so I hate to just throw it away but as with most electronics, it’s typically a pain to try to find somebody who can actually fix it.  I originally bought the Velodyne because it was small and powerful.  At the time, my home theater room was my family room and space was at a premium, so a huge subwoofer was out of the question.  I had heard of the Sunfire subwoofer which relied on pushing lots of air with a smaller cone using a more powerful amplifier.  It was a nice compromise.  The HGS series from Velodyne was their answer to Sunfire and I ultimately went with their sub.

I remember getting the Avia Home Theater test disc and running my system through the paces.  I already knew it sounded good but I was curious just how low my sub would go.  The subwoofer test basically sends a signal to the amp that started at 120Hz and drops to about 20Hz.  The purpose of the test is to help determine the crossover point between the main speakers and the sub.  As I ran the test I stopped hearing the sub around 40Hz, but I sure felt it in my chest and as the signal dropped to around 20Hz, the refrigerator in the adjoining kitchen began to rattle quite loudly.

That was cool, so I ran the test again…and then again, each time with the same result.  Except after the third time I began to get nauseous.  Basically, my body couldn’t handle my insides rattling around from the low frequency vibrations.  I figured I had a pretty good subwoofer in terms of frequency response and I think I had the crossover adjusted properly.

So now the trick is how do I get it fixed.  The nearest service center is in Dallas or Houston, not really easily accessible during lunchtime.  But I really want to get it fixed as I’m not really keen on spending big bucks on a replacement right now.  So my quest begins.

First off let me say, when you try to explain what this movie is about to someone who hasn’t seen or heard about it, they look at you like you’re weird.  So as you read the synopsis, just remember, it’s really not about what you think it is about and after all, it’s only rated PG-13.

Ok, here’s the premise.  A guy can’t relate to real people so he goes online and orders a sex doll and treats it like it’s a real girl. See…I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not that kind of movie.

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Does anyone really want to see video of this?

Sorry, just made me laugh when I saw that headline.