Wednesday, November 03, 2004
My life for the next four years:
Bartender: Yes?
Me: another [margarita], please
Bartender: same?
Me: LET'S try it (burp) on the rockssss with no SSSALT this time
Bartender: ok
variation
Bartender: Yes?
Me: another [whiskey], please
Bartender: same?
Me: LET'S try it (burp) on the rockssss with WATER this time
Bartender: ok
-m
|
Bartender: Yes?
Me: another [margarita], please
Bartender: same?
Me: LET'S try it (burp) on the rockssss with no SSSALT this time
Bartender: ok
variation
Bartender: Yes?
Me: another [whiskey], please
Bartender: same?
Me: LET'S try it (burp) on the rockssss with WATER this time
Bartender: ok
-m
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
VOTER DRAMA
I never received my yellow card in the mail & I confess that a part of me worried that my name wouldn't be in the book when I arrived at the elementary school that is my polling place this morning. I have voted there before, though, so I knew where to go. And, there was no voter drama for me today. The poll workers were not incompetent. I didn't feel like anything "suspicious" was happening around me -- except for the strange, small men dressed in black scuba suits taking photos of the voters, but that could just have been fifth graders rehearsing for the morning assembly, or something.
On the radio, I heard a few accounts of voter weirdness. One polling place in New Jersey had a poll worker that didn't know voters had to sign the book. So, the first few hundred people who voted didn't sign & they sent a police officer to this guy's house to get him to return to the polling place. Another place is missing the registration forms of several thousand students who registered. They will be able to vote, but their registration will have to be verified for their votes to count & if they have never voted in New Jersey before, their ballots will not (or is it "may not"?) be validated.
There was a documentary on HBO last night about the 2000 election. I only saw the last 10 minutes, but it was enough to get the idea. Supposedly, the governor of Georgia, elected by electronic voting machines, won in a landslide that contradicted the polls. Also, he is the first Republican in GA since...the Civil War? Is it all a conspiracy? Could it be true that the electronic voting machines are rigged? In our country? In 2004? Is it possible, or is it equally possible we never landed on the moon? (I once went to a party where there was someone who tried to convince everyone there that we never landed on the moon. He offered the fact that we've never returned as evidence. In the end, I told him, "Stephen, I choose to believe we landed -- even if it's naive from your point of view. It's just a better reality for me." He looked at me with pity & went to "get a drink" on the other side of the room. Now, he writes a funny blog & a column for a magazine & will probably vehemently deny the whole moon incident.)
With every part of myself, I would like to think we are just paranoid & that there is a corruption cap that keeps things from really getting "that bad." I like to think that's the pragmatic point of view. But, really, I don't know what I believe. I feel like I know it won't go smoothly, but I hope there's at least a freekin' winner...and please let it be the tall guy with the big chin.
|
I never received my yellow card in the mail & I confess that a part of me worried that my name wouldn't be in the book when I arrived at the elementary school that is my polling place this morning. I have voted there before, though, so I knew where to go. And, there was no voter drama for me today. The poll workers were not incompetent. I didn't feel like anything "suspicious" was happening around me -- except for the strange, small men dressed in black scuba suits taking photos of the voters, but that could just have been fifth graders rehearsing for the morning assembly, or something.
On the radio, I heard a few accounts of voter weirdness. One polling place in New Jersey had a poll worker that didn't know voters had to sign the book. So, the first few hundred people who voted didn't sign & they sent a police officer to this guy's house to get him to return to the polling place. Another place is missing the registration forms of several thousand students who registered. They will be able to vote, but their registration will have to be verified for their votes to count & if they have never voted in New Jersey before, their ballots will not (or is it "may not"?) be validated.
There was a documentary on HBO last night about the 2000 election. I only saw the last 10 minutes, but it was enough to get the idea. Supposedly, the governor of Georgia, elected by electronic voting machines, won in a landslide that contradicted the polls. Also, he is the first Republican in GA since...the Civil War? Is it all a conspiracy? Could it be true that the electronic voting machines are rigged? In our country? In 2004? Is it possible, or is it equally possible we never landed on the moon? (I once went to a party where there was someone who tried to convince everyone there that we never landed on the moon. He offered the fact that we've never returned as evidence. In the end, I told him, "Stephen, I choose to believe we landed -- even if it's naive from your point of view. It's just a better reality for me." He looked at me with pity & went to "get a drink" on the other side of the room. Now, he writes a funny blog & a column for a magazine & will probably vehemently deny the whole moon incident.)
With every part of myself, I would like to think we are just paranoid & that there is a corruption cap that keeps things from really getting "that bad." I like to think that's the pragmatic point of view. But, really, I don't know what I believe. I feel like I know it won't go smoothly, but I hope there's at least a freekin' winner...and please let it be the tall guy with the big chin.
-m
