Here's a question I bet you can't answer:

Why is Trent Lott resigning?

"If you watch this 100 times you will still laugh"

"America's Joyous Future"

This was a big hit on reddit today, and I thought it was funny.

Book Review: Into the Wild

Chip had a great idea, to begin posting book reviews. Our reading material overlaps a lot, so we may have a few reviews of each book. Anyway, for the first installment of what I hope will be a long series, I will write about John Krakauer's Into the Wild.

In September, 1992, a group of moose hunters in Alaska stumbled upon the frozen and decomposing corpse of Christopher McCandless. McCandless had graduated from Emory University almost a year and a half prior, then donated all of his money to Oxfam America and took off westward in his old yellow Datsun with no destination in mind. His journey took him all over the western U.S., into Mexico, then back up north, and ultimately into Alaska. When John Krakauer learned about the young man's death, he wrote a long article about him in Outside magazine, on which this book is based.

John Krakauer guides us through McCandless' journey, by bus, freight train, canoe, foot, and hitchhiking, and he pieces together the last few years of the young man's life. McCandless was only about my age when he died, and I find it easy to see things from his worldview. The author, too, seems to be reminded of himself by McCandless, and at times in the book inserts personal anecdotes. It seems as though Krakauer had some wanderlust himself in his early twenties.

McCandless grew up in an upper middle class family in the D.C. suburbs, with a younger sister and parents who didn't always get along with each other. The last time he spoke to any of them was at his graduation from Emory. He met plenty of people as he traveled the country, but often introduced himself by a different name and recreated his history with each new acquaintance.

The things McCandless does are sometimes reckless, mostly fun, always exciting and occasionally thoughtless. Krakauer does a great job explaining the story through all the different points of view, before making a great case for his own. He has strong opinions about McCandless, and I think he's the perfect author to tell his story. I'd absolutely recommend the book. I should also mention that it was just adapted into a movie, directed by Sean Penn, which is now showing in theaters and is worth seeing.

Conservapedia

Have you heard of Conservapedia? It's like Wikipedia, only geared entirely towards the policical right-wing. Here is a link to a list of the Most Viewed pages on Conservapedia. You just can't make this up.

Iowa

In two ABC-WaPo polls released yesterday and today, it has been revealed that Obama is in the lead among projected Democratic caucus-goers with 30% of the projected vote (Clinton has 26%) and Huckabee has 24% of the projected GOP vote, inching up on Romney, who has 28%. Maybe I spoke too soon when I denounced democracy.

The Writers Strike

As you probably know, last Monday, TV writers went on strike. Here to rescue us from reruns and reality TV are the writers of the Daily Show.

The Troops

Yesterday, President Bush paid a visit to [the privately funded] Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX, and met with badly wounded veterans. He spoke a few words about DoD and VA medical care, but the most striking thing to me was the attention he paid to individual soldiers. President Bush is not the aloof "strategerist"/Decider as he is sometimes portrayed. It is well known that he visits personally with the families of the deceased (like Cindy Sheehan) as well as many of the wounded. He doesn't try to insulate himself from the war or its very personal consequences.

Look at the pictures. He sees what is happening much more than me and you. He sees more than what they show on the TV news or in the newspaper. What amazes me is that he sees it and he thinks that it's worth it.

Check out the pictures for yourself! Do you think it's worth it?

(Photos from AP website, and are available here.)

We the People

"Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people." - Abraham Lincoln

On Monday night, Chip posted here on this blog with an "urgent message": "Tomorrow is Election Day! Vote!" He followed up with some great reasons. Chip discusses how French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America praises the general American public for taking an interest in all levels of government and says that the U.S. is a country of leaders. Chip recalls the Iraqis with purple fingers crying tears of joy because in 2005 they finally had the opportunity to vote. He brings up the brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives for our great country, and the least we can do to make their sacrifice worthwhile is to vote.

"Democracy is a system ensuring that the people are governed no better than they deserve." - George Bernard Shaw

Chip is exactly right but exactly wrong. It is our duty to vote, it's a privilege that we should embrace. But voting should not be an "urgent message." We shouldn't wake up one morning in November and say "Oh wait a minute, I live in a democracy, I need to vote. This is urgent!" No. In order to vote we need to know who we are voting for; we need to know something about each candidate so we can make an intelligent decision. "Will they open up a new park? Try new energy alternatives? Will your schools be safe? Your streets? Will you face an increase in property taxes?" Chip asks these important questions, but if you walk into the voting booth and don't know any of the candidates names, then what's the point?

"The strongest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter." - Sir Winston Churchill

Americans are pretty ill-informed, about everything. (For some numbers, look here and here.) Americans don't take an interest in their government. Americans will vote on American Idol, discuss who is The Biggest Loser, and tell you all about Law and Order, but they can't name more than three Supreme Court Justices or their two U.S. Senators. Can you? Can you name your county commissioner? Your state senator? Your assemblyman? Democracy without information is pointless. If you don't know what your options are, then why should you even have options?

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried." - Sir Winston Churchill

I am frustrated with our democracy. I think a lot of Americans are apathetic about our government, and the spirit that Tocqueville praised in 1835 is completely nonexistent now in the year 2007. However, I can't really think of a better idea, except of course a Dan-in-charge-ocracy. So I will continue to vote, learn, complain, and post on this blog, right here in America.