The Logic Lifeline

A logical approach to sorting out world events. Where logic, opinion and speculation are combined to produce a reasoned, but entertaining reading experience. The unofficial hometown conservative blog of Woodridge, Il

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

NObama 08 Blogburst

When Sarah Palin was announced as the VP pick, there was not a moment of peace after that point to reflect on what type of person she is. The daggers came out and accusations began flying. You can read a good list of these false claims posted by Incognito here.


In spite of political differences, I give everybody a fair shake. When I heard Obama during his Senate race here in Illinois, I had a good impression of him even though I disagreed with him. When he did a “touch and go landing” in the Senate and began his presidential campaign, I tried my best to see what everybody was buzzing about. I would love to have an election where there are two candidates. I may prefer one, but hopefully not fear the other one to win. In this election cycle that is not the case. Though I have looked objectively at Barack Obama, in the end I find his character to be an opportunist at best and a thug at worst.


I have already written about Obama strong-arming his way into politics by using gutter tactics – essentially disqualifying all four of his rivals by technicalities.


His nomination is tainted by the stench of voter fraud. Obama has strong ties to the organization ACORN. Boortz posts today about all the states where ACORN has been accused of voter fraud during the primaries: Washington, Michigan, Florida, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. We now find that Obama has a friend in the Secretary of State of Ohio who has been busily disqualifying GOP absentee ballots contrary to Ohio law.


Obama and his surrogates have continually stiff-armed the public when it comes to information about his past. While the media continues to give Sarah Palin a proctal exam, they continue to yawn when it comes to details about Obama's missing years at Occidental College, his trip to Pakistan, his years at Columbia, and his time on the Board of the CAC serving under terrorist Bill Ayers.


When it comes to any public dialogue about the areas of Obama's life that he does not want discussed, Obama uses quite a number of thuggish measures to squelch it. He sends out action alerts for his goons to flood radio stations with calls, he tries to use the Department of Justice on them, he threatens radio and television stations regarding their licenses, banning signs at rallies, and using Missouri law enforcement to intimidate free speech. It is obvious that Obama has a real problem with the 1st Amendment. If we see this haunting display of political brownshirt mentality during the election process, imagine what it will be like when (God forbid) he attains the presidency.


The thuggish character of Barack Obama is one of the reasons I decided to join the NObama 08 BlogBurst effort where a group of bloggers will be posting every Tuesday on why the United States needs to reject this man's bid for the highest office in the world. The other participating members of the NObama 08 BlogBurst are:


The Political Yen/Yang


Always on Watch

And Rightly So


Big Girl Pants


Confessions of a Closet Republican


Farmer’s Letters

ForeLeft


GeeeeeZ


Has Everyone Gone Nuts?


Papa Frank


Paleocon Command Center


Pondering Penguin


Social Sense


The Amboy Times

The Crank Files


The Jungle Hut


The Logic Lifeline


The Merry Widow

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Charlie Gibson Effect on Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton said recently about Sarah Palin:
"I come from Arkansas. I get why she’s hot out there — why she’s doing well. You know, people look at her and they say — all those kids. Something happens in everybody’s family.”
When applying the Charlie Gibson "exact words" method, Bill Clinton actually said:
"I get why she’s hot"
Exact words.

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Did You Really Think Through That, Union Thug?

United Auto Worker Union President Ron Gettelfinger underscores why I view most unions to be run by non-thinking thugs. In his eagerness to get a microphone and to attack John McCain, Gettelfinger spews out some nonsense that obviously was not thought through for two seconds. His statements according to CNN:

"The last thing we need is a presidential candidate who undermines autoworkers, and these days it seems that John McCain is doing just exactly that," he said. "When he's in the Midwest, he tells voters he supports the industry, when he is in other states he brags about buying a foreign car, as he did with the Prius." (It is not clear if McCain or his daughter bought the Prius)

Gettelfinger also pointed to comments McCain made in an interview with Detroit TV station WXYZ, saying, "I've bought American literally all my life and I'm proud."

"That's really a nice campaign line," Gettelfinger said of the comments. "But it turns out that John McCain wasn't being straight with the people of Detroit, or the state of Michigan, or our country as a matter of effect," adding later, "The American auto industry and the American voters deserve a president who will be straight with them.”

The McCains have 13 cars in their family fleet. Two of those are foreign made (Honda / Volkswagon). There is also a Lexus and Prius that are driven by Cindy and McCain's daughter, but are not registered to them. That leaves 11 American made cars in the fleet. Somehow Gettelfinger considers purchasing 11 American cars as an act that "undermines autoworkers". Apparently Gettelfinger is quite satisfied with Obama's contribution of 1 and only car because it is a Ford. Only in a liberal union thug mentality could one claim that even though McCain has put 11 times the dollar amount into the American auto industry as Obama, he is "undermining" it.

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Monday, September 22, 2008

Barack Obama's Gutter Tactics

The media has painted Barack Obama as above the fray running a clean and ethical campaign. This same media has attempted to paint the McCain campaign as the lowest, nastiest smear machine in election history. They jumped on McCain for allegedly lying about the nature of a sex education bill that Obama supported. The point of McCain's ad was to show that Obama has accomplished very little and that his support of this bill that actually failed was one of the few things that Obama could put on his political resume. When reading the bill in it's entirety, it obviously opens the door for very young kids being exposed to things they are not ready for. While it does claim it should be "age appropriate", who decides that? Just how do you make information on how to avoid STDs age appropriate for a kindergartender?

After plastering McCain for his "attack ads" as a below the belt SOB, the media has turned a blind eye to Obama's gutter tactics. While there have been a few stories on it (mostly media blogs), nobody has asked Obama about his ad that totally distorts parodies by Rush Limbaugh to whip up anger among hospanics. Nobody seems to be concerned about an outright "whopper" being told by Obama about McCain and Social Security in a desperate attempt to scare senior citizens in Florida.

While Obama continues to enjoy free MSM passes, there is a new report that underscores Obama's nasty Chicago political machine mentality. First, taking a trip down memory lane it is good to remember that Obama won his Illinois State Senate seat by "throwing all of his opponents off the ballot on technicalities". This political jujitsu move "Obama disqualified all four opponents -- including the incumbent state senator, Alice Palmer, and three minor candidates" according to the Wall Street Journal.

Now the Jawa Report shows that Obama is bringing his Chicago experiences to the national stage. Apparently some of the smears against Sarah Palin have been the work of a professional PR firm that has links to the Obama campaign. According to Jawa:
  • Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.
  • The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.
  • Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.
  • Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.
  • The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.
  • This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod's firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as "astroturfing."
  • David Axelrod is Barack Obama's chief media strategist.
  • The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.
While many may choose to claim a high standard of proof and deny this report (while retaining a wagon rut low standard of proof when it comes to accusations against Palin), apparently the owner of the mentioned videos takes this report seriously. In an update on this report Jawa notes:

[UPDATE: Within 1 hour of posting, "eswinner" has removed all videos from YouTube and began removing any traces of his activities. But we have the video and all relevant websites backed up.

If "eswinner" isn't Ethan Winner of the Publicis Groupe, then why did "eswinner" yank the video so quickly? Or if this was just an innocent homemade ad, then what does he have to hide? You'd think he'd want more attention for it.

The MSM can continue to highlight everything it can to put McCain in a bad light, don't expect to hear anything about this. Obama has a Season Free Pass with the MSM. Whether Obama wins or loses, the MSM has much to account for in this campaign. I am sure they are putting all their chips into Obama now because a reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine could allow them to skirt accountability of their shameless behavior. In the meantime, it is up to the New Media to expose Obama and his shameful Chicago style politics to strongarm his way into the White House.

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Talk About Abuse of Power

Since there is nothing else, the DEMs keep going back to the alleged "abuse of power" "scandal" involving Sarah Palin. Even though the fired guy admits he was never asked to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law, they still doggedly stick to it. Funny how DEMs run the other way when their is a REAL scandal like Charlie Rangel's tax evasion; yet hold on to GOP non-scandals like the old man of the sea around Sinbad's neck.

Newsbusters is posting on a real abuse of power scandal regarding that rally from which Sarah Palin was disinvited. We heard via the news how Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin were invited to the rally. When Hillary found out Palin was going, she ran the other way to avoid being on the same platform. When Biden couldn't or wouldn't attend, suddenly Sarah Palin was disinvited to avoid "politicizing" the event. Apparantly, there was more going on behind the scenes that we did not hear about. New York Democrats threatened rally organizers with an IRS evaluation of their tax exempt status if they did not exclude Palin from the rally.

Newsbusters links to local CBS and NBC stories to support its claim. So because Hillary chose her infantile action to pull out of the event and New York DEMs abused their power by threatening IRS action, the rally to protest Iranian leader Ahmadinejad's appearance at the United Nations will not be represented by any national leader.

My assumption is that the national media will ignore this action. Choosing to chase ongoing phantom accusations against Sarah Palin, they will continue to ignore real breaches of ethics by their Democrat friends.

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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Do Obama Supporters Ever Get Embarrassed?

It does not ever seem to matter what Obama does, his faithful do not seem to feel any shame. The left has ridiculed Bush for his weakness in speaking, but have no problem with Obama and all of his 'uh, uh, uhs', his 'you knows'. The left laughed at Dan Quayle for his misspelling of potato, but turn a blind eye to the Obama Gaffe Machine. The left ridiculed McCain because of his periodic problems using a teleprompter, yet they have no shame when Obama is so dependent on the teleprompter that he brought it with him on the campaign trail recently. With no real accomplishments in his career and no executive experience, the Obama campaign pitch should be limited to:

I can read!

The Wussification of American Politics

With every election cycle, we see the election process diminish and contort. The media has done quite a job on the minds of the people to replace historic precedent with their idea of what an election should be. We have moved past strong debate between candidates in the style of Lincoln-Douglas down to practically sitting at the table for Sunday dinner having a political discussion. In the past candidates strongly and clearly defining political positions and plans gave the people both a clear idea of what the candidates stood for AND helped educate the people with details they normally would not take the time to pursue themselves. Today, we can go through a year or longer listening to a candidate and still not have the foggiest idea what they really stand for or what we can expect from them.

A candidate is comprised of what is inside of them, their positions, their ideas, their accomplishments and their actions. What is inside them is their inner core, their character, their belief system, their likes / dislikes, their biases, their ability to be objective when appropriate, their ability to persevere when tested by heavy trials, their outreach to their fellow humans, and their sense of accountability. Their positions represent their ability to take a stand on principle as well as their ability to change when provided with ample reason to do so (outside of political expediency). Their ideas show whether they have the ability to be creative enough to address complex issues of the day with solutions targeted at solving problems rather than expanding government. Their accomplishments show that they have the ability to complete something they have begun; that they had a clear goal to achieve rather than working without aim. Finally, their actions show whether they have been true to and consistent with their inner core and embraced positions.

The goal of the political process should be to investigate and reveal the comprised elements of each candidate and communicate the findings to the American people so they can make informed votes. In other words, the election process should mostly target the intellect of the people. While emotions can be a part of the equation, they should take a back seat in the process.

There are two ways that the goal of educating the people can be accomplished: through the media and from the candidates themselves. We clearly see that the media falls flat in its responsibility to provide the people with the information they need to cast an intelligent vote. My first three substantive posts on this blog (here, here and here) deal with how the media uses what they say, what they don't say and how they say what they say to give the information to the people that they want and how they want. The white glove inspection the media is giving to Sarah Palin would not be so bad if all four ticket candidates went through the same treatment. Aside from highlighting the good, the bad and the ugly as desired, I have not seen any comprehensive coverage of the lives (personal and political) of John McCain, Barack Obama or Joe Biden. The American Thinker highlights key years in Barack Obama's life that we know very little about. The media seems very uninterested in the details of Obama's trip to Pakistan in 1981, the details of his life at Columbia University, why terrorist Bill Ayers selected an unknown Obama to serve on the board at CAC, and the details of his service on the board including his relationship with Ayers during that time. The media also continues to give Obama a free pass on any shred of details to his positions. After speaking, the media can only focus on the quality of delivery (with the aid of a teleprompter of course) instead of asking how. So we cannot trust the media to inform the people clearly and fully.

So education is left to the candidates to inform us about themselves and to inform us what they know of the other candidate that we cannot otherwise know. Once again the media steps in. Having failed (on purpose) at their job, they do not want anyone else stepping in to do their job. When a candidate begins informing us about the shortcomings of the other candidate with details the media will not provide, they step in and call that candidate "negative". They focus on any shred of a detail that may have been spun a little for effect and blow that up like the ink spray of an octopus and mask the important details that are true. They continue to push for "lovefest" style debate instead of direct, confrontational, effective discourse. Of course, what we often see is the media only applying the wussification factor to the GOP candidate. Anything by McCain that is not lovefest discourse is branded by the media as negative, low, sliming, etc. When Obama does it, the media portrays him as strong, direct, taking the gloves off, defending against swiftboat attacks, etc. They even get the definition of a swiftboat attack wrong. A swiftboat attack is an attack that is effective due to the level of distribution and because it is grounded in truth.

The people of America need to wake up and demand a better election process. I have at times desired to go beyond the two party system we have, but in reality the two parties would be sufficient if the process succeeded in providing voters with what they need to cast intelligent votes. Since the media is not at all interested in an informed voter (horror!), we must find a way to circumvent them. Blogs and talk radio do their part, but the media remains a fundamental tool in acquiring the basic building blocs of education. The octopus ink is sprayed by the media and then sprayed by the bloggers. While the MSM feels threatened by the new media, they are still a powerful force and will be for some time to come. Their goal is to hold on to that power as long as possible in hopes the new media will fade away or become regulated to the point they have no teeth.

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Sunday, September 14, 2008

Interview Questions by Gibson - A Comparison

According to the Hillary Clinton Forum here are the lists of questions from Gibson's interview with Barack Obama and Sarah Palin:

Obama Interview:

How does it feel to break a glass ceiling?
How does it feel to "win"?
How does your family feel about your “winning” breaking a glass ceiling?
Who will be your VP?
Should you choose Hillary Clinton as VP?
Will you accept public finance?
What issues is your campaign about?
Will you visit Iraq?
Will you debate McCain at a town hall?
What did you think of your competitor’s [Clinton] speech?

Palin Interview:

Do you have enough qualifications for the job you’re seeking? Specifically have you visited foreign countries and met foreign leaders?
Aren’t you conceited to be seeking this high level job?
Questions about foreign policy
-territorial integrity of Georgia
-allowing Georgia and Ukraine to be members of NATO
-NATO treaty
-Iranian nuclear threat
-what to do if Israel attacks Iran
-Al Qaeda motivations
-the Bush Doctrine
-attacking terrorists harbored by Pakistan
Is America fighting a holy war? [misquoted Palin]

These lists show a difference of night and day in the treatment by Gibson between Obama and Palin. Add to that the fact that he took TWO quotes by Palin, cut out relevant words in the quotes and used the distorted versions to ask her about them. When she challenged him about the quote not being right, he insisted "Exact words". Sure Charlie, the words in the fragmented quotes were exact, but they represent a totally different meaning.

Add to that the demeaning nature of Gibson toward Palin, as if he were talking to a school girl.

Add to that the fact that Gibson asked about the "Bush Doctrine" known to have multiple meanings. Palin may have known that the definition has changed over the years and wanted to make sure she was answering in the right context. Palin also likely sensed that Gibson was trying to link her to Bush as the Obama campaign keeps attempting to do. Her answer spared her that trap.

Add to that the fact that ABC hacked the interview to pieces. This gave the interview a very disjointed effect and when viewing the missing elements, it is very clear that some very good strong answers by Palin were cut out. You can see those missing statements at Mark Levin's website.

Finally, add evidence from this blog that ABC used different camera techniques with Palin than they did with Obama and Hillary Clinton. With Obama and Clinton, they are shown equal in size to Gibson. With Palin, however, they angle shows Gibson larger than Palin.

The media seems to have totally thrown all concern about their credibility out of the window in this election. Charlie Gibson and ABC hemorrhaged credibility in this interview. I think that at the least Gibson owes Sarah Palin an apology for his distortions of her quotes and Gibson owes an explanation of why there was such a discrepancy between the Obama and Palin interviews. I'm not holding my breath for either.

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Did the McCain Campaign Watch Karate Kid II?

As I have been watching the events unfold the last few weeks, I have come to the conclusion that somebody in the McCain camp has seen the movie "Karate Kid II". Ok, ok, the series was hoaky, campy, sappy, etc. but I admit I loved watching them when I was younger (and still do from time to time). The second movie ended with a fight between the "Daniel-son" and a more experienced but less honorable fighter. Just when all seemed lost, the town observers whip out their drum toys to convey to Daniel the secret of karate. The drum toy as pictured has two beads to strike the drum. When you move it back and forth the beads alternately strike one side of the drum and then the other. Daniel takes the clue and commences to strike his opponent alternately on each side of his face without giving him a break. He has no chance between blows to recover and finally falls.

Like the drum, alternate blows are being landed on Obama every day. The McCain camp is using the media's bias against itself and Obama. In one way or another McCain is getting the media to play and replay his messages. They often are doing this in an attempt to make McCain look bad, negative and mean; but the message gets played multiple times and it sinks in to the viewers.

One difference between the pictured drum and the campaigns is that there is at least one extra bead on the drum. That bead is the floundering Obama Campaign. They seem to be striking blows against themself almost as many times as the McCain campaign does:

- They leap before looking to pounce on Sarah Palin's inexperience only to have left their soft underbelly exposed to Obama's lesser experience.
- They allude to Palin's lack of accomplishment, only to again underscore Obama's lackluster career.
- They act like they are taking the high road and accuse McCain of gutter politics; then they send an attack team of 30 to Alaska to dig up dirt on Palin
- Obama exposes himself with the Lipstick on a Pig line. Normally an ok line to use, but with Palin's Lipstick on a Pit Bull reference, the correlation is too obvious. One of two problems here. Obama thought he could get away with such a low connotation (like he thought when he gave Hillary Clinton the finger while pretending to scratch his nose) OR he innocently used the line but when his audience immediately linked it to Palin (by their obvious reaction) he was too stupid to realize the gaffe and immediately correct the audience. Nasty or stupid: take your pick.
- Getting desparate the Obama camp scours Mother Jones, Daily Kos and Huffington Post for ideas. They come up with the "bright idea" to focus on John McCain's lack of using email and put out an ad about it. We are then reminded that due to John McCains POW injuries, it is too painful for him to use a keyboard. Power Line has the embedded ad AND a March 2004 reference to the fact that "McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes".

The Obama Campaign is in total disarray. Power Line points out that McCain has pulled even with Obama in Minnesota. Gateway Pundit points out that Obama is sliding in "Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Virginia". They also point out that the Dems are afraid of the racism factor ..... from fellow DEMs. I personally know this to be true. My wife and I have heard from multiple Democrat associates that although they are Democrat, they can't see themselves pulling the lever for "a black guy" (yes, they have their embarrassing members too).

I continue to remember that the winds can change the other direction just as quickly as they changed in this direction. The media is working overtime to accomplish that (when they aren't being manipulated by the McCain strategy). In the meantime, it is not only gratifying to see that people are still capable of rational thought; it is so darn fun to watch the Libs go berserk. Olive Oyl and I are having a great time reading all the articles and watching the videos together. We can't wait each day to see the new blow to Obama from the drum toy.

One final point: If Obama is so susceptible to the toy drum style of attack in a campaign, is this a sign of how our enemies can work to put Obama into the fetal position if he ever assumes office? Scary thought.

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

World Opinion: Something You Can Trust - Yeah Right

Apparently the world does not have a consensus on who was behind 9/11

BUT

There is world consensus that they want Obama to be POTUS

Europe's Electoral Map for US 2008 Election by Michael Asher


According to a BBC Poll, the world wants Obama. Townhall blogger Michael Asher, therefore, has created an electoral map of Europe to show their impact on the election.

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Lipstick Power by Frank Harris


Frank Harris is a great political cartoonist. You can see his work on American Thinker. Loved this one.

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Obama Demoted to Mortal

I don't have the time to develop a full state of the election post, but am having so much fun watching Obama's downward spiral I have to post something. The one thing I keep thinking is that we have the opportunity to watch two DEMs (Hillary and Obama) go from totally thinking they have it in the bag to losing it. Hillary had coronation mentality until Obama finally took it from her. Obama has had anointed mentality until Sarah Palin was named for the GOP VP slot.

I have said many times (though not original with me) that the Left ALWAYS overplays its hand. If you have seen the movie "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" you will see a striking similarity between the antics of the witch-led hoard that kills Aslan and the way the Left has attacked Sarah Palin. Though the whole scene should be watched to get the full flavor of what I am saying, you can see some of it in this clip:



The Left has totally overplayed the attacks on Sarah Palin and it has bitten them. Obama has lost ground in overall polls and in key demographics. People are even putting their money where their mouth is and buying McCain stock in the online election trading site Intrade. Last week Obama led McCain $57 to $43. Yesterday McCain passed him by a fraction and today he is ahead almost $2 a share at the time of writing.

As I see and hear clips of Obama, he seems so lost and floundering. His timing is very bad, he lacks his former confidence, and he strikes out in angry and whiny statements. Yesterday I read one of the most descriptive posts on what Obama must be feeling and thinking. It is called Rattled. Check it out for a very entertaining experience.

So with the polls, fundraising slowing, friends worrying and opponents gaining optimism; Obama for now seems to have been demoted to mortal status. Of course things can change swiftly. I think if Obama EVER has a good day again, the media will run a series of stories claiming he has recaptured his Mojo. Actually, they may lower the bar to if he has a day without sticking his foot in his mouth. For now, it is quite fun to see the dismay on the left. The difference between us and them is that we can cope with a McCain loss without medicinal assistance. I think a McCain win will result in more trips to the pharmacy by the left.

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Monday, September 08, 2008

Matter and Anti-Matter Almost Touch

My wife and I are always amazed that as many airports and flights that we go on, we never really run into any celebrities. About 7 years ago we saw our first 'celebrity' in an airport - Jesse Jackson. We said hello to him and he just looked the other way and walked on by with his bodyguard.

Last December we met somebody named Kalani who is a huge Celebrity in Hawaii, but probably nobody knows him outside the state.

Saturday we saw another 'celebrity' at the airport. At the last minute we had to go to Indianapolis for the day. On our return I was walking through the airport and see this guy talking on his cell phone. I did not get a good look, but I thought he looked familiar. I turned around and he looked right at me and smiled. I realized it was George Stephanopoulos. I told my wife and she got a good look at him and agreed. We hung around a few minutes waiting for him to get off the phone to talk to him. Unfortunately, he stayed on the phone and began walking toward his plane. He did drop his pen and I went back and picked it up and handed it to him. There was somebody with him that I think was a bodyguard. He looked a bit nervous when I walked toward George, but I held up the pen and he relaxed.

So, though we radically disagree on most things I thought it was kind of cool. Handing him the pen it came pretty close there for matter and anti-matter to touch. Wow, the world was at risk twice in one week (this and the new super-collider).

I wonder which celebrity I will meet next? Probably Al Franken.