What’s Next

I think it’s unlikely that the media will avoid its tendency toward hypervigilince any more now than it was able to before the election was over.  It’s a real shame too, because I think, at least for the time being, that they are focusing on entirely the wrong thing.

Yes, Obama will be America’s first black President.  Also yes, that is an historic achievement, and that’s as much as is needed.  Media, I beg you, please don’t let that be what you spend your time focusing on, because in doing that, you will work against its significance.  To spend any more time than is necessary making an undue display of the fact that he is a black president is, like it or not, racist.  To give additional consideration, whether positive or negative in nature, to a particular person, based on nothing more than their race is definitively racist, and he deserves more than to have any of his future accomplishments overshadowed by his significance in the history of American race relations.  We all know how and why this election had an extra bit of historical significance, now let’s let him be a good president, not just the first black president.

I’m worried that assigning too much attention to that fact will put unnecessary pressure and strain on a man who is already in a difficult position given the state of our country.  He has a hard task ahead of him, let’s not make it more stressful by reminding him that if he fucks things up it will never be forgotten.  Because let’s face it, the minute that the results were in, Barack Obama ensured that American children will know his name for as long as America continues to exist, more so than most other presidents.  His name will have a special place in history books.  All of the heroes of civil rights and racial equality have garnered history’s attention with far more modest achievements than his.  He has done more than any of the others.  It’s a tall order which I feel he is entirely capable of fulfilling, but I don’t think he needs a constant reminder of just what is at stake.

Also, let’s not forget that he has been nothing if not vocal about the need for all Americans to look for what makes us similar, not what makes us different.  So let’s not focus any more than we need to on how he is different from every president that came before him, except of course for in his ability as president.  Let’s allow a chance for history to remember him as the great president that many of us believe he will be, not just the first black president.  He is capable and intelligent in a way that puts him in a class that isn’t occupied by many human beings, and those qualities have nothing to do with the color of his skin.  Let’s let history remember him fairly for his accomplishments as a capable intelligent president, not just the first black president.

Back to Business: Holograms, Sorrow, and Wolf Blitzer

So here is some video of a holographic Jessica Yellin:

You can’t see it right now, but I’m sobbing uncontrollably.  Why?  Because any chance that holographic communication would ever be taken seriously was obliterated last night at the very moment Jessica Yellin “beamed” into The Situation Room.

Listen, I know that CNN likes to get good ratings, but this ranks right up there with episodes being broadcast in 3D.  It’s novelty, and, as a science fiction enthusiast, I can say that this did nothing for our cause.  You’ve fucked us again Blitzer.  I hope you’re happy.

The one good part about this is Wolf Blitzer’s reaction.  Especially when he starts explaining that it really is a hologram.  Even though it’s fairly obvious that he is simply talking at empty space hovering over the enormous red marker painted on the floor underneath the intangible ghost of Jessica Yellin.  Also, his explanation of the technology itself seems geared toward the very old and those who are quick to make accusations of witchcraft.  I understand though, my Grandma can’t figure out how to “work the clicker” (program a universal remote) let alone understand such insanity as people who aren’t really there appearing fully in three dimensions, yet somehow remaining completely intangible.  Which is about when, “Witchcraft!” starts being hurled about rather carelessly.

Just to reiterate: Please CNN, I implore you, stop making a mockery of my scifi fantasies.  It’s not funny anymore.

Post Election Thoughts

I have voted in a few elections.  Not many, but enough to have gotten used to the feeling before yesterday.  I have never felt a greater connection to our country’s history and my place in it than I did at 11 o’clock last night.  I voted for a man who, although he already has, I felt was certain to be historically significant beyond his ethnicity.  I am not usually a very serious person, and that is unlikely to change in the future, but there are moments when I find myself so unable to find anything clever to say that I must simply fall back on what I actually think, however humorless it might be.

Today, I think that my sense of patriotism has been vindicated.  My belief that that word doesn’t have anything to do with flag pins, or what color my state is, or whether or not I support the war on terror, or in Iraq, or Afghanistan is restored.  I have often insisted that my sense of patriotism is what inspired my discomfort with the last eight years.  I am not so competitive as to suggest that we are the greatest nation, and I think such titles are unnecessarily confrontational.  But I have always wanted the very best for our country, and have wanted it to be great.  When I was young, we were a nation that I fel, more often than not had a positive net effect on the world around us.  We provided bootstraps to developing countries when we could.  We stood between warring opponents and offered them level ground upon which they could mend their differences.  We were among the leaders of the world in the race to humanity’s future.

Somewhere in the last eight years we lost our way.  But this is not about that, because I truly believe that that chapter of our history is coming to a close.

I have spoken occasionally of my personal beliefs regarding religion and spirituality.  Most would immediately understand the term Atheist, though I prefer to think of myself as a skeptic.  As such, my guiding stars are logic, understanding, and science.  I do not believe that I have a God speaking to me, or guiding my decisions, or providing for my future.  There is, for me, no reason to assume that humanity’s survival is guaranteed, and there is no limit to the number of ways the universe could destroy us.  It is up to us to try to prevent it.  It is up to us to guide our own decisions, and to ensure our future.  Not just as Americans, but as Humans.

I’m not suggesting that Barack Obama’s presidency is likely to send us careening down our path any faster, but what I do believe is that it shows that I am not a minority in my belief that despite its slow pace, our world is always changing, and we need to be ready for it.  It’s dangerous to ignore any effect that we have on our environment, it’s important to look forward to a future in space, and to make it there we will need to secure some manner of stability on Earth.  I think that if conditions are right at any point over the next four years, that our 44th president can set us back on the right course toward achieving those goals.

It is certainly too early to tell, but I am more hopeful for our shared future now than I have been in some time.

It’s Official

Congratulations President Elect Barack Obama.  Good night everybody, I’ll follow up tomorrow with some thoughts.

Et tu Fox?

Wow! Just…wow!  Fox news beat everyone else to the punch calling Virgina for Obama.  I’m just shocked.  If they’re right, it would be virtually impossible for McCain to have any hope left.  So it seems odd that an obviously rightward leaning news organization would rush to announce their own defeat.  I don’t know what else to say about that.

Also, fuck you CNN, your holograms suck.  Please stop it before you ruin holographic communication for everyone else.  And seriously?  Will.I.Am, by hologram.  He was too busy to just come in and talk to you in meat space?  It seems more than just a little frivolous to me.

Comments and Links

Thanks to everyone who left a comment here or there, I’ve got a link to an electoral map that someone suggested, and a picture of the creepy Jessica Yellin hologram.

Thanks again guys.

Indecision ’08: America’s Choice

So if you didn’t already know, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have teamed up for some type of election coverage something or other.  I’ll let you know what’s what in a little bit, but it should probably be good, neither of those shows disappoint very often.  There’s already been an appearance by a Cockatoo!  Take that CNN!

Jessica Yellin

Yes, the very same Jessica Yellin who became the first woman ever to be a holographic CNN correspondant.  Just read the McCain campaigns last rites, more or less.  But the best part was when she mentioned that McCain was traveling with some good friends who would keep him from becoming buckling under the tremendous weight of the crushing defeat he suffered in Ohio.  One of those good friends was Joe Lieberman.  This begs the question, what sort of crazy fucking suicidal depression do you have to be suffering from to seem a little subdued compared to fucking Droopy Dog Lieberman, every time I look at that guys face it makes me so sad I wish I was dead.  So McCain must be pretty fucking sad.

This is almost sad.

Two things.  First, I am relatively certain that this election will, at its end, fall into the blow-out category.  Second, Fuck you Fox News.  Somebody needs to keep an eye on them, because they’re screwing with your election.  They called Georgia about twenty minutes ago.  They were the first network to do so, and I’m not comfortable with that.  They pulled the same shit in 2000, and basically peer pressured the other networks into following suit.  No, it’s not ridiculous to think that this could influence outcomes.  Sane people don’t ever call crazy people out on the shit they pull.  They let them get away with it because, let’s face it, they’re fucking crazy.  Guess which person Fox News is in this analogy.

So again, we need to lock that shit down.

Also at the moment, it’s looking like O-174, M-64.  Does that really qualify as “Too close to call?”  Maybe, but I’m saying no, and I’m calling it for Ron Paul.  No I’m not.

Way to Go Florida!

It’s official!  Florida made it forty seven complete minutes before fucking something up in a presidential election.  Apparently the good folks in Florida do not get the idea behind percentages.  It is intended to be a fractional value.  It must, somehow, always add up to 100%  But no.  Florida does things its own way.  Please stop it.  For the rest of us.  For poor old Wolf Blitzer.  Can’t you see that you almost just gave him a stroke?  Seriously, that little mishap nearly killed him.  Good job Florida, you almost made it a whole hour into this election before nearly killing our beloved Wolf Blitzer.    Just remember, you don’t get anymore do overs.