This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter).
Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon
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Not that anyone cares, and of course the only people who matter at this exact moment are in Iowa, and as far as I know my blog has no regular readers from Iowa, but on the eve of the first actual event in the presidential season, here are my thoughts as of TODAY. I of course expect that as events unfold over the next 10 months my opinions will most likely change several times.
In any case, Democratic side first. I am somewhat torn here because my head and my heart say different things. In terms of story and style and vision and raw appeal, there is only one candidate who completely captures the imagination for me, and that is Obama. But in terms of the candidate who has impressed me most during the debates and who generally when looking directly at what they have said about various issues and how I think they would actually perform as president… I am drawn to Joe Biden. I think he is grounded, he knows his stuff and he could walk in and perform well as president on Day 1. When he talks in debates or elsewhere I am always impressed by his thoughtfulness and directness. I have liked him in previous election cycles when he has run, and I like him this time as well. If I was in Iowa and was caucusing as a Democrat I would vote for Biden in the first round. But of course Biden will not make the needed 15% in the first round. My second choice vote would go to Obama.
On the Republican side… Four years ago I might have liked McCain. I liked him in 2003. Didn’t agree with him on everything, but I liked him. I liked his approach. I liked his attitude. I liked his “straight talk”. I liked his “maverick independent” reputation. In the last four years though he has destroyed all that, and for me at least, lost all remnants of the appeal he had during that time. Huckabee has a few good points (I actually really like the “FairTax” plan for instance). And he seems like a nice guy. But for the most part I disagree with him on most other things. Nope. Giuliani? No. Romney? No. Thompson? No. Of course any of you who have known me for awhile know I am drawn to the Libertarian point of view. Strongly so in most cases. So it is of course obvious I’ll go for Ron Paul here. If you go down a list issue by issue, I end up agreeing with him on most of them. Are there some where I disagree? Of course there are. But the level at which he matches my views is FAR greater than any other candidate in either party. And in many of the places where he does have a difference in opinion on something, it ends up not mattering, because both he and I agree that regardless of the right policy on the specific issue, it should not be the Federal government that decides, it should be a matter for state government, local government, the private sector, or individuals to decide. (Example: He apparently is a complete idiot on evolution, but it doesn’t matter, since neither of us think that the federal government should be setting policy or involved in any way on education matters.) There are of course some policy places that would be on a Federal level that I disagree with him on as well… for instance immigration. But again, the areas where we agree far outnumber those where we disagree. And there is nobody else on the Republican side that I could even come close to endorsing. So, on the Republican side… Ron Paul would be my choice if I was caucusing as a Republican in Iowa today.
And of the two… Biden and Paul… I would of course choose Ron Paul. In plain terms of how close the two candidates are to my own views on issues, Paul is simply closer to me by far.
In many areas of course Biden’s positions are far more realistic. If Biden became President, some of his adgenda might actually happen. If Paul would somehow become President, absolutely nothing would happen for four years, except the things Congress passed over his veto. Now, I think that would be a perfectly fine outcome, but… :-)
Of course, neither Biden or Paul have even the slightest chance of becoming their party’s nominees, let alone President. So what they might or might not do as President is actually somewhat irrelevant. But they would be my choices on principle.
Too close to call in both parties with less than 24 hours until the first results start coming out of Iowa. This is so very exciting. I’ll be rushing home from work as soon as my last meeting ends to spend the entire evening watching news coverage. This stuff is great!
Things to watch for besides the obvious “Who wins?”:
- Do the top three Dems essentially tie like current polls show, with one squeaking out a narrow victory? Or does someone manage to get enough of those “second choice” votes from the lower tier candidates to get a clear win?
- Who gets third place on the Republican side?
In any case, the results of this will define the shape of the race… for at least the next few DAYS until New Hampshire, at which time it may completely change again.
This is great. Here’s hoping for a long primary season where the ultimate nominee isn’t known for as long as possible and every state is a close race in both parties! :-)
 We’ve been watching a bunch of DVDs this last week it seems. This time it was time for Brandy’s current Netflix movie. She had picked this one because of Christian Bale I think. But after the first 30 minutes Brandy was bored and was ready to just stop. I wanted to finish though. I wasn’t sure what I thought of it, or if I liked it or not… I was leaning toward no… but I like finishing what I start when possible. So we continued to slog on.
I think it improved after it hit about the half way point. A little more was happening. But this is one of those slow atmospheric type movies. It is certainly not driven by action. Things happen slowly and deliberately, and a lot of the movie is just about absorbing the imagery and atmosphere and the slowly building emotional angst.
In the end I think it was perhaps a little TOO slow for this. The urgency increased as the movie continued, but it never really reached the levels where it was completely gripping. There was always the sort of watch checking and “is it over yet” sort of feeling. If I had to grade the first half I’d give it a D. The second half would get a B. Overall a C. If you are really into the atmospheric sort of movie that tries to mess with your head, then you might like this… I often like that kind of movie… but having said that, this one still never completely grabbed me.
And Brandy I think still wishes she’d stopped watching after the first 30 minutes. :-)
The winter before I was seven years of age I attended district school with my aunt now in her eighty seventh year (present date March 1st 1901.) at that time 19 years old. It was the old fashioned school about seventy scholars, and only one man to teach, and he seemed to know how to run the job. My class use to be called to take their places on the floor, and to toe a certain crack in the floor. The rule in this spelling class was for the one who left off at the head at last lesson for the day and woe to the one who missed and let some one go above him, but if he kept the head of the class through the day, he with much pride placed himself at the foot at the next mornings lesson. This was a great inducement to me. I remember the excitement I labored under, I know I would tremble when a missed word came to me.
Once at the word from the teacher, “The boys may go out.” I had taken a doughnut from my dinner pail to eat when out, another boy knocked it out of my hand, others with their feet kept it hustling on the floor, but when they were called in by rapping, the master called up those large boys – men g? they appeared to me, there was quite a row of them. Then the master commenced the punishment with a ruler of hard wood on the inside of the outstretched hand. It was a quiet house, except some sobbing of the larger girls. I looked the performance in great surprise, comparing it in my own mind to the Emperor of China’s punishment, this school masters punishment seemed large for so small an offense. Immediately after this happening on opening school there was not a ruler to be had all were broken up or were lost; the affair passed quietly until close of school when the master stated. That it was to be the duty of the scholars to bring rulers, as all writing was did on white paper the teacher ruling the lines at such distances apart with a lead plummet as his judgement suggested. The next day brought rulers; they seem to have been made in quantities, with a hole in one end, then strung on a cord, to my eyes there were hundreds of them, the teacher took notice of the generous quantity.
When the day was bright the scholars made a ring and then was wrestled according to size and one must be found to take the place of the one throwed. after several throws I was hustled in to throw Sam May, this I had not looked for, and I endeavored to escape. But that was not the rule. So Sam chinched me, and I was mad and did not work at any known rules of wrestling. But Sam pulled my hair some to get a good clinch, upon that I was entirely beside myself and knocked him over clinching my hands in his hair. There was a big yell from both sides to each favorite. Finally I was taken off from Sam with both hands full of Sam’s flaxen hair. We were both in tears. I do not think I was ever so mad in my life. But they could not get Sam to tackle me again.
A year later when eight years there was a commotion in the school district, there were so many scholars for the one school that finally a division of the district occurred, and we on our side of the Otter Creek had a new building and it was called the Red School House. A woman teacher was provided and our school was more quiet. I recollect one teacher her name was Lucinda Lawrence; she had some faculty to punish without ferrule or beech rods. My next brother younger could not be kept in exact behavior, so Miss Lucinda found in her dress pocket a string or a ? cord, my brother Henry when he saw the cord. Wished to know if she was going to p? a horse? Yes, she said, and proceeded to tie him up to a convenient post in the room, this proved effective to maintain authority.
In the summer following a boy was admitted to the school one year my senior, he came from the larger district, brought the rough manners with him he considered it was his duty to run things at all recesses. After a day or two he went pushing and smashing the scholars generally, throwing a light weight boy of the name of Sylvester Harris against a writing desk knocking him senseless. I immediately grabbed Richard Wadleigh which was his name crowded him to the front door and pushed him down the nine steps. He went off home limping, at an examination by the committee I was exonerated from all blame, and the boys father was notified the boy could not attend that school.
(The full diary will be located here when complete.)
![image]() We decided to take advantage of New Year’s to watch another DVD. What was next in order according to my current system was another “DVD I own which I haven’t watched yet”. Generally, I take the oldest DVD in that category… which would mean another Buffy. But sometimes, if Brandy or Amy really want to watch something that is a DVD that we own as a family (as opposed to one that is “mine”) and I haven’t seen it yet, I’ll agree to watch that. Brandy really wanted to watch Bridge to Terabithia which Amy had bought for herself a few months back. Normally even though I hadn’t seen it yet, I would have said no because Amy had seen it within the last 12 months, but it was New Year’s and all, so I said yes.
And we got about 20 minutes into the movie, and it seemed OK so far, but then it started skipping and such. Amy has a tendancy to not put her DVDs away properly when she isn’t using them, leaving them out wherever and unprotected… so they tend to get damaged and unwatchable. We stopped and Amy tried the toothpaste trick and got a few minutes further in the movie, but it started skipping again. Badly. So we were done with that movie.
Anyway, we fell back to what otherwise would have been the normally scheduled DVD, which is the last disk of the Buffy Season 2 set. This disk just has part part one and part two of the season finale “Becoming”. This is one of those episodes that for whatever reason I have limited memories of. I don’t know if I had actually NEVER seen it… I definitely remembered parts of it. So I guess I probably did watch it. But unlike some episodes (like say the oen with the fish on the last disk) where I remember way too much of it even years later and it diminishes things, on this one I was engaged the whole time through both episodes, with most of it feeling fresh and without me remembering details, even if I did remember the overall plot.
Anyway, these are good Buffy episodes. These are the kinds of episodes that make the series worth watching. It was fun. And it finishes off the Season 2 Box Set. Woo!
Oh yeah, happy 2008 as of three hours and 38 minutes ago. Woo!
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