Raving and Ranting

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• As always, Heroes thoughts below.
• On SNL's "Weekend Update" this week, Will Forte (who is always so good) sang a song where he implied that there were, for the bailout, 538 voting members of the House. It's 435, dummy.
• I had been sleeping on a great new amusement, but no longer! I read a certain number of blogs every day: 538, Pollster, Sullivan, Ambinder, TPM, Politico. All of them that have opinion slants (so Ambinder excluded) are leaning towards Obama (even Politico's Jonathan Martin does a bit), so I'm reading the same stuff I've been thinking. Frankly, it's getting a little boring. So today, I decided to check out what was going on at one of the many conservative blogs, specifically the commenters. The bloggers themselves are a little annoying and self-important (ahem, all bloggers are), but the comments are where the real crazies hang out. Is there a word that means awesome and hilarious? Awesilarious? Hilarisome? Is it the people who say that the polls are all lying because the whole world wants to suppress GOP turnout? Those who legitimately want racism in order to win the election? Is it the daily prayer thread, where people can ask God to help McCain in the debate? Or the absolute inability to believe anything other than that their favorite VP candidate (who's always referred to by only her first name) is the key to winning the whole thing? I can't wait to read their predictions of doom for the country on election night!
• Random Thoughts/Links:
• Dana Milbank's piece in tomorrow's Post includes a line where someone at today's Palin rally, when hearing about Obama, yelled, "Kill him!" Of course, this video has been making the rounds today where a McCain rally attendee yells that Obama is a terrorist (props to McCain for his obvious visceral reaction). There are crazies on all sides, but campaigns need to think before they unleash attacks. Not everyone sees them as desperate and unserious stabs in the dark.
• You might have missed Jim Cramer on Today this morning where he said that people should divest themselves of the stock market immediately if they need the money within the next five years. I'm going to let people with more expertise in market futures determine whether that statement is perceptive or irresponsible. I know where I stand on it. However, people who have put money in stocks that they may need in the next five years have been led horribly astray by either their advisor or the freedom of the internet. I don't care if the market is going up; stocks are essentially gambling. I've written about this before (a year ago, long before this mess), but stocks are great for long-term investment and not much else unless you can afford to lose what you're wagering. It's another example of overly bullish people reaping what they sowed.
• Heroes Questions/Comments of the Week:
• Nikki was told that Jessica was her sister who died young. Apparently not the case, since Nikki was one of a set of triplets. So where's the third one, Barbara?
• Why didn't future Peter heal when Claire shot him? Maybe because the Haitian was there, but wouldn't he heal when present Peter knocked the Haitian out?
• Which side is really the villains? That's obviously going to be one of those questions that will be answered, but not until the end of the season.
• I know Daphne has super speed, but how did Knox and Claire get to the Bennett house so quickly? Also, the whole strength through fear thing is a pretty cool power.
• The parallels with the first season continue with Nathan as President and Sylar going nuclear (the episode title was a quote made famous by Oppenheimer).

Cavanaugh!

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• So far on The Amazing Race, I've determined that a) Mark and Bill are the poor man's Mythbusters and b) Sara (of Terrence and Sara) is a grown-up female version of Jared from Kid Nation (maybe not as funny).
• I miss Kid Nation.
• Funny Entourage tonight. Very good comic timing during the tripping scenes.
• Random Thoughts/Links:
• According to NBC tonight, the Detroit Lions have yet to lead at any point this season.
• The Phils have it set up for Hamels and Myers to go in Games 1 and 2. The Dodgers are red hot, but it's hard to pick against that kind of pitching.
• Daily Rant:
• I can't take some of the idiots that sit near me at the Ravens games. One guy today yelled and yelled about how great Kyle Boller was when he began his career (he wasn't) and how people should stop cheering the new coach and QB. This is the same guy who booed the old coach and QB. I'd love to point that out to the guy, but he takes this crap so seriously. As big into sports as I am, I can't imagine putting so much of my own sanity into a game, especially a random one in week five.

101 Years And Counting

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• Heck of a last swing, Soriano. The Cubs choke again. I think they may need Pastor Thomas Muthee to lay hands on them.
• Last week, the debate sketch on SNL made fun of both candidates equally. This week, they made fun of both candidates but not so equally. I really could have just watched them do that for the entire 90 minutes of the show.
• E.T. happened to be on HBO Family today and since it has been at least a decade since I've watched it, I had to go with it. I don't have to tell you that it's one of the very best movies ever made, but it drives home how great Spielberg was before he even started making the big Oscar movies like Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List. How about a run from the mid '70s to the early '80s of Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders, and E.T.?
• Random Thoughts/Links:
• Jackie Mason does a very unfunny response to Sarah Silverman's Great Schlep video. What has Barack Obama ever done? Well, here's one thing: he didn't make Caddyshack II!
• Phillies-Dodgers should be a heck of a series. Ditto Rays-Sox.
• Your List Sucks!: Top 5 Teams in the NFL after Week 4:
• 5. N.Y. Giants -- Let's see what they can do coming out of the bye and without Burress for a week.
• 4. Buffalo -- I'm still not 100% sold on them because of their offense, but they should be able to take the division.
• 3. Carolina -- They are explosive with Steve Smith, great in the red zone with Jonathan Stewart, and they still have that defense.
• 2. Washington -- Have to give them their props. Campbell is playing his ass off and Santana Moss has become an elite receiver. Their defense, sparked by 7th round pick Chris Horton, is opportunistic.
• 1. Tennessee -- I'll see them live tomorrow when they play the surprising Ravens. That defense is just nasty and they can run the ball.

No Strangers To Love

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• I think Ace has the potential to be one of the all-time great Survivor villains. There's just something about him and his attitude.
• One of the two great Earl episodes this week included both Jerry Van Dyke and John Amos. I was surprised to see that Van Dyke is still alive, but maybe even more surprised that he's been a ghost since Coach left the air.
• Here is the Lou video from tonight's The Soup. It's funny enough, but the key moment is the very end when Lou tries to scratch the bandana off of his head.
• Random Thoughts/Links:
• If you hate the Yankees and the Red Sox, you must root for Tampa and the Dodgers. Especially the Dodgers, with Torre and Manny.
• Sucks to be a Chicago baseball fan right about now. But, hey, your boy's going to be President, so you have that going for you. Which is nice.
• This one amuses me. John McCain gets "BarackRoll'd".
• That reminds me... I was listening to NPR and they discussed how Rick Astley has been nominated for "Best Act Ever" at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Seriously. I guess the RickRoll has given him a big boost in popularity. The best part of the report was the last line: "Good luck beating U2."
• Daily Rant:
• Guest blogger Bailey, official dog of Random Babbles, decided to walk across the keyboard as I pondered what to write. His own take on the Daily Rant follows:
• m,kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.;lllllllll[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp nmnb'[=i .; v b nnkjijuyhgt5gn holkm

Moving Past

I was ready to rain indignation down on all of my readers. I was ready to go off about how I cursed at the TV when a candidate for Vice President winked at me and I was ready to dare any Palin supporter who may read this to explain to me how they can actually consider her a serious candidate for an office of such import. I was ready to make the Emperor happy by unleashing my hate and finding solace in the Dark Side. But then I realized something so simple that it calmed me down within seconds.

Sarah Palin is finished. She's a non-entity.

I don't mean that she's a joke, though of course I think she is. I don't mean that she won't campaign for McCain anymore or show her face in public, because of course she will. But she's of no importance to the 2008 campaign anymore. You know what else? Neither is Joe Biden.

As of tonight, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin are officially non-factors.

They had their moment. Maybe Biden won because he was serious and showed that amazing touch of emotion. Maybe Palin won because she didn't screw up. But who cares? It won't move the polls, there are too few undecideds left and neither of them won by enough to really change the game anyway. We'll have another debate on Tuesday and then one the week after, and both of them will be about Barack Obama and John McCain. When people go into the voting booth, they will be voting for either Barack Obama or John McCain. It's freeing to know that we are beyond this silliness.

I'm going to work my ass off and enjoy the hell out of the next month and, besides Tina Fey on Saturday, not give one more thought to Sarah Palin.

It's October

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• Filled in some sorely missing pop culture by watching The American President (thanks, Louise). It's pretty good, though certainly not the best Sorkin-Reiner collaboration (duh). I also prefer The Contender, as far as President movies go, and Jeff Bridges' speech at the end of said movie, as far as big President speeches go, but I did like the movie a lot.
• Tonight marked the season premiere of Pushing Daisies. That would be the show that I loved last year and forgot just how much. It's so sleek and well-directed with wonderful dialogue and beautiful colors. The sound mix seemed to be a touch off tonight and there was one sexual reference (which is not usual for the show), but I was pleasantly re-surprised by it.
• Watched the Palin interview tonight. The rumor was that she was asked to name any Supreme Court decision, but it turned out to be any Supreme Court decision that she disagreed with (other than Roe). Biden, of course, had a nice answer that also highlighted his work in the Senate. Palin couldn't come up with a case. I can think of two off the top of my head with which I disagree, Bush v. Gore and the one about gun control in the District. I can also think of a recent one with which Palin most likely disagreed, the one allowing habeas corpus at Guantanamo Bay. The point is that it's not okay if she can't think of one. You can't excuse it by saying that she doesn't have a list of Supreme Court decisions in front of her. She's running for freaking Vice President and she shouldn't just be a regular person.
• Random Thoughts/Links:
• A bunch of Hollywood liberals (and no, I don't mean "Jews" like the GOP did during their convention speeches) made this video (NSFW) about registering to vote. Shocker that Sarah Silverman and Jonah Hill are the funniest.
• If you think Palin hits the wrong notes with voters, you should see this: Sarah Heath, beauty pageant contestant, plays the flute. It's just a little flat, but, to be honest, this isn't so much about Palin as it is about a bad '80s video of someone playing the flute out of tune.
• MLB Playoff Preview:
• I kind of forgot last night to do a preview of the playoffs, so here's a quick one (granted, this is after the Phillies and Dodgers had already won tonight).
• Brewers vs. Phillies -- The Phils have a year under their belt and a great bullpen. I fully expected Hamels to dominate today and he did, so I'm sticking with my original prediction: Phillies in 4.
• Dodgers vs. Cubs -- We all know the Cubs will blow this at some point. They should be better enough than the Dodgers (barring Manny exploding) to take this. Original pick: Cubs in 3. Obviously, the Dodgers won tonight. Adjusted pick: Dodgers in 5.
• White Sox vs. Rays -- I have to go with the heart on this one and you're heartless if you're not from Chicago and you're not rooting for the Rays. Also Shields and Kazmir are nasty. Rays in 4.
• Red Sox vs. Angels -- Oy. This should be the World Series. The Angels had the best record in baseball this year and, after having seen their homefield advantage personally this year, I can't pick against them. This should be a heck of a show. Angels in 5.

Ask The Alaskan Gentry

• What I'm Watching/Listening To/Reading:
• The Biggest Loser should be renamed The Biggest Whore. Granted, that was the working title of A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila. But seriously, the show pimps products like Don "Magic" Juan pimps ladies. Be it gum, plastic bags, sandwiches, or anything else they can squeeze a dime out of, you can hear about wonderful things on that show.
• Also, the great twist tonight was that the family that lost the least weight had to choose one of their own to go home. Sort of a reality show Sophie's Choice.
• I got bored with the Friedman book; not into reading about the global economy. But then I realized I had David Sedaris' new book laying around. So there you go.
• Random Thought (Mini-Essay):
• I read the transcript of Palin's latest with Couric and it was fine. Maybe a touch controversial with her saying that homosexuality is a choice, but totally fine. Although, word is that something super embarrassing is coming down the pike over the next couple of days (think: Brown vs. Board of Education or Plessy vs. Ferguson). The bottom line is that while she may not be the brightest bulb, she's certainly not worthless mentally. She's had plenty of interviews in the past and done well with them. I think what this comes down to is that she's getting so stuffed full of talking points that she's trying to hit them all and has lost her ability to actually think for herself. She can't answer naturally because she has too much other stuff to remember. This reminds me of something from pop culture. In the episode of Married... With Children entitled "Kelly Knows Something" (Season 8, Episode 26 -- unfortunately, one of the few not available on Hulu), the family is in need of money and, upon discovering that Kelly can remember anything told to her, they send her on a sports trivia show. The rub, as Hamlet might say, is that Kelly forgets something for everything forced into her head. This doesn't hurt them until the final question when she's asked who scored four touchdowns for Polk High in one game and can't remember. Let's hope that they don't force feed Palin too many talking points for fear of a question about which of the presidential candidates was a POW.
• Daily Rant:
• Just not feeling yom tov this year. I don't know if this is a rant so much as a sad reality. I could say it's the election and the economy, but those would probably just be bad excuses.