200 people frozen at Grand Central Station

My father-in-law sent me this one. I'm not sure of the exact details of it. Over 200 people froze in place for about 5 minutes. I thought it was kind of cool to see peoples reactions to it. Enjoy!

Frozen in Grand Central Station

Obama the new JFK

I thought I'd check out Obama's website today just to see what this guy was all about . At the top we get this quote:

I'm not asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington...I'm asking you to believe in yours". - Barack Obama Website

When I first saw that I immediately thought of another Democrat many years ago saying:

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." - President John F. Kennedy

Sound familiar? It's obvious Barack has done his homework in what resonates with voters. It seems to me that he empowers his followers which makes them feel a part of something bigger. Which kind of explains his massive following. Question is does he have substance behind the words? Does Hillary have a chance? Does McCain have what it takes to beat this guy? Though I believe in McCain I think it's going to be a tough one.

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

No excuses - Part 1

This part 1 of a series on my battle with cigarettes.


"No excuses that I know" - Alice in Chains

Just a short while ago I was going to go out and get some cigarettes because I was running low. Of course I get the usual riot act from my wife about it. Not really that bad but it's usually goes something like "Why do you smoke when you know it'll kill you?". How do you rebut a question like that honestly? You can't really. Of course my 5 year old son doesn't help much by saying stuff like "I don't want you to die Dad.". Perhaps he really is helping me in his own way. Even though he may be only five his words way heavy on my heart.

I'm a forty one year old male who has been smoking since I was about fourteen. It 's probably a familiar story how I started. I don't remember how exactly it started but it was with a close friend of mine Roger. I know it could be a cop out to blame him but I'm not going to do that. I made my own decision to start and I take responsibility for it. At first we used to sneak our parents cigarettes or whoever we could borrow from at the time. I lived with my grandparents and Mother all of whom smoked so it wasn't too hard to "bum" a smoke. I remember my kid brother finding one of my packs and promptly informing my mother. Of course I took the usual denial root at first but after a persistent interrogation I confessed. She wasn't visibly too upset that I was smoking but wanted me to be honest about it. For many years after ward she'd even buy them for me.

I at first didn't really feel the effects of smoking perhaps until I was tested physically tested when I was in basic training in the army. I had problems mainly in the running part of training. I frequently fell out of formation during a PT(Physical Training) run. One drill Sergeant pretty much ordered me to quit which I sort of did for a couple of weeks but I was soon after back smoking again. For my two years in service I always had a problem with PT.

McCain and the New York Times

Ok so this is so last Thursdays news but I'm just getting up to speed here on this one. Thursday the New York Times reported this article about a possible chink in John McCain's armor.I did want to comment on this because of a few bits I've read about this just today. One was from a local newspaper columnist Mark Patinkin from the Providence journal who even thought the New York Times could have done a better job of reporting.

A quote from the Times article states that

"Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity."

and a couple of paragraphs down from that we get..

"even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity."

That my friends is the extent of the evidence of an inappropriate relationship. I fail to see any smoking gun or proof that he had done something wrong. At worst it was some advisor's looking out for their boss.

Another commentary from radio talk show host(WTKK 96.9 Boston) Michael Graham compared them to a high school newspaper or should I say reporting not worthy of a high school paper. Their is only the innuendo of wrong doing rather that hard facts. The rest of the story goes on to give us a history of John McCain without any more supporting evidence.

Mark Patinkin's column takes an example from the story of Woodward and Bernstein's book(which I'm in the process of reading) "All the President's Men" when both reporters submit a story to their editor Ben Bradlee. Bradlee then looks over there work and says “You haven’t got it.”. Maybe similar judgment should have been used in this case.

Humor in Politics

I found it humorous the guy helped George Bush get elected by siphoning votes away Al "I invented the internet" Gore in 2000, announced today on NBC's "Meet the Press" once again he is running for President.Yes the Ralph Nader who garnered .3 of the national vote in 2004 has announced his third party candidacy. Of course he starts off with attacks on both Democrats and Republicans. I'm not quite sure what he thinks he's going to accomplish. The only thing that that comes to mind is that it would give him some attention and he might make himself feel important. Let's face it no one pays attention to him otherwise.What was his last major accomplishment other than preventing Al Bore err I mean Gore from being President.

Democrats despise him because some still blame him for the Al Gore debacle in 2000 and Republicans love him for it. You can read the full story here.

Ramblings

I'm not sure lately but I've had a rough time coming up with stuff for this blog(and a couple of others I have). Maybe it's just the winter time blues. When I do surf on the net it's usually just the same stuff. Nothing great to comment on. It's seems my focus is blurred. This even applies to real life too. I want to write up something but can't seem to find a subject worth spending a lot of time with.

One such item I've been procrastinating on is my son's pinewood derby project. Though we did finally pick up the paint for it yesterday and plan on painting it later today. I'm still a bit upset with my wife bringing them to her cousins and got them cut. That was before my son and I had even picked out a design. Perhaps I should have been a bit quicker but we had picked out designs and now I have to make something out of the already cut wood that's not even close to what we wanted. I know she meant well. It's suppose to be a father and son project.