Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Whatchu gonna do when you get out of jail? I'm gonna have some fun. What do you consider fun? Voting in the primaries

There's this internet poll that quite recently made the rounds. I took it last week and got these results

(name of candidate _ likeness rating)
(things I disagreed with them on)

Kucinich 67
No Child Left Behind

Gravel 62
(I have no disagreements with this candidate)

Obama 36
Patriot Act, Border Fence, Iran Sanctions, Same-Sex Marriage

What's interesting is that, until last week, I barely paid any attention to Kucinich. I mean, who the hell is Kucinich?

It turns out that if a presidential vote were held today, one where only internet dweebs who fill out such polls were allowed to vote, and instead of candidates names you would see only the candidate's stands on the issues, Kucinich would win by a landslide. Of course, the Kucinich people jumped on that news.

I think, what is also interesting, is that I am in complete agreement with Gravel, who, seems to me, like the craziest son of a bitch in the universe. It seems like a reasonable thing, even, for him to just run on that platform.

I tend to consider myself a moderate. There are plenty of issues that I consider myself "middle-of-the-road" on or would support an even compromise to: gun control, border security, Iraq withdrawal, corporate independence, minimizing bureaucracy, and so on. But what I basically would like to see is the division between the two political parties being mended. Instead, the chasm is just getting bigger.

This is why I still think obama is the candidate for me. He's the one I feel confident could create an amicable Washingtonian environment for 4 years, possibly 8. But maybe, after I do a bit more research on Kucinich, I'll feel the same way about him? Not that it matters. Poor dennis' face is not on tv nearly enough for the voting public to care.

Monday, August 20, 2007

This is what linguistics is all about (kind of)

Being waist deep in linguistics for much of the past 2 years, I was quite shocked that I've never heard of this totally grammatical sentence before:

Buffallo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

What that means is:

The buffalo from Buffalo (NY) which are bullied (buffaloed) by buffalo from Buffalo (NY) tend to do some bullying (buffaloing) themselves. They, of course, direct their buffaloing toward other buffalo from Buffalo NY.

Or

Buffalo buffalo, that other Buffalo buffalo buffalo, themselves buffalo other Buffalo buffalo

Thus

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

A similar sentence which I really like is:

That that that that child said is wrong is obvious to everyone.

Or

It's obvious to everyone that [[the thing] which the child over there said] is wrong.

Or

That [[the thing] which that child said is wrong] is obvious to everyone.

That the thing that that child said is wrong is obvious to everyone.

That that that that child said is wrong is obvious to everyone.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

I missed my music

After a month long absence I come at you with this very excellent cover of "crazy"