Don't get on your high horse if you don't know how to ride.

I was at an Albertsons getting some food with a friend and, as I am wont to do, chatted about political things. I was talking with her about some of Sarah Palin's weirdness and mentioned the Saturday Night Live sketch with Tina Fey as Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton. One of the things I brought up was the "Bush Doctrine" joke in the sketch, where Clinton opposes the Bush Doctrine and Palin mouths, "I don't know what that is!"

A minute or so later, a guy who's also in the line pipes up, "Do you know how many people the Bush Doctrine has killed? 1.2 million. But Saturday Night Live thinks it's funny!" He then invokes Godwin's Law in real life by saying, "I wonder if in [Nazi] Germany if they had a Saturday Night Live if they'd think it was funny?"

Please. First off, the brilliance of satire in a free country is that we can joke about the problems that our country faces without threat of reprisal from our government. We still have that, you know. The Nazis didn't allow that and that's where his silly liberal invocation fails.

Secondly, the joke was about how Sarah Palin had no idea about the Bush Doctrine was, so he was railing against something that he didn't even understand.

Finally, stop your liberal garbage by maintaining how much the Bush Doctrine has killed so many people (which it hasn't, the high numbers are 650,000 and even that's very disputed). It's clear that his pre-emptive self-defense idea was a hideous one. Our job as voters is to make sure that philosophy does not continue, and to inform us of this, we should use every means to learn about the beliefs of our potential leaders, even if that means is through satire.

Think before your knee jerks.

Oh yeah, I have this thing.

Lately, my thoughts have been rather scattered, and not in a good way. I'm doing the whole work-sleep routine, which doesn't really allow much room for clarity. I'm trying to think of a way to break up the monotony, and yesterday I took a bike trip around town to take pictures. (link here) That helped a lot.

So, here are some thoughts to leave you with for the day.

• While I was away, the press and a bunch of people had their love-fest with the mystery that was Sarah Palin. I was pretty astonished, because for the most part she had nothing to say that either didn't sound scripted to all outdoors or ridiculously contradictory. However, that sheen seems to have been tarnished somewhat lately with the myriad revelations of her expenses and corruption. For a while, I felt a bit of despair over the seeming desire for people to embrace the image of something over than the substance. I know what you're asking: "Isn't Obama full of that image over substance?" Not really, because he's intelligent enough to surround himself with people who are well knowledgable in the things that he's not as acquainted with, and is making strategic choices that shows his ability to take on the job. On the other hand, it seems that McCain is surrounding himself with people who are, for the most part, controlling the flow of his decisions, leaving him in the position where he's not clearly stating anything except that he thinks he should kick the idiots out (never mind the fact that he's bringing in the same idiots who helped put us in this very position America is in). I'm hoping the Palin bubble has burst, because there is no substitute for good ideas in the guise of fresh imagery.
• Stop using the false suffix "-gate" for political scandals. It's tacky. It's overplayed. It's been 35 years, so get over it.
• I've been trying to watch more films lately, and I'd appreciate suggestions as to what. If left unchecked, my inclination will go towards bizarre foreign films. Note: do not recommend me Hollywood comedies.
• I have had so many desires for video games of late. Plus, with the autumn releases coming up, it's going to be even more difficult; Mirror's Edge, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, and others. Argh. Want more.
  

That's all for the moment.