There’s a nice editorial in the NYT here about why Colin Powell endorses Obama. It contains some very relevant reflections about the principles that America is based upon, and how despicable it is that McCain is trying to turn these principles on their ear in an attempt to win votes by rumor-mongering and spreading fear.

I might have to have a Rovio. See http://www.meetrovio.com/. It’s a robot with a webcam and web-based control interface. You can drive it around and look at stuff with it. It looks like it’s the ultimate weapon for terrorizing the cats.

Yeah, okay, it’s pretty geeky. Time for some personal history. I became interested in computers in the first place because I wanted to build a robot when I was a kid. I figured out pretty quickly that the robot needed a brain of some sort, and that meant a computer. So I started learning about computers, mostly from books at the public library. read more

Things are looking good for getting Obama into office, but let’s not get carried away yet. Forecasts and polls don’t win elections–votes win elections. (Well, sometimes courts win elections, but let’s not go there right now.)

In Colorado you can vote by mail, so we’ve already done so. If you’re not already registered to vote by mail it’s probably too late to do so, so don’t forget to vote on the polling day.

The Republican campaign strategy now involves sending their candidates to areas where everybody is a die-hard McCain supporter already. Then they yell about Obama until the crowd is so frenzied people start making threats. The rest of the country is supposed to watch and conclude that this would be an enjoyable way to spend the next four years.

–Gail Collins, columnist for the New York Times

That quotation is part of a longer and fairly humorous op-ed, but I think that she makes a valid point. The McCain campaign seems to be largely based on the strategy of telling us (with lies) that Obama is evil. Even ignoring the issue that none of these accusations actually stand up to close scrutiny, isn’t this a really dumb strategy? I mean, c’mon Mr. McCain, don’t insult us. We already know that you don’t want us to vote for him. Isn’t that a given, since you’re running against him? read more

There is some interesting info here about the possibility of building an elevator that lifts stuff into space. (Yes, “stuff” includes people.) A Japanese research group thinks that they might be able to start building it around 2030, and NASA has put up $4 million in prize money to encourage design development.

“I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the public’s.” – John McCain

Ask yourself this: do we want someone who–by their own admission–has problems controlling their temper commanding the most powerful military forces on the planet? Do we want someone with a volatile temperament running the country during a time which will unquestionably require difficult decisions regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the U.S. and world economies? read more

The Crystal Method, one of my favorite groups, has released a remix of one of their tracks, “Now is the Time”, in support of Obama. It’s available as a free download from their website. Get yourself a copy and dance your way to the voting booth.

Just in case you haven’t already heard about Palin’s epic failure when asked to name just one Supreme Court decision with which she disagrees, there’s a video of it here on CNN.com. (The video is seven minutes long but more than half of it is commentary in reaction to her answer, if you can call it an answer.)

I’ll be fair and state that I’d be hard-pressed to answer the same question on the spot. There have been cases that were at the time of enough interest to me that I followed the coverage and thought about the outcome, but now I’d have a hard time dredging up a specific example. But the point is that I’m not running for Vice President. I’m not vying to be second in command of the most powerful country on the planet. I’m not attempting to be next in line for control of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. I’m not trying to get voted into a position that has considerable influence over the lives of every single American. It’s not part of my job requirement to be intimately acquainted with the role of the Supreme Court within this country’s goverment. It will never fall upon my shoulders to appoint one or more judges to this court–judges whose appointment lasts for many years, spanning the terms of many executive terms, and whose rulings can drastically alter the evolutionary path of law within this country. read more

“Technically, I don’t know” is what John McCain said when asked whether or not we’re in a recession. He doesn’t know? And he’s running for president?

It’s easy for him to not even be aware of the definition of a recession: he’s so far above the economic strata that most people operate in that it’s really not a concern to him. As an astute comedian pointed out recently, McCain could lose six houses and still own six. How worried about failing mortgages can he be? read more

Just after uploading the photos in the previous entry, I noticed that the morning sun is hitting the dahlias in a most photogenic manner.

It may be worth mentioning again that the photos I post here link to my flickr account, and if you click them you’ll be taken to a page where you can view them at their original size.