I stumbled across a fun site today called “Popmash.” It aims to create visual “mash-ups” of celebrities (Stevie Wonder Woman, Steve McQueen Elizabeth II, etc). The coolest part, for me, is the fun animations they’ve dreamed up, like “The Fab-Tastic Four”:
and “The Full Monty Python”:
Check out the site. It’s pretty cool.
Even though it’s our third time around, it never stops being fun watching the lights come on one by one in a baby’s brain as they start recognizing people, studying objects around them, discovering their voices and, best of all, learning to smile and laugh.
Grace can be exasperating at times, as any baby can, but she can also be a real joy, and she has her brothers totally in her thrall. Jason especially is a great helper, consoling Grace when she’s upset and making sure she always has whatever she might need. The other day, she had a crying fit in the car and Jason sang “Rock-A-Bye Baby” to her from the seat behind hers. More than once I’ve seen him tucking her blanket around her or cooing, “It’s okay, your big brother is here.”
Here’s few photos of the little princess holding court.
Well, the voters have spoken and “Hope” trumps a resumé.
What the heck, though, maybe it’ll work out. Sometimes the most effective tool a president has is his ability to inspire, or at least reassure. Aside from prodding the Soviet Union into economic and political collapse, Ronald Reagan’s greatest achievement was pulling America out of a despairing “malaise” and restoring a sense of national pride. JFK’s term had little going for it in the way of concrete accomplishments, but the man himself inspired a culture of optimism and public service that endures to this day. Both have become icons of their parties based as much or more on personal mystique as any political acumen or executive mettle. We are perhaps at a similar crossroads now, where what the nation needs more than anything is an avatar for abstract concepts like “hope” and “possibility.”
Certainly the fact that Barrack Obama won the presidency with support from all races, all ages, all regions, all incomes and both sexes is a nice change from the usual identity politics. I’d like to think it’s more a case of finally giving people something to vote for instead of against, even if what they voted for remains, so far (cross those fingers!) just pretty rhetoric and even though I’m fully aware there are plenty of folks whose only goal was to settle old scores. For my own part, it was nice having an election for once where I didn’t feel I was taking part in a grudge match, and a curiously liberating feeling to wake up on the losing end of an election feeling disappointment but no resentment, anger or, try as I might, panic.
Also heartening, rather counter-intuitively, was the sight of a long line at the polling place I’ve gone to for 14 years now without more than a ten-minute wait. This time the line wrapped around the building, but it moved quickly and efficiently and everyone behaved wonderfully, so I was out in just under one hour. The cynic in me wonders how many of these folks I’ll be seeing again next time, but for now it’s nice just to know so many people made the effort despite the foul weather.
I choose to take comfort from a few encouraging kernels in Obama’s victory speech, among other things this passage:
Let’s remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.
Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.
As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.
Of course, four years ago George W Bush said pretty much the same thing (”Today, I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust.”) And we know how that turned out; sometimes “bipartisan” means BOTH sides hate you.
But I’m not being cynical today, right?
I was also moved by McCain’s concession speech, which I thought went beyond gracious and included this passage:
In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.
…and of course:
I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.
Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.
Of course, taking the high road is easy enough when the fight’s over, but maybe I’ve caught the “hope” mania in thinking this time it’s more heartfelt. Or maybe this time it’s just more pragmatism than idealism to acknowledge we’re in over our heads and won’t get anywhere with business as usual in Washington.
I’ve also taken some comfort in an article passed on to me by my dear friend Ray out in Palo Alto, a died-in-the-wool Liberal who proves to me constantly that the “L” word doesn’t have to be a dirty one. In it, Andrew Sullivan offers “Ten Reasons Conservatives Should Vote for Obama,” and while it didn’t sway me at the polls, it at least works as “Ten Reasons Not to Start Wednesday Morning With A Gun In Your Mouth.” Also helpful was an article from the always-terrific Peggy Noonan which pointed out some of the better traits of Obama on display during the election, which remains in large measure the most we’ve got to go on.
My hope is that Obama is sincere in his desire to heal old divides (I’ll forget for a moment George W ran on the same promise: “I want to be a uniter, not a divider”) and that he can leverage his uniquely personal appeal with voters to strong-arm the leaders of the House and Senate from launching an orgy of ideological excesses on the theory America has “mandated” a shift to far left. Hopefully they’ve paid enough attention in the last few years to see where that attitude got their Republican colleagues.
My fear, on the other hand, is that what is “centrist” to Obama is extremist to anyone else. If so, we’re looking at four more years of Congressional in-fighting as an ultra-liberal agenda is stymied by GOP stonewalling, keeping us voters in our role of passengers on a still-sinking ship as the crew fight amongst themselves.
Again with the cynicism. Sorry. The truth is I’m pleasantly unmoved by the whole thing at the moment. Sure, I’m disappointed my guy didn’t win, but not as upset as I thought I might be, and certainly not as much as some of my family (especially Laura, who understands finance, so maybe I should be more worried). For the moment at least I’m hopeful this new guy will turn out to be as advertised. What the heck, with no evidence either way in his past, it’s just as likely he’ll be up to it as not, right? Hope springs eternal. Anyway, the country has two months to bask in the limitless possibilities of what might be. In January we’ll start seeing what we’ve actually got.
God bless the USA and the president-elect, and good luck to us all, red and blue.
P.S. - To anyone who feels they’re oversaturated with politics during an election, I offer this advice: have a baby. You’d be surprised how much TV, internet and print reporting you’ll escape when you’re burping, diapering, feeding or otherwise mollifying a crying infant. Of course you won’t get any more sleep than if you’d read the political blogs around the clock, but you will at least come to love the face of even your ideological opposite, if only because adult sentences are coming out of it. And when it’s all over, even if you lose, you still have a baby to hug, so how bad can it be?
Between work and a new baby, it’s hard to find the time or energy (or frankly, the interest) to write entries of a political nature here, but I have started several times to jot down my thoughts on the extraordinary spectacle of Obama’s ever-growing cult of personality, only to give it up when the words wouldn’t come together for me. Happily, now I don’t have to, as Professor Fouad Ajami has done it far more eloquently than I could’ve managed even at top form, in his article “Obama And The Politics of Crowds.”
Obama’s genius is that he’s the Mr Potato Head of Politics; simply pick and choose the features you like and assemble him to suit yourself. In maintaining his tabula rasa persona, he’s become all things to all people, which makes for a thrilling and yes, “hopeful” story if it simply ended with him putting a hand on the Bible and taking the oath, fade to credits. But of course that’s when the story will actually begin. On that day, he’ll stop being the Create-Your-Own-Superhero and start being the Chief Executive, a guy who every day he’s in office will have to deal with real issues and make real decisions, every one of them bound to disappoint, offend or enrage someone out there in the electorate. That’s just the nature of actually governing as opposed to just running for the office from kindergarten on. It’s quite a fall from Savior of the Universe to just another politician; I hope he can survive without the adulation.
Art Linkletter was right, you know; kids really do say the darnedest things. It’s always instructive to hear what’s going on in Jason’s mind, for instance. Lately he’s been piping up with non-sequiturs that make me wonder if he’s actually attempting comedy.
A while back he caught a sneeze in process, as you sometimes will, and Laura said, “Bless You.” Jason corrected her: “No, Mommy, just ‘Bless’. It was only half a sneeze.”
A few days later Laura and I were talking in the car. At a break in the conversation, Jason piped up from the back with this observation: “I can’t type very fast, because I always make a funny word.”
Last night he wanted to play a game, and since I couldn’t put Grace down, we settled on “Space,” which he explained is a game of pretend where you talk about what you’re doing on an adventure in space. I suggested we have a rocket race and he agreed the first to get from the Sun to Pluto was the winner. In the other rockets would be Granny and Grandaddy and Aunt Suzie and Uncle Larry. A few seconds into the “race” I was obviously falling behind, so Jason suggested, “Better press the ‘Fast As You Can Go’ button!”
I did, but I lost anyway. Jason told me to cheer up, as Granny and Grandaddy were still stalled all the way back at the Sun. “That’s too bad,” I said. “It’s never fun to lose.”
“Unless you’re playing the ‘Catch A Bolt of Lightning’ game!” Jason corrected. “In that one, if you lose, you’re still alive!”
That got a laugh from me, and Jason added sheepishly, “Actually, I just made that game up.”
Indeed. Quite a mind on that kid.
There was a great article recently in the Wall Street Journal about the hypocrisy of avowed atheists painting Christians as superstitious ninnies. Titled “Look Who’s Irrational Now,” the article points out that statistically, atheists are far more likely to believe in Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and other paranormal mumbo-jumbo than are religious persons.
This certainly jibes with my own observations over the years. You’ll note that the “counter-culture” generation which rejected traditional religion also tend to be the ones who preach the power of pyramids, crystals, tarot cards and ouija boards, and proclaim themselves witches or what not. And you’ll also note that their kids are rejecting this faddish twaddle in droves to return to organized religion.
I believe there’s a spiritual aspect to simply being human, and sooner or later most people are going to feel the need to fill that void with something. So is it nuttier to believe there’s a supreme being who wants us to love our fellow man than it is to believe space aliens built the pyramids? I suppose it’s a matter of opinion, but it’s obvious which outlook is more beneficial to mankind.
If you find yourself bored and have 50 to 100 friends similarly starved for fun, a Japanese TV show has come up with a fun way to spend the afternoon; scaring innocent bystanders with the old “rampaging mob” routine…