Wassup 2008

Missed these guys, let's all start answering our phones this way, again.

Biden knows what the Veep does...

Sign that kid up...

The Sidewalk to Nowhere, McCain Supporters in Bethlehem, PA

How are all these folks going to react if Obama wins?

Sarah Palin On 'Pyramid'

The G8 Summit....Pass

Columbus Day

My office was open on Columbus Day this year, I think it was open last year as well. I can't help but think of this holiday as past its prime. Many states and countries have alternative versions of the holiday at this point and I'd like Florida or the whole country to follow suit. Columbus is like many things, the more you know about it, the less enticing it becomes.

Columbus, or one of his sailors to be more precise, saw an island in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492. Instead of buying some straw hats and going home, Columbus had the motivation to make a second trip and reached Cuba and the island of Hispaniola, where the Santa Maria ran aground. He had failed in his attempt to reach Asia and the gold Spain was hoping India would provide. He believed when he died that Cuba was a promontory of Asia because he failed to circumnavigate the island. He had met some very nice indigenous people and his relationship with them is really the entire problem with Columbus Day. Aside from making them all sick with disease which had not yet been introduced in the New World, he slaughtered them. The Arawaks and other native people were viewed as potential new Christians and slaves, the inquisition in Spain had vanquished or murdered all Jews and Moors from Spain and those policies rang true across the Atlantic. There are numerous texts which identify the horrors tribal people suffered at the hands of Columbus's crew and the first colonists. Those brutal acts are sufficient to taint Columbus in such a way that we should change the way he is celebrated.

First a little history about Columbus Day here at home. The first Columbus Day was in 1792 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Columbus's landing, they celebrated again on the 400th anniversary in 1892. Italian-Americans started celebrating in 1866 (Columbus was Genoese), but the holiday didn't gain in popularity until a lawyer, the son of Genoese immigrants who settled in California, popularized the holiday. They started celebrating in San Francisco in 1869. The lawyer moved to Colorado where the first statewide Columbus Day celebration was held in 1907. Denver, which has the longest running Columbus Day parade, has seen the parade protested by Native American groups for the last two decades. The Knights of Columbus got FDR and Congress to make October 12th, Columbus Day, a Federal holiday in 1934. Since 1971 it's been the second Monday in October. Most businesses are open, mine was.

In light of the gruesome treatment of the natives at the hands of colonists, many locales have altered their observance of the holiday. Berkley, California has changed the day to Indigenous People's Day, they have a pow wow. There is no Columbus Day in Hawaii, some Hawaiians have advocated a Discoverer's Day to include James Cook, but neither holiday is recognized by the state government. Even though State offices are open, there are still protests in Hawaii of any discoverer's holiday with some advocating an Indigenous People Day instead. It's not a holiday in Nevada, and in South Dakota it is a state holiday, Native American Day. In the Virgin Islands they call it Puerto Rico - Virgin Islands Friendship Day, when were they not friends. In Virginia, Columbus Day coincides with Yorktown Victory Day which celebrates, well you can figure it out.

In Latin America, Dia de la Raza is celebrated and it's largely scene as antithesis to Columbus Day and is primarily a way to celebrate the resistance to colonization and the indigenous peoples. Venezuela, under Hugo Chavez, has actually changed the name of their holiday to the Day of Indigenous Resistance. In 2004, activists toppled a statue of Columbus in Caracas. Chavez supporters compared the toppling of the statue to removing the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.

Children are fed myths about Columbus because history is not often pretty. They will not teach in elementary schools that Columbus's first thought upon meeting tribal men and women was that they could be easily subjugated as slaves and that some were immediately transported with Columbus back to Spain, many dying en route. When history has been sweetened and edited for so long that it becomes our reality, the most stalwart people describe any more accurate retelling as revisionist. Teaching history the way it happened is not revisionist, it's a lesson in humility and regret because we should all know the roots of our good fortune and come to terms when the roots are distasteful.

Scroll down and play the video to hear how Columbus discovered Ohio. Also Columbus made it into Dickipedia.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Alexithymia, on the grand scale...,What happens in Carrabelle, Florida...

The image is Narcissus by Caravaggio.

I've had some conversations in this political season, usually with my wife about our shared opinions but also with people who don't see things the way I do and I've come to some medical conclusions. More specifically, psychiatric conclusions. Republicans are diseased, they have a very specific disorder.

I am making one big assumption as the basis when I conclude that the Republicans are sick, i.e., nobody actually believes that supply side economics helps poor people. The con of "trickle down" economics has been disproved to the detriment of our nation's majority yet again. I appreciate the optimism of it, "if rich people get more money, they'll do the right thing with it." Unfortunately the premises are wrong, when wealthy people get more wealth, it doesn't ever make its way to the homeless guy loitering by the McDonald's downtown. Additionally, government is not an inefficient delivery mechanism for help. In fact, from an economic standpoint, taxation and spending is the only way to ensure that funds are consistently recycled and spent in an economy that relies on the citizen to spend, not save. We all remember how Bush II advised us to fight back against Al Qaeda, I rushed to my neighborhood Target, well one of my neighborhood Targets.

If there is one truth about government and public administration it is that it spends what it gets. The simple reason behind that is self preservation. The government committee that doesn't come back in its second year to say it needs more funds to get the job done having spent its allotment, whatever the job is, clearly is not considering its own survival. This is the shortcoming of any public administration and also why it's hard to find an honest politician, but it does not work any less effectively to bolster our economy. Government spending is still spending. I've digressed.

So assuming there are no Republicans out there who actually believe in the trickle down farce, what would explain any one's inclination to support Republican policies and the agenda that has become the red state mantra? Alexithymia, sort of, and elements of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Shock and disbelief, how can this be, an entire voting block needs therapy? Yes, intensive psychotherapy, actually, we all do.

Alexithymia, comes from Greek words meaning "without words for emotions," it's actually a personality trait, not a disorder, in individuals who have a difficult time expressing emotions. It is also connected to their ability to sense emotions in the people around them and is directly related to an individual's ability to empathize with others. That lack of empathy is an element of Narcissism that threatens to disconnect people from each other in a very real and permanent way. Do you see where I'm going with this. We live in a disjointed society. People in Waukesha, Wisconsin have increasingly less in common with people in Manhattan, which makes absolutely zero sense in the era of mass communication. But it's not just geographic rural vs. urban lack of empathy, it's across financial, religious, and racial strata as well. I don't mean to intimate that this is a one way street, city dwellers can't empathize with farmers either, we all exhibit this nasty little personality trait because even as we learn more about each other, we become more and more divided. Those divisions then contribute to the lack of empathy we feel for each other. It is circular and it's a problem.

I'm not sure who said it first or if it's just a bastardization of Gandhi's quote about how a nation treats its animals but, shouldn't we be judged as a nation by how we treat the poorest among us. Those last two words color the issue, "among us." The poorest are largely not "among us." We all become callous when the scandal of American poverty is out of view, let alone the poverty of Africa with it's shocking qualities. The separation from those neediest people allow the richest to exhibit their base lack of empathy, maybe disguise it behind economic policy, but essentially admit out loud, "I already pay enough, I don't care." Is it any wonder that in the states where population density is the lowest, you hear the most fervent opposition to the expansion of civil rights. If your only exposure to a homosexual is the guy from What Not To Wear (one of my wife's favorites), it's no wonder you can't bring yourself to support gay marriage. Gay out of sight, gay out of mind. Poor out of sight, poor out of mind. I've never seen your school with the old books and leaky roof, then I am perfectly happy to keep funding schools the way we do now.

I was in Carrabelle for work a few weeks ago. Carrabelle is in the panhandle, directly south of Tallahassee. It is hard to get to and does not have any citified trappings. Though it does have some great eats and a packed marina with an attached motel. There is a stop sign and local claim to fame, "The World's Smallest Police Station."

In Carrabelle, the people look the same and generally all work the same type of job. Many of the people there are employed by the Department of Corrections. There is nothing wrong with any of that. What is wrong is the inevitable disconnect and lack of empathy they might feel for someone who needs it because the issues are too foreign for their sympathy. Rich versus poor, rural versus urban, there is no end in sight.

On the ballot in Florida, as in some other states, is another of those inartfully named "marriage protection amendments." It is Amendment 2 on the ballot. It will likely pass because prejudices are easy to exhibit when you have the privacy of a polling booth. It will also pass because small segments of the population who are disadvantaged will be victims of the barriers between them and the rest of society forever without external intervention, i.e., the courts. Gay people will never have numbers enough to win a vote on a marriage protection amendment, and as long as most people live where they don't have to interact with homosexuals they'll never have the empathy either. I've digressed again. We know it is not a one way street, city mouse lacks empathy for country mouse just as much. How many urbanites favor farm subsidies? Why can't the city understand the religious backbone and practical economics of the country. The empathy shortage flows in both directions.

The point is... we need to empathize, if we don't we are only the introspective self-admirers contributing to the divisive culture we have today. We should all strive to be as different as we can from the youth trying to kiss his reflection in Caravaggio's painting. If you live in Florida, please vote No on Amendment 2.

More Racism at a Palin Rally in PA

He is not even being tricked into revealing his racism by a Borat-like foreign correspondent. Vote McCain and risk being associated with this guy.