Two more primaries slip by today; wake me when it’s over

North Carolina and Indiana are having their presidential primaries today. Can you sense my excitement? yawwwn …

You may have been astute enough to notice I’ve gone somewhat apolitcal recently. Frankly, I’ve grown colossally tired of this campaign. I’m just waiting for it to be over. Or it least move on to the conventions and general election.

My involvement for several weeks has consisted only of running errands with an Obama sticker on my bumper (it comes off as easily as it went on, if that becomes necessary).

Nevertheless, I do have and few comments and observations:

• Obama’s my candidate if he doesn’t shoot himself in the foot between now and November.
• Rev. Wright was becoming an increasingly irrelevant old man who hurt Obama, intentionally or not. Then he made his very intentional appearance at the National Press Club last week and confirmed that he is egomaniacal, vindictive, and quite possibly not playing with a full deck.
• Clinton will say anything to anybody to get elected, and neither she nor McCain can do a damn thing about gas prices this summer (Bush won’t let it happen). Can you say P_A_N_D_E_R?
• Michigan and Florida delegates should be seated at the Democratic convention out of politeness, but not allowed to vote, because those are the rules agreed to by everyone before the primaries started.
• Howard Dean has been a weak, mealy-mouthed party chairman who allowed the Mich/Fla mess to happen. (It never should have become an “issue” to be settled; those two states took themselves out of the game before it began. End of story.)
• McCain is a warmonger with a notoriously hot temper. I don’t want his finger on the trigger or his belligerence at the negotiating table.
• Whoever said Hillary has “testicular fortitude” must have their genders confused. Then again …  maybe not.
• Whether I like them or not, I have nothing but admiration for the sheer physical stamina of the candidates in maintaining the pace they have for so long. Me, I get tired just hearing about it.

Remember Eight Belles when you think of horse racing

The legendary Kentucky Derby was run today. And as I do almost every year — indeed, almost every time a horse race is televised — I watched it. And once again I’m wondering why I did.

You see, I was one of those stereotypical horse-crazy little girls … almost half a dozen decades ago. And I never really outgrew it. I’ve never stopped thinking horses are beautiful, majestic animals, a pleasure to watch. So I watch horse races, not because I bet on races or care anything about the racing industry, but just because I love to watch horses run.

And I’ll never get used to seeing a horse “break down,” or suffer an injury in a race. The injuries are almost always fatal, not in themselves but because the horses are euthanized. The euphemism “break down” tells the story. That the racing industry could invest so much time and money in these animals and then be so cavalier when the animal literally dies for them, is a tragedy. These are sentient beings, after all, not machines.

I’m trying not to over-romanticize horses and what is just a business for so many people. Horses are high-strung animals and racing stresses their bodies to the max. Their lower legs and “ankles” are no bigger around than your arm, and those fragile legs support and propel an animal weighing some 1200 pounds, plus a rider. To that add their breeding and training, so all they know is to run as hard as they can. It’s a wonder they don’t break something every time they take a step.

If a horse dies while racing … well, that’s the nature of the business. It is called gambling, after all. If those were equally matched robots out there on the track, there would be a tie every time. Where’s the sport in that?

A filly named Eight Belles died today at the Derby. She was out there running with the guys (you’ll have to excuse me for being a bit partial) and finished a strong second, winning a hefty chunk of change for her backers. Then she collapsed on the track, both front ankles broken.

But hey, that’s the way it goes, right? Business is business. Things happen. Racing is, after all, much more humane these days, and race tracks are well prepared for these unfortunate (but obviously not unforeseen) occurrences. Eight Belles was euthanized almost immediately as she lay there on the track between two horse ambulances; a licensed veterinarian was on the scene. What progress. In the old days some bystander would have just pulled out a gun and shot her. Either way, a beautiful animal is dead. Some sport.

So here I am, in tears, because I chose to watch another horse race. The racing industry bet that people like me would watch. And they won. I bet I could enjoy watching another horse race. And I lost. Again. (Remember Ruffian? Barbaro?) Lesson learned.

McCain knows why we are in the Middle East — oil

At a town hall meeting in Denver today, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona revealed what he thinks about oil and U.S. involvement in the Middle East:

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will — that will then prevent us — that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.

The remark was made at a Jewish community center before a crowd of about 300 people, as McCain replied to a question. Without Sen. Joe Liebermann there to whisper a correction in his ear, McCain’s remark stands. And it certainly sounds as though he is saying oil is the only reason the U.S. is in the Middle East. End our need for Middle East oil, and we’ll never, ever, fight there again.

Gaffe? We may never know what McCain meant to say; the video only shows what he said. Blood for oil. What some have been saying all along.  

 

Things that bug me: An updated list

Originally posted in 2004, and recently expanded:

1. People who ding my car
2. Hangnails
3. Telemarketers
4. Paper cuts
5. Door-to-door hustlers
6. The “F” word outside of “R” rated movies
7. Reporters who mangle the English language (when did our schools stop teaching grammar?)
8. Religious people who think I should be
9. Bosses who know less than I do about my job
10. Anyone or anything that wakes me up
11. Zits (not fair at my age!)
12. Single-ply toilet paper
13. Ambulance-chasing lawyers who advertise on TV (e.g: Jim ”The Hammer” Shapiro)
14. Headaches
15. That lone mosquito in my bedroom that I can hear in the dark … waiting …
16. Honorary degrees (they dishonor real degrees and the people who earn them)
17. Rain on my parades
18. Canker sores
19. People who own vicious dogs (I blame the owner, not the dog)
20. Paper towels that don’t absorb
21. Detectable lip-synching
22. Sheet marks on my face (Me, napping? Nahhh!)
23. Ridiculous use of the word frack in “Battlestar Galactica”
24. Voice mail (this is customer service?)
25. Flyers taped to my front door
26. Clear packing tape that won’t relinquish a strip until I’ve picked away half the roll
27. All those unwanted phone books that seem to breed on my porch
28. The perverseness of inanimate objects (you know the ones I’m talking about)
29. Sun in my eyes when I’m looking for that “must-not-miss” exit sign at 70 mph
30. Nail polish that wasn’t dry after all
31. Food caught in my teeth
32. That one little bristly hair on my chin that I can feel but can’t see to tweeze
33. Doctors who say “discomfort” when they mean ”pain”
34. Pouring a cup of coffee, then discovering I’m out of CoffeeMate
35. Indestructible, hermetically sealed, tamper-proof, absolutely unopenable plastic packaging
36. Dead car batteries that don’t announce themselves until I have to go someplace
37. Four-year-olds spouting four-letter words
38. Shipping charges that exceed the cost of the item
39. An eyelash in my eye
40. 200-tablet-sized bottles sold with 20 tablets and a big  wad of cotton
41. Knowing that as soon as I post this list, I’ll think of something else …