I Sold My Self At This Election

The election is now over.

I was not in favour of any of the candidates that were running, but I still recognized my civic duty to vote. People who do not vote should have no say in the current state of politics or policy.

I was saddened by so many people that I knew of that decided that they were not going to vote in this election. So many of them had been duped into believing that they were somehow making a point. To me the point, though unintended, was simple- we have finally been worn down enough that we will give you what you ultimately want; for us to stop voting.

I encouraged these people to at least write someone in on the ballot. 

My cousin called me one night very concerned that I was telling people to do this. He was under the impression that if I wrote someone else in, who had a lesser chance than McCain, that I was cancelling his vote. Partially right in logistics, but morally wrong.

I am not going to get into all of the details about who I wanted or why, but I will say that I ultimately conceeded and voted for McCain, an electoral mistake that I will not make again.

I don't buy into the crap that says that you should vote for the lesser of two evils or that you should cast your vote for the guy on "your side" that is most likely to win. Voting is a matter of conscience and choice based on representation. If you, like I did, give up your one shot to make your voice be heard [regardless of how the Electoral College will negate you anyways] then you have become a political whore. You weren't bought by money, but by ideology that loses every time.

The next time around I will not be so reluctant to give up my vote to someone who has a better chance. Come hell or high water, even if my candidate has the worst shot than anyone else they will still get my vote. It's all about principle. If you have no principle, regardless of who you're voting for, then you should not be allowed to vote.

Some Olympic Commentary

Now that the 2008 Olympics are over I would like to offer some commentary/critique/criticism. I think I would have enjoyed the Olympics this time around if I would have actually gotten to see more than swimming and gymnastics. I seem to have missed the more interesting events.

In this post I offer a proposal for events that should be dropped from future competitions. While the events in and of themselves may be entertaining, they are either driven by the commercial or recreational forces and not that of survival; which is originally what made the Olympics what they were. They have no show of strength, skill, courage or stamina.

Badminton
Baseball
Basketball
Field Hockey
Soccer
Handball
Softball
Synchronized Swimming
Table Tennis
Regular Tennis
Volleyball
Water Polo
and for the love of God.......
Speed Walking

It is not that I have anything intuitively against any of these as sports [except for Speed Walking] but they, in my humble opinion, do not belong in the Olympics.

IOC- put that in your pipe and smoke it.