Don't Ya Love It When The SHAT Hits The Fan?

I have been a big fan of William Shatner's ever since he re-invented himself with the original Priceline.com radio ads back in the late 90's. There's nothing I admire more than a man with a massive ego and a nice toupee who can poke fun at himself. I came across a website today that had the best tongue-in-cheek Shatner moments of all time, and I heartily recommend that you check it out. My personal favorite is Shatner's tribute to George Lucas when he was given the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. Enjoy:

A Tribute To My Son, Brad!

As many of you know, 15-year-old Brad Matthews joined the It's Academic team as a freshman at Sherwood High School last year. He didn't make the "A" team, otherwise known as the team that actually competes on television, but he did have a stellar year as one of the regular players on Sherwood's "B" team. The "B" team competed across Montgomery County in off-air tournaments, and even, on occasion, beat Sherwood's very own "A" team.

Well, lo and behold, we found out this afternoon that Brad's hard work and penchant for obscure trivia has paid off - He is now the only sophomore on Sherwood's "A" team! He may or may not get to compete on the "It's Academic" TV show this fall - there are four players competing for three on-air positions... but Brad WILL appear on the Montgomery County Schools' Public Access TV quiz show, "Quizmaster Challenge"!

It's quite an accomplishment for our oldest son, who continues to amaze his teachers and parents on a regular basis... and it's definitive proof that video games do NOT rot one's brain!

In tribute to Brad, I present this amusing new video, which shows us what happens when Super Mario's heroic efforts are taken for granted. Enjoy!

In Memory Of Spiro Agnew!

When I was 5 years old and Spiro Agnew was running for Governor of Maryland, my parents, who were active members of the Young Republicans, hosted a meet-and-greet for Agnew in the rec room of our home in Silver Spring. It was like a scene out of "Mad Men". I still have vague memories of it to this day, and I have better memories of faded Polaroid shots taken of the future Vice President sitting at my Mom's piano. It's neat to know that a national figure was in my basement, even if it was a national figure who would turn out to be a national embarrassment... and it's a story I will tell for the rest of my life.

So where am I going with this? There's a lot of hubbub being made over a campaign rally being held at Fairfax High School tomorrow for John McCain and Sarah Palin. The rally apparently breaks a county rule that prohibits political events from being held during the school day, and the Democrats are making a lot of noise about it, along with some unnamed teachers who say the rally will be "disruptive". I wonder if the rally would still be "disruptive" if it was being held for Barack Obama, but I digress...

I can see why rules like this would be in place... Under certain circumstances, I'm sure an event like this COULD be disruptive, and it certainly could portray the school system as taking sides. But we're not talking about a debate between two Congressional candidates. We're talking about an appearance by the potential future President and Vice President of the United States! What are the chances these students or even this school will ever have of having this opportunity again? I don't care if it's McCain or Obama or Ross Perot or Ralph freaking Nader. If they want to hold a rally at my kid's school, I'm going to say hell, YES!

I do think, in the name of fairness, just so no one's feathers are ruffled, that the county ought to afford the same opportunity to the Obama camp under the same circumstances, but at another Fairfax County high school... That way, the county might be able to allow another school body to share the same experience, and allow hundreds of other kids to say they remembered when (potentially) President Obama visited their school.

Come on... Is this REALLY that difficult?

Greater Of Two Goods?

I just had a thought. I have become so used to the idea of voting for the lesser of two evils during Presidential elections, that it never really occured to me that I could, for once in my life, be voting for the greater of two goods this November.

I am still firmly on the fence, but it's refreshing to think it could be because I really don't have anything (YET) of substance against either candidate. Barack is a bit too much "rock star" for my taste - especially given his very REAL lack of experience. John McCain is, frankly, about 10 years too old. But overall, I find both men to be attractive candidates - likable, believable and intelligent. Compare these two with the candidates from the past few elections...

2004 - George W. Bush vs. John Kerry - The epitome of lesser of two evils. Bush was not proving to be a particularly effective President, but America just plain didn't like John Kerry.

2000 - George W. Bush vs. Al Gore - People love Al Gore today, but he was a pretty weak candidate back in 2000, and so was Bush. Heck, if Gore had carried his own home state, we never would have had to learn about pregnant chads.

1996 - Bill Clinton vs. Bob Dole - Okay, I'll grant you... this was NOT a lesser of two evils election. Clinton did have an effective first term, and Dole was a well-respected elder statesman. But given Clinton's incumbency, this was never a very close election to begin with.

1992 - Bill Clinton vs. George H.W. Bush vs Ross Perot - The fact that Perot drew nearly 19 percent of the vote shows this was the ultimate in the lesser of THREE evils elections....

1988 - George Bush vs. Mike Dukakis - America was not really thrilled at the idea of giving a third straight term to the GOP, but Bush was running against Dukakis, who was a Democratic prototype for John Kerry.


Call me idealistic, but I think there's a real chance Americans will go to the polls on November 4th feeling good about the choices they have to make. It's far too easy in our sharply divided nation to take sides, and we spend far too much time trashing our opponents. There is plenty that is subject to change in the next 57 days, but as of right now... If my choice (whoever it turns out to be) doesn't win, I think I'll be fairly comfortable with the other guy in the White House.

Obama may be a rock star, but at least he's not a wooden board like Kerry or Gore or Dukakis. McCain may be old, but he's not (no matter what the Democrat talking points say) a carbon copy of George W. Bush, and he will be a strong leader if elected.

Your thoughts?

Why Do I Still Live Here?

Well, the short answer of why I continue to call Montgomery County home is that the housing market is in the tank, but beyond that, I really DO wonder sometimes why I stay in the county that I've called home virtually my entire life.

Regular readers of this blog have heard me bitch in the past about the broken county government that has never seen a tax it didn't like. It simply costs way too much to live here, and it's largely because the labor unions representing county workers are pulling the puppet strings that control our elected leaders. I say this, by the way, as the husband of a county school teacher.

The latest abuse and waste? A new audit from the county shows that more than 60 percent of the county cops who have retired over the past four years were placed on disability as they walked out the door - ensuring them of 2/3rds of their full-time pay for the rest of their lives tax-free. One of the "disabled" officers who retired won a fitness competition just a year after retiring! If the officers had simply taken retirement benefits, they would have been entitled to 60 percent of their salaries, and would have been taxed on that money. Their benefits would also have dropped considerably once they started receiving social security.

I don't know enough about labor contracts or the law to know whether anything can be done about any of this, but I DO know that there's plenty of fraud being committed, and as a taxpayer, I'm being left holding the bill again.

What's really at the bottom of all this is the imbalance of power in Montgomery County politics, where there is not a SINGLE elected Republican officeholder. The Democrat lawmakers are all beholden to the labor unions that helped them get elected - the same unions that can damned sure get them UN-elected if they don't toe the line. The Democrats would never admit to this, but they (and county residents) were better off when there were still a few liberal Republicans around to offer some pushback. Instead, the County Executive and Council are in many ways just pawns to the real power base.

Where have you gone, Howie Denis? A county turns its lonely eyes to you!

Equal Time

Here's the deal with Sarah Palin. Win or lose with McCain, she's going to be one of the leading faces of the GOP for the next 20 years. Having said that, I've been tough on the Democrats lately... Time for some payback in their favor...

Tread Carefully, Feminists...

The smell of hypocrisy hangs in the air over the Presidential campaign... Democrats are howling over the fact that the other side, the Grand Old (White Man) Party, has beaten the Dems to the punch and put up a woman as a Vice Presidential candidate. There have been chuckles over the relative inexperience of Sarah Palin, along with the fact that she comes from a small state, is pro-gun and pro-life, and now has both a baby with Down Syndrome and a daughter who is pregnant, proving without a doubt that she is an irresponsible parent to boot.

In essence, the Democrats are doing everything they can to marginalize Sarah Palin, just as all men tried to marginalize all women candidates a generation ago. If Sarah Palin breaks through the glass ceiling, are we to believe it won't count because her politics are not NOW politics? Do GOP women have to submit to chromosome tests to prove their gender?

Here's what is really at play here. Last Thursday night, the Democrats thought they had the election all but locked up after Barack Obama's electrifying acceptance speech in Denver. Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Romney? Surely an electoral landslide!

What the Democrats had not counted on is that the Republicans were slick enough to steal the spotlight and turn conventional wisdom on its ear. And now the Democrats are pissed.

They are pissed that what they thought would be a rout is now a horserace. They are pissed that, after finally getting Hillary Clinton to go away, her legacy remains alive in Sarah Palin. And they are extremely pissed that of the two parties, the one that had the imagination to nominate a woman was the party of Darth Vader and Dick Cheney.

This is a hypocritical temper tantrum in the making. Would feminist groups rather have a strong woman in the White House, even if she does not share the traditional NOW platform, or would they rather have Joe Biden in a dress?

I don't expect feminist groups to support the McCain/Palin ticket... But I would hope they don't spend the next two months trying to claim that Sarah Palin is not a legitimate candidate for Vice President. Like her or not, Palin is going to make the GOP ticket more attractive to voters. And that speaks to her power... as a candidate AND as a woman.

-- Written by a pro-choice, anti-gun Obama-leaning moderate who thinks candidates deserve the courtesy of being fully-vetted by the public instead of being instantly dismissed in order to justify a political stance.