How John McCain came to select Sarah Palin.

How Barack Obama came to select Joe Biden.

And how Bill Kristol tied his horse to Sarah Palin’s cart ages ago (well, last year) and how he’ll resign his punditry and repudiate everything he’s said if McCain Palin doesn’t win. (Just kidding, that last part isn’t in the link, but it’s funny to think about).

I don’t know if anyone else thinks this is interesting or not, but that’s why I have my own blog (or, well, why I convinced Matt to let me color the walls of his blog). Charles Barkley has a history of saying whatever the hell he wants (most of it hilarious or sardonic at least) (I have a list somewhere that I will post when I find it), but he’s always been a gigantic Republican. He’s been talking about running for governor of Alabama forever and apparently he’s going to run in 2014. That will make for an interesting race. In any case, apparently Barkley left the party in ‘06, “I was a Republican until they lost their minds.”

Well said, Chuck.

(Via HuffPo)

I can’t decide which of the following is my favorite quote from the video. Watch for yourself and vote in the comments.
“Are you there Jah? It’s me Ras Trent.”
“Rude boys living in the Shanty-Dorm”
“Have you ever noticed how bald heads suck?”
“Me toil part time at Jah Cold Stone Creamery”

Election night is coming up. In order for me to make sure to keep up on all the races I’m interested in following, I made a list. If the Ds win all of these……………..Sorry, I just blacked out for a second. If a lot of these races go for Ds, we’ll have had a very good night. A lot of these are long shots. Let’s see what we can do, though.

NM – Pres, CO – Pres, MO – Pres, OH – Pres, NC – Pres, VA – Pres, FL – Pres, GA – Pres, IN – Pres, ND – Pres, AZ – Pres, GA – Sen, KY – Sen, MN – Sen, AL – Sen, MS – Sen, TX – Sen, NE – Sen, NC – Sen, WA – Gov, NC – Gov, WA 08, CA 04, CA 11, CA 50, NV 02, AZ 03, WY AL, TX 22, MN 06, IL 10, OH 02, VA 02, NY 29, NC 08, FL 16, FL 25, FL 21, FL 18, CT 04, AL AL,

We’re not going to win all of these, but we can hope, and the more we do win, the better the night will be. Also, if there are any messed up state abbreviations, I did that on purpose so Republicans would have something to make fun of. Let me know if I forgot anything good. I might build this out as we get closer to Tuesday so it has the names of the people running in these districts. We’ll see.

How do I say this? Let’s go with FAIL. About the first week of August, 28 coworkers and I started doing push ups using the original One Hundred Push Ups plan. The idea was for the group of us to get to 100 push ups in six weeks. Some never started. Almost everyone quit within three and a half weeks. I kept going, but wasn’t making very much progress. Then after eight weeks, we had a big ‘everyone do as many push ups as you can’ thing, which was kind of crazy and only six or seven people took part. I did 44, though my high had been 47. No one got to 100 but two folks got pretty high. And then I quit for about three weeks. Recently I’ve started doing one set a night of a little less than as many as I can. I bet a coworker I’d eventually get to 100 (one year max) and I’ve still got about 10 months to get there, so hopefully I can make slow but sure progress up the ladder. Or maybe I’ll just quit again. We’ll see.

(First Update)
(Second Update)
(Third Update)

Barry Eisler writes these crazy spy books (John Rain Series) that are super addictive and easy to read in about a day and a half. I’ve read them all. And probably will again in a couple years. These might be the best vacation books of all times. In any case, Eisler also has a blog where he recently has been writing extremely thoughtful posts on the election. I enjoy it immensely because his vote for Obama is coming from a different place than my partisan zealotry. Eisler sounds like a Republican who is embarrassed by today’s Republican party. His latest post is a must read essay on ideologues losing credibility by refusing to acknowledge, well, facts. Just go read the whole thing.

People who are unable or unwilling to recognize the danger of an ossified ideology tend to be ineffective, and, in certain positions, dangerous. Facts, after all, are stubborn things. A deeply held belief that you can fly does nothing to suspend the operation of gravity.

Well, it’s actually Melvin Emmaunel, but BJ stands for Bossman Junior. Bossman being his father. Bossman hit like 45 homeruns against the Sox in the ALCS, but I hope after he spends a few more years in Tampa (working out any of the maturity issues that got him benched twice this year), the Sox get him so I can get a Bossman jersey. Want.

Sort of via Bostonist, How do you not want one of these?

Cory Branan, a singer from Memphis (now living in Austin), sung about in a Lucero song, is a compelling stage presence. Dustying up his voice to better suit the narration of the song and playing the shit out of his acoustic guitar, Branan is a little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll. There weren’t too many people there, but those who were had a good time.

OK, this album has too many tracks: I still haven’t even heard all of them through shuffling my “recently added” playlist. Still, I’ve found some great songs on here so far, especially “Energy,” “Same Old Drag,” and “Sunndal Song.” If you like smiley, bouncy pop, you really can’t find a better exemplar of it than Apples in Stereo.