Category: Stupid Stuff

Update: Obama now up by 14

This according to a new CBS/New York Times poll. Why?  For the precise reasons I’ve been writing: McCain has managed to dirty himself with the mud he and his running mate have been throwing.  The funny thing is that the mud just keeps on coming.  The next trick will be a new message from the McCain campaign.  We call that “too little too late”.

Now some people are talking about The So-Called “Bradley Effect”, where Tom Bradley ran against George Deukmejian for California Governor and peaked too early and lost.  This should not be confused with the Tom Bradley Blunder of the Lee Atwater Invitational Dead Pool.  In the case of the Bradley Blunder, one of the invitational entrants mysteriously requested that Tom Bradley’s name be struck from her list of people to die.  It later emerged that she had met the former mayer of Los Angeles and liked him.  The lesson: never meet people who you bet money will die.

Quiz Answer

Previously I asked what were the eastern-, western-, northern-, and southern-most states in the United States.  Three out of the four answers are gimmes.  The southernmost state is, of course, Hawaii, where South Point, HI at approximately 18° 54’N.  The northernmost state is Alaska, with Point Barrow weighing in at approximately 71° 26’N.  The westernmost state is also Alaska, but where precisely in Alaska that is depends on how you measure.  The discussion page of Extreme points in the United States on Wikipedia explains that if you use lattitude and longitude, Alaska is the easternmost point in the U.S.  If you use driving direction, however, Maine takes the honor.

Here’s my view: we often refer to China and Japan as “The Far East”, even though to get there from California, one would fly in a westerly direction.  This says to me that the logic behind driving direction isn’t all that sound.  Given my view, what are those eastern- and western-most points?  Google Earth, at least, gives the impression that the westernmost point would be Amatignak Island at 179° 08′ W, and the easternmost point would be Semisopochnoi Island at 179° 45’E.  Again, this assumes we’re talking about states.  We have possessions in various places that I haven’t reviewed.

Doh Biden

Several weeks ago I wrote that Barack Obama’s choice for vice president compares with that of Spiro Agnew, and that he is a great pick if you like mediocrity, with a very undistinguished career in the Senate. The New York Times has picked up on some of Senator Biden’s less inspiring moments on the campaign trail.  And now we can compare him to Dan Quayle.  One wonders if Biden knows how to spell potato.

California Prison Guards Misfire

According to the Associated Press, California prison guards now want to recall Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger using the same procedure that removed the previous governor, Gray Davis.  What great wrong has Arnold Schwarzenegger committed that he should deserve such an ignominious end?  He didn’t give them special treatment, when he cut pay while the budget dispute there drags on.

The job of a prison guard is a miserable one, there can be no question.  Some of the people who take the job aren’t far from the people their guarding in mentality.  But their unions have been a huge force in California politics, with strong mobilization efforts.

By handing themselves to him on a silver platter, the unions have provided the governor exactly what he needs right now: a big target that people can dislike more than him.  Not only will they succeed in their recall efforts, but by failing they will be politically neutered with their loss, making it possible for anyone to get elected without them.  Now those are handcuffs worth throwing off.