Sunday, November 02, 2008

The Elusive Superhero Sidekick Vote


So here's that Mark Warner item I teased earlier. During that parade in Vienna he actually came by our group before the parade started and I conned him into getting his picture taken with me in my Robin costume. I waited to put this up because I didn't want it to influence the election since we superheroes, even those of us that are merely sidekicks, have a responsibility to remain impartial in elections. What was amusing though was that when he came up to our group he introduced himself as "I'm Mark Warner, I used to be governor and now I'm running for the Senate." I remember thinking are there people that didn't know you were the governor? Do we really want those people voting? I almost said something like "And you considered a run at democratic nomination for the presidency, but then decided against it because you wanted to spend more time with your family. So what happened there? Had enough of the family already?" I figure there's no real point in mentioning that though since most people know the "spend time with the family" line was just a way out to save face since he would have been up against two political juggernauts (Hilary and Obama) and would have had little to no chance at actually winning the nomination.


The kids played outside today once we got home from church. Catherine got out her rollerblades and was practicing by going back and forth across the driveway. She would start in the grass and then blade across the driveway to the grass on the other side. She did have a couple of spills, but never really got hurt since she had all her pads on.








Quinn meanwhile did his normal thing of switching what he was focused on numerous times. He started with his scooter, moved on to skateboarding, switched to baseball, then got out a water gun. Not sure why nothing seems to hold his interest for an extended period of time, I suppose it could just be a boy thing but since he's our only boy I have nothing to compare it against.

If you're still with us and care to read a rant, continue on. If you're not in the mood then I suggest stopping here and moving on.

On a much more serious note I was very disappointed in my church service this morning. Federal laws prohibit endorsing a candidate from the pulpit if churches want to retain their non-profit status, but today our pastor basically preached you should be deciding the election only the issues of gay marriage and abortion. The implicit implication was he was basically preaching that people should vote for McCain. Don't get me wrong, everyone has the right to vote for who they want and can choose a person that happens to agree with them on a couple of hot button issues, I just don't think that message should be getting preached from the pulpit. If I were to argue the case though I would mention that voting only on hot button issues and not considering overall qualifications or stances on other issues is how we ended up with our current potus, and I daresay there are few that think he's turned out to be a good choice (although I would be willing to bet those few that do are the same few that made their decision based on those hot button issues).

So overall I was really disappointed. It's the first time I almost got up and walked out on a service in disgust. And here's the kicker, he phrased the "gay marriage" issue one man one woman forever and to decide based on where candidates stand on that. So here's my question, are we suppose to vote on that based on what the candidate says or does? Neither candidate supports gay marriage in the definition that the church finds so offensive (and that is a redefinition of what marriage constitutes). Obama has stated he supports civil unions, but at the same time he has only been married once and seems to be an involved family man. McCain on the other hand opposes civil unions but has gotten divorced and married again. So based on the pastor's message I should vote for McCain because of what he says, or Obama because of what he does? As you can probably tell, the whole "sermon" left a really bitter taste in my mouth. And it didn't help that last week this was the same guy that claimed Halloween shouldn't be celebrated because it has secular origins, but then admits that Christmas too has secular origins but "that's different" somehow.

2 comments:

gaz said...

you should have stood up and challenged him dude... ;-]
and i agree - there has to be more
to your choice of potus than where they stand on those two issues.
btw - do we really have to wait till wednesday to find out who wins? do you have any indide info you can share with your english buddy?

JamesF said...

My guess is with potential of charges of election tampering, too close to call counts and possible inadequate preparations for voter turnout that there are going to be enough charges flying back and forth that we might not know for weeks.

Although if anything gets challenged and ultimately goes to the supreme court I suspect I know who they'll pick.

The good news is there's only one more day and then at least it's out of our hands (and I'll stop getting 6 to 10 robo-calls a night).