Sarah Palin's VP Qualification (intentionally singular)

I'd heard about this one, but Paul Krugman actually saw it:

On my way to teach, this morning:
Vote for the hero and the hottie.
Yes, it was on a pickup truck.

Computing the Odds

I hate numbers. Avoid them like the plague. But just for today, I will grant an exception and follow along.

Found this on the NYT Opinionator blog. Written by Chris Suellentrop.

What would John McCain’s victory map look like? Nate Silver, the electoral
math wizard at FiveThirtyEight.com, used his computer to simulate the
presidential election 10,000 times on Sunday. McCain won 624 times. In the most
common result (occurring 169 times), “Obama wins everything that either Al Gore
or John Kerry won,” Silver writes. “McCain wins everything else.”

In the rest of McCain’s potential maps to victory, some patterns emerged. Silver writes:In each and every one of the 624 victory scenarios that the simulation found for him this afternoon, McCain won Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Indiana and Montana. He also picked up Ohio in 621 out of the 624 simulations, and North Carolina in 622 out of 624. If McCain drops any of those states, it’s pretty much over.

A Pleasant Distraction for Today from the NYT

What One Word Describes Your Current State of Mind?

Be sure to check out the Obama and McPain tabs.

h/t to kbr

So It Has Been Written

Got up at 6, voted, got my free Starbucks, had my breakfast, took the bags out for Amvets, updated my punkin', updated my Blog...what the heck? I'm usually not even awake yet...up perhaps, but not awake.

I've Never Been Much for Dolls

Only one other doll could possibly catch my eye...a Julie Andrews Sound of Music action figure.

Got my "action figure we can believe in" at Borders in Wheaton, Illinois, but you can also find it at JailBreak Toys.

Now little Barack and I are going to have a tea party. Want to come?

Focus on the Fear

Have you read that fictitious letter that Dobson's organization wrote? I won't give them the exposure by reprinting it, but I'll gladly include Jim Wallis' response as published on The Huffington Post:

James Dobson's "Letter From 2012 in Obama's America"

James Dobson, you owe America an apology. The fictional letter released through your Focus on the Family Action organization, titled "Letter From 2012 in Obama's America", crosses all lines of decent public discourse. In a time of utter political incivility, it shows the kind of negative Christian leadership that has become so embarrassing to so many of your fellow Christians in America. We are weary of this kind of Christian leadership, and that is why so many are forsaking the Religious Right in this election.

This letter offers nothing but fear. It apocalyptically depicts terrorist attacks in American cities, churches losing their tax exempt status for not allowing gay marriages, pornography pushed in front of our children, doctors and nurses forced to perform abortions, euthanasia as commonplace, inner-city crime gone wild because of lack of gun ownership, home schooling banned, restricted religious speech, liberal censorship shutting down conservative talk shows, Christian publishers forced out of business, Israel nuked, power blackouts because of environmental restrictions, brave Christian resisters jailed by a liberal Supreme court, and finally, good Christian families emigrating to Australia and New Zealand.

It is shocking how thoroughly biblical teachings against slander--misrepresentations that damage another's reputation--are ignored (Ephesians 4:29-31, Colossians 3:8, Titus 3:2). Such outrageous predictions not only damage your credibility, they slander Barack Obama who, you should remember, is a brother in Christ, and they insult any Christian who might choose to vote for him.

Let me make this clear: Christians will be voting both ways in this election, informed by their good faith, and based on their views of what are the best public policies and direction for America. But in utter disrespect for the prayerful discernment of your fellow Christians, this letter stirs their ugliest fears, appealing to their worst impulses instead of their best.

Fear is the clear motivator in the letter; especially fear that evangelical Christians might vote for Barack Obama. The letter was very revealing when it suggested that "younger Evangelicals" became the "swing vote" that elected Obama and the results were catastrophic.

You make a mistake when you assume that younger Christians don't care as much as you about the sanctity of life. They do care--very much--but they have a more consistent ethic of life. Both broader and deeper, it is inclusive of abortion, but also of the many other assaults on human life and dignity. For the new generation, poverty, hunger, and disease are also life issues; creation care is a life issue; genocide, torture, the death penalty, and human rights are life issues; war is a life issue. What happens to poor children after they are born is also a life issue.

The America you helped vote into power has lost its moral standing in the world, and even here at home. The America you told Christians to vote for in past elections is now an embarrassment to Christians around the globe, and to the children of your generation of evangelicals. And the vision of America that you still tell Christians to vote for is not the one that many in a new generation of Christians believes expresses their best values and convictions.

Christians should be committed to the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of America, and the church is to live an alternative existence of love and justice, offering a prophetic witness to politics. Elections are full of imperfect choices where we all seek to what is best for the "common good" by applying the values of our faith as best we can.

Dr. Dobson, you of course have the same right as every Christian and every American to vote your own convictions on the issues you most care about, but you have chosen to insult the convictions of millions of other Christians, whose own deeply held faith convictions might motivate them to vote differently than you. This epistle of fear is perhaps the dying gasp of a discredited heterodoxy of conservative religion and conservative politics. But out of that death, a resurrection of biblical politics more faithful to the whole gospel--one that is truly good news--might indeed be coming to life.

Jim Wallis is the author of The Great Awakening, Editor-in-Chief of Sojourners and blogs at http://www.godspolitics.com/.

Toot's Legacy

My very first thought when I saw this photo...I love that man. I believe in him. I trust him. In a year that has brought me much disappointment and grief, he gives me hope in the goodness of my country and my fellow man...and I'm not easily inclined in that direction of late.

God, wrap this man in your loving kindness and grace tonight, and protect him for what I believe is his destiny.


h/t to Beth at Mannheim for the photo

Best Halloween Costume Ever...Even Though It's for a Dog

Thanks to the Huffington Post for this one. You can see it better there, but here's what his van reads:


Joe the Plumber
Unlicensed...$Cheap$
Screw Plumbing...hire me for:

• Robocalling
• Staged Media Interviews
• Naughty Burlesque
• Barmitzvah's

All Hallow's Eve

Thanks to Beth at Mannheim for the Seasonal Fun link...I found a pumpkin design even I could handle!

Don't Go Breakin' My Heart

In memory of "CubFanLois," and in honor of my hero Ron Santo, I will not lose my cool over tonight's playoff performance by our boys in blue. However, if the Cubs pull a 2007 implosion again, there is only one thing that will salvage my otherwise annus horribilus.

And if he loses, I'm moving to Sweden or Bali or Scotland or someplace with no professional baseball and no Republicans.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Julie.