Thursday, August 28, 2008

To Keep NagMaster2000 Happy

My MBTI:


Introverted (I) 61.76% Extroverted (E) 38.24%
Sensing (S) 51.52% Intuitive (N) 48.48%
Thinking (T) 83.33% Feeling (F) 16.67%
Judging (J) 56.25% Perceiving (P) 43.75%

ISTJ - "Trustee". Decisiveness in practical affairs. Guardian of time- honored institutions. Dependable. 11.6% of total population.

My Enneagram:



Enneagram Test Results
Type 1

Perfectionism

46%
Type 2

Helpfulness

30%
Type 3

Image Awareness

66%
Type 4

Sensitivity

40%
Type 5

Detachment

56%
Type 6

Anxiety

40%
Type 7

Adventurousness

43%
Type 8

Aggressiveness

86%
Type 9

Calmness

50%
Your main type is 8
Your variant is sexual
Take Free Enneagram Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Pow, POW, P.O.W.!!!

I was thinking recently about all the times that some dippy thing John McCain has said was defended with "Yes, John McCain insert gaffe here, but John McCain didn't have subject of gaffe for five and a half years....in prison!"

McCain is allegedly "reticent" about discussing his P.O.W. past. I'd hate to see what it would look like if he fucking felt like talking about it!!

Expertise vs. Judgement

Since EnviroMom was chapping my ass about posting, here's the second post in a week. Now I have to think of something new to call her. "NagMaster2000" maybe?

So... for what it's worth...I was watching the convention last night and Joe Biden finally got to what I had been groping towards all this time regarding Obama. Bill Clinton may have said Obama was ready for the job, but what Joe Biden actually said in his speech was that Obama had always been ready for the job. By virtue of the fact that he makes good decisions and periodically revisits them to evaluate their appropriateness.

McCain has a greater history in the Senate, though his recent round of flip flops are hardly his first (his post-Keating re-invention as St. John The Maverick was the first) and they're worth noting. I think they will be. Joe Biden started the "more in sorrow than in anger" trope, and I expect that at some point the argument will develop into, "I can't believe what my old friend has begun saying because he's trying to please a corrupt and intellectually bankrupt Republican Party. Does he really believe that???"

So let's look at what "Bomb, Bomb Iran" John's legislative accomplishments have been recently. He opposes Lily Ledbetter (by supporting a Republican filibuster), because apparently pay discrimination is just fine as long as your victim can't figure out they're getting fucked within 180 days of getting their first paycheck. He was against Webb's GI Bill before he just didn't care enough to show up to vote one way or another before he decided to take credit for it in the Rose Garden. He was against torture before he was for letting Bush get away with a signing statement saying, "But torture is defined by the President at his sole discretion acting as Commander in Chief," so that St. John could get a photo-op with the Deciderator in the Rose Garden.

Basically, John McCain is very good at getting REALLY STUPID SHIT done. Frankly, I prefer incompetence in the service of idiocy, thank you very much.

In turn let us consider Obama. Negotiate with Iran with no preconditions? I work in marketing, so I've been part of more than a few negotiations. Let me tell you...if your precondition for even starting a negotiation is total capitulation from the other guy you're NOT NEGOTIATING. You're issuing an ultimatum. Phrased in the form of a negotiation offer so that people who are dumber than a bag of hammers can't figure out you're actually REJECTING any possibility of negotiation. "Fooling some of the people all of the time," leaps to mind here.

"I'm not opposed to all wars, I'm opposed to dumb wars"? Preach it, brother. I was an Army Officer, so pretty clearly I'm not opposed to all wars. But watching a bunch of kids who trust you to do the right thing by them get killed because some dumb fuck of a politician can't keep a hold of his fucking temper for 24 hours at a stretch? Not exactly what any of us signed up for.

Pragmatic free market philosophy in support of an egalitarian redistribution aimed at creating equal opportunity? Pretty much describes my philosophy: The economic purpose of the state is to keep capitalism and free markets from fucking it all up for themselves. Because the Good Lord knows that a 24 year old bond trader wondering where his next Ferrari is coming from is NOT who you want ensuring that capitalism doesn't shit where it lives.

I infinitely prefer judgement to expertise. Expertise can be acquired (or hired). Judgement you're born with. And John McCain doesn't have judgement. He has a seething mass of free floating anger waiting...just waiting...for someplace to light so he can engage in the next round of spastic shitheadedness.

Friday, August 22, 2008

McCain Seriously Loses His Shit

I've been following St. John the Maverick's latest meltdown with some degree of genuine sorrow. After reading an article by an Arizona reporter who knew John McCain like Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose (of Shrub fame) knew Bush, I've come to the conclusion that St. John was never that saintly to begin with.

I knew, for example, that he had a temper. A bad one. What I didn't know was how thoroughly his personality has infused his campaign. Until this week.

See, as you may have heard St. John, who's been saying that Obama is elitist and out of touch, has apparently lost track of how many houses he owns. Which set off a storm.

Apparently, the Obama camp had been laying in wait for this one. They had all kinds of stuff ready to go, and the last couple weeks have as near as I can tell, been a big, Rope-A-Dope.




They've let McCain run "Elitist" ad after ad, and now, McCain walks into a punch and there's two ads out in 48 hours. Almost like they were hoping that he'd gaffe regarding wealth. Stringing it together with Phil Gramm's "whiners" comment and you have a one-two punch that hits McCain where he lives.

The McCain campaign response? It turns out, as you may not have known, that John McCain was a POW. So there!

Even the MSM has started to note that whenever McCain gets his ass in a crack he trots out "POW".

I think this may have been the plan all along. McCain, in his undisciplined way, runs amok all summer long, when no one is actually watching, while Obama keeps his powder dry. Knowing that at some point St. John will put his foot in it. And then won't be able to figure out how to handle it.

Which of course leads to the meta-question. If this guy can't keep his campaign on track for more than 3 days running without losing his shit, do you REALLY want his spastic ass in charge of the country for 4 years?