the blog: cause normal is for pansies

The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and very disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that the crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle Obama said to a top campaign aide.

On the night she officially lost the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton enjoyed a long and friendly phone conversation with McCain. Clinton was actually on better terms with McCain than she was with Obama. Clinton and McCain had downed shots together on Senate junkets; they regarded each other as grizzled veterans of the political wars and shared a certain disdain for Obama as flashy and callow.

Obama was never inclined to choose Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate, not so much because she had been his sometime bitter rival on the campaign trail, but because of her husband. Still, as Hillary's name came up in veep discussions, and Obama's advisers gave all the reasons why she should be kept off the ticket, Obama would stop and ask, "Are we sure?" He needed to be convinced one more time that the Clintons would do more harm than good. McCain, on the other hand, was relieved to face Biden as the veep choice, and not Hillary Clinton, whom the McCain camp had truly feared.

The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for the Democratic primary debates, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me ... answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."

One aide estimated that she [Gov. Sarah Palin] spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Labels: barackobama, election08, politics

Labels: barackobama, election08, politics

Labels: election08

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Labels: batman, film, movies, philosophy

This is so nice
I just might sleep with the same girl twice
They say it’s better the second time
They say you get to do the weird stuff (we do the weird stuff)

Yes Captain Hammer's here
Hair Blowing in the Breeze
The day needs my saving expertise

Everyone’s a hero in their own way
Everyone can blaze a hero's trail
Don't worry if it's hard,
if you're not a friggin 'tard you will prevail

This is his dry cleaning bill
Four sweater vests

The hammer is my penis

Labels: drhorrible, josswhedon, whedonverse

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The effectiveness of Prozac, these scientists say, has little to do with the amount of serotonin in the brain. Rather, the drug works because it helps heal our neurons, allowing them to grow and thrive again.

One of the first cracks in the chemical hypothesis of depression came from a phenomenon known as the "Prozac lag." Antidepressants increase the amount of serotonin in the brain within hours, but the beneficial effects are not usually felt for weeks.

In this sense, Prozac is simply a bottled version of other activities that have a similar effect, such as physical exercise. They aren't happy pills, but healing pills.

Labels: healthcare, psychology

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• Antec P182 Gunmetal ATX case
• Antec Earthwatts EA380 380W ATX12V v2.0 Power Supply
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane 2.5GHz Socket AM2 Dual-core
• ASUS M2A-VM AM2 AMD 690G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
• 2 * 80 gig IDE drives
• 4 * 250 gig SATA II Hard drives
• 4 * 2 gig RAM G.SKILL DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
• Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150 PCI Tuner Card

"Okay, so you're a werewolf. No problem. But hey, three days out of the month, I'm not much fun either." —Willow

"I was just thinking about the life of a pumpkin. Grow up in the sun, happily entwined with others, and then someone comes along, cuts you open, and rips your guts out." —Buffy

"We saved the world, I say we party." —Buffy

"This is the crack team that foils my every plan? I am deeply shamed." —Spike

"I didn't jump to conclusions. I took a small step, and conclusions there were." —Buffy

"You! All of you. Why couldn't you be dealing drugs like normal people?" —Principal Snyder

"Oh, no...I have to go take an English make-up exam. They give you credit just for speaking it, right?" —Buffy

"I have two words that are going to make all your troubles go away: Miniature. Golf." —Mayor Wilkins

"I like people. They're like Happy Meals with legs." —Spike

Labels: buffy, josswhedon, quotes, whedonverse

Again, I don't mean to equate Facebook with [online] dating, but I do think there are strong similarities. Perhaps the key differentiator, here, is that getting someone is not the same as getting along with someone.

Labels: socialpsychology

"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, 'You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.'"

Labels: death

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