tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154247662008-10-09T09:10:59.651-05:00Opinions, thoughts, & recommendations.Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-43308718195854231782008-10-09T08:09:00.004-05:002008-10-09T08:35:43.446-05:00

The pundits and talking heads pretty much agree that there was nothing "game changing" about the second Presidential debate. I'm not so sure about that. If you've been reading this blog, you'll remember that when McCain suspended his campaign, I offered a solution to the banking crisis. What I said was that we should make every possible effort to renegotiate the loans rather than foreclose.

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-76043486571476099022008-10-07T18:35:00.005-05:002008-10-09T09:10:59.704-05:00

You've probably received an email questioning where Barack Obama got the money for a 'round the world trip while he was in college, for his house, etc. The implication is that there is some sort of conspiracy among nefarious evil-doers to enrich Obama. This post is directed specifically at those people who buy into those implications. There's no mystery here. Here's a link to the Snopes page

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-3352819266195957912008-09-24T14:57:00.006-05:002008-09-24T18:21:30.154-05:00

John McCain has announced that he's suspending his campaign (including his television ads) to go back to Washington and work on the financial bailout. He had already spoken with Senator Obama and invited him to join McCain. I agree. We have three senators campaigning who should be rolling up their sleeves and doing their day jobs. McCain's statement indicates that the bailout will not pass "in

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-31155364339298711052008-09-17T07:57:00.003-05:002008-09-17T08:22:57.309-05:00

The Associated Press reports, "Clinton Cancels Rally Appearance After Learning Palin Invited". Well, there's no surprise there. What is a surprise is the revelation in this story that Hillary Clinton doesn't know what the word "partisan" means. From the story: “Her attendance was news to us, and this was never billed to us as a partisan political event,” said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines. “

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-31671779187577753512008-09-11T08:04:00.002-05:002008-09-11T08:05:16.795-05:00

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-56727330338891041242008-09-03T22:34:00.005-05:002008-09-03T23:17:23.972-05:00

Sarah Palin didn't knock it out of the park tonight... she launched it into orbit. Tonight she showed us a beautiful, intelligent, decisive leader who is a better orator than Barack Obama. Whereas Obama has stilted rhetoric, Palin has sincerity, humor, a relaxed conversational style, and substance. With a smile and a quip she tore the Democratic ticket apart. Here's the speech. This excellent

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-9328106051135394942008-09-02T20:07:00.005-05:002008-09-02T21:15:45.208-05:00

Alan Colmes provides provided us with a milk-through-the-nose moment this evening when he said, "If McCain wanted to be a maverick then he should have picked somebody like Joe Lieberman." Get that? To be a maverick, McCain should make the choices that the Liberals expect him to make. The left-wing media's outrage about McCain's choice of Sarah Palin boils down to "why didn't you choose who I

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-28078174361783158232008-09-02T15:58:00.004-05:002008-09-02T18:06:09.054-05:00

This from Reuters. Barack Obama, on his qualifications vs. Governor Palin's: "My understanding is that Gov. Palin's town, Wasilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million dollars a year -- we have a budget of about three times that just for the month," Obama had said.Y'know for somebody who's supposed to be a pretty smart guy, Barack

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-36746112928694304042008-08-30T17:40:00.009-05:002008-09-02T17:53:03.220-05:00

The Chicago Tribune has a couple of quizzes online to test your candidate "IQ". I thought it would be fun to put the questions side-by-side to see how the media spin their coverage of the separate candidates. (Hey, I post my opinions... but if the major media pretend to be neutral we should hold their feet to the fire. Speaking of spin... I picked neither the smug, smarmy picture of Obama, nor

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-9972071828534859972008-08-30T08:58:00.004-05:002008-08-30T10:07:17.972-05:00

Well, the early reactions to McCain's pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate are in, and already we see the micron-thin veneer of civility peel away from the Democrat's faces. As if we didn't know it from their failure to even consider Hillary Clinton for the #2 spot, we know it now... these are not the people that brought you Geraldine Ferraro. No, the current "champions of women's rights" are

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-32196692225316978472008-08-29T18:11:00.004-05:002008-08-30T01:14:04.490-05:00

Like 38 million other people, I spent at least some time watching the Democratic National Convention. Of course, nothing in the convention dispelled the notion of Obama as The One, and he was appropriately appointed Savior of the Universe in his own Greek Temple. This wasn't lost even on the New York Post (hardly a conservative think tank): Ouch! And those are the folks that are on his side!

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-11619490158814900662008-08-18T07:00:00.005-05:002008-08-18T13:40:26.627-05:00

Subatomic particle physicists rapping about the large hadron collider in Switzerland to explain what it does. Fortunately "Stephen Hawking" doesn't do the whole rap. If you really liked that, you're probably this guy. Please. Somebody shoot me. My ears are bleeding.

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-51149316386663244752008-08-03T18:10:00.006-05:002008-08-03T18:31:43.148-05:00

It's perhaps unfortunate that negative ads work, but I don't really think so, so long as you're bringing legitimate questions and not throwing muck. For that matter, I don't really think it's "negative" to call the other candidate's position into question. The one who has to fear from that is the man with a questionable position. For example, here is the latest "negative" McCain ad: Here is my

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-45532801784934729752008-08-03T12:43:00.003-05:002008-08-03T12:45:23.494-05:00

There's a "new" song on my music page, Here in Union. Actually, it was written in 2002, but it's posted now. Enjoy.

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-27351466345523575972008-08-01T23:09:00.003-05:002008-08-02T01:40:27.003-05:00

I've spent several posts detailing what is wrong with Barack Obama as a candidate. But a recent comment from an anonymous poster has made me realize that I should spend some time showing why you should vote for McCain and contrast the two candidates. After all, it's possible to have problems and still be the lesser of two evils. That's not the case here. These statements are in the comments, but

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-87330644670166737972008-08-01T19:05:00.004-05:002008-08-01T22:53:42.533-05:00

Normally I'm not overtly political in this blog, but you may have noticed I'm making special dispensation for Obama. He's making it quite easy. Gerard Baker has hit a home run with his satire, "He ventured forth to bring light to the world." Here it is, read by Baker himself: Direct quotes from Obama: "A light will shine down... from somewhere. It will... it will light upon you. You will

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-8870311384701643292008-07-31T13:26:00.004-05:002008-07-31T14:36:10.452-05:00

...Obama himself (not his "campaign") has decided to dive right under the muck to the bottom of the barrel by playing the race card. Without cause, I might add. “Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to the challenges we face. So what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,” Obama said. “You know, ‘he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name,’ you know, ‘he

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-23676682555080703292008-07-31T11:28:00.002-05:002008-07-31T12:58:37.178-05:00

I'd like you to take a look at this Democratic party ad. Boston.com has headlined the story, "McCain desperate, Democrats say" with an exceedingly poor analysis of what this ad actually means. Before we discuss it, click on the embedded ad. Watch it. Or read Boston.com's summary. Note that the ad never identifies "the charge" except to say that it's very negative for Obama. Also note that the

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-30327656264009793972008-07-17T13:30:00.003-05:002008-07-17T13:46:02.081-05:00

I was just looking over my web statistics and found that hits on Ruminations jumped significantly sometime around the middle of May. I checked the referrers and found that it's largely because Fake Steve Jobs linked to my Iron Man expose'. Pretty cool. Thanks, FSJ!

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-9243161610725824332008-07-15T23:34:00.004-05:002008-07-16T08:39:17.489-05:00

This is mostly just nonsense fun. The inspiration for it (believe it or not) was "If I Only Had a Brain" from The Wizard of Oz. In such roundabout ways are songs made. Download Ish KabibbleMore music

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-80151023364936929062008-05-11T19:05:00.003-05:002008-05-11T20:14:59.659-05:00

OK, when I saw the trailers for Speed Racer (official site, IMDB) I thought this movie would completely and totally suck. However, I was surprised. Against all my better judgment, I came away from the theatre thoroughly entertained. First, set aside everything you know about movies. Set aside everything you know about cars, or racing, or the laws of physics. They don't apply. Second... if

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-40138805067155930372008-05-06T21:24:00.002-05:002008-05-06T21:28:23.212-05:00

XR3 Hybrid: Personal Mobility Vehicle (PMV) Automotive Prototype Project Three wheels, 125mpg in diesel-only mode, 225mpg in hybrid mode. It's the coolest car I've seen since 1985. If Doc Brown built a time machine today, he'd want to put it in one of these. Only one problem... it's top speed is three miles per hour short of 88.

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-79469905752646703182008-05-04T16:42:00.003-05:002008-07-16T08:40:24.733-05:00

The Sad Song This is one of those rare instances where I'm the lyricist. Listen to this and you'll see why it's rare. This was written for my kids... when they pout, stamp, have a tantrum, hold their breaths, etc., it's time to sing The Sad Song. It's pretty impossible to stay sad when you hear this.Of course the overall theme is from the old children's verse, "Nobody loves me, everybody hates

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-86169238954463863202008-05-03T14:46:00.001-05:002008-05-03T14:46:55.047-05:00

Well, I just saw the movie, and I'm doubly convinced that Larry Ellison is Iron Man!

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15424766.post-69730218414861548172008-05-02T15:27:00.003-05:002008-05-02T15:35:41.987-05:00

There are a couple of new entries on my music page... First up is a parody of Billy Jean. It's been there for a while, but I didn't have a link to it. Next is a new original song, Lawrenceville Station Blues. Be kind, it's not easy to throw this sort of stuff out for public scrutiny when one is not a professional musician. Oh, and I know it's not really Blues.

Dave Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08617556290378317379noreply@blogger.com