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Fort Meade Maryland - Home of the National Security Agency...

Pretty cool stuff.  Every time i drive by my phone dies.  The NSA is famed for it’s low profile and extreme power.  Also referred to as “No Such Agency” as a direct result of said low profile.

Cool place.  Right next door is the “National Cryptologic Museum”   One of these days I’ll actually manage to have time to stop and check it out.

It’s pointless to hope to change the world, not when the majority of people in it don’t care enough to pay attention.

I keep hoping that human beings are smarter this year than they were before, but I know that in this I am doomed to be disappointed.

Thomas Jefforson wrote, in part:  “We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”

Our constitution, like Disney’s “Fantasia”, was supposed to be updated every so often in order to “go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.”

McCain and the Republican party would have us living under the same rules that were created in 1776.  Like the 10 base rules of Christianity, no longer are all of the rules are applicable as written.

We cannot continue to isolate ourselves in a coccoon labelled 1952.  We can’t keep pretending that the US is all that matters, that the world outside our borders doesn’t exist, or that our opinion is the only one that matters in this world.

John McCain represents, and is a part of, the politics of the past.  He is incapable of playing by the new rules of the world.  Even his campaigning hasn’t changed.  Despite his claims of being above ‘politics as usual’ his attack ads are some of the most vile and reprehensible I’ve ever seen in my life.  He is playing games with debates, with “Summit” meetings, and with the campaign in general, up to and including his choice for VP, a choice designed to pander and not to promote.

After 8 years, It’s time to leave the past in the past and start moving forward again.

I’ve always viewed this little peice of machinery as proof positive that we are not alone in this universe.

Look at the facts.

• It’s over 30 years old.
• It’s still the fastest plane on record.
• Even Lockheed is to this date unable to duplicate the technology.
• It’s still to this day cooler than anything we’ve ever come up with.

Is it inviting the flame-gods to say that a former POW is a coward?

He’s running away from this debate, I’m sure because he knows that he doesn’t do well in debate formats.

What annoys me is that he’s using the crisis in the economy to dodge the debate, when what we really need is to actually hear what they have to say.

This economic crisis sucks, and I agree that something has to be done about it.  But we need someone in office who can run toward the debate, not away from it.

…but it’s still a monkey.

Most of my friends know I can be a little unstable.  The fact that I can count my friends on my fingers and still pet the dog is a perfect testament to that.

I’m Bi-Polar.  That’s an established fact.  Diagnosed in 1996 during a period when i was in and out of trouble, we tried a number of different drug therapies.  Lithium mixed with a dozen other anti-depressants, all of which left me spinning out of control or suicidal.

I firmly believe that Bi-Polar disorder is a combination of nature and nurture.  I think there are many people out there who are Bi-Polar who are taught coping skills.  I’ve learned them the hard way, through trial and error.  I still have issues from time to time, but I can usually ride them out.

I worry for my children.  I know that in large part of this that my problem will be theirs.  My only hope is that I can apply the lessons I learned to my upbringing of them.  Maybe I can teach the coping mechanisms that my parents were incapable of teaching me.

The hardest part is – guilt.

It’s hard to know you’ve dealt your kids a crappy genetic hand – to know that they are going to have to face a lot of the hardships that you did.  It’s hard knowing that the nightmares of your youth could become theirs.

Guilt is a powerful weapon.  A hell of a monkey on your back.

Here’s where we went wrong in 2000 (and by extension, 2008)

We elected a president we identified with.  George W. Bush is an average, everyday doofus.  As a result, most average, everyday doofuses can identify with him.

We made our mistake in thinking that this qualified a person to be president.  The now-famous poll question “Which candidate would you rather have a beer with?” should have sent up red-flags all over the place.

We don’t need a president we identify with.  We need a president who identifies with us.  Who is observant enough to see the trouble that the “average joe” is going through, but superior enough to know how to fix it.

I know the rabid-right are going to flame me for this, but this is where Bill Clinton excelled.  He grew up as one of us.  A middle-class american…but with one difference.  A vastly superior intellect.

He identified with us more than we identified with him.  He “Felt our Pain” and convinced us that that was so.

I think that (and let me preface this by saying that up until recently my mind WAS NOT made up about this election)

McCain totally fails that test.  He has no clue what it’s like to be middle class.  He thinks that if you make under $5,000,000 / year you’re middle class.  He and his seven houses (yes John, it’s seven, we counted so you wouldn’t have to)

Obama, well I don’t know.  But I know it’s more LIKELY that he’s on our side.  I know he’s experienced Lower-Middle class in ways that I don’t think McCain could imagine -

Obama went through some serious stuff growing up, I know where he’s coming from.  (Yes, a middle-aged white-guy can picture this – I grew up in Hawaii where I was a stark minority)

Sleeping is overrated.

When I was growing up, my mom was a night-owl, usually staying up reading until 2 or 3 in the morning.  My dad was a morning person, probably attributed to almost 25 years in the military.

Some part of me thinks that I tried to be awake for both of them from an early age.  So I ended up waking early and going to bed late.   A habit I’ve never really beaten.

I rarely really sleep.  I think I attribute it to not wanting to miss anything.  There is always something else I could be doing, something else that needs to get done before some arbitrary bullshit deadline I’ve created for myself.  When I do turn the lights off and try it’s restless and pretty much unrewarding.

And now there is work.  I’ve been a self-employed consultant for just about a year now.  My odd sleeping hours have both made it difficult and made me ideally suited for the kind of work I do.  (The only customers who complain are the ones who expect me to be on-site at 8am, though I usually explain up front why that is an unrealistic expectation.

I drink redbull and Starbucks to excess, I work too damned much, I try not to think about the fact that I spend 80% of my time away from home, missing my family.  I’m an un-medicated Manic-Depressive.  Un-medicated by choice because the last time I let a psychiatrist experiment on me was one of the times I came closest to suicide.

So I try desperately not to spiral out of control.  Usually I do a pretty good job of keeping my shit together and keeping it under control.

And sometimes….not so much.

Luckily today was an under control day.

Red car, Red zone, it kind of makes sense.

Um….I think this about says it all.  it kind of makes sense doesn’t it?  it’s a Red Car, It’s a Red Zone.

It’s all good, right?