Politics and Pucks

As someone who studies politics, I sometimes get discouraged by the system. However, there's a reason I like studying politics. There's a lot of times in American politics, where we see a lot of silliness and humor. We have the annual White House Correspondents Banquet where the whole press corps takes a few hours to make fun of itself and of elected officials. At the same time, the President and their cabinet get to have a chance to make fun of themselves and then listen to a comedian as well!

There's also elections and the crazy advertising and people who are involved, that the media generally does not cover. Sometimes, these people are running for irony, others because they're serious. Meet Vermin Supreme. He's a Democratic candidate running for President in New Hampshire. He was seen at a debate recently, and here's what he had to say:



Anyone whose closing statement is sung to the tune of "the chicken dance" has my vote.

The full debate can be seen here, but I think this highlight reel is pretty fantastic.

(Via Mediaite)

Today is the Iowa Caucus, the first primary event of the GOP 2012 Presidential race. If you have been keeping up with the polls, you can tell that the outcome is essentially a crap shoot. Predicting the outcome of the Iowa Caucus is crazy at this point, as the conventional logic has been thrown out the window. I'm suggesting that we just "roll initiative" with 20-sided dice to figure out who wins. (Edit 6:15PM) For those who aren't familiar with the concept of rolling initiative, it is essentially rolling the order of attacks in D&D. The highest initiative goes first, next highest goes second, and so on. In this case, we're determining the outcome of the Iowa Caucus.

So I just rolled one of my 20-sided dice and just uploaded them in the order I rolled them. I then assigned them alphabetically (1st roll to Bachmann, 2nd to Gingrich, etc.). None of them had bonuses, modifiers, or anything additional to take into consideration. This would be more accurate if I did a Monte Carlo simulation, but I don't have enough time today to do that. So here's my prediction of the caucus:

Michelle Bachmann rolls:

Newt Gingrich rolls:


Ron Paul rolls:

Rick Perry rolls:

Mitt Romney rolls:

Rick Santorum rolls:


The dice have spoken. I guess randomness likes late surges, hates liberty, and ignores the polls. Now will the people vote the same way?

On this New Years' Eve, I want to take a moment to tell you about a new awesome endeavor I'm undertaking this next year. I'm reviving a podcast about hockey with a few friends: The New High Sticking Podcast. James (a former roommate) and I did a hockey radio-show/podcast back in 2007. We were unable to continue it due to James' graduation from Purdue, and my taking an RA position in the summer of 2008. After some time we've decided to revive it with some new energy.

We will be starting sometime next week and details will be emerging, but I thought I'd take a moment to tell you that we did a test last night, and sounds like it will be a pretty informative pod cast. We will have fans and writers from around the continent weighing in on the major issues of the day in the realm of professional hockey. We're very excited about it, and I will keep you informed about it here on this blog.

For those wondering what I'm thinking about with the Iowa Caucus, there's a post coming up tomorrow about it!

If you read this blog or my Twitter, you know that I have written Rep. Todd Rokita some letters in the past and have been annoyed with his responses. They're mostly partisan and just assume that I wrote a letter to the Congressman about how I appreciated the bill he helped vote down or pass. Well, I have received a new letter I just received from Rep. Rokita about HCR-13. This bill reaffirmed "In God We Trust" as the motto of the US Government. In the letter he asked me to pray for him and his colleagues, giving me specifics to pray for him. He also was proud to uphold our his Christian heritage.

 (NOTE: I have the letter in my computer at home in IN, and will post it as soon as I get back)

First of all, when I'm disagreeing with the fact that you were interested in reaffirming "In God We Trust", don't ask me to pray for you. Yes, I'm not Christian and your district has a heavily Christian population, but at least be respectful of the fact that you do have non-Christians in your district (Remember the last election? I'll remind you that your opponent was Jewish). I also disagreed with the bill, and it seems like that wasn't even taken into consideration even if it is a form letter. If you're going to write a form letter, at least tell me how you at least understand my argument. Or at least tell me something to make me feel better if I disagreed.

All I'm asking for is some common courtesy towards non-Christian individuals. What makes you think I'd even theoretically pray for you if I was religious? You didn't make me feel better in your letter, from a non-Christian perspective (which I have). So in what way, should I pray for you then if I have no spiritual connection to Jesus? Essentially you've told me I should recognize my ties to Jesus (that I don't have). Seriously, there's some people that need to learn how to talk to non-Christian individuals and remember that we exist. Even if the majority is Christian, we still exist and are represented by you.

This year for the holidays my family is out in Hawaii, and it's absolutely gorgeous out here (not to mention as I write this, I'm overlooking the ocean). There's some blogging I want to catch up on, even though I promised I would have blogged almost a month ago! Anyway, there's more political and hockey blogging ahead.

While I've been out here in Hawaii, I've had an opportunity to go to Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941 by the Japanese as an attempt to cripple the US in the Pacific Theater. The attack was a long time coming, but the event that may have started this reaction was in 1937, when the US cut off oil trade to the Japanese in retaliation to their invasion of China. The Japanese, as most of the armies in WWII did, relied on steady supplies of oil. There were parts of the war (the North African campaign, for example), where the supply of oil played a large role in the outcome. The Japanese forged alliances with the Germans as they expanded their influence into Europe, Asia, and Africa. In December 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed as the Japanese were looking to add a pacific buffer zone from the US. The the US lost many battleships, planes, and over 2,500 soldiers. The USS Arizona lost nearly 1,500.

I had an opportunity to go to the USS Arizona Memorial which is in the middle of the harbor. It is moving to think that so many men and women died on that tragic day, and all the men and women aboard that ship mostly did too. The memorial is said to still be living, as the oil is still leaking from the hull of the sunken ship. It's amazing to think how this surprise attack is the second largest loss of life on American soil (the largest is Sept. 11, 2001). It was very cool to see this site, but it was also humbling. It was a surprise attack, that the US probably could not have entirely prevented, however this should not discount the fact that many lives (including many civilians). I did find it interesting that there was some mention of Japanese internment camps, because that tends to be a taboo topic with respect to American History. It's a step in the right direction, but I'm someone who thinks we can do more to remember the horrors of that dark era in our history.

In addition to the USS Arizona, I had an opportunity to see the USS Bowfin, which is a submarine that was launched on December 8, 1941. The submarine saw many battles and is one of the most effective submarines ever launched. It only saw one minor casualty, a broken leg, in its service during WWII. The ship itself is tiny for the 80 men who lived onboard at a given time. The upkeep and audio tour of this ship was absolutely incredible and I really appreciated how they've maintained it.  Attached was the US Navy submarine museum, which was also very cool. I learned about ICBMs that can be fired from these ships in the Cold War, as well as the other subs in history. Overall, I wish I could have spent a few days there, since there is that much stuff, but it gives me more things to see next time.

Today is Thanksgiving. Many of us are reminded of it because of afternoon football and Norman Rockwell paintings. For others it's just another day closer to Christmas. In reality, it almost seems like this holiday is being overlooked anymore in favor of the holiday shopping season. I will spare you of that blog post.

Anyway, you probably will engage in political discussion with your relatives, and I just want to remind you to not start wars at the dinner table. Politics can be discussed without starting wars, believe me, I do this every day at Purdue. If you disagree, don't fling mashed potatoes, just change the topic. It's okay. Your conservative relative is not going to come full circle on Occupy Wall Street, just like your liberal relative isn't going to see the magic of Sarah Palin.

So while you're waiting for the Turkey to cook in the oven, take a second and enjoy this *new* version of Happy Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown!



Happy Thanksgiving!

(Via Mediaite)