Well, I covered my first election. That experience might become a blog post in itself. And I nearly hit 20,000 words last night in my NaNoWriMo novel. If I had been able to stay awake any longer I would have written the 308 more words required to actually reach 20,000!
But now for your weekly dose of really random links…
ban Comic Sans – oh my. It’s a haven of hilarity for graphic design nerds. And there’s even a host of alternatives to Comic Sans. How’s that for a positive approach to what could become a wholly negative campaign? (HT: Wesleigh)
The United States Department of Fear – parodying the real Dept. of Homeland Security. It’s amusing, though I don’t entirely agree with its politics. And I’m always a fan of parody and satire because, done in the right way, it can point out inconsistency, hypocrisy and/or subconscious assumptions that need to be recognized. (Stuff Christians Like is by far my favorite parody website.)
Along those same lines, the Chicago Tribune recently profiled a Christian (read: clean) comedian to highlight the bigger news: Christians like to laugh, if the joke isn’t crass or laced with profanity. Or something along those lines. That’s a whole untapped audience, according to the comedians the writer interviewed. I suppose. On the other hand, most of the so-called Christian comedians aren’t that funny, except for this one guy I saw on video once that did a hilarious routine about airport bathrooms. (And it was entirely a clean routine! The focal point of the bathroom part was the sanitary hand dryer that doesn’t actually dry your hands!) (HT: Challies)
Now for a different note: The U.K. newspaper The Guardian declares that U.S. unemployment isn’t the 9.1 percent the government’s been registering, but more like 16 percent. The writer does so by taking the second reading the government puts out, the one that counts discouraged workers and folks who are part-time but would rather be full-time. Maybe so, but it seems like we slip into comparing apples and oranges if we take this higher number and contrast it with the 2007 4-percent number, which probably didn’t include discouraged workers and unwilling part-timers either (though there were likely fewer of them). (HT: Gene Veith, I think)
And an opinion writer/economist at the Washington Post says the U.S. government’s budget just can’t be balanced without pain. Cutting wasteful spending, or taxing the rich, won’t be more than a drop in the bucket—there’s got to be some serious reductions. And it’ll hurt… so no politician will propose such a thing. (HT: Gene Veith)
Now, some wonderful guitar music courtesy of my roommate (she sent me the link on Facebook):
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