One Nation

If you've followed politics lately (or watched the Daily Show), you'd know that some flat-out strange comments have been floating out of the McCain campaign. Be it a desperate attempt to win over "rural working class" voters or just a desperate attempt to appeal to far-right conservatives, the candidate's supporters (and even that incorrigible Palin) have been throwing around this notion of a "Real America."

You know the one; those great barbecuing, burger-eating Joe Six-Packs who live in those small towns that "make good people." Those hockey-moms and factory workers who can smell an elite coming a mile away.

You remember that one? No? That's probably because it doesn't exist. There is no Real America just like there is no Fake America. There is just America!

The country folk are just as American as the city-slickers. The factory worker is just as American as the urban schoolteacher. The accountant is just as American as the priest. North Virginia is just as real as South Virginia, just as real as West Virginia.

There's this thought that being spread by the dying far-right, that small towns are real, and big cities are fake. That only in the rural areas, patriotism is seen. And those urban folk, how can they be patriotic?

This is the politics of yesterday. The one that slices us up into nice little fragments that can then be played against each other. Divide and conquer is the old maxim. So as our economy sinks deeper, and our standing among nations spirals downward, these people want to show us that the real threat is ourselves. That there is a true America and a false one, and that the fakes want to destroy our great nation.

Call me crazy, but this brand of politics is not going to stick. Not this year. Not this time. After 8 years of these divisive games, Americans are going to realize that we're all Americans. That now is the time to come together, not push apart. That all opinions must be valued, whether they be from liberals, or conservatives.

This election, people will remember that little saying on the dollar bill still holds meaning: E pluribus unum.

Out of many, one.

Colin Powell...

Ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell recently endorsed Obama for prez. While this is newsworthy in and of itself, I found the little speach he gave on Sunday's Meet the Press to explain why he was voting Democrat to be incredibly well done.

I've been debating for a while as to whether I should try to weigh in on these candidates at ASG! But, thankfully, Mr. Powell says it better than I ever could. Give it a watch:

The Second Coming!...

...of our Messiah: Shark Jesus!

A blacktip shark in a Virginia Aquarium was confirmed to have a "virgin birth." The single shark pup inside the female was genetically tested after an necropsy of the mother and had no genes from a male shark. It is the second documented case of a female shark reproducing asexually.

Unfortunately the pup never actually was born. The mother, 'Tidbit' (personally I think 'Mary' would have been more catchy), died from complications of her sudden and unknown pregnancy.

The first shark Messiah, a hammerhead born just a year ago, was quickly gobbled up by his fellow sharks shortly after his birth.

Quote: "By the time they could realize what they were looking at, something munched the baby..."

But really, what does this all mean? Seems clear to me. It's got to be Shark Jesus! Personally, I welcome back our savior with open arms....er.....fins.

So the real question is not 'what does this tell us about the reproductive cycles of one of the Earth's oldest creatures.' Much much simpler than that.

WWSJD?