How Obama convinced me to go with Hillary

So being the democrat in Texas it is important for me to decide who to vote for in the primary early so all the Republicans can tell me how wrong I am. It was a bit hard to make up my mind this year with two really good candidates running. But, I guess it was Obama who finally made up my mind for me. I was listening to one of his speeches and he started going on about how Hillary is a Clinton and do we want the bridge back to the 90's or some such rhetoric. Well, it got me thinking. I was pretty darn happy during the Clinton administration. The economy was in good shape, the government were actually paying down the national debt, not running it up. We weren't in a bunch of wars around the world. The price of gasoline was around $1.00 a gallon. I was making more money each year. The nation in general seemed to be in a pretty good mood. Well, except for the neo-cons, they were all grumpy and inspecting blue dresses for DNA. But the neo-cons are always pretty grumpy I think, must be in their nature. Anyway, so after my temporary transition back in time to the Clinton administration, the screen got all blurry and the harp music played and I came back to the present moment. It sucked. So I decided right then to help Hillary build that bridge that Obama was talking about. I am also looking forward to the mischef that Bill will get into as First Husband, maybe he can get the neo-cons busy inspecting dresses again, I think it kind of got them hot. And you know, even neo-cons deserve a little excitement now and then.

Where did all the Bumper Stickers Go?

My Brother and I were driving back to the office yesterday after lunch and I saw a truck with a bumper sticker on it. It said something like "Witches Heal", well ok, whatever ,and it had one of those fish things that folks like to put on their car that said "N' Chips" inside the fish. That did make me laugh, I guess that is why I noticed it. But I realized that rarely do you see bumper stickers anymore. I used to see them all the time, political ones, funny ones, W ones, rainbow ones, etc. Not anymore. I think we have gotten too scared to express our opinions publically. Someone might decide to run us off the road or pull a gun and start shooting or maybe just drag a key along the side of our car as it innocently sits in the parking lot.

I think people have gotten to this point because civil discourse is mostly a thing of the past. People form their opinions and will defend them to the death, no matter what contradicting evidence comes up. Maybe we as a nation learned this from old W, "I don't care what the evidence says I am sticking to the course". I learned long ago that if people can't defend their opinions with reasonable arguments then they just get mad at you and call you names or worse. Its too bad that this has happened, I miss the bumper stickers they were funny lots of times.

Rich and Green?

The other day I was watching "This Old House", I know, I know, but with the writer's strike it is slim pickins out there. No Slim Pickens comments please! Anyway, this old house is currently doing a "Green" renovation in Austin. Austin has a going green program of some sort where they assign you points for how green your renovation is. So the renovation seems like a nice project, a nice house that they are putting energy efficient appliances, heating and cooling, widows, etc. But, what got me worked up is the tour of the house that got the most green points ever in Austin's history. It is a gigantic, I am sure multi-million dollar home, with a pool, stone walls, recycled wood floors, with a man, his wife and a few kids living there. Probably a couple of thousand feet per person. What I want to know is, is that green? Just because you spend lots more money on the components of the house to save a bit on energy doesn't the mere size of the home kind of cancel that out. It would be kind of like buying a Hybrid Hummer, that instead of getting 10 miles per gallon gets 12. I kind of get fed up with the green magazines, green tv shows, etc. that go on and on about being a green consumer and advertise outrageously priced items for you to buy. Somehow I got it in my mind that being green would entail living in an energy efficient home that is appropriate for the size of your family, owning a non gas guzzeling car that your family can comfortably fit in and really being mindful about your purchases. Like, do I really need this, do I already have one, can I borrow one from someone else and can I put this purchase off until later. Not how can I build and consume the most possible, but in a way that makes me feel less guilty about being a big fat ostentatious hog. Anyway, it seems to me that Austin's going green program misses the mark by a long shot. But who can blame them, if it weren't for all the ridiculously huge homes where would the property taxes come from?