On the Road Again...I'm back from a few days in Hartford and am getting ready for a four day stint in Iowa. As I've noted before, if you want glamor then look for something other than business travel. On the plus side, my cat only managed to mangle a dish washing sponge while I was away. Good thing I took the toilet paper off the spool before I left on Wednesday.
Coxton Campaign...I am not one given to conspiracy theories and such, but if a bunch of 20-something people spend thousands of hours putting together an exceptionally well produced video series, the premier for which is attended by hundreds of folks (including many local politicos), then you would think it would be at least referenced by the local newspaper. Not in Scranton. I guess the bigger question is why it wasn't covered. You can read all about this at NEPArtisan, but I'll add my two cents here: The Scranton Times has a certain "vision" as to what things like Art, Culture, Business & Entertainment should be in NEPA. This vision typically involves a certain crowd of folks (think of who you would see at a Scranton Prep parents club meeting or alumni reunion) and certain institutions (Scranton Prep, the University of Scranton, Albright Memorial Library, Everhart Museum). Anything falling outside of this sphere typically doesn't seem to interest the folks at the Scranton Times. Fortunately for us, this day and age provides for many, many more ways to disseminate information outside of the editorial decisions of the Scranton Times.
Egypt...Mubarak is out and the extreme right in this country will start crowing about how this will foment Islamic fanaticism. Wrong. If anything, blind western support for authoritarian governments does a good job of that, thank you very much. Now there is a chance that the Muslim Brotherhood will gain traction in a democratically elected government, but so be it. It is not in our place to decide who should be running Egypt. The Glenn Beck lunatics and such seem to forget that virtually all of the 9.11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia (with its extremely authoritarian but U.S. friendly government). They also forget that Osama Bin Laden is probably hiding out in the wilds of another U.S. friendly country, Pakistani (which also has an authoritarian government). Do the math here: we can't control the world. Let's make sure our security apparatus in this country is well funded and doing it's job instead of trying to engineer governments in other countries.
Ron Paul...has won the CPAC straw pole. Now I like some of Ron Paul's positions. I like, even more, his brutal honesty. But he is just too extreme to get elected president. That tells you something about extremist political centers in this country. Whether it's Ron Paul on the right or Ralph Nader on the left, the extremists in this country don't have a lock on the truth, despite the yipping and yelling of their supporters, and they sure as hell don't speak for most of us. Put another way, winning the CPAC straw pole and $0.75 will get you a copy of tomorrow's Scranton Times (which will not have any references to the Coxton campaign by the way).
Probably NOT a Good Valentine's Day Present...The Bronx Zoo has a unique Valentine's Day gift idea: for $10 you can name a cockroach in your love's name. Detail HERE. Somehow I'm thinking...well, never mind. No further comments from the peanut gallery. Do this at your own peril.
Wegmans...is apparently a great place to work, and I can say with 100% authority that it is the only place in this area where you can get high-quality baking chocolate.
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