Erik's Cloud 9

Time for more of my random thoughts (FYI the name of my personal blog is "Erik's Random Thoughts") and since it's MayDay, why not celebrate with some ramblings from this gray matter that I call "Earl",,, or what the Doctor's call "brain" - when they can find it.

POLE SITTING

So, here's a bit of trivia. Do you know where penguins come from? Well, if you correctly said "the South Pole" you know more than NBC news. There was a story the other night about a British girl going to the North Pole with her father to find out about global warming first hand. In the video that accompanied the story we were twice shown a picture of two penguins standing on a floating chunck of ice. Was it cute? Could be. But it was WRONG!!! I guess one thought I had was that those two were the live versions of all of those cartoon penguins I've seen in my life that hop on an ice chunck and ride it as far as they can toward the equator, finally ending up in Hawaiian shirts, sunglasses, big rimmed hats, sky blue shorts, and harrachi sandals calmly sipping cold drinks from an umbrella shaded beach chair somewhere near Rio, having scorned the polar lifestyle for good! Of course, I also thought there was an editor who threw in the stock penguin shots for looks, a reporter who thought it was fine, and a producer who most likely being fresh out of college has never been closer to the south pole than that 2005 Spring Break romp on South Padre Island, Texas. And there are people out there who trust NBC news with anything - let alone stories about "global warming"??? Either way, there credibility just took a tiny, but HUGE hit. Go figure.

POLL SITTING

Okay, this has nothing to do with the polls, really, but since this is today's political commentary section I figured it would be a nice play on the title to the above section.

One question I have is what's up with John Edwards. Speaking about a HUGE credibility loss, did you hear him about a couple months ago after pulling out of the race. He said that he was going to "meet with consultants" to figure out which remaining candidate to endorse. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I just realized I write "ARE YOU KIDDING ME" a lot. But, really!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? He has to meet with consultants to make a decision? Does he take consultants into the grocery store to decide which kind of toilet paper to buy? So, gentleman, should we go with the Charmin of Northern quilted today? Obviously, with a statement like that, he just proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is 150% POLITICIAN. He's consulting to find out which endorement move would be better to his future career as a politician. Either that, or he is a robot - destined to find his way to the Emerald City so he can "consult" with the "Wizard of Oz" seeing that he is in need of a heart AND a brain. He must be if he can't decide which candidate he likes ON HIS OWN!!! Hey, John. Make up your own mind!

On the subject of endoresements - what do they REALLY mean??? Especially in the sense of  those Hollywood endorsements. Does it really matter to YOU the voter who Brad Pitt thinks should be president? Why? Are you, like me, tired of actors who think they need to jump into the political arena to help guide us mindless, misinformed members of  "their" audience who don't know enough to vote the correct way or to back the proper issues? Now, I would say any Hollywood'r has just as much right to be as politically active as anyone else. But, let me ask you this. Why would someone blindly follow the thoughts and opinions of a Brad Pitt type, or anyone else that they know so little about? If one is in dire need to get someone else's thoughts on who to vote for why would they go any farther than next door. Chances are you know much more about your next door neighbor than you ever will about any actor, rock star, or politician. AND IF YOU DON'T, YOU SHOULD!!!!!!!!! What is in your neighbor's shopping cart? Maybe you've seen them at the grocery store. Maybe you've seen what they keep in their garage. Maybe you're such close friends you have dinner parties with them and your kids are on the same ball team. These are the people you KNOW. These are the people you should talk to BEFORE you try to find out which team Sharon Stone or Joe Pesci is swinging for! Really, the world could use more neighbors than politicians. Can you endorse that?

By the way, if you see me at the store you'll find peanut butter Cap'n Crunch, the one pound box of Cheez-Its, and a 12 pack of Grain Belt in my cart. Now should we talk politics???

From Cloud9,

Erik