Some people have got waaay better jokes than John Kerry. Like Right Thoughts' interview with "John Kerry's Intentions":

KerryÂ’s intentions: Jim...Jimbo. Jimmykins. Jimka. Listen. ItÂ’s simple. John is smarter than you. He knows that you little people canÂ’t afford food, and youÂ’re too stupid to become lawyers and marry rich widows. Therefore, most of you end up at one point or another either becoming volunteers for his campaign or you become horrible, murdering rapists reminiscent of Jen-jiss Khan...i.e. you join the military.

JimK: But wait a minute. ThatÂ’s just reinforcing the notion that the statement was slanderous against the military in the first place! I donÂ’t get it. What are you trying to say here?

KerryÂ’s intentions: Jim-bo-lah. Jim-o-rama. Jimmy crack corn...I know this is upper-level material here, but try to stay with me. Senator Kerry despises the little people, so he made a joke about Bush that wasnÂ’t about Bush, wasnÂ’t true, contained factual truths and wasnÂ’t a joke, because he care about you, the common man. You see?

JimK: No. No I do not see. In fact, everything you said contradicts everything else you said.

KerryÂ’s intentions: Well, I was against this interview before I was for it, so there you have it.

Heh. Read the whole thing. JimK's got mad jokes.

Posted by: Sarah at 09:08 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Again with the Lileks:

I understand how some are using the gaffe to draw attention to a greater point re: the hard leftÂ’s attitudes towards the military, but if that wasnÂ’t actually the point Kerry was making then I canÂ’t jump on board and affirm the greater point. That smacks of fake-but-accurate.

He has a point, and we'll leave it at that. And just wait and see what happens next week.

Last night I asked my husband if part of being a grown-up means getting an ulcer every two years. I can see why less than half the country cares about voting: it's entirely too stressful to pay attention. Even when your personal choice is a no-brainer (dude, I vote in Missouri), watching the rest of it unfold is torture.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:46 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Gnat woke up with an earache on Halloween, which led Lileks to write this intensely insightful tidbit:

The school party was off, though, and that was a crushing disappointment. At least she didn’t say “it’s not fair.” You never know quite how to respond to that. You want them to believe that things are fair and good and happy and full of sparkly unicorn-dust, and your inner Drill Instructor wants to bark “Suck it up, half-pint! There’s a whole lot more unfairness rolling down the road and you’d best learn how to get out of its way! Now drop and give me 20!” It’s not fair has an impotent and powerless ring to it, and I’m glad she doesn’t say it much. I think I drummed “just my luck” out of her early on, too; that one’s poison. Luck is like Communism – believe in it if you like, just don’t base your actions on it.

My husband and I have begun to talk more and more frequently about how we want to raise our imaginary kids. And this gem of parenting advice -- thrown willy-nilly into The Bleat as only James Lileks can do -- really spoke to me.

My husband loathes people with an external locus of control, people who whine that it's always circumstances or bad luck or fate or someone else's fault that things didn't go their way. We talk constantly about how we can instill personal responsibility in our imaginary kids, and I think this nugget from Lileks is one idea we can keep tucked in our brains for future reference.

Posted by: Sarah at 09:17 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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OK, let's give Kerry the benefit of the doubt here and assume he was trying to make fun of President Bush instead of the troops. So what's the joke then? Study hard, kids, so one day you will grow up to be...not as dumb as the President of the United States? What kind of joke is that? Don't parents usually urge kids to study so they don't have to flip burgers, not so they won't become flipping President of the United States and make a decision that über-liberal senators disagree with? Good lord, one would hope that a presidential candidate would show more respect for the office of the presidency than that. I think it's foolhardy to send the message to young people that the president is someone to mock and jeer. As if young people these days could get more disrespectful of adults; Kerry doesn't need to fuel that fire.

Not to mention that the joke doesn't work very well, considering Bush and Kerry got roughly the same grades in college. And Kerry's wife doesn't even know what chili is. Let's not call any kettles black here.

MORE TO GROK:

WhoÂ’s the real flunky? Someone tell Kerry itÂ’s not military via RofaSix

MORE:

Hahahahha. You HAVE to click on this photo from Iraq...

Posted by: Sarah at 05:48 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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I just finished reading Taking Science to the Moon. It was an interesting book on the minutiae of the Apollo program: who got the contract to design the little rake they used to pick up moon rocks; the intense design specifications of the boxes used to transport samples; the million-dollar science experiments that failed because of a gravity calculation error. Usually when we think of Apollo, we think of the giant leap for mankind, but this book delineated all of the small steps for man. Good book if you're an Apollo junkie like I am.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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