Pint-Sized Pirate

Reenactment of pirates pillaging Beufort, NC.

(Black Beards old stomping grounds)

Pirate Party (BYOP)

A chance encounter w/ Captain Jack

Good-bye sunhat!

Pirate Booty

Fool me twice . . .

I've been puzzled as to why John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. She seems so unqualified. True, the vice president typically has very little responsibility or power. But McCain's selection seemed really reckless to me. Last night, as Annie and I were brushing our teeth, I stumbled onto what I think is a plausible explanation for McCain's choice. Here goes:

Who knows George W. Bush as well as almost anyone? More specifically, who knows George W. Bush's appeal to Republican voters better than McCain, who lost to Bush in the 2000 Republican Primaries? McCain understands that George W. Bush's persona has the capacity to resonate with a big chunk of Republicans. I think that John McCain saw George W. Bush in Sara Palin. And I think that a lot of Republicans see what they liked about Bush in Palin. But you really have to take the whole package. The good and the bad. I see plenty of what really bothers me about Bush in Palin.

Last night after my New Urbanism class, I mentioned to my professor something that Annie, who watched the debate while I was in class, told me during our class break. How Palin said she might not answer the question exactly, but that she would talk directly to the American People. My teacher said, "Well, you have to admit that she's got chutzpah." "Yeah," I replied, "if there's one thing we've lacked in the White House over the past eight years, it's chutzpah."

Individualism at the RNC

When I was listening to some of the speeches at the Republican National Convention, I was troubled by something. The same thing troubled me while I was reading through the Libertarian Party website. Well, David Brooks hit the nail on the head. Hopefully this link works:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/opinion/12brooks.html
What's so bad about being a community organizer, anyway?