Why do I assume objectivity?

Today in the car I found myself listening to NPR. We were on the way home from my kid's ADHD therapy and I was flipping stations. When I heard that they were going to speak with the Secretary of State of Ohio about voter registration, my ears perked up. Ohio recently had a week or so when people could register and vote on the same day. A news report on this went 'round the net because volunteers were rounding up homeless people and taking them to register and vote. There were concerns that people could vote even though ineligible, or vote more than once because they were using shelters as temporary addresses to register.

I was listening carefully, waiting to hear the NPR guy ask how they were going to verify the registrations of people without an address. He had his chance: Secretary Brunner explained the verification process, which includes sending a letter to the address on the verification form. If the letter comes back, they know there's a problem with the registration. So, a simple question: how would that work when the letter goes to a homeless shelter and the person is not there anymore?

Well, he didn't ask. Now this is supposed to be an astute news guy who has already researched this issue and should know more about it than me, a suburban homeschooling mom/housewife. But no. The question did not come up.

My head was ready to explode. It was all I could do to keep myself from screaming "ask her the question!" But there we were, on the way home from the neurobehavioral specialist with whom my kid spends 2 hours each week learning how to train his brain to pay attention, live in the moment, and control his responses to situations that cause him stress or make him angry. Mom is learning to control herself too.

But it still makes me angry. Then, there was a teaser for an upcoming segment: responding to reports about offensive comments from people attending McCain/Palin rallies. Not from the candidates, from the people attending. Oh, come on. As if no one ever made offensive comments about the Republicans at any Obama rallies?

When I had the chance to rant to the seminarian about it, he just said "you're assuming objectivity from these people." Oh, silly me.

Where will my children go to college?

Business as Usual on Campus

. . .professor Donald Hindley, on the faculty for 48 years, teaches a course on Latin American politics. Last fall, he described how Mexican migrants to the United States used to be discriminatorily called "wetbacks."

And guess what happened next...

Despair and back again

So I went to church this morning full of despair (my favorite word now, apparently) and then found this in the order of worship:

But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
4 Because you are precious in my eyes,
and honored, and I love you,
I give men in return for you,
peoples in exchange for your life.
5 Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
6 I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made." Isaiah 43:1-7 (ESV)

I don't know if that passage was chosen because of the election, financial crisis or other current events. Anyway, a good thing to hear and read.

But then I came home and saw this:



As the Gateway Pundit says:
Could you even imagine if a conservative group were to run dead Obama ad?

Of course not. And why are the pulling up that old rape kit story?

But then, when reading in Robinson Crusoe to my kids tonight, I came across this:

... how frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into it, is the most dreadful to us, is often-times the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into.

So, as of 9:14 pm EDT, I am in the not despairing part of the cycle. I'm also not reading any more news or blogs for the rest of the night. Well... maybe.

Despair

Hunting Mr. Good Will

WHO is "Will, Good"?

Mr. Good Will - who lists his employer as "Loving" and his profession as "You" - has contributed 1,000 times to the Barack Obama campaign.

All the contributions have been in amounts of $25 or less. But they add up to $17,375 - far more than the legal limit of $4,600. That's $2,300 each for the primary and general election campaigns.
...
If there are more suspicious donors to the Obama campaign, we won't know until long after the election as long as their aggregate contributions are below the legal limit. Mr. Timmerman was particularly curious about 11,500 contributions from overseas totalling $33.8 million.
...
CNN recently sent a reporter to Little Diomede Island, the westernmost part of Alaska (2.4 miles from Russia) to determine whether Sarah Palin had ever been there to see Russia with her own eyes. But CNN - and the rest of the media - have been incurious about the Obama campaign's fund-raising.

via Instapundit

And this video report on registering voters in Ohio.

OK, you might say, Republicans play dirty tricks too. Send me the links.

This is really powerful

From Catholicvote.com.





I'd really like someone to explain to me why high-profile abortion advocates are not being excommunicated. People like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. Why are they still allowed to take Communion when they so obviously flout the laws of their church? And looking at it the other way: they obviously disagree with this very basic doctrine of their church, so why do they still call themselves Catholic?

The best line of the night...

After Gov. Palin talked about her windfall profits tax in Alaska, Sen. Biden came back with:

And, look, I agree with the governor. She imposed a windfall profits tax up there in Alaska. That's what Barack Obama and I want to do.

We want to be able to do for all of you Americans, give you back $1,000 bucks, like she's been able to give back money to her folks back there.

Yeah, baby, she did it, so why don't we just vote for her since she already knows how?

I really, really hope to see that in a McCain ad tomorrow. Even though it may be too late...

Even smart people say....

"nucular."

Like my boy. He just cannot say it right. It's hardwired.

You can't argue with me on that. Well, go ahead and try.