It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

What is it with Michael Moore critics' inevitable invocation of Moore's weight? Latest example is in Catherine Seipp's review of Alexandra Pelosi's Diary of a Political Tourist (link via Instapundit):

But then, Diary, unlike Journeys, doesn't have the luxury of focusing on one candidate. It's more an examination of the process, and has all of Pelosi's smart-ass charm--which is sort of like Michael Moore's minus the dishonesty, agitprop, and, of course, about 200 pounds--even if it lacks that of her first movie's star.

What is the point? Are heavier people inherently less trustworthy, less smart, less capable than skinnier people?

Heaven knows there are plenty of reasons to criticize Moore's brand of filmmaking, his opinions, and his asinine statements (my favorite was the one he made right after Sept. 11, 2001 in which he wondered why the terrorists chose NYC as a target since most of the denizens of Gotham didn't vote for Bush anyway) without bringing his girth into the equation.

Of course, writing as someone who could afford to lose about ten pounds, perhaps it is just that this hits a little too close to home. Am I 10% less trustworthy, smart, or competent because of ten pounds of extra fat on my body? I hope not.

Couldn't seem to get much writing done so I went on a drive to clear my head. Along the way I took a few pictures of Spotsylvania County. Click on them for larger versions.

This store has long been of interest to me. Was this Finney's final revenge on his (her?) lazy, good-for-nothing sons?

A store with a story? 

Nothing much to add about this one. Just a nice scene.

Rural Americana 

I drove past this almost completely hidden historical sign before turning back to read the fine print. I have to confess that I don't think I have ever heard of Bishop Francis Asbury before. He apparently played a prominent role in the development of the American Methodist Church, a church which, if I'm not mistaken, can claim our current president among its members. Who knew?

Almost lost history 

Time to get back to work.

does it seem that every other actor or actress assume that since they can deliver their lines well, they can also sing? Perhaps Ms. Driver will be the exception. But it is far more likely that her foray into the world of pop music will be remembered more like this. Some folks just don't know when to give it up.

Random thoughts and observations:

VP debates don’t really matter much in the bigger scheme of things.

Foreign policy issues matter far more to me than domestic issues

Biggest questions in my mind were completely ignored or avoided by Edwards:

“Global test”: Edwards doesn’t explain what this really means; notes that Kerry said “no veto”; but if “no veto,” what, exactly is the global test?

Ifill asked Edwards a zinger about their plan to bring in French and German troops being dead in the water because both Germany and France have already said “no.” “Isn’t your plan naïve?” she asked. Again, Edwards completely avoided the issue, answering lamely that success breeds contribution.

Cheney also took Edwards to task for failing to acknowledge contribution of Iraqi allies, especially troops on the ground.

Can’t someone at least raise the possibility that Osama bin Laden might be dead? How does Edwards know OBL is alive? There has been no video of OBL since Tora Bora. How do we know he isn’t pulverized in some bunker-busted cave in Afghanistan?

Cheney brings up “Senator gone” highlighting Edwards’ absence from the Senate. Cheney has served as president of the Senate but “the first time I ever met you was when you walked onto the podium tonight.” This is a personal pet peeve of mine. Senators should do their job (even when they are campaigning). So should presidents for that matter.

Ifill noted that Edwards had the least amount of experience of any candidate since 1976. Edwards simply replied that Americans want to feel safe.

Edwards twice mentioned Paul Bremer’s criticism of not enough troops in Iraq. I scratch my head. Hasn’t Kerry repeatedly said that he won’t send more U.S. troops to Iraq (“not for Iraq” said both in the DNC and the first presidential debate).

Haliburton!
Meals on Wheels!
Kerry voted for or co-sponsored more than 600 tax cuts!
“If they can’t stand up to the pressure of Howard Dean, how can they expect to stand up to our enemies?”

Cheney won, but doesn’t matter much.

UPDATE: Of course none of this matters, because I've lost my mind.

UPDATE II: Scrappleface hits the nail on the head:

2004-10-05) --The only vice presidential debate of 2004 is now history, and Americans who watched or listened to it are eager to learn which candidate won.

A flash poll conducted moments after the debate showed that most Americans believe they will soon have opinions about how well Vice President Dick Cheney did compared with Sen. John Edwards.

The formation of those opinions could require days of intensive listening to commentators from the major news networks and CBS, and countless hours of reading weblogs or even newspapers.

One typical poll respondent said, "I watched last week's presidential debate and I thought President Bush won. But I later found out that I was wrong. How embarrassing. Tonight, I thought Dick Cheney did well, but this time I'm going to wait until I find out what I should think before I go shooting my mouth off."

UPDATE III: Cheney lied! All politicians should exercise extreme caution before saying anything in this day and age. Daily Kos has the photos to prove a Cheney-Edwards encounter if not meeting here and here. So scratch out "The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight."

On the other hand, whether Cheney had actually met Edwards is, to me, less important than the other charges Cheney made in the same section of the debate:

"Senator, frankly, you have a record in the Senate that‘s not very distinguished. You‘ve missed 33 out of 36 meetings in the Judiciary Committee, almost 70 percent of the meetings of the Intelligence Committee.

You‘ve missed a lot of key votes: on tax policy, on energy, on Medicare reform.

Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you “Senator Gone.”

You‘ve got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.

Haven't heard any real response to those charges, charges which make Dennis Kucinich look quite good by comparison.

The latest e-mail scam to cross my in-box:

DEAR FRIEND,
MY NAME IS SAEED AHMED.I AM 65 YEARS OLD MAN.I AM FROM DUBAI {UNITED ARAB EMIRATE}.I OWNED TWO BUSINESSES IN DUBAI.I AM MARRIED WITH NO CHILDREN. MY WIFE DIED IN A CAR ACCIDENT SIX YEARS AGO.

SINCE I HAVE NO CHILDREN OF MY OWN, I HAVE BEEN HELPING ORHANPS IN ORPHANAGE/MOTHERLESS HOMES BY DONATING MONEY TO THEM.

PRESENTLY, I AM RECEIVING TREATMENT IN A HOSPITAL. MY DOCTORS TOLD ME THAT I HAVE CANCER OF THE LUNGS AND THAT I HAVE FEW MONTHS TO LIVE.

BEFORE I BE CAME ILL, I SAVED SOME MONEY{5.5 MILLION DOLLARS}FIVE MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS WITH A SECURITY COMPANY IN EUROPE.

PLEASE,I BEG YOU IN THE NAME OF ALLAH TO HELP ME COLLECT THIS MONEY FROM THE SECURITY COMPANY.
AFTER COLLECTING THE MONEY , YOU WILL NOW HELP ME TO TAKE IT TO ONE ORHANPANGE HOME IN LONDON OR ANY ORPHANANAGE HOME CLOSE TO YOU.

I AM BELIEVING THAT YOU WOULD OFFER THIS SERVICE FOR HUMANITY SAKE.IF YOU CAN HELP ME.MAIL ME SO THAT I WILL GIVE YOU THE CONTACT DETAILS OF THE SECURITY COMPANY.

MAY THE GOOD ALLAH BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

I AWAIT YOUR RESPONSE.

ALLAH HAFIZ,

SAEED AHMED.

How sweet and sad at the same time. The guy spends his whole life doing good works for "orhanps" and "orphananages" and manages to amass $5.5 million in the process but is stuck down by lung cancer nonetheless. Poor guy.

OBLIGATORY NOTE: This is most likely a hoax (though if you want this gentleman's e-mail address, let me know and I'll send it to you).

Joongang Ilbo ("NORTH KOREAN MAIDS BARRED BY BEIJING ", 2004-10-05)reported that the PRC government has recently ordered officials in the Communist Party, the central government and the military not to employ female DPRK defectors as housemaids, Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, reported yesterday, "The Communist Party sent an internal document that stated it has ordered on numerous occasions that housemaids from North Korea not be hired, and if already hired, then they must be fired immediately," the paper said. The PRC government is worried that national secrets will be leaked if DPRK housemaids are employed in major government bodies.

This raises the question: how many North Korean maids have been hired in the past so as to warrant warning on "numerous occasions"? Also, are North Korean women particularly dangerous? More than Thai, Filipina, or Russian? Can North Korean men safely serve as servants?

Developments which may or may not have any significant long-term consequences:

PRC indicates its preference for the six-party talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing, said diplomacy should concentrate on bringing the isolate North back to the negotiating table.

"I think it will work," Powell said. "I think that the six-party framework is what we should be concentrating on, and not any other means of dealing with this right now."

Li said the "entire international community" agrees that the six-nation approach is the best way to deal with the problem.

Now this could just be diplo-speak coming from Beijing, trying to put the best face and a united front until November 2. But I find the timing of Li Zhaoxing's statement to be curious: days after Presidential candidate John Kerry makes it clear that he favors bilateral talks, China says it favors the current six-party format.

North Korea to U.S.: "Enough already about the HEU program that we don't have

"North Korea Saturday accused the United States of fabricating information about its alleged uranium enrichment program and urged it to withdraw the "groundless claims" if it truly wants to solve the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

"The uranium scheme allegation was intentionally fabricated by the U.S. administration to isolate our nation in the international community," the state-controlled Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary, which was carried by the official Korean Central News Agency."

This isn't all that new or suprising. But this report (if it checks out) is.

For the first time since the North Korean nuclear standoff began nearly two years ago, China has confirmed Pyongyang's intention to conduct uranium enrichment, a Japanese media report says. The topic has been one of the focal points in the six nation disarmament talks it hosts that also involve South Korea, the United States, Japan, and Russia.

According to the report, carried by the Tokyo-based Kyodo News Agency, China has told fellow participants in the six-party talks that the North has tried to enrich uranium.

Quoting a source involved with the multilateral dialogue, the agency reported out of Washington that China "apparently changed its stance" and informed other members of the talks, including Japan and South Korea, that it believes the North "at least attempted to enrich" uranium.

If valid, this would seem to be a rather significant development that puts the DPRK in a more difficult position.

Grandfather Tan'gun 

If my caluclations are correct, it was 4337 years ago that T'angun, the offspring of the deity Hwanung and a bear-turned-woman, was born. He is acknowledged in both North and South Korea as the father of Korea and the Korean people. It has been a wild ride. Happy Birthday Korea!