KRAD's Inaccurate Guide to Life

Went to lunch with some friends, many of whom I hadn't seen in an age.

Then I went to a comic-book store for the first time in ages, and bought far more comic books than I intended to. I mean, I just meant to catch up on IDW's Star Trek comics and pick up Serenity: Better Days #1.

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After that, I bought some other stuff I needed, went to the PO box to find some unexpected money (unexpected in that I forgot about it, as I invoiced it 90 days ago), deposited that money, went home, went to karate, typed up the corrections for the Bone Key page proofs and sent them off to the editor, and finally finished the article I promised Van Allen Plexico for Assembled! 2, a second collection of essays about Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Oh, and I made tomato sauce. It's still simmering as I type, actually.

Tomorrow, more apartment-cleaning, working on a proposal, and karate. And laundry. Boo yeah.

It was a year ago today that Rabbi David Honigsberg, one of my best friends, died.

I still miss him horribly. Every time I drink a shot of Scotch or play music (the icon in this post is from a picture of me backing him up on percussion) or watch a baseball game or get together with our mutual friends -- and there he is.

Rest in peace, Rabbi.

*raises glass of the good Scotch*

Grade 4 / U.S. History

In what year was Abraham Lincoln first elected U.S. President?


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So I see Marcus curled up with Gordon Bear, one of our teddy bears, and it's just the cutest damn thing.

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A bunch of us (infinitydog, justcomeinalone, and rosenhaus) were talking politics at lunch yesterday, and the subject of the sparring between Senators Obama and Clinton and how it would hurt the Democrats in the general election came up.

And my response was, well, no it won't hurt them, not even a little. Remember Congressman George H.W. Bush and Governor Ronald Reagan during the Republican primaries in 1980? They were attacking each other with at least as much viciousness as we're getting from Obama and Clinton right now, and that election turned out okay for that party. (Remember Congressman Bush calling Governor Reagan's economic plan "voodoo economics"? The same plan that President Reagan and Vice President Bush implemented.....) For that matter, Senator Al Gore and Governor Bill Clinton were doing likewise during the 1992 Democratic primary.

What happens in the primary is totally forgotten once the balloons fly during the convention. That's always been true, and it'll be true this time. No one will remember or care what one of Senator Clinton's people said about Senator Obama, or vice versa, in September.

In this entry infinitydog pointed out that: "In 9 of the past 10 presidential elections, the candidate who was first to secure his party's nomination went on to win. (Advantage: McCain)"

The question is, is it really an advantage? This statistic is accurate as far as it goes, but is it predictive?

In the cases of the 2004, 1996, 1984, and 1972 elections, you had an incumbent president who had a huge amount of popular support, particularly within their own party, and got the nomination quickly by virtue of nobody being dumb enough to run against them. (Yes, they all had some opposition, but it was mostly token.) So those situations aren't really analogous to this year.

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