Election

It's Barack.

Things I'm glad about:

1. My kids will grow up in a country that already elected a black president.
2. I believe our new president will govern by hope, not fear. I don't believe that makes me naive.
3. We're done with Baby Boomer presidents, and hopefully we'll soon be done with the stranglehold of the 1960's on our politics.
4. John McCain's concession speech was genuine, respectful, and inspiring. Class act.
5. We will have an intelligent president, who is committed to bipartisanship. Plus the State of the Union speech won't be boring, I think.
6. Less war. Less death penalty. Less poverty. Less torture. More life.

Things I'm concerned about:

1. He is inexperienced. I think he'll learn quick, but he'll need all the help he can get.
2. Abortion. I really would have loved to add this to number five above. Yes, I voted for Obama in spite of this. Yes, I would do it again. But it's still tough.
3. 1 party control of Congress and the presidency. It may be necessary as a kind of chemotherapy for the last 8 years, but I think balance in D.C. is good.

What I hope for:

1. McCainiacs don't think it's Armageddon. Obamans don't think it's the Second Coming. Politics matter, but only Jesus can save us.
2. I'd like to see more than the usual token Republicans in Obama's cabinet. Chuck Hagel, Colin Powell maybe. If McCain wants to ease into retirement, make him head of the VA or something.
3. We all, as a nation, need to learn fiscal responsibility. And by all I mean all.
4. We can move past the bitter divisions we've seen recently. I hope we can learn to have honest and respectful conversations with people who disagree with us. Our church small group was pretty evenly split, and I have friends with a huge variety of conflicting beliefs. But I feel like I'm alone, and that too many of us are living in the echo chamber of Fox News or MSNBC.

I'll reformulate the John Wayne quote from before: I did vote for him, and he's my president, and I hope (and pray) he does a good job.

The "Prosperity Gospel" is Neither

Rod Dreher over at Beliefnet is generally more conservative than I am, but I think he's right on the money, as it were, with this post about the prosperity gospel's effects on the banking crisis. He quotes a Time article:

While researching a book on black televangelism, says Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California Riverside, he realized that Prosperity's central promise -- that God would "make a way" for poor people to enjoy the better things in life -- had developed an additional, toxic expression during sub-prime boom. Walton says that this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe "God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house." The results, he says, "were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers."

Does God promise that he'll provide all your needs? Yes. Does God promise that we'll all get to live in our own fancy houses with laundry rooms and a 2-car garage? Not so much.

Quote 4

"I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job."

John Wayne, on learning that John F. Kennedy was elected president rather than his own choice, Richard Nixon. Hopefully a reaction we can all share if the person we didn't vote for wins.

Crazy Statues

I like crazy statues. Some of them are anatomically correct, so be warned. (Thanks Ekers.)

Talkin' 'Bout Politics

And thus begins my day of obsessively reading the news. Go vote, if you haven't.

[Update: According to my poll, Barack Obama should win the election. If you're a McCainiac, though, take heart. A nonscientific, unrepresentative poll of 9 people means absolutely nothing. Unless Obama does win, in which case I predicted it all along.]

Things You Learn From Wikipedia

Reginald VelJohnson, who played Carl Winslow on Family Matters, went to high school with future CIA director George Tenet and future porn star Ron Jeremy.

Which got me thinking about Family Matters. It's supposed to be based in reality. Carl is a cop, the Winslows live in a normal house in Chicago, and yet Steve Urkel makes his own clone, and then turns it into a sexier version of himself named Stefan Urquelle. How did Stefan get by in the real world? He has no Social Security number. No birth certificate. How does he find work?

How does he adjust socially? Presumably he has all of Steve's memories, and yet his own distinct personality. He doesn't have parents. He has no past, no real family. He must feel like an imposter, particularly since Laura eventually chooses Steve over him. What kind of psychological problems would he develop? Would he go insane? Would he try to eliminate Steve and take his place?

And if he does, isn't he perfectly positioned to ruin Steve's life? They share identical DNA, yet Stefan Urquelle isn't in the system, Steve is. Stefan Urquelle doesn't officially exist. He can kill and rape with impunity, not caring what evidence he leaves behind, because the blame will all be pinned on his progenitor and nemesis, Steve Urkel. And when Steve breaks out of prison, finally tracking Stefan down in his seedy lair in the basement of an abandoned insane asylum, Stefan will just laugh wickedly, adjust the awkward glasses he has carved for himself out of animal bones, and nasally taunt, "Did I do that?"

And now I have to write a script for a bizarrely dark and twisted spinoff of Family Matters, in which Steve Urkel's evil clone comes back to ruin his life. Thanks, Wikipedia.

Somebody want to tell me what universe we're living in?

Esquire has a piece on white supremacists who support Obama.

And a black separatist who supports McCain.