Just George W. Bush, Acting Goofy, at a FUNERAL

Michelle Obama trying gamely to play along with the goofball.

Politics is weird, and getting weirder. There are double-standards, and then there are stark, bold-letter, hypocritical double-standards, you know? I mean, think about what it must feel like to be these presidential contenders, listed with the thing that pretty much ended their chance to be president:

- Michael Dukakis: filmed driving a tank, wearing a helmet
- John Kerry: wore a hazmat suit at a science facility, went windsurfing that one time
- Howard Dean: screamed enthusiastically at a rally, magnified by a unidirectional microphone
- Al Gore: sighed audibly at a debate

Why is one of these things not like the other?

Yup. Almost universally, people would agree, those men's hopes of election were stopped by those little events. Matched up against the lengthy list of foibles, flubs, and downright outrageous things said and done by Donald Trump, they don't amount to anything. But that was it for them. For all the whining about there being a double-standard for Bill and Hillary Clinton, Trump seems to have a permanent "SKIP" UNO card when it comes to disqualifying events. Nothing shakes his base, and virtually nothing goes beyond a couple days in the news cycle, before they reset to default.

But here is another double-standard, and it goes to the double-standard for Clintons that is much more rarely addressed. For all of the certainty so many claim to have that the media and the system are "in the tank" for the Clintons, the fact is, they're held to a tougher standard than most. Making it more remarkable when they do manage to bounce back, or shrug off the brutal treatment they get. Case in point.

Bill Clinton was at a funeral for Sec. Ron Brown, and was seen on camera smiling and walking with someone. When he noticed a camera trained in his direction, he did what your grandmother would scold you to do: he wiped that smile off his face right quick, and tried to look somber. This was and remains fodder for right-wingers to this day, as an example of Clinton disingenuousness. When in fact, it's something probably anyone might do. Contrast that with yesterday's memorial for the police officers slain in Dallas this past week.



Presidents Bush and Barack Obama both gave stirring speeches. Dubya's was much shorter, obviously prepared for him, and rehearsed. And he couldn't help but keep his colloquial Texas twang. But it was fine. But check him out later, while holding hands with his much more mannered wife, and our current first lady (who, poor lady, is fairly trapped there with this goon) dancing around and acting goofy. At a funeral.

Think this will be brought up endlessly--or ever--by conservatives? Or even make more than a light ripple on the news before going down the memory hole?

Blast from the Past: Night Time Soaps of the 80s

Sometimes in my weekly Blast from the Past feature, I go on at length about each clip. Frankly, this week, I'm a little tired. And I recently watched several episodes of my favorite 80s soap, Dynasty. And I thought, hey there's a topic. . .and some of those theme songs were really catchy.  Here then, with no further input from me, are the themes to the best 80s TV had to offer when it came to cat-fights, back-stabbing, fashion and fortune.

And that will do it for this week! Maybe next week, I'll have a little more oomph. Until then, happy Monday, and have a great week!

Travelogue, Part the Third

There are probably only a handful of people--if any--who read part one and two of my little travelogues of my trip back to Ohio. But I still wanted to finish the series, detailing the travel aspect of my trip back home for Easter. The trip itself was fine, with much fun and kinship with my 2,000-miles away family. The getting there, and the getting back? Not so much.

My story actually starts back a few days, when I realized I'd need a larger bag for my trip back. At $15 a pop for checked baggage, I thought it best to just take one. Mom had a better solution, a bag large enough to hold my current suitcase. As luck would have it, we were attending an auction together, and Mom got me a great TravelPro bag for $10. While shuffling some contents shortly before I had to go to the airport (in the rain), I even discovered that the bag was expandable. Very cool.

My brother took me to the airport, and I discovered as we were driving that we share a tendency to lack navigation skills while in conversation. After two missed turns, we arrived at the airport. I needn't have worried though, since our plane was half and hour late due to a mechanical. So, I sat at the airport from 4:15 to about 6:30. No big deal. Sitting in an airport is more fun than sitting on a plane.

The pilot's name on my flight from Columbus to Dallas was Captain Downing which did not inspire confidence. After he promised a bumpy ride, but delivered a smooth one, I settled down a bit. I read, and dozed, and read and dozed. There was of course a screaming baby. Eventually we landed in DFW. Even with the delay, I had plenty of time to get from the C concourse to the D, which is on the opposite side of the very large airport. Dallas has a great tram service that zips you from gate to gate, so there isn't a massive amount of walking involved.

After milling about my gate for a while, I wandered around, grabbed an iced tea, and then went back to discover that my gate had changed back to the C concourse! Back onto the tram, all the way to the other side again. By this time, I only had to wait about half an hour until we boarded. Another screaming baby. We took off for Las Vegas.

This flight was fairly uneventful, though it felt like it took much longer than it should have. It had been a long day. So I was thrilled when the pilot (possibly Captain Falling?) told us we'd be landing ten minutes early. Great! Except that there was a plane stuck at our gate. Captain not-Falling told us it would be ten minutes. It was half an hour. Sitting on the runway, really having to pee. Why couldn't they change our gate, like they did in Dallas? Anyway, my travel day started at 4:00 pm EDST and ended at about 11:30 PDST. Ten and a half hours!

Much of this was annoying, and could have been avoided with a costlier non-stop flight. I will remember this next time, and try to plan further ahead.