Well, Jen and I decided to stay in this weekend to work on some graduate school applications, and besides, we're both a little under the weather.
So we got through a bunch of paperwork, and realized, belatedly, that it's Thanksgiving back home. Unfortunately, Korean "Thanksgiving" or Chu-seok, is about a month behind us already.
Not to mention, we don't have an oven in which to bake a bird, anyway, so we're not exactly celebrating Thanksgiving, here. As it stands, we are at least acknowledging the holiday back home, with such expressions as "happy turkey day" and such in our office, but that's about it.
It's been interesting watching the train wreck that is the Canadian and American election from Korea.
I predicted, in a previous post, how I thought it unlikely for Obama to be able to lose, and yet, for a while, he was essentially even with McCain for about a month. All it took for Obama to win again, was, I suppose, the collapse of the economy. Funny how that works out.
I watched bits and pieces of both the Canadian and the American election. I have found, anecdotally, amongst my colleagues at work, that those who watched the former preferred it's unique style. Part of the problem with the traditional debates, and even that farce of a town hall debate between McCain and Obama, is that it turns into little more than trying to out-shout your opponent. The round-table, at least, seemed to force discussion to happen more than bellowing.
I say the town-hall thing is a farce largely because it seemed to be trying to catch some elusive, old-school sentiment of American government under the Pilgrims. In New England, when the Pilgrim population in the original colonies was rather more limited than the modern American state, one could imagine people getting together in a town hall or over a pint to discuss issues. Well, we still do the latter, but the tone, I think, has changed.
This brings me to my modest point: I am getting deeply concerned by the choice of words of the McCain camp. McCain does try to defend Obama, ironically, during one campaign stop, from his own party, when the members of the community he was visiting started calling Obama a traitor, an "Arab" and other names. My problem with this activity is that even as McCain is back-pedalling, Palin is still turning up the heat.
Having recently denounced Obama as "chumming around with terrorists," now Palin is essentially accusing Obama of being a baby-killer (see the link above). Part of the problem with this sort of mud-slinging--and yes, I know it's not unusual to see this in a US presidential debate, the problem is that it could result in some serious consequences post-election. I'm not the only one worried about whether some idiot with too big of a gun, and too small of a brain, will try to shoot Obama should he win. And part of his or her motivation might be, sadly, some of the nonsense being spouted right now by the McCain camp.
Again, I really hope I'm wrong. I really hope the McCain camp will tell Palin to back off, and that we might have a modestly-policy-focused debate this time around. Well, okay, I'll settle for the former if nothing else.
The Canadian election looks set to be another minority government. Given that Stephen Harper went into this election because he wanted to break out of the "log-jam" in Parliament... but, hey, if he's "always known" that it would be a minority government, then why call the election?
Oh. Right. Because he thinks he can win another short-term mandate and spin it into a big win. Joy.
Pardon the cynicism this week. This is what happens when I go turkey-free for Thanksgiving.
More next week.
Best regards,
Chris
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