Basically, yeah. Snoop puts it about right, with some F-bombs. George W. Bush really really messed up America. He took Republican craziness to its logical extreme and got the country in two wars, raised the debt and crashed the economy. Basically, he broke everything. It’s taking Obama a while to clean it up, and the Republicans aren’t helping.

Here’s a tale of two videos. One treats the viewer like a thinking human being, the other treats them like a scared child. Above is Chuck Norris (Chuck Norris!) and his wife talking about how this election could plunge America into 1000 years of darkness. AKA, elect the black guy again and it will be apocalypse.

You know that Internet time-suck where you click one sidebar link and end up in a gossip vortex? So yeah, I went there. This slideshow was about how long ‘Bachelor’ relationships last, Bachelor being the TV show that fixes up what looks to Asians like expensive and demeaning arranged marriages.

There’s a big debate in the states about Mitt Romney lying that he wasn’t involved with Bain Capital during a time when he was the sole stockholder, Chairman and CEO. And signing stuff and going for meetings. Which is a strange thing to lie about, but the reason is that he’s trying to disassociate from work that company did during that period, which including outsourcing. For any business in the world this is part of productive operations. And governments know this. But around election time, it suddenly becomes taboo. But outsourcing actually isn’t that bad. For anybody.

I mentioned this before on a videocast, but San Diego accidentally blew its entire load of fireworks in one 15 second burst. This is another video showing the blast from up close. It’s pretty awesome. Looks like Dragonball Z.

I like America, we can start there. Happy 4th of July. America still does some really fucked up stuff. I won’t even get into the hypocrisy, but let’s say that it is a moral argument that states shouldn’t kill their own people, as much as that’s possible. Then what on earth is going on in Mexico, on America’s behalf? Since 2006 over 50,000 people have been killed as part of what is essentially America’s War On Drugs, in which that noun seems to be winning solidly. With a new election, Mexico may hopefully be turning an inch or two away.

I grew up in America, but it’s changed a lot. George W. Bush basically wrecked the family car and Barack Obama’s been struggling to put it back together. Is one interpretation. Another interpretation is that these were structural problems that began in the 80s. I’m thinking bit of both, among other things. The end result is the same, however, you look at it. Human suffering.

When Obama announced his (legally unbinding) support for gay marriage, he cited gay people he knows – members of his staff, friends, families, neighbors, soldiers. When Joe Biden pre-announced his personal opinion, he cited Will And Grace. I’d say Modern Family. Both TV shows, humanizing gay families and bringing them into American homes. Which is how it happens. Exposure, basically. I think that’s how reconciliation and social justice ultimately happen.

I love Mad Men. I actually have a slight man crush on Don Draper. The first few seasons were a rollercoaster of depth and awesome as the characters slowly peeled, onion-like, to reveal different levels of both repugnancy and beauty. ie, humanity. The danger with the fifth season is that the characters are all largely revealed. I still like them, but it’s sorta like watching actors after a play. There’s a certain level of humanity which is just dull.

The US Resolution vaguely against Sri Lanka is the news around certain circles, but I’ve found that it actually doesn’t affect my life that much. Whatever the text of the resolution, it’s just become a political football. The government has framed it as a vote against Sri Lanka, and those that hate on SL have framed it as a vote against. If it passes, it won’t be the text that matters, it’ll be these stupid frames. I honestly think it hurts more than it helps.