Yes, the Message Board is broken. Yes, I am aware of this. No, I don’t know when it will be fixed.

Your patience is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Godspeed.

You know how they talk about that camel, and the proverbial straw?

Well, this is a god-damn haystack.

Enough already.  This is all getting scary–and we don’t need scary, with everything else that’s going on in the world.

The Democratic ticket may, in my opinion, err on the side of being ineffective leaders and disturbingly prone to opportunistic political expediency, but as long as they don’t continue to fall prey to the many wrong-headed calls for them to “take off the gloves” and “counter-punch” and stoop to endless “he said! she said!” invective and so forth, that is very different from the Republican ticket, both members of which increasingly seem to be extremely dangerous, and have always been inclined to be mean.

For a lot of people, this may not be a vote they make with wild enthusiasm and starry-eyed optimism (and for those lucky people for whom it will feel that way, do me a favor and don’t bother lecturing me about it endlessly or making smug, Kool-Aid driven comments, afterwards), but really, how many Presidential votes actually do fall into that category?  From national campaigns to local referendums, I have probably voted at least a hundred times in my life, maybe more (yes, I even show up for the local judicial elections), and I can think of only two occasions when casting my little vote made me genuinely happy.  Well, three times, if I count my first vote, which wasn’t for someone I strongly supported, but hey, I was voting, in an actual booth, at a real, live polling place–and that was pretty cool all by itself.

This is America, and people should cast any vote which makes sense to them, but I just wanted to make it very clear that even if, like me, you find yourself in “which one is the lesser of two evils?” territory, it is my very strong opinion that voting a Democratic slate is the way to go this time.  Straight up and down the ticket.

It is very disappointing that after this horrible, interminable, often ugly election season, I can’t ever imagine enjoying politics the way that I once did–but, a vote is still a vote; nay, an inalienable right!–and I wanted to make it very clear where mine is going this year.

I have actually always liked, and respected, Senator McCain.  And it’s hard not to admire someone who survived years of torture in a POW camp. I get deeply offended by the non-stop ageism of this campaign, just as the endless racism and sexism is ugly and disgraceful–and completely beneath my vision of the way people are supposed to behave towards one another.  It is actually possible to disagree with someone politically, and still be courteous.  Americans should be able to accept a wide variety of opinions from their fellow Americans, without constantly going to pieces.  (And if I never hear the phrase “denounce and repudiate” again, I’ll be delighted)

But then, Senator McCain did this, and my opinion of him changed forever. The Office of the Presidency does deserve respect, even if you’re not a fan of its current occupant, but I certainly would not go out of my way to embrace the person who treated my daughter with such callous disrespect in the 2000 Republican primaries. But, then, Senator McCain would almost certainly have to be carrying some heavy guilt about the way he handled his first marriage, so maybe he doesn’t wish to cast stones.

I am a very competitive person–always have been–but, I have never wanted to win anything enough to switch my beliefs–and also, to beg strangers for money. It’s degrading.

I would never tack to the center, or veer to the right–just to win an election.  I’d rather be elected–or not–based upon my actual beliefs.  (which could well be quite centrist in many areas–which means that I wouldn’t turn to the left to hoodwink a bunch of primary and caucus voters, either.)  Wouldn’t it be nice to elect someone to high office, and actually know what to expect from the person, once he or she was sworn in?  I have no idea who Barack Obama is, and that makes me very nervous, but who is John McCain?  This version of him is pretty terrifying.  This version isn’t.  And this version is somewhere in-between–until you give it more thought, whereupon it goes back to being alarming.  (and do I privately think that Senator Clinton would have made mincemeat out of Senator McCain last night, instead of a halting, inconsistent performance which hurt Senator Obama more than it helped?  Well, yes.  I do think that–and quite openly, it would seem)

The problem is, there’s a really good chance that Senator McCain is going to win in November, for many reasons–some of which are within Senator Obama’s control, and some of which aren’t.  Ergo, my energies will be going down-ticket, since if Senator McCain does win, he is certainly a one-term President, and with strong majorities in the House and Senate, the amount of damage he can do in four years will be mitigated.  Particularly with different, and more courageous, Congressional leadership–but, that is a topic for another day.

So, where’s Al Gore?  Funny that such a prominent Democrat isn’t slated to speak at the Convention, isn’t it? Hmmm.  Could it be–?  Yeah, it’s a pipe-dream, but by God, I’m going to allow myself to have it.

Boy, how embarrassing is that?

I joined for the most foolish of reasons–which I can admit here, because it is not a secret.  I, quite frankly, signed up in order to be able to spy on a much-loved child, and make sure no shenanigans were taking place.  The child and I were both quite open about this and, in fact, give each other quite a lot of space.  But, we poke each other regularly and the like (Hey, it’s a Facebook thing; what can I tell you?), and all seemed to be well.

But then, it turns out–oh, the ignominy!–that Facebook has games.  Lots and lots of games.  I like games.

First, I was playing a game called Triumph.  There were soldiers involved.  It seemed like great fun–until it got entirely monotonous, after a remarkably short period of time.  (I have subsequently discovered that most of the people in the game were cheating madly, and creatively, and that was what made it continue to seem entertaining for longer periods of time.)  But, I was bored, so I moved on to Dope Wars, where I joined a predominantly Malayasian drug cartel–and became remarkably good at the game, and made many new friends from all over the world.

However, it was awkward, when a bright-eyed, bespectacled nine-year-old in my life asked, happily, in the elevator, if I was currently selling crystal meth–or heroin?  And I, without thinking, said, “well, the profit margin for the crystal meth seems to be higher.”  I won no friends among our fellow passengers.

However, the Dope Wars application was fatally flawed, and one entirely un-golden day, I could no longer access said game, without encountering dreadful configuration problems.  So, it was on to King of the World.  King of the World is excellent.  I now belong to a large and ruthless multi-national alliance–with an absolutely dreadful reputation within the game; mostly because we play with great abandon, and display remarkable teamwork for people who live in wildly varying time-zones.

But, teamwork requires a non-stop flurry of messages on each other’s Royal Walls, and our discussion boards (plus, the friendly conversations I generally end up having with the people we are attacking), and Facebook decided I must be a spammer, and sent me what is known as The Dreaded Red Box–wherein, I was to be eliminated from the site at once, if I did not mend my garrulous ways.

So now, I am trying to be very, very silent–which is hard.  My teammates and I can take ourselves over to MSN, or even use good old-fashioned email–and how scary is it that email seems slow and clunky and antediluvian, in this context?–but, it’s just not the same.  I am trying to stay quiet for an entire week, which is thought to be the amount of time the mysterious Orwellian Facebook Police (who respond to no forms of contact, answer no questions whatsoever, and are known to make arbitrary and final decisions) require, in order not to delete one’s account.

But, this has made me think about a couple of things.  First of all, does it make any sense that a social networking site would go out of its way to discourage–socializing?  If anyone has an answer to that paradox, I would be deeply curious to hear it.

The situation has also made me think about teams.  It is a subject which has come to mind often lately, particularly since I am a member of a few teams–which directly resulted in my being injured in a very frightening, egregiously unsportsmanlike, and unnecessary way last week, with an uncertain prognosis.  (the details are not particularly relevant, or interesting.)  But, this event has–much to my dismay–definitely put me in an “exactly when is it time to hang up the old cleats?” frame of mind.

I have been a Democrat since I was a small child, and always considered that a team, except that once the Party embraced Unity, it turned out that the only change was that it is now making a point of excluding millions of its former members in a startlingly hostile and dimwitted way.  Then again, I continue to be one of those old-fashioned and currently unpopular people who really do support the 1st and 4th Amendments–and believe in the right to privacy, the freedom to marry whomever one wishes to marry, and a person’s unfettered ability to make personal medical decisions for him or herself.   I also do not like off-shore drilling or abrogating  the separation between church and state, or denouncing and repudiating–and insulting–anyone who dares to disagree with me–which means that, apparently, I am no longer a Democrat.

Which leaves me with very limited options politically–and little or no stomach for continuing to follow the current campaign season, except in the most vague and casual way.

Luckily, I have a more reliable and entertaining team to watch.  One of the best right-handed hitters of the modern era was traded to Hollywood–and the Red Sox are so very much better off.  Tremendous talent did not change the fact that he was hurting the team, and his replacement certainly seems to be working out, so far.

Few things interest me less than the New York Jets.

Finally, on the subject of teams, this episode has its moments, but is not one of my favorites.

I want to read this,  and am already reading this one, but expect to have better things to do than spend good money on this.  Fortunately, the world is full of fine libraries.

The Democratic Party is broken. In fact, I don’t think too many people would disagree with me if I were to say that, right now, the entire country is not in particularly good shape. Ever since that terrible September morning in New York — which had the most shockingly beautiful blue sky I ever remember seeing in my city — I’m not sure we have even gotten close to being who we were or, at least, who we hoped we were. What makes that even more sad is that, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, today should be a truly glorious day. After last night, America really never will be quite the same — and that’s a good thing. I would even argue that it’s a great thing.

But, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have been a supporter of Senator Clinton throughout the primary season. Her tactics have often annoyed and sometimes even disgusted me, but I still thought she would be the most effective president during a time when the country seems to need grit and determination and the grinding tedium of hard work to get ourselves back on track. Unfortunately, I think she and Senator Obama have been caught up in a bizarre maelstrom of non-stop punditry and over-analysis and media-fed miscommunication — most of which has just made me feel like going somewhere and lying down with a cool cloth on my forehead.

Everywhere I have gone today — both in the real world, and in the peculiar, highly charged environment known as the Internet — instead of celebrating the fact that we’ve been catapulted into a new era, people seem short-tempered and tense and confused. When you think about it, that’s really quite heartbreaking. And, day after day, the division between the two competing halves of the Democratic Party seems to be growing even more ugly and intractable.

One often hears the question “What can Senator Obama do to unify this vast sea of wildly opinionated, intensely involved citizens?” I have a very simple suggestion, which — at first glance — will sound rather banal and meaningless. I respectfully ask anyone who happens to read this to stop and take a second glance.

There is simply no way for the deplorable wounds of racism and sexism to be erased during a single campaign season, no matter how groundbreaking it truly is, in so many ways. But, I have been waiting for Senator Obama to do something — anything –that would make me say, okay, it isn’t just pretty words, or the fervent wistful projections of a battered populace, but that he really is capable of bold, transformational action.

I would love, for example, for Senator Obama to be able to take Al Gore’s graceful and elegant position on gay marriage, but I recognize that it would not be an act of wisdom during a heated election. But, there is actually a different, long-dormant issue that still lurks, privately, as a tremendous disappointment to millions of Americans — myself among them.

It’s a blast from the past, but remember the ERA? There are many people who will probably think, oh, please, that is such old news — but, you know, it isn’t. It mattered then, and it matters now, even though no one ever mentions it anymore. What if Senator Obama came out and said that one of his first acts as president would be to do everything in his power to bring the ERA back, and try to get it ratified, once and for all? Yes, I suppose it seems like ancient history, but the words are very simple: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” At the time, many people found the entire concept irrationally terrifying, but does it still seem scary and radical? Or does it just seem — logical?

And is it within the realm of possibility that if Senator Obama took that position, openly and proudly, a statistically significant percentage of Senator Clinton’s most devoted and intelligent supporters would suddenly feel much more comfortable with — and maybe even enthusiastic about — his candidacy? I will be honest — it would certainly make a difference to me. It would be a symbolic gesture, but an important one.

Would those 24 words end the war in Iraq, fix the economy, or provide universal health care for one and all?

No. But, those 24 words matter.

They always have.

They still do.

**This piece was originally published at The Huffington Post/Off The Bus

(The direct link is here; they will be adding my full name ASAP, for what it’s worth)

As far as I can tell, no one has more fun than these guys.  I never imagined a world where the Red Sox would get to celebrate, on a regular basis.  Life as a Red Sox fan always felt like this.

But, last night, something extra-special happened.  Two years ago, Jon Lester was a twenty-two year old rookie–with some back pain.  Unfortunately, to the shock of everyone involved, the diagnosis turned out to be cancer.  (Mike Lowell, the Red Sox third baseman, is also a cancer survivor, as it happens.)   Thankfully, he was able to fight the disease off, and resume his career–and in October 2007, guess who won the last game of the World Series?  Yes, that would be Jon Lester.

And last night, the man (nope, I’m not going to call him a “kid,” because I think he’s a Man) threw a no-hitter.  The last time a Red Sox left-hander accomplished that feat was in 1956.  So, what Mr. Lester did was very special–and his back-story only makes it more so.   It was great.  Really, really great.

This week, another young Red Sox player was diagnosed with cancer, and I just heard the sad news about Ted Kennedy, also.  And we can’t forget all of the people who are bravely fighting this disease (and other terrible diseases), day in and day out–but, not in the public eye.  I know–and admire–a few of them; I bet you do, too.

I am going to go right now and send a donation to one of my favorite charities, The Jimmy Fund.

The board should be working again–knock wood–but this took me so long that I’m not motivated to redo the layout all over again (because the old stylesheet’s not working with the new board). Anyway, hopefully you can tolerate the crazy circus theme until I fix things up again.

Thanks for everyone’s patience!

Yes, I’m aware of the MB problem. Hopefully I’ll manage to fix it soon. I’ll be sure to post here when it’s back online.

The hour grows late–and I must leap out into the night–but did not want to let the day pass without wishing one and all a very Happy New Year.