Obama-mania
I stayed up to watch Obama's acceptance speech, as my wife fell asleep on the couch beside me, and it was worth the loss of sleep. I'm excited about 4 years of great presidential speeches. The big crowds, the Hollywood backgrounds, etc. I eat that stuff up. I also thought McCain gave his best speech of the campaign last night, but purely as a public figurehead, everyone has to agree that the younger, more eloquent and charismatic Obama was the better choice.
Now, I couldn't bring myself to actually vote for Obama, mostly out of a fear of any one party having too much power and because of the large uncertainty about the difference between what Obama was saying he would do and what he would actually do with a legislative branch firmly in his corner. (Note: I didn't vote for McCain either, mostly because he rubs me the wrong way. I know, it's a very issue oriented approach to voting, but hey, I wasn't in love with either man's record or lack thereof.) Still, despite my not voting for Obama, I am surprisingly excited that he won. I think the US needed a new face to represent us to the world, and for those that prefer a smaller govt. brand of Republicanism, the Bush brand of Republicanism (clearly not smaller govt.) and those that were in any way associated with it had to fail to bring about change.
I know there are a lot of ardent Democrats out there, and I fervently hope that you are right. I want Obama and all of his new pals in Washington to be just what this country needs. I'm actually quite excited to see what he'll do. It's possible I'm just excited because the world's longest political season is over, but I think it's more like Obama is a mystery novel and I want to stay up all night to find out whodunnit and how. My excitement may also have something to do with Obama's desire for a playoff in college football, but that's just me.
Book club
Peter, I enjoyed your post, especially your alternate ending. I'll just pretend that's the way it really ended. Your posts are always stimulating vocabulary lessons. I can't believe you worked Bayesian probability into a post on the plague. The one thing you neglected to mention was the book club order for the next few months. Since it is already Nov. 5th, I will go ahead and select my next book choice be it for November or some time in the future. I choose "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals". I just started it this morning, and the first four tracks provided an interesting premise and demonstrated intelligent writing. I think that, if nothing else, it will provide good conversation material for you as you are eating your Thanksgiving feasts.
1 comment:
I "stayed up" for Obama's speech too. And then we had dinner. And then I stayed up much much longer for Prop 8 results. I'm excited about Obama. As the campaign went on, he took more and more objectionable policy stances. I was particularly upset when I realized he had renegged on his promise to keep public financing. But in the end, he was still the best candidate in my mind (woohoo college football playoff system!--and does voting for Obama over McCain mean we care more about college football playoff systems than drug usage in sports).
Bayesian models blow my mind. I'm working on a patent that involves one, and I just can't remember this stuff at all.
Good choice on the book. Where'd you get the audio tracks?
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