Forefathers' Day (Haiti)
Berchtoldstag (Switzerland)
Berchtoldstag translates roughly to "St. Berchtold's Day," although what St. Berchtold did to earn canonization or a holiday is apparently beyond my reach. Feel free to leave me a note in the comments if you know.
It's a new year and I've decided to try a new labeling system for posts. My daily reads (which I still plan on writing every weekday) will be labeled READS, longer pieces I write out of the blue or to start a deeper conversation will be labeled FEATURES, and things I feel the need to react to will be labeled REACTION. My Root Beer Tapper scores, wrestling stuff, etc will probably fall into a category like IF YOU'RE BORED, or something like that.
Anyway, moving on to today's reads:
Cathy Haustein has a post up on the important differences between a state-run university and a business. It's worth a read, even if only for Cathy's characterization of the opinion page, something I think we all agree with from time to time.
Common Iowan and Political Forecast both noticed that the Draft Obama people ran a TV ad in Iowa aiming to "convince Senator Obama to seek the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination" yesterday. The ad ran on the morning of New Years' Day. Let's break that down a step farther:
An ad attempting to convince a man who lives in Illinois to run for president aired in Iowa on the morning after everyone and their mother stays up late.
What the hell were they thinking? By the way, I was up at 8:30 on New Year's Day, watched TV most of the morning, and didn't see the ad. Maybe next week the Draft Obama people can attempt to convince him to run by sending junk mail to a random address in New Hampshire.
Speaking of crappy caucus ideas, the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitor's Bureau wants to build a nationally televised show to kick off the Iowa caucuses. Britney Spears is pictured as a possible performer. Someone got it in their head that the caucuses need "jazzing up." Someone needs to fire that guy.
I don't want people to have any excuse not to attend their caucus. I don't want there to be anything worth watching on TV, I don't want any sporting events drawing people to the radio, and I sure as hell don't want the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitor's Bureau to stage a Britney Spears concert that night. I want people to go vote. And if helping choose the next president isn't "jazzed up" enough for you, then go back to laying on your goddamn couch and watching whatever reality crap is on MTV.
In a rare act of bi-partisanism, Chris Woods has an interview with Chris Rants on blogs and their role in politics. I've said some nasty things about Chris Rants in this space, some deservedly so, but this interview is still a good read. Kudos to Chris for reaching out and finding a good story.
That's all for now. I've got some more stuff in the works but I've got to work today so it might have to wait until tomorrow.
KL
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