Guardian of the Non Sequitur

Select a Candidate

A few days ago I was listening to a podcast while biking through Memorial Park all the way to the West Loop and in an extended PBS interview with Mike Gravel I was struck by how much I liked him (and of course how he had no chance in hell of being taken seriously, much less elected).

So, I was not surprised when he ended up at the top of the list after a short quiz on political views. There was also a perfect stratification of Dems at the Top and Reps at the bottom, with Ron Paul being the highest (R). It would have been interesting to have some 3rd party candidates in there, but with over a year until the election they’re not stupid enough to have any candidates yet (much less 10).

	Mike Gravel Score: 49	Agree Iraq Immigration Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Marriage Death Penalty	Disagree Line-Item Veto Energy
	Chris Dodd Score: 49	Agree Immigration Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty	Disagree Iraq Energy
	Dennis Kucinich Score: 49	Agree Iraq Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty	Disagree Immigration Energy
– Take the Quiz! –

Here’s the entire list:
Mike Gravel - 49
Chris Dodd - 49
Dennis Kucinich - 49
Barack Obama - 42
Hillary Clinton - 42
Bill Richardson - 39
John Edwards - 36
Joe Biden - 32
Ron Paul - 28
Rudy Giuliani - 20
John McCain - 11
Mitt Romney - 10
Sam Brownback - 7
Jim Gilmore - 5

October 5th, 2007 Posted by bshirley | inthenews, meme, politics, web | 3 comments

Three Long Tales

Seems I’ve gotten myself into several long series of books all by the same author. It started one day when I was just looking for something interesting and the book cover and back cover description made me pick up Orson Scott Card’s Seventh Son.

It’s the first of The Tales of Alvin Maker series, which I’m several books into. It’s set in an alternate history of early America and centers around the life of a boy/man who will make a difference in the outcome of that continent.

Then I became aware of the Homecoming Saga, so picked up the first book in that series: The Memory of Earth. This series is about humans escaping the savage past of Earth, with some guiding assistance, now having to guide themselves when that experiment is breaking down. Interesting in that some of the characters and main plot points are borrowed from the Book of Mormon. Not so much that it’s worn on its sleeve.

And now I’ve added the first book from his best known series, and one that’s won some awards. The Ender’s Game series I haven’t yet started, only just now getting the first book. It was not written and released in chronological order, and apparently fans are torn over in which order they should be read.

4 down, 16 to go…

[Edit: I’m crossing them off as I go, italicizing as I procure. -Aug 08]

(more…)

October 1st, 2007 Posted by bshirley | literature | no comments