Why I am voting for Barack Obama

I thought I’d take a few moments to help clarify my stance in the upcoming presidential election, in case anyone out there cares.

Obama’s healthcare plan, while not ideal or technically universal, goes much farther than McCain’s toward insuring all Americans. According to the US Congress Joint Economic Committee, there are 45.7 million uninsured people in the US (up by 18.8%, from 38.4 million, since Bush took office 8 years ago). We are the only industrialized nation to not offer universal healthcare in some form or another. This is a national disgrace, and I consider it to be one of the foremost "justice" issues facing our society. If our poor lack a right to decent healthcare because we choose (again) not to spend the money required, then greed has become our god and self-interest our chief virtue.

While Obama has displayed a willingness to defend our vaguely-defined “national interests” using military might that I am, quite frankly, a little uncomfortable with, he has repeatedly asserted that the cornerstone of his foreign policy will be diplomacy. He approaches the world with a more collaborative, nuanced perspective that I welcome heartily. One must compare this with the consistent bellicose posturing on the part of McCain in both past and present international crises. Obama does not oppose war, but he has opposed our war in Iraq from its misbegotten inception, and I consider this to be a positive sign and indicative of the stance that he will take when confronted with similar situations in the future.

While I personally deplore the practice of abortion, I also recognize that the prospect of overturning Roe v. Wade would be an unmitigated disaster and that 40 years of legal precedent will not evaporate with the appointment of an 8th (that’s right, 8th - out of 9) Republican justice. Considering McCain’s most recently articulated views in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade (and ignoring his past contradictions of this stance), I believe that Obama’s approach of providing additional support for young mothers is much more likely to bear fruit in the form of fewer terminated pregnancies, and the statistics back me up on this (under Clinton's policies, for example, abortion rates reached a 24 year low). That's a fantastic article on the issue that I just linked to back there if anyone cares to know more about actually preventing abortions rather than just getting angry over them every four years.

That being said, I consider abortion to be only a fraction of my pro-life stance. Being pro-war is not being pro-life. Supporting the death penalty is not being pro-life. Supporting foreign policies that continue to ignore the world's chronically impoverished is not being pro-life. I am personally committed to a consistent pro-life ethic that does not ignore the complexities of the real world. But I digress.

Even if I did not agree with Obama's position on a host of issues, I would like to think that I would have come to support him over McCain based solely on his conduct over the past weeks and months. He has offered steady, intelligent, clear-headed resolve that refuses to appeal to the lowest common denominator both on the campaign trail and in response to the economic crisis. It is telling, I think, that McCain's closing argument in his erratic campaign is a mixture of good old-fashioned 1950s style red-baiting coupled with his stubborn insistence that we don't know enough about a figure who has written two memoirs, held elected office for over a decade, and had been in an intense media spotlight for two full years as a candidate for president. To me that indicates an utter paucity of substance.

On Tuesday I will proudly cast my ballot for Barack Obama. While I do not hold any delusions about an end of racism in this country in the form of prejudice and discrimination, I still recognize that his election will be a powerful statement of a broad acceptance of a tolerant society with a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural future. It is not the final step in the Civil Rights movement, but only the next.

Vote Obama. Your grandchildren will thank you.

From the kitchen of Adam

I think I just created a new sandwich. I call it "open-faced toasted pastrami and cheddar on sourdough."

It was freakin awesome. That is all.

Pumpkins & Politics

We must be getting close to Halloween. In an election year.

Darcy and I carved a couple pumpkins last night, and they ended up being Obama supporters. I, for one, did not see that one coming. Check 'em out:

Here's mine. Let me just say here and now that it was difficult to transfer a round two-dimensional logo onto an imperfect (but transcendently beautiful in its own way) three-dimensional pumpkinish surface.

Here's Darcy's. Seems especially appropriate given the fact that the prospect of an Obama presidency scares the sweet bejeezus out of a certain segment of the populace.

Stupid pinko-commie pumpkins. Go back to Sweeden and redistribute some wealth with all of your socialist friends.

Christopher Hitchens says "Vote for Obama"

So I stumbled upon this article the other day and found it remarkable:

http://slate.com/id/2202163/

Perhaps a little background information would be appropriate ... It's by Christopher Hitchens for Slate.com. Although Hitchens was apparently associated with some more liberal causes in his early career (late 1980s), I know him more for his militant atheism, his vehement distaste for Bill and (more recently) Hillary Clinton, and for his unequivocal embrace of the Neo-Conservative foreign policy myth (in essence, that we can democratize the world at gunpoint, that we are locked in an ideological struggle with Islamofascists who want to subvert our very way of life and impose shariah on the Western world, and that overwhelming military superiority and willingness/eagerness to use it is the only hope for the future).

As a rule, I try to avoid reading anything written by him since when he's not insulting persons of faith he's generally advocating bombing someone for something. Since my faith has led me to renounce the myth of redemptive violence, there's not a whole lot that Christopher and I see eye to eye on.

With these worldview parameters firmly in place, he nevertheless arrives at the conclusion that McCain is unfit for the presidency and excorciates him thusly: "McCain lacks the character and temperment to be president. And Palin is simply a disgrace." That's just the subtitle of the article. It's not pretty when prominent conservatives turn on Republicans. Who knew?

movie review

Hey everyone. I just wanted to put in a quick plug for all of my budding-therapist (as well as my psychologically-astute non-therapist type) friends: go see Rachel Getting Married. If you took family systems theory and turned it into a movie it would look just like this. Seriously. For those of you who are fortunate enough to live in or near Pasadena, it's conveniently playing at the Laemmle on Colorado.

It's truly a stunning movie. The wife and I watched it Saturday afternoon and I still can't stop thinking about it this morning. It's directed by Jonathan Demme, but I saw one review that described it as "Altmanesque" and I thought: "Yeah, sure, that sounds good in a review but how much can it really look (and sound) like an Altman picture?" Answer: very much. Demme really knocked it out of the park and delivered an exceptionally well-crafted (albeit emotionally raw) movie. The characters were well-rounded and three dimensional, and the actors' performances were utterly realistic (the early Oscar buzz for Anne Hathaway is legit, by the way).

A caveat: I wouldn't recommend going to see this movie if you're feeling especially depressed. You might hurl yourself in front of a bus on the way home. And I wouldn't want that on my conscience. Wait until you're feeling a little more stable and then go see the film.

everyone...

I'm just saying is all...

This seems especially appropriate right about now and I couldn't resist sharing it. You can get the graphic on a shirt here (womens shirts are on sale for $12 now).

Stay skeptical, my friends. At least until November 5.