Okay, I've had it. I'm throwing my hat into the ring. This is it, the official announcement.

Anthony for President in '04

Is that all I have to do? Maybe I have to register somewhere.

Of course I should probably enumerate my stand on the major issues. Here goes.

I favor salary caps in the NBA. I think there should be also a limit to the size of the diamond earrings men can wear (The Bling-Bling Proposal). Car horns will be directly tied to a fairly painful but overall harmless electric shock. If you want to honk, you'd better damn well mean it. This will also apply to subway doors. After being held for 5 seconds, zap. These may sound like minor issues, not particularly relevant to the national or international scene, but I call these my Quality of Life Agenda. It's the little things that make up most people's lives, and if our government is sensitive to these issues, and implements legislation to deal with them, everyone will be happier, our infrastructure will run more smoothly, and general goodwill will increase. Start with the small stuff, make people happy, punish the dreadfully stupid and irresponsible, and the bigger problems will start to disappear. I know personally, that people leaning on their horns and holding the subway doors for 2 and a half minutes really erodes my natural compassion.

Don't get me wrong, though, I have plans for the more serious issues. Of course the most serious issue of all these days is terrorism and the world's rising distaste for America and Americans. I am firmly against our current administration's policy of "bomb them til they like us". I don't think this will work. If so many people hate us, we should perhaps begin to ask them, and ourselves, why. Maybe it's something small, and we can fix it. Even if it's something more major, if so many people are pissed, call me crazy but the solution is probably not to bomb their relatives. As with most things, it probably stems from a small misunderstanding many years ago that has just snowballed. It happens to me and my girlfriend all the time. Some American probably stepped on some Arabs Jordans twenty years ago and didn't apologize. If it's that, we'll apologize. We'll even buy them a new pair. Free Jordans for everybody.

Another key issue these days, and one closely related to the issue raised above, is Israel. The major sticking point here seems to often be Jerusalem. One city claimed by two major religions as the holiest of holy, they can never agree on how to resolve this issue. My solution? If you can't play nice, if you can't share, nobody gets it. Jerusalem should be turned into an International Peace City. Everyone is welcome to visit, but nobody can live there. It's basic parenting. And on top of that, the Palestinians should by all means be given a homeland of some kind. Everyone deserves a place to live and call their own.

What else.. domestic policies. For one, marijuana instantly legalized. I mean, really, come on, get over it. Another thing: It will be illegal to give laws clever acronyms for names. All laws will have regular old HR-2039 kinds of names, and have a nice, plain language summary at the beginning. No marketing of laws. Period. Also, laws can only be about one thing. No riders, none of that shit. If the law is about National Security, you can't add a clause that gives the 23rd congressional district in Wyoming a tax break or creates a national spy network. You want a spy network, you have to draft a spy network bill (but it can't be called that). Also, no major legislation can be passed in the 2 weeks following a major disaster such as September 11, with the exception of emergency measures with a direct, immediate effect, and even these, very carefully. Laws should be passed soberly and with careful thought and debate, not in an emotional firestorm.

That's all for now. Vote me. I'll tell the truth. When I'm confused, I'll say so. We'll have a big party.

Oh, and I'll look into that registering thing, I'm sure there's some form I have to fill out.

My goodness... Two weeks since I last said anything here. The traffic really starts to drop off if I don't keep spewing it out.

I'm basically all Lott-ed out, though I've said nothing about it here. The guy's a dick, and he got caught with his pants down. I imagine he won't be majority leader for long. I watched his appearance on BET with interest, it was hilarious. My favorite part was when he tried to explain voting against the Martin Luther King holiday by saying, "I'm not sure we in America, certainly not white America and the people in the South, fully understood who this man was". Right, when the congress voted on this issue, in the 80's, people didn't know who Martin Luther King was. He also trotted out the ever-popular "some of my best friends are black" line. Beautiful.

Hold the phone! I just looked, and the man has stepped down as majority leader. So there ya go.

The problem with this whole thing, is that in the end, it will probably be a victory for the Republicans. Lott steps down, showing the party's sensitivity to "ethnic" issues and civil rights, though their platform and voting record still tells a completely different story. If Lott has stayed on, he would have been easy to pressure into a possibly slightly more realistic stance on some civil rights issues, he actually said he was for affirmative action on BET. Whoever they get to replace him will probably have just as bad, or worse, a record on these issues as he does. Bill Frist, Mitch McConnell, Don Nickles; they've all consistently gotten F's from the NAACP and low grades from the ACLU. Hopefully this whole thing with Lott will have more scrutiny focused on these issues and these (stupid, white) men.

So that's politics.

The volleyball team lost it's finals match in lame fashion, but it was a great season overall. It would have been great to win it all since this will be the last season for me and Liz, but it was good anyway. We came in second out of 30 teams in our division. Not bad.

Monday we're off to LA for xmas and..... Disneyland! Woo Hoo! I know my anti-corporate sentiments should have me hating both Disneyland and Christmas, but you know, fuck it. It's a complex world, I'm a complex guy. Gonna see Mickey.

Work continues on the Travelin Van web site, I hope to have something up by mid January or sooner. And to all a good night.

Ah the first snow. New York in the snow is one of the best things ever. It feels like the 19th century. It seems like the city is covered in snow in every picture from that time, it's lovely. It muffles all the sounds, highlights the wrought-iron fences and fire escapes, and of course makes everyone generally lose their minds.

Well, what's going on?

Personal drudgery:
Thanksgiving was good/nice/fine/tolerable. I got to enjoy one of my favorite holiday traditions, listening to my father sing "Rock of Ages" during Hanukah. It's a rare pleasure to hear someone sing so badly and yet with so much joy.

Most of my time lately has been spent working on the web site for our upcoming epic journey. It's coming along fairly well, I think. It's nice to have a project again.

What's in the news... Looks like ole' what’s-his-name is really itching to go to war, inspections or not, which is wonderful. The whole diplomacy thing is just for show, they're already saying they're "skeptical" of the results before it's been a week. Sounds like a foregone conclusion. I'll miss New York, but I gotta say I'm not sure I'd want to be here when we start bombing Iraq. It seems to me the repercussions will be felt most by ordinary people, many of whom aren't in favor of attacking the damn place. Well, that might be wrong, in reality it seems like so many people are in favor of it, I just keep deluding myself into thinking there is a majority of sane people in this country. Duh.

On the way home from Baltimore, in Delaware perhaps, I saw a house by the side of the interstate flying the confederate flag. Now I might be a bit sensitive since I've been soaking in the Civil War for a month or two (it's doing wonders for my skin), but I really wanted to throw a bucket of shit at their house. What exactly are they advocating? The ownership of black people? Seriously? I mean, what the fuck?

I know some people see it as a "southern pride" thing, but that's bullshit. The country that flew that flag instigated and fought the bloodiest war in our history to protect their right to own other humans, plain and simple. Sure, there were other factors, but that was the one that had them pulling guns on the senate floor. That's the one they seceded over.

So, for the record, if you're flying a confederate flag, you're an unbelievable ass.

Quote of the moment:
"When I was Ambassador to Indonesia, which was a long time ago, a lot of Indonesians complained, 'Why don't you Americans pay more attention to Indonesia?' and my standard response was, 'Well look at the countries we do pay attention to: Lebanon, El Salvador. You should be glad.'"
-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz