Freedom of Speech and Pat Robertson

Everyone knows about what Pat Robertson said about the people of Haiti and the reason he thinks they're suffering after this horrible earthquake over the past couple of days (and for the foreseeable future). If you don't, here's a clip (Facebook users please click "See original post" below to view this):

I'm not going to comment on his remarks, other than to say that it's ridiculous to think that an entire country got together and did something like this. My past posts probably give you a pretty good idea about how I feel about the content of his statements.

What I'm going to comment on is the group of people who believe that anyone who criticizes him is against the freedom of speech that we enjoy in this country. According to many of these people, no one should be allowed to take any action against him due to his comments.

That, my friends, is what goes against the freedom of speech.

Everyone in this country absolutely has the freedom to say and believe whatever they want. They also have the responsibility to accept that they'll be judged based on what they say.

I frequently make inflammatory comments and I accept that not everyone's going to agree with me, and that people will judge me based on those comments. I said on Facebook a while back that I think that people need to realize that Fox News's reporting is based on lies and half-truths, and a fairly good friend of my family stopped following me because she doesn't agree with me. I'm sorry she did that but it's not going to stop saying what I believe.

I also know not everyone agrees with me that we need to stop using cars as much as a form of transportation, and that people are going to judge me based on that. But I'm not going to stop saying it, and I accept that some people are going to call me names and judge me based on their feelings about those statements.

Pat Robertson knows that his comments are going to upset a lot of people. And as a public figure who touches a lot of lives via his presence on television, he knows that he's going to be judged by what he says. It's pretty obvious that he has total conviction about what he's saying and accepts that he's getting judged on what he says about such things.

But those who say that we're not allowed to criticize a person because of his beliefs? That's the height of lunacy and the absolute antithesis of the point of the freedom of speech. The point of the freedom of speech is to ensure that everyone is heard and all ideas get presented. And then those ideas are subject to rational discourse. But a person also needs to realize that what you say is going to have repercussions.

Sure, Robertson has the right to say what he did. But he also has the responsibility to accept the after-effects of this comments.

End of an Era, Beginning of Greater Things

Today, we put our son on the bus to school and sent him on his way. A simple enough thing, something every parent goes through at some point in the lives of their children.

But when your child is autistic, it's a different story. Duncan's only 4 1/2 years old and he's headed off to special needs preschool. So he's going a year earlier than most kids, to get a head start on the skills he'll need to go to regular kindergarten next year. It makes perfect sense to me in my head. He's going to get some great training from his teacher, much better than even the fantastic counselor he had did when he was at day care.

But here's the image that sent me off to work today: seeing my little son, who looks so big when he's sitting among other kids his age (he's pretty darned tall for his age, most people think he's in first grade), looking so scared and small on the seat of that bus as he headed off to school. He didn't cry, he just looked at us not understanding why we weren't going with him. We waved to him and smiled as he rode off.

After we put him on the bus I had to excuse myself to the bathroom to compose myself to be strong for my wife and daughter, who's still only almost two and doesn't go to school any time soon. Not an easy thing to do... I feel so guilty about leaving him.

Duncan was the only one on the bus at that point other than the driver, since he's the first to be picked up. It made it easier to put him on, probably, because he got to pick where he wanted to sit. But as I put the harness on him, all I could think was I need to go with him. I want to see where he's going. I want to tell him it's going to be all right.

He knew something new was up, obviously, because we've been preparing him as best we could. New school clothes, talking about going to school, new books about going to school, and asking him if he's excited to go. But it wasn't real to him, you knew it was just something else to talk about.

Last Friday he got to go to the school to meet his teacher and see the classroom, and also for the teacher to interview Jenn and get to know what she can expect from him. Special Ed is a bit more focused in such regards, and Duncan will be one of two autistic children in the class. She asked everything: what his tantrum triggers are, what calms him, what does he like to do, what does he dislike, the whole nine yards. Jenn said it was a very detailed interview which made me feel good.

So I'm glad that he knows where he's going and that the people there know about him. Duncan's a very high-functioning autistic - he can be very social but doesn't always get the intricacies of human interaction, like seeing if someone's okay when they're crying, or holding a conversation about what he did that day, etc. And he has a few of the triggers where his senses get overwhelmed - mostly noise-related, like fireworks, hand dryers in bathrooms and the like - and he shuts down and panics. But those are few and far between and we know how to deal with it when it happens.

His speech has a few issues - some issues with clarity, and some issues with what's called "echolalia" where he quotes movies, TV, other people, etc. a lot (almost ad nauseum sometimes), though usually in context. For instance, when I was trying to tell him and his sister to come to the table one night for dinner, he looked at me and quoted from the movie Treasure Planet, saying "Stop giving orders." Pretty funny.

It also causes him to misuse pronouns a lot because he quotes whole passages instead of breaking down the indivual words. So if he wants to hang on my arm like a monkey, he tells me "May I hang on my arm please?" because I tell him to "hang on my arm."

One thing that's always been remarkable to me is how the autistic people I've met individually have had a real good grasp of their challenges. I worked with a young man, named Brian, with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition on the autistic spectrum, who was one of the best detail-oriented data entry people I ever met. But he was obsessed with movies and game shows. The first time I met him, Brian told me about Asperger's Syndrome at great length and I was very impressed with how handled himself. He rambled a bit and went into some detail that I probably didn't need, but he wanted to make sure that I understood what was going on.

And another time, when I was trying to get some work done and he stopped in my office to tell me about one of his favorite movies, I told him "Brian, thanks, but I need to get some work done right now" he apologized and moved on, totally unoffended and totally okay with being told. It was very impressive.

And Duncan's not even as severe as Brian is. The school system folks think this is probably the only year that he'll need full-time special ed, though he probably will need a counselor going through school on occasion to help him handle the challenges he encounters. So this is a big, important year for him.

In my head, I know he's going to be okay. His teacher is going to take great care of him. He's going to have the opportunity to master the challenges he has in his life under the care of people who are going to help him as much as they can.

But in my very emotional heart, I am remembering two things:

The look he gave us as he went off to school on his bus this morning...

And the hug he gave me last night before going to bed. He asked me to give him a big hug, and after I picked him up and put my arms around him, he said into my ear "You are my son." And I looked at him and told him "That's right, Duncan. You are my son." Then another big hug and it was off to bed.

My son started school today. And it's the beginning of him growing into the great young man I know he's going to be. But that doesn't make it any easier to see that little boy leaving on the little bus.

What Works for Me in Fitness

I have been training recently for a 5K run in early May. I wanted to change things up a bit in my workout and a bit of running seemed just the thing.

What I'm discovering, though, is that I don't feel nearly as good when I run as I do when I just stick to my bodyweight exercises and sprinting work.

I woke up in the middle of the night a couple of nights ago with a mild migraine, and after lying in bed with it for a couple of hours after taking some Excedrin and feeling horrible, I finally got up and went down to the basement for a few minutes to take in an activity that I haven't done in a while - a wrestler's bridge (as presented by Matt Furey in his book Combat Conditioning).

For those of you who aren't familiar with this exercise, you lie on your back, then arch your back so that your feet and your head are supporting your weight, and you can use your hands for a bit of extra support if you need. You then slowly roll forward on your head until your forehead is on the ground (yes, I have a pretty soft exercise mat).

PLEASE DON'T DO THIS EXERCISE BASED ONLY ON MY DESCRIPTION! Get the above book and learn the proper way to do it.

It sounds painful. It feels great. I stayed in that position for a couple of minutes, rolling back and forth lightly on the top of my head, and belly-breathing as deeply as I could. My back stretched out, my neck loosened up, and my headache went away.

I then got up and did 50 free squats, just to work out some of the kinks. I went upstairs, read for a half hour or so, and went back to bed. I felt great all day Sunday after taking the five minutes to do this.

Today I got up and did my morning run of almost 3 miles. I took it nice and slow. And now I can't wait to get home and bridge again, to work out some of the kinks once more.

I have never felt better from top to bottom than I do when I am on a regular bodyweight exercise routine. Even when I was swimming, I had knee problems (I was a breaststroker and that whip kick was tough on the knees) to the extent where it hurt to go down the stairs.

I never feel bad when I'm doing the bridge, Hindu Pushups, or Hindu Squats regularly. It's strength, stability and stretching all in one. And I'm not selling anything here.

So ironically, I got this email today from the creator of Combat Conditioning, Matt Furey. It hit the nail right on the head again. And yes, a lot of it is a sales job. But it's sales for a product I already have... and I'll tell you right now that it works. I hope Matt makes a fortune selling this stuff be

BIG FAT FITNESS LIES

Hi James,

Hold it. You may be exercising and eating all wrong.

You may have been led to believe a lot of very stupid and untrue things about what
it takes to get fit.

Things like:

* Running several miles per day is the key to getting fit.

* Doing a ton of long, slow distance (LSD) is absolutely necessary.

* Lifting the heaviest weights you possibly can will turn you into a human fire plug.

* Eating five or six times per day will crank up your metabolism.

* Training one part of your body today and another part tomorrow will prevent overtraining.

* Only working out 2-3 times per week is the fastest way to make progress.

My friend, there are pieces of truth in all these lies.

For example:

Long-slow cardio may make you feel good - but if you want to "STEP UP" your metabolism, you're far better off doing a very hard, very vigorous workout that calls upon all your physical and mental reserves. You're better off with a short workout that will never get easy - no matter how often you do it.

Consider the sprinter. He does not do long distance cardio. Yet his body is lean, muscular and powerful.

It is rare to find a long distance cardio person who is well muscled.

He may be lean, but there's no power.

Not only that, but after a period of time - the long cardio workout person may end up suffering from hip, knee, ankle and lower back pain.

Why?

All the pounding on the joints. It takes a tremendous toll on the body.

Instead of the long, slow, dull approach to fitness, consider the following 5 ways to a Metabolism Makeover.

1. Begin doing vigorous full body body weight exercises that force you to lose control of your breathing. If you aren't getting out of breath when you train, your system is NOT being forced to adapt and change. The harder you are breathing, the more
shock to the system. The more "shock" there is - the greater the shake-up in your metabolism. The exercises in Combat Conditioning - http://mattfurey.com/conditioning_book.html cause this to happen and that is why they those who use
them fit FAST.

2. Instead of running or bicycling several miles per day for cardio exercise - train like a cheetah. Run as hard as you can, at full blast, for as long as you can. Run with all your might. When finished you'll be gasping for oxygen. And this gasping is
what turns on the fat burning furnace within.

In Combat Conditioning you'll find sprint workouts you can follow that will turn you into a lean, powerful prey-catching cheetah within 90 days.

3. Practice deep breathing. The deeper you breathe the more oxygen in your system. The more oxygen in your system, the faster your metabolism. Don't just get your deep breathing from vigorous exercise. Get if from the act of deep breathing itself -
done all day long.

4. Eat plenty of fiber rich, water-content foods while avoiding starchy foods most of time.

5. Change the mental picture you have of yourself. As you see yourself in your mind's eye - so you become.

Follow this approach to getting fit fast and you'll catch the eyes of everyone when you walk down the street. Others will instantly sense that something is different about you. And you'll know why.

Matt Furey

Thanks Matt.

Former Iraq Interrogator: Torture Doesn't Work and Endangers Our Troops

For whatever reason, our government (all the way up to our current president) is endorsing the use of torture to get information out of suspected enemies. But former Air Force officer and interrogator Matthew Alexander was responsible for finding the location of Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi using interrogation techniques straight out of the official military interrogations manual and NO torture.

The Washington Post ran an Op-Ed piece by him recently... read it and wonder what our government is trying to prove by torturing people!

US Soccer Players Comments on US/Mexico Game at Crew Stadium

Gotta love this. Crew Stadium is the real home of US Soccer... and has been ever since 2001!

I remember interviewing Jeff Agoos after that first US Mexico game in February, 2001, and his comment of "all our games should be played here." I agree!

Read on...

Perfect Setup

By Graig Carbino -- “Man, that’s gonna be cold,” was my first thought when the US Soccer Federation announced yesterday that the US Men would be playing their February 11th World Cup qualifier against Mexico in Columbus, OH. Shocked? Surprised? Disgusted? Come on, you didn’t really think they were going to play this thing in Salt Lake City, did you?

In case you were wondering, the average high temperature for Columbus in February is a balmy 38-degrees. The low? Try 21 degrees. In anybody’s world that is chilly. Keep in mind that I am a native of the Northeast. Imagine how the Mexican team must feel. Then consider the history of “El Tri” at this stadium and you get the sense that they might not be looking forward to their impending stay in Franklin County.

Even a passing fan of the US team knows why the Fed higher-ups decided to stage this heavyweight fight on the frozen tundra of Crew Stadium. Just look at the US Men’s history at this fabled (in MLS terms) ground and it’s pretty easy to figure out what made this decision.

The US has a 4-0-3 all-time record at Crew Stadium and is 3-0-2 in World Cup qualifying at the venue. We all certainly remember the “Guerra Fria” match played in February 2001 where goals from Josh Wolff and Earnie Stewart led the US to victory over Mexico in the first match of the final round of qualifying for the 2002 World Cup. The game-time temperature that day hit a high of just 29 degrees.

If you remember, Wolff had entered the match for Brian McBride who had to come off after banging heads with another Mexican player. The golf ball sized welt around McBride’s eye is an image I have yet to shake from my memory.

The US played Mexico in Columbus again in September 2005 and the same score line held up as goals from Steve Ralston and DaMarcus Beasley saw the States through. Certainly not as cold, but the atmosphere around the stadium was just as good. This was the famous “Onyewu Stare” game where he put Jared Borgetti in his back pocket and didn’t let him out until the final whistle.

US Soccer President Sunil Gulati said, “Our first priority is to give our team the best chance to be successful and achieve the goal of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, and Columbus Crew Stadium has always been a great venue for the national team.” Ya think? The conditions for this game are going to be down right nasty at best. Temperatures will most likely be in the 30’s or lower and there is always the chance of snow or a wintery mix to add to the setting. Beyond the weather though, here’s arguing that Columbus Crew stadium is the best venue for the US to play any meaningful qualifying match.

Forget the “Cathedral of American Soccer” out in Los Angeles. If you want a US Soccer home field advantage you hop a flight to Port Columbus International Airport and head over to the State Fairgrounds. That’s where you will find what I affectionately like to call the “mini Azteca in the 8th best large city in the U.S. to inhabit”?. Ok, so the name might need some tinkering, but you get the idea.

If you want fans of the US team, and the US team only, you go to Columbus. It is middle America at its best. Diverse? Not really, but for rooting purposes only I would argue that US Soccer officials don’t really care about the demographics. Sure, ideally they want the support of Mexican-Americans and Asian-Americans and every other ethnic group you can think of. In reality, they still do not have that vote.

It is going to take many more years of continued success from the US Men in order to draw the larger diverse groups of this country to their own National Team. Facts are facts, even when they come off a bit harsh.

This country is a melting pot and that’s what makes it great. When it comes right down to it though, the US Soccer Federation is looking for results and it’s easier to get them in Columbus than it would be in New York or Chicago or LA. The reason? There are more diverse populations in those larger locations, period.

For those of you who still believe players when they say home field advantage doesn’t really matter, just remember a few things. The US team almost never wins in Europe. Unless the game happens to be in or against Poland, you can usually chalk up an “L” in the results column. They also do not win in Mexico, ever. Let’s think for a second here. A rough record in Europe and seemingly unable to scratch a result Mexico. Could the atmosphere and crowd play some sort of role in these results?

Look, I am not trying to make Columbus Crew Stadium out to be the US version of Wembley. It’s not Camp Nou or Hampden Park. The Home Depot Center is much nicer and who wouldn’t rather travel to New York or Miami to watch a game. Heck, I’d rather suffer through a few hours at RFK Stadium in DC than go to Ohio in February.

What Crew Stadium offers can’t be seen or calculated in building costs. It isn’t fancy or equipped with what we’ve come to expect from the latest on soccer-specificity.

No, Crew Stadium has more of a grittier feel, a place where you go to battle. That’s why, when the results are really on the line, it is the perfect place for the US National team to fight for 90 minutes, to scrap for a result when nothing else matters. Make your travel plans now and bundle up. It will be cold, but well worth the trip.

A Charlie Brown/OutKast Christmas

This is great... as much as I love the Vince Guaraldi classic... this rocks.

Longhorns Get Hosed, Bring Back Nasty Memories of 1993

In 1993, the two top teams in the country were Notre Dame and Florida State. Damn, that seems like a long time ago... but I digress.

Notre Dame beat Florida State that year, head to head, during the regular season. They lost to Boston College the next week, and both ND and FSU ended the season with 1 loss. Not being in the BCS like we have now, they each played their bowl game, won, and that was that. And then FSU was awarded the top spot in the country, despite the obvious head-to-head battle that, to me, proved which team was actually better. ND got hosed.

Fast forward to 2008. Earlier this season, Texas beat Oklahoma, and then later lost a close one to Texas Tech. Both teams finish the regular season with one loss. Yet Oklahoma is voted #1 and gets put into the Big 12 Championship and later the national championship game. Same situation: the two teams had the same record, one beat the other, and yet the pollsters decided that they didn't like that so they just ignored it. So Oklahoma's playing for an undeserved national title and Texas is stuck playing #10 Ohio State.

This is why the rankings system does not work. I'm for a playoff. It's not a huge issue for me, I don't lose sleep over it (I have my daughter and her head cold to thank for that). But it amazes me that the college sports world has stood for this as long as they have. The obvious "popularity contest" nature of the rankings system should have gone by the wayside decades ago... yet it hasn't for whatever reason. Head to head play is and should be the deciding factor when records are equal. And the best way to assure head to head play is to have a playoff.

Get Your Poster of the Dispatch Front Page

From Shawn Mitchell's blog at the Dispatch:

Poster prints of The Dispatch

from Covering the Crew by Shawn Mitchell

I've gotten a couple of emails from readers wanting to know how to get extra copies or PDF images of today's A1 and sports sections (Crew coverage on C1 and C9).

You can purchase poster-quality reprints of any page published in the paper from the Dispatch's online page store.

Crew Celebration at State House Tonight!

From the Columbus Crew (updated at 11:20 am):

Governor to Welcome Columbus Crew to Ohio Statehouse for Victory Celebration Today

Columbus, Ohio - Governor Ted Strickland will welcome the 2008 Major League Soccer champions – the Columbus Crew – to the Ohio Statehouse for a community celebration of the team’s succesful season and victory against the New York Red Bulls on Sunday.

"The Columbus Crew’s MLS Cup victory marks a significant moment in Ohio sports history," Strickland said. "On behalf of all Ohioans, I congratulate the players, coaches and fans of the Crew on a dynamic season."

All Columbus Crew fans and community members are invited to attend the celebration at 5 p.m. today at the Ohio Statehouse.

WHO: Ohio Governor Ted Strickland
Columbus Crew team members and fans

WHAT: Columbus Crew MLS Cup Championship Celebration

WHEN: 5:00 PM

WHERE: Ohio Statehouse, West Plaza, Columbus, OH 43215

Welcome Our Champions Home!

Everyone who can is invited to meet the Crew as they return home from Los Angeles after their decisive MLS Cup win over the New York Red Bulls!

Meet at the Port Columbus baggage claim between 10:30 and 11:00 PM and greet our heroes!

Crew 3, New York 1: The Culmination of All Our Soccer Dreams

Yesterday, the Columbus Crew beat the New York Red Bulls 3-1 and took home their first MLS Cup.

I've been following the Crew since 1997, the year after I moved to Columbus. I have to fully admit I wasn't aware of the Crew until I moved down here in 1996, just after the MLS Cup of that year. My first game was a shootout win against the San Jose Clash in April of '97. I was confused as hell by the shootout (which I didn't realize even existed), but enjoyed the game. The next year, I bought season tickets. I've been a season ticket possessor since then (not always having paid for them, as I was on the Crew's website staff for several years and got free tickets for that).

I think it's safe to say I've seen this team through thick and thin since then. I was in the stadium for all the losses to DC United in the conference finals (including the deciding game in DC in '99) and have travelled to a few other games as well, in Chicago, New York, and a couple of friendlies against A-League teams in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. I've exulted in Open Cup wins and Supporters' Shield victories, and despaired to watch us give it up in the playoffs. I've bemoaned our coaching situation as we went from league-leaders to the laughing stock of the league before the term of our current coach, Sigi Schmidt. I've put up with the fans who can only see the negative with the team, and exulted with the fans who love them no matter what.

I was there for the rise of the North End fan section with uber-fan Matt Bernhardt and made lifelong friends there. I witnessed the fall of it with the rise of V-Army. I've watched from afar as the North End was reborn in the Nordecke and smiled with appreciation for this fantastic group of fans.

I've played recreational soccer with my friends from the North End and met my wife on that team. I've interviewed players and coaches, made some friends among those folks, and gotten an appreciation of the down-to-earth nature of US soccer players, players who are genuinely happy to meet their fans and appreciative of the effort that the fans make in a country where their sport is considered second-level.

This past season I probably attended fewer games than I ever have before, due to family commitments and some unforseen circumstances. But the Crew was always in my sights. I hesitantly got excited as this team excelled, did things that in the past would seem impossible for a Crew team (like regularly come back from being down a goal and hold on to a lead in the last 5 minutes), and then watched in awe as the team rolled through the playoffs and took the league in a way that couldn't have been better.

1. We kept DC United out of the playoffs in the last game of the season, getting revenge for years of them keeping us out of MLS Cup.

2. We beat the hated Chicago Fire in the conference finals.

3. And we won the whole darned thing! After a shaky start in the game, the team took over in the second half and showed the form that had led them to victory after victory all season long.

This post would be absolutely remiss without the mention of Guillermo Barros Schelotto, the midfield wizard from Argentina, who came here last year and transformed the team with his incredible vision and creative passing. I can't say anything about him that hasn't already been said, but he absolutely deserves to be remembered with the great athletes of Columbus history.

We don't know what the future holds. Coach Sigi Schmidt's contract is up this year and apparently hasn't been renewed yet (RENEW IT NOW!). Schelotto is a bit older and may not be around with us much longer. And an expansion draft for the new team from Seattle may take key personnel away. You never know .

But now, in this year, and on this day, the Crew is the MLS Champion. Finally. The long suffering fans of Columbus can relax a bit now and enjoy the fruits of victory. Let the talk of MLS's conspiracy against Columbus fade for a bit. Let's ignore the awful pro-New York coverage of the game go. We beat them all - the Crew won the whole darned thing. Enjoy.

Michael Arace from the Dispatch captures this season perfectly.

And On the Not-So-Light Side of Things...

ND Football Goes Green... And Not in the Usual Way

There are times when my alma mater gets me down, like when they forget the Catholic legacy of supporting social justice and side with conservatives too much. But there are also times when I absolutely love the place. This is one of those times.

For the first time in history, ND football will be carbon neutral for a game. The school really seems to be taking things seriously in not only greening the function of the university, but in ensuring that the students are going to be learning how to be green in their daily lives as well.

Knowing the ND student body, I'm sure there are many who are bristling over the need for green tech and attitudes as a "liberal issue." But seeing the university taking it seriously will hopefully open some eyes and minds and move things on the right path toward a greener society.

Post-Election Ponderings and Thoughts

Some ruminations on the election of Barack Obama last night. Don't expect too much structure... this is just going to be some bullet points. I'm a little too emotional right now to be very coherent.

• I actually got a little bit misty watching Obama's victory speech today (I can't stay up too late, or else I'm useless at work). Seeing the faces of hope in the audience, and the power of his words as he talked about how hard we all worked to get him into the White House, and most importantly how hard we're all going to HAVE to work to make our country truly great again were so inspiring.
  
  
• I watched Jesse Jackson weeping openly as he heard the good news. Can you imagine having worked on something for basically your whole life, having seen the lowest points of it, and then to have this happen? The culmination of his dreams is here, and like him or not, you can't deny the power of the feeling that this sort of event would have on him. Amazing.
  
  
• McCain's concession speech was elegant, and a return to the McCain of old, the one I used to like before he got caught up in election politics. I especially liked his recall of President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to the White House, as Roosevelt is one of my personal heroes.
  
  
• Listening to the McCain supporters booing the mention of Obama early on in the speech (and Biden later on) disgusted me. And I got the impression that it disgusted McCain, too. But I was touched by the applause at the mention of how far our country has come in the election of an African-American president.
  
  
• I said over ten years ago that our first African-American president was going to be a conservative. I didn't think Americans were progressive enough at the time to vote for a liberal candidate when race came into it. I'm so glad and proud that I was wrong on this one.
  
  
• But to continue on that last thought, it's interesting to me just how many people I know don't think of Barack Obama as African-American, nor of ANY minority. To me, he's simply an American. And it catches me off-guard when people talk about that issue... as if my brain is saying "oh, yeah... he is African-American." In saying this, I'm trying very hard not to seem to be trying to strip him of his proud heritage, as he should be proud. I guess that what I'm saying is that I don't see his heritage as having played any role in whether or not I supported him. I did, and that's that.
  
  
• Reading reports from around the world about this election, it's clear that the world had almost given up on the American people. I don't get to travel internationally as much as I'd like, but spending a night in a Scottish pub talking to folks who were hesitant to discuss politics with me almost five years ago, I got to see how much those folks appreciated seeing that not all Americans are hateful, insular, greedy, fearful, and cynical, as our national policies for the past eight years have been. And now I get that same feeling from other places that I'm reading about. It's a new day for not only America, but the whole world.
  
  
• My third grade teacher, Mrs. Rhoda Massanari, talked to us a lot about her personal experiences and participation in the American South during the Civil Rights struggle. That passion and optimism about Americans stuck with me over all these years, and has given me a certain impression about how to make change happen in the world. I can credit her with much of my ability to look at what seems like a hopeless task and take it on, as I've done with my bike commuting and other issues. And I see that same passion in the supporters of Barack Obama. You have to do these things in small steps, but not in steps that go backward. You may go off to one side for a while, but eventually your path will lead to its goal. Thanks, Mrs. Massanari.
  
  
• Pundits are picking out the problems that the McCain campaign had and some of the errors it made. But as McCain himself pointed out, this election was not about politics. It was about unity and positive change. And the candidate who was and always has been about unity and positive change won the day. That's really all you need to know.
  
  
• Exactly four years ago, I was chatting with my friend Shane about my first child coming into the world. I looked at the recent Ohio vote to ban gay marriage and was bemoaning the world that Duncan was being brought into. Duncan turns four today, and I think that's he just recieved the greatest birthday present a little boy can imagine: hope. He doesn't understand, naturally, but he will someday. I bought a newspaper on the day he was born, for him to be able to look at when he gets older. I'll buy one for him today, too. Because this is going to be a day that I want him to remember.
  

So Much for Liberal Media Bias

Here's the ad that ABC refused to run during the debates, while still running all sorts of propaganda for Big Coal and Big Oil: