David Bainbridge's Open Salon Blog

My Best Valentine's Day Alone

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:02:32 -0500

I've seen a lot of posts about Valentine's Day lately. Figured I'd write about one of my own.

Ten years ago, in 1999, I didn't have a date. I was already feeling alone because I was living and working in Minnesota and didn't know a soul other than my collegues at work. I decided I would hold an Anti-Valentine's Day celebration all by myself.

My first thought was to rent porn - the exact opposite of romantic movies. But that seemed too pathetic. Instead, I rented a couple of Guy Movies: The Untouchables and The Wild Bunch. I made myself a decent dinner and watched them back-to-back.

I had seen The Untouchables many years before, but I'd never seen The Wild Bunch. Both were good movies, but I had forgotten how good The Untouchables was. I especially loved the scene at Union Station in Chicago. Kevin Costner and Andy Garcia arrive at the station to find Al Capone's accountant before he can flee. Most directors would have them arrive at exactly the same time and then the shooting begins immediately. But not Brian De Palma. The heroes arrive several minutes early and De Palma makes the audience wait with them for the entire time. Elliot Ness (Costner) starts people-watching, and the audience gets wrapped up in the lives of other people waiting around, especially the woman trying to get the baby carriage up the stairs. And when the action starts, the woman and the baby are right in the center of it. It was an excellent technique to build up the dramatic tension.

So enough about The Untouchables. The point of the story is that if you're spending Valentine's Day alone, you'll be happier if you do something that you enjoy doing alone, rather than sulking by yourself.

Or the point is that The Untouchables is a terrific movie. Take your pick.

I watched Fox News for election coverage

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 09:11:50 -0500

I took the suggestion of a salon.com reader and watched election coverage on Fox News. Not because I love Fox News, but because I wanted to see them in despair when Obama won.

Once they announced that Obama took Ohio, I knew it was over. Ohio pushed Obama's total up to 194. Even without Colorado, Nevada, or Virginia, that meant when the polls closed on the west coast, Obama would have enough states to win. Fox News knew it too. One of their analysts looked like he was going to cry. It was a beautiful thing. Brit Hume and Karl Rove were gracious, however. They interviewed a Republican congressman from Wisconsin who said Republicans need to stop being afraid to voice their ideas and stand their ground. I wonder where the hell this guy has been for the last 14 years.

My friends and I were flipping back and forth between Fox, CNN, and Comedy Central. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were a treat to watch. Jon Stewart interrupted Colbert's tirade about how there were too many single hockey dads and hockey moms running single-parent hockey families to annouce that Barack Obama had won.

Did McCain vet Palin?

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:10:18 -0400

I'm bringing up an old topic here. The question of whether or not Sarah Palin was vetted by the McCain campaign has already been discussed plenty. My initial reaction was of course he did! Every candidate has a process in which they choose a running mate! With the revelations from "Troopergate", I'm not so sure anymore.

The investigation into Sarah Palin's firing of Walt Monegan began before John McCain announced her as his V.P. candidate. There are three possible reasons why John McCain would choose someone currently the center of an ethics investigationas a running mate:

He didn't know about the investigation - If this is the case, then it shows John McCain is very careless. That sort of thing would come up if Sarah Palin was applying for a security clearance. It is unconscionable to select someone as next-in-line for President of the United States without doing at least that minimum research.

He knew about the investigation, but figured she was innocent of any wrongdoing - If this is the case, then it shows John McCain cares more about ideology than ethics. We've already had eight years of congressmen and senators who cannot believe that anyone in their own party would be capable of doing anything wrong. Putting someone with this attitude in office will only enable more lawbreaking and abuse of power.

He knew about the investigation, but didn't care - If this is the case, then it shows very poor judgement from John McCain. He must have known the race was close. If he didn't care, then he didn't believe it would make him or his running mate look bad to the public. That is just foolish. If John McCain knew about this investigation, he should have said "Governor Palin, I'm sorry but with this ethics investigation going on it's too risky to have you on my campaign. Personally, I like you, but it would be harder to win the presidency with you as my running mate."

I still like John McCain. I even considered voting for him, until he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. However, any of the three cases I described above demonstrates that John McCain would make a poor president. If there is any other explanation for why he would choose a running mate that is the subject of an ethics investigation, I would like to hear it.