Tonight my mom asked me if I wanted to go to a talk titled "America's Achilles Heel: The Hidden Costs of Imported Oil." The lecturer was Milton R. Copulos, president of the National Defense Council Foundation. The talk was an interesting perspective on why dependence on oil is bad (other than the usual environmental reasons). He threw out a lot of numbers about how much we spend to maintain our sources in the Middle East. I didn't take notes, but here is an article that seems to recap many of his points. Google reveals that Copulos is involved with the Conservative Caucus, and favors drilling for oil in Alaska, but that's okay, because I'm giddy at the fact that this guy made a convincing argument for developing alternative energy sources, and it's an argument that should make sense to everyone (caring about the environment sways me, but doesn't sway others...).
However, I have a petty complaint about the lecture. It seems that Copulos is one of those unfortunate people who, when they speak in public, tend to accumulate white globby things at the corners of their mouths. Bush may have this problem as well, judging from the third debate. My 8th grade history teacher, getting excited while lecturing on the Civil War, managed to spit his glob onto my notebook once. I've never really recovered. Copulos had a glob the size of a yogurt raisin hanging off of his lip. Maybe I'm a little fixated on this, but come on. It's really gross.
On Sunday I went canvassing with my neighbor. This was my first door-to-door political experience. It's actually an important election: Brad Carson is running against Tom Coburn for a Senate seat, and Carson is doing well enough that there's a good chance Oklahoma will put a Democrat in the Senate (whoa). So Mark and I were supposed to go to all the addresses on a list given to us by campaign headquarters, and ask the residents if they had decided how they were voting. We were also given a list of talking points ("not for distribution") on things like abortion, gay marriage, guns, and other issues. The idea is to convince Oklahomans that they can vote for Carson because he's a conservative Democrat who shares their values. In fact, Carson is so socially conservative that I'm not thrilled to be voting for him, but anything has to be better than Coburn.
I guess I'm glad that I experienced canvassing, but it's not something I'd do again by choice. I'm not really comfortable with being a saleswoman, which is essentially what canvassing is. In addition, I was bummed out by the cynicism of politics... one volunteer told me that if he knocks on the door of a Republican (party affiliations are given on the address list), he will tell them he's voting for Bush and Carson, to convince them that it's okay to split their ticket. It doesn't hurt anyone, but it's a sucky thing to do. It's dishonest. Speaking of dishonest, have y'all been following this story about Sproul & Associates? Shredding voter registration forms... tell me again how you justify that? (P.S.: I know that Salon is not a neutral source, but this story is being covered by other outlets too--Salon just seems to have the most complete account. And I like Salon).
Here's a graphic from the Christian Science Monitor that I really like:
However, I have a petty complaint about the lecture. It seems that Copulos is one of those unfortunate people who, when they speak in public, tend to accumulate white globby things at the corners of their mouths. Bush may have this problem as well, judging from the third debate. My 8th grade history teacher, getting excited while lecturing on the Civil War, managed to spit his glob onto my notebook once. I've never really recovered. Copulos had a glob the size of a yogurt raisin hanging off of his lip. Maybe I'm a little fixated on this, but come on. It's really gross.
On Sunday I went canvassing with my neighbor. This was my first door-to-door political experience. It's actually an important election: Brad Carson is running against Tom Coburn for a Senate seat, and Carson is doing well enough that there's a good chance Oklahoma will put a Democrat in the Senate (whoa). So Mark and I were supposed to go to all the addresses on a list given to us by campaign headquarters, and ask the residents if they had decided how they were voting. We were also given a list of talking points ("not for distribution") on things like abortion, gay marriage, guns, and other issues. The idea is to convince Oklahomans that they can vote for Carson because he's a conservative Democrat who shares their values. In fact, Carson is so socially conservative that I'm not thrilled to be voting for him, but anything has to be better than Coburn.
I guess I'm glad that I experienced canvassing, but it's not something I'd do again by choice. I'm not really comfortable with being a saleswoman, which is essentially what canvassing is. In addition, I was bummed out by the cynicism of politics... one volunteer told me that if he knocks on the door of a Republican (party affiliations are given on the address list), he will tell them he's voting for Bush and Carson, to convince them that it's okay to split their ticket. It doesn't hurt anyone, but it's a sucky thing to do. It's dishonest. Speaking of dishonest, have y'all been following this story about Sproul & Associates? Shredding voter registration forms... tell me again how you justify that? (P.S.: I know that Salon is not a neutral source, but this story is being covered by other outlets too--Salon just seems to have the most complete account. And I like Salon).
Here's a graphic from the Christian Science Monitor that I really like:
Comments
ugh - i used to stare at that white crap too! the stuff of nightmares!