ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Came across these horses while running an errand during my lunch hour. Found out later that they are rehearsing for the inauguration next week. Can't. Wait.

I had a Facebook status recently that said "Shannon Albert doesn't like undecided voters" or something like that. These last few weeks of the presidential campaign are all about throwing millions of dollars at undecided voters to try to sway them one way or the other. I propose we stop caring about them if they can't make up their minds without millions of dollars of ads being run on their TV. Undecided voters say things like "but the candidates are so much alike" or "it's like choosing the lesser of two evils." No, it's not. We have two good men to choose from who are very different from each other. Make a choice. Or don't. But let's not waste time and money on people who maybe shouldn't be voting in the first place.

David Sedaris (a favorite author of mine and one of the only authors whose books I'm compelled to buy as soon as they come out) recently wrote an article about undecided voters for The New Yorker. An excerpt:

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?

Update: Just after I posted this, I read an article about some possible reasons people might be undecided. Yeah, these seem about right. :)

As a lover of comedy, I know of George Carlin and his influence (though sadly, I don't know his material as much as I should because the last decade he wasn't as good as he'd been earlier in his career so I didn't pay him much attention recently). When Andy and I were in Vegas in 2004, we actually ran into him on an early morning while he was out jogging and I whispered loudly to Andy "that was George Carlin!"

Someone I do know is Kevin Smith and love almost everything he does. He writes a eulogy for Newsweek regarding his hero, George Carlin.

Kevin Smith remembering George Carlin

We routinely have the cheapest gas!

Map of gas prices

If you're in Kansas, it looks like Thursday is shaping up to be a potentially dangerous day. Watch out for tornadoes!

http://www.kansas.com/news/local/story/424100.html

The night Barack Obama accepts the nomination for the Democratic Party (August 28) will be the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. We've come a long way.

Jason Whitlock is a brilliant, thought-provoking, sometimes controversial writer for the Kansas City Star and the only writer to ever get me to turn to the sports section. He has recently temporarily deviated from sports writing in order to write about Imus and has made many appearances on TV, including Oprah this week. In my opinion, he's been the only voice of reason in the whole ordeal and I hope that his thoughts can affect some positive change. Some links...

His original article on Imus - http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html

Appearance on The Tucker Carlson Show


Appearance on CNN w/Al Sharpton


Appearance on Oprah's Town Hall Meeting show