Fiddy's Windfall

I hope, I really hope that if the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn't insist that Michigan and Florida's votes be counted. If Hillary's name wasn't on the ballot, I would think it bullshit...and would be ashamed of Obama supporters who tried to pretend that that doesn't matter. At least I HOPE I would. That is clearly a ploy someone uses because they want to win, not because it's fair.
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Chelsea Clinton keeps being asked about Monica Lewinski. Yeah, it's kinda rude, but not totally off base. I wouldn't ask such a question, but I can see why someone might. Several interesting questions are raised:
1) Does the character of a husband reflect on the wife? After all, she chose him, right? The bottom line is her judgement and values.
2) Is it relevant that this was going on "right under her nose"? If she DIDN'T know, that suggests that Hillary's judgement and observational skills and priorities might be questioned.
3) And if she did know? This is in some ways even more interesting. My personal theory is that she knew about Bill's dalliances perfectly well, and that the deal was that he wouldn't embarrass her, and wouldn't get caught. The reason this is interesting is that if she accepted an open marriage, this is a mis-match for the family values of many of the people whose votes she is currently courting. Do they deserve to know this? Personally, I think people should negotiate the relationships they want. However, I would NEVER want my own daughter in such a relationship, and so cannot approve. But it wouldn't motivate me to vote against her.
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My family is getting very fond of the PS2 Game "Rock Band." Just bought a wireless guitar, and while I was in the store, was browsing a gaming magazine. It seems that rapper 50 Cent is doing a video game. This guy is kind of amazing. He cannot sing, he cannot dance, he can't act, and he isn't even much of a rapper. (BTW--if you want to check out a really obvious case of the difference with which black and white actors are treated in movies, see "Get Rich or Die Trying" as compared to Eminem's "8 Mile". The difference in sexual content is glaring, as are other expressions of humanity. Gee. It must be nice to be white...) Any way, "Fiddy" does have one observable skill: investing. He bought into Vitamin Water, which recently got bought out by Coca-Cola. Know how much Gangsta got? FOUR HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS. The mind boggles.
It is important to remember: there is a ton of money out there. The trick is in learning to position yourself to tap into it.
Good lord.
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There is a huge yoga poster in the local Bikram school. It illustrates hundreds and hundreds of poses, performed perfectly. All are given sanskrit names. Most are beyond the dreams of most adult practitioners. It is easy to get hypnotized by their profusion. But the real key lies in the lower right corner of the poster. You could easily miss it. It is just two sentences, printed in relatively small type. They say: "This is not my body. This is not my mind."

The entire nature of the practice changes if you let these ideas play in your mind as you engage with the flesh. The physical practice becomes an investigation of the nature of reality, utilizing your body as dowsing rod.
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Racism and Sexism

I'm confused. On the radio this morning, I heard someone saying that Chris Matthews was making Sexist comments when he said that Hillary Clinton wouldn't be a Senator if her husband hadn't fooled around. And again, when he commented that actress Kerry Washington was "a knockout." I always considered that racism is when you think one group is better than another. Sexism would then be when you think one gender is better than another. I think that if pointing out what is almost universally considered positive aspect of a group is either sexism or racism, we'd have to widen the net considerably when thinking about the things that have been said about Obama. Any comment referencing his race or ethnicity, even if neutral or positive, would have to be considered "racism," which is way beyond anything I ever considered. One part of us would like no notice of things like physical differences. The reality is that all of us do it, all the time. The male-female thing had BETTER not go away, or we're in real trouble. (Hmm...wouldn't there be an interesting SF story there? A world in which there was so much PC that the male-female charge died down...)

Of course, none of that should interfere with Nicki being able to aspire to any job or life position she has the stuff to handle. But I hear an assumption of mysogyny that troubles me: much of it seems to be a negative reaction to the woman herself, or residual antagonism toward her husband. On the other hand, if I was a woman, I might be much less convinced of that. No way I can completely shed my filters.