Election things...

[tencrush]

I was asked for my opinion on the US election. I was also asked to shut up about it, so there you go. I'll still make a few points:

• Alternet has some comparison guides for the candidates on various issues, if you're still one of them undecideds. Here, for example, is Alternet's guide to the candidates' stances on gay marriage and adoption, sex education and LGBT rights. Go read. (Why am I linking to the sex ed one? Frankly, and I don't like being mean about America, because I love the place, America's stance on sex education is backward to the point of medieval, it's misguided and wrong and oppressive and downright dangerous. Get over yourselves when it comes to sex, srsly. Won't SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?!? And yes, I know that's a generalisation, but like I've said before, I can only be so nuanced when talking about an entire country. Sure, you guys on my flist are progressive, right minded people and so are a vast lot of Americans. But still.)


• Colin Powell? Yah, never liked the man, but he said some wise things there and the fact that he's endorsing Obama is a majorly good thing. Quotage: "... the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift. I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration. I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America." Right on there, dude. Respect. Transcript of his Meet the Press is here.


• I think one of the problems we have looking at this election from a European perspective, is that in Europe most countries still work on far more of a party political level. We don't quite understand the personality politics that Americans engage in. In our eyes, therefore, a vote for McCain is far more of a vote for Bush than perhaps it is in the average American's eyes. We don't really vote for people in Europe, we vote for parties. That's not a dissmissal of the American system, it's just an observation, we have trouble seeing a vote for McCain as anything other than an endorsement of the Bush administration and a desire from said voter for more of the same, please.


• ETA: Another one of those things we have difficulty getting our heads around is this whole Is Obama a Christian? thing. I don't know how that plays out outside of Holland, but we certainly prefer our politicians, unless they are standing for a specifically religious party, to shut the hell up about their religious beliefs as they are irrelevant and not something we would like to see influencing their political decisions in any way. The fact that religion is SO NOT IRRELEVANT in American politics is something we have difficulty understanding. Over here if a politician mentions God or Jesus in a speech, our WHOA!!NUTBAR radar kind of starts pinging, Hard.


• My main opinion, having watched some of the debates and all the shizzle and rallies that are happening at the moment, and it's probably a slightly controversial one, is that McCain is not 100% mentally healthy. Nor is he, obviously, 100% physically healthy, but that's another issue. I really think, watching him closely, that he's not quite right in the head. He scares me. There is just a touch of the crazy, stubborn old man on a streetcorner about him and I dread to think of him in the White House. The way it's looking at the moment, though, I'm very relieved that it would appear that I have little to worry about on that front. Thank fuck for that.

Comments

[bandgeek01.livejournal.com]

I think you just put into words everything I have been thinking for the past what is it now like 18 months campaigning is going on?

Re: your Sex Ed: In elementary school we had the boys are different then girls talk along with the what is going on in your body talk.

In middle school we got the talk about what a Penis does.

The sex ed I received from my mother was, "So you know what a penis is."
Me: yes
Mom: Good, any questions.
Me: no.

It's much easier to learn about sex from someone on the outside of the family unit as they usually provide unbiased answers (In a hypothetical world without abstience only education).

Your second to last paragraph: Word. I love it.

Nicole

[oneloveonelight.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Yeah, I totally agree that it's easier to learn about sex from someone else that's not a family member. I have two kids and I think what I'm going to do is get a good sex book for them to read about age 9 or 10 and then follow up with a Q&A session. Because that's when I learned about sex. Of course, kids grow up very quickly nowadays so it could be sooner than that. And that's fine. I'm not saying I'm looking forward to the talk, but that's fine, I'll do it!

[antelope-writes.livejournal.com]

When I was younger, Planned Parenthood would put on classes for kids. My momma dragged me to one, and it was pretty good. I think I was 12 at the time.

Another option, if it's still available and you can't find a sex book you like.