I have to say, I usually don’t feel too much like a voyeur when I read the blogs of strangers, but reading the blogs of people I used to know seems wrong, maybe even amoral. I feel oddly guilty, yet I can’t bring myself to stop.

For whatever reason, this person decided to end their association with you, and reading their blog offers a personal window into their life that they never intended for you. The general public maybe, but not former friends.

It’s a particular problem when said friend’s blog is hosted in WordPress and is improperly configured, and you know WordPress better than just about anybody. The urge to contact this former friend and politely suggest how they might improve their blog in the tiniest of ways is damn impossible to resist. And yet you imagine it’s that urge to help (but also, on some level, to prove that you know more than your former friend) that probably resulted in the rift to begin with.

It’s incredibly odd to think that last winter I was a lukewarm Clinton supporter. I liked Obama, but I was skeptical that he could pull it off. It was Andrew Sullivan, whose blog I have read eagerly these past five years, who changed my mind. I’ve never agreed with Sullivan on everything — particularly in the beginning — but I respect his intellectual honesty, his ability to change course when the facts override ideology, and his rational approach to politics. In many ways, I’ve modeled my approach to blogging after his example. I can’t say how many lunch hours I’ve spent reading the Daily Dish.

I don’t care what his critics say, he’s still a conservative. I’m a progressive and disagree with him on all sorts of policy, but I greatly respect his opinion.

Here he is on Obama’s economic policies. It’s definitely worth a read.

I have to say, the past week has made me feel genuinely sad for John McCain. Watching him try to calm his supporters yesterday, I could clearly see a decent and honest man who’s lost control of his campaign in ways that he’s not comfortable. What’s the old saying — when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you? McCain is a man who looked into the abyss, and he’s learned that it’s pretty damn hard to come back from it.

As I’ve written in the past, there was a time when I admired him tremendously, and I still think he would have made a good president in 2000. But eight years has changed him, and he’s thrown his lot in with the same people who so savagely tore him down in 2000. As I’ve written before, I don’t think he has the judgment or temperament to deal with the many crises at hand. He thinks with his gut (or, charitably, his heart), and doesn’t think things through before he makes a decision. Case in point, Sarah Palin, suspending his campaign, etc. He doesn’t think about the big picture — he responds to day-to-day tactics, but is not disciplined enough to have an broader strategy. McCain’s approach is to win battles without thinking about the overall war he’s waging. Obama is the opposite — which is why his supporters tend to freak out with each tactical loss. But Obama’s team looks at the big picture, and it’s an approach that has worked well for them so far.

I know that some — including friends of this blog — are seriously troubled by William Ayers, and Obama’s association with him serving on a board, as well as having taken money from him at a fundraiser in one of his earlier campaigns. I understand that — and they’re right, if McCain was demonstrably close to Eric Rudolph or Timothy McVeigh, I would be outraged. But William Ayers is neither of those two men — he has reformed, he is not actively terrorizing this country, though I’m sure some of my conservative friends would argue that he’s terrorizing his students.

Writes William C. Ibershof, the lead federal prosecutor of the Weathermen:

As the lead federal prosecutor of the Weathermen in the 1970s (I was then chief of the criminal division in the Eastern District of Michigan and took over the Weathermen prosecution in 1972), I am amazed and outraged that Senator Barack Obama is being linked to William Ayers’s terrorist activities 40 years ago when Mr. Obama was, as he has noted, just a child.

Although I dearly wanted to obtain convictions against all the Weathermen, including Bill Ayers, I am very pleased to learn that he has become a responsible citizen.

Because Senator Obama recently served on a board of a charitable organization with Mr. Ayers cannot possibly link the senator to acts perpetrated by Mr. Ayers so many years ago.

I do take issue with the statement in your news article that the Weathermen indictment was dismissed because of “prosecutorial misconduct.” It was dismissed because of illegal activities, including wiretaps, break-ins and mail interceptions, initiated by John N. Mitchell, attorney general at that time, and W. Mark Felt, an F.B.I. assistant director.

Now, it’s fair to question Obama’s judgment about his association with Ayers, but knowing someone is not the same as endorsing that person’s views, or supporting their causes. However, it’s that guilt by association the McCain campaign has been pounding for the past two weeks to the effect of alienating independent voters who see through it as a diversion, and bringing the Republican base’s anger to a boil. Even people who disagree with Obama’s association with Ayers should recognize that no major party would ever select a traitor or terrorist as its presidential nominee. The people who believe that must think that Democrats are either stupid, treacherous, or both.

I’ve read Obama’s book and studied the man extensively — there’s nothing there that would suggest that he’s been secretly plotting to bring down the country. I view his life — even his early childhood in Indonesia — as an asset to the country. Reading his first memoir, one gets a sense of Obama as a man, warts and all. It’s as honest a book as I’ve ever read by a politician, which is probably because Obama was still a law student at Harvard when he wrote it.

A week ago, I naively wrote that the Presidential election would not lead to violence, but after watching some of these McCain rallies I’m not so sure. The McCain campaign, in a desperate attempt to reverse their slide in the polls has pulled out the “risk” card, by saying that Obama is risky, insinuating that he has dark designs for the country. Frankly, it’s absurd — the man is a constitutional scholar, a college professor and a legislator. But the Republican party has whittled itself down to its raw base, and many of those who remain are inclined to believe just about anything about a Democrat. And seem willing to do anything about it.

This is dangerous territory we’re in — McCain is very likely going to lose. And in the process of trying to turn things around, his short-term tactics of smearing his opponent have inflamed some of his supporters into thinking that if they can’t win the election fairly, then maybe they should try something a little more drastic to ensure the outcome they’re looking for. This is not at all good for the GOP brand — to be associated with violent extremists. Fury — full-throated fury — does not play well to mainstream Americans. It’s bad marketing, no one wants an angry leader, or an angry party. Howard Dean collapsed because of this, as did George Wallace and Barry Goldwater. Americans want someone who they see as steady, strong and in control of the crisis at hand. It’s why Bush got so much good will following his 9/11 speech — because people felt like they were in good hands (though feeling and reality are two different things).

I am a partisan Democrat, but I believe very strongly in the two-party system. We need two viable political parties in America (preferably more), and watching the collapse of the GOP as a cohesive party with ideas and policies to promote, while a victory for people like Kos, who are already pissing on the Grand Old Party’s corpse, is a bad thing for the country. As much as the GOP tried to destroy the left over the past eight years, there is a need in this country for a political opposition. But today’s today’s GOP sounds a lot more like say the Constitution Party than it does a mainstream political operation — if it continues to behave like this, it will lose all credibility with all but it’s most core supporters.

And that’s the tragedy of John McCain. The man who made his career on bipartisanship and honor, the man who convinced many Democrats and independents to back him in 2000, has resorted to attacks on his opponent’s character as his exclusive vehicle for attaining the presidency. In the process, he may very well take credit for having destroyed his own party, running one of the most negative campaigns in history and destroying his own legacy. Even if he wins, McCain will have no goodwill at all from the Democratic congressional majority — the bipartisanship he once heralded will be impossible.

The Republican Party, as much as I disagree with it, pulled itself out of permanent minority status and dominated the country for the last third of the 20th Century. There’s much to admire in what they accomplished and even Democratic activists acknowledge it. But in the past month, it has turned into the angry caricature that many on the left always believed it to be. I always expected the pendulum to swing against them, I just never expected them to be crushed by it.

Noah and the Whale is a British anti-folk band named for filmmaker Noah Baumbach and his first film, The Squid and the Whale. I realize now that my favorite music puts me firmly in the anti-folk camp, a place my post-hardcore self would never, ever have accepted. Funny how things change when you get old.

Here’s the video for Noah and the Whale’s “Five Years Long:”

Pitchfork gave their latest record 2.6, which for me is a ringing endorsement. If Pitchfork hates it, it must be good. Of course, they think pretty highly of a record I put out ten years ago.

So, Bungie Studios — the people behind the Halo trilogy and recently announced “Halo 3: Recon” expansion pack — are on record as saying that “Recon” will be their final Halo project.

As a longtime fan who has recently been playing Halo 3 again, I have to say that I am disappointed that this is the end of Bungie’s involvement with the series. Another studio (such as Gearbox, who are rumored to be taking over the franchise) may create a game within the same universe, but can they match Bungie’s understanding of both the single player and multiplayer experience?

Gearbox is a competent studio, but the Brothers in Arms series is hardly on the same level as Halo. There’s a “feel” to the Halo games that no studio, even Insomniac with their Halo knockoff Resistance: Fall of Man for PS3 has not quite gotten the experience right (though there were some moments in Resistance that felt astonishingly similar). Halo really is something special that extends to more than just the IP — it’s really the whole package that makes it great.

I’ve seen the recent videos from the upcoming RTS title Halo Wars, and though they’re trying their best, it just doesn’t feel like Halo.

Let’s just hope Bungie can create a new product that’s just as good. Otherwise, Halo 3 will continue to be played for years to come.

Was it just me, or was last night’s debate utterly boring? Seriously, I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the equally bored talking heads were blah blah blahing about the proceedings.

I know I’m not alone in my complete and utter fatigue regarding the presidential race. November 4 can’t come fast enough.

A friend of mine asked me what we would talk about after the race is over. To be honest, I couldn’t think of an answer.

What a crazy year it’s been.

So, over the weekend Sarah Palin accused Obama of palling around with terrorists in a last-ditch effort to reverse the McCain camp’s fall in the polls, and McCain’s people promise to get “tougher” on Obama.

In response, the Obama people turn to the Keating Five:

How many years have we suffered through Republicans tarring Democrats as unpatriotic traitors? Yes Virginia, 50% of the country, and a good deal of our public servants are — according to the Republican Party — country-hating turncoats. And when you get down in the polls, the only thing you can do is take the Joe McCarthy approach and smear anyone who disagrees with you as not just wrong, but evil.

There’s been a lot of talk that Keating should be off limits, and Obama largely held his fire on that score for the duration of the campaign. But if someone is going to spread lies and guilt by association, particularly as tenuous as Obama’s non-association with William Ayers, then McCain’s darkest moment is now fair game. McCain did take bribes from Charles Keating and vacationed at his Bahamas estate, and he did give the man legislation that would help his business. That legislation eventually led to the S&L collapse.

One wonders if the Republican classic (”Barack Osama is a America-hating terrorist!”) will resonate as much as the honest fact that John McCain has for the duration of his career been a proponent of the kind of deregulation that led to our current economic fiasco. And nothing better describes this than his relationship with the criminal Charles Keating.

McCain decided to go as dark and negative as he could, and his people should have anticipated this. I suspect that the Keating Five will resonate a lot better than what the McCain camp is slinging.

Today, Tina and the girls and I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, an annual event in my home state that I’ve always longed to go to, but never attended.  In many ways, I still resent that my parents never took me there, though I’m sure they thought it was overpriced cheese.  

As a kid, I used to gave longingly at brochures, imagining a place where you’re literally transported back in time to the high middle ages — where knights joust and well-meaning kings and queens hold court over cheerful peasants, urchins and the like.  It looked like the next best thing to slaying dragons, or drinking grog from a tankard.

The reality, however, is something more akin to a theme park with all the overpriced food, souvenir vendors and shows, but no rides.  Well, unless you count a free pony rides, or the chance to climb onto the back of an elephant.  It was a mile walk from the overflow parking lot, through thousands of automobiles parked in the grass.  But once you passed through the faux castle facade, it was hard not to feel charmed by the place.

With a do-it-yourself medieval aesthetic, and vendors with handmade crafts that were vaguely medevil, or at least in the mold of Gary Gygax’s vision of the middle ages for AD&D, you get the sense of what attractions like this used to be — made by real people and not corporations with high-priced imagineers.   A lot of love and care went into the construction of the mock village, with its permanent buildings and thick, lush forest of trees.  If not for the thousands of attendees, one could feel that you were on the set of BBC’s Robin Hood, or maybe a grown up version of the old Enchanted Forest amusement park.

And a surprising number of attendees — sometimes whole families — actually dressed up themselves.  In fact, there were so many people in costume that it was hard to figure out who was an employee of the park and who was a guest.  Even our girls donned flowered circlets, or “princess hats” as we called them.  A part of me looked at the leather armor and hand-crafted wooden swords longingly, wishing for a moment to take part in the full experience, before I regained my senses and realized how ridiculous I’d look.

The only downside to the day was the pony ride, so loved by my girls, but sadly, those poor broken down old ponies filled me with terrible guilt.  All day long, three ponies walked a small endless circle of mud, carrying hordes of small children.  The track was on the side of a hill, and the ponies stumbled slightly on the incline, and at times some refused to walk, requiring the encouragement of their handlers. I have never seen such unhappy animals up close in my life.  My mother’s neighbors keep horses, and they are beautiful, spirited and well-kept.  I’m hardly a PETA activist — I’m a meat eater, a wearer of fur and leather, etc. — but I know that we were participating in the exploitation of those ponies, and I felt terrible for it.

Still, overall I enjoyed my time at the Renaissance Festival.  I even sampled that most historically accurate of all medevil treats, the deep-fried Twinkie.

I’m not the biggest Al Franken fan in the world, but I found this ad amusing:

James wrote in the comments:

And we’re both intelligent, educated people, who have similar tastes and interests in other spheres of life.

It scares the hell out of me. There’s so much anger and hatred on both sides, and it’s getting worse and more poisonous each day. I don’t want to lose friends, or be afraid to speak up for fear of losing them. I don’t want to hate any of my fellow citizens, or have them hate me because I have the temerity to not vote the way they do.

I think that no matter how the election turns out, things will get worse, and we will see violence. Things will get progressively uglier.

I realize there wasn’t ever some mythical happy non-partisan past where everyone got along, but in the past we didn’t have the Internet and multiple news channels feeding the partisanship 24/7, poising everyone and damaging our country every single day.

I don’t think our society can survive for much longer, and I wish I believed there was any hope. But I don’t.

I don’t hate John McCain. I think he’s misguided, incurious, impulsive and reckless, but I don’t hate him. Please do not mistake my opposition to his candidacy as hatred. If the 2000 incarnation of McCain won the presidency I can in all honesty say that he would have been a great president — but his time has passed, and that man is gone. I just don’t believe that McCain has the temperament or judgment now to run the country in these dangerous times, and his foreign policy is just more of the same neoconservative nonsense that’s crushed this country in the last eight years.

I also don’t hate Sarah Palin — I think she’s unqualified to be vice president (or president) of the United States by virtue of the fact that she’s not intellectually up to the task. She has no demonstrated interest in foreign policy, for instance, and has not proven an aptitude to learn.

Heck, I don’t even hate George W. Bush — I’ve met the man, even worked with his team a couple of years back. I found them to perfectly fine and decent people, but they’re just utterly in disagreement with me on politics. And as much as I blame Bush and his followers for the state of the country today, that’s really saying something.

And you know what, I don’t hate rank and file Republicans, either.

Brief aside: back when I was in college, I met a charismatic Catholic who was completely rigid and uncompromising in his beliefs. He thought I was naive kid, utterly wrong and probably (though he never admitted it to me), a heathen or a heretic or evil. We had a lot of conversations, and they were frustrating for both of us. His inability to be friendly with me, or relate to me despite our differences taught me that I have a responsibility to strive to search for common ground with people I fundamentally disagree with, even if they don’t offer me the same basic courtesy.

Not everyone in the world will agree with you on everything — we’re all different and approach politics and life through vastly different perspectives. Why should you hate someone who disagrees with you? And why would someone hate you for disagreeing with them? I respect the rights and views of those on the right — I’ve certainly got enough friends and family who subscribe to them. The best thing to do, though, is to avoid talking about politics with those people you disagree if you begin to get angry or frustrated or sad. My mom and her sister, after some bitter political disagreements, have sworn off talking politics altogether. Their relationship is better because of it — they discuss genealogy now, family, the stuff of real life, the things they have in common.

Disagreement or political opposition does not necessarily lead to violence, either — after eight years of Bush, there have been no Weather Underground style home-grown terrorists blowing things up in opposition. And trust me, there’s millions of Americans out there who hate Bush and the GOP — and they haven’t done anything violent. The left by and large has decided that the best way to change policy is through elections — that’s why they’ve gone all in for Barack Obama, and why Obama’s team is organizing a tremendous get out the vote effort and one of the best-run presidential campaigns in the history of this country. Because the only way my side can change the country is by persuading a majority of people that we’re right — just as Reagan and George W. Bush did for the Republicans.

To James directly, your writing sounds a lot like what some of my liberal friends were writing back in 2004. There was talk of secession, apocalypse, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. How things have changed since then! Four years ago, I was surfing Canada’s immigration site, wanting to figure out how to get out of town. Now I’m cheering on Barack Obama.

Think back to the 1861 — go back and read David Herbert Donald’s excellent biography of Abraham Lincoln to see a great examination of mid-19th century politics. It wasn’t pretty, either. Even after a civil war and the upheaval of the 1960’s, the country is still here. It will continue to be here after Bush, and McCain or Obama, or whomever. Even after the damage Bush has done to our way of life, our country still survives. It’s bruised, but it’s here.

Bipartisanship is a nice ideal, David Broder certainly writes about it infinitely in The Washington Post, but it’s not practical. There are real differences in America, and you need two political parties to give voice to those views. For a time, one party is ascendant while the other is in decline, but there’s never been a time where everyone in America agreed on everything.

It’s a pendulum, and right now it’s swinging against the Republicans. I know it can feel like there was a consensus when your side was in charge, but trust me when I tell you that a lot of us were pretty miserable over the last 8 years, and before that we had 12 years of Reagan and Bush I to enjoy. Though I was too young to know anything in those days — and better for it. A lot of Democrats thought Reagan was going to start World War III, and due to his popularity felt powerless to change it.

I understand it’s a tough time for Republicans right now — the brand is in the tank, McCain is 7-points down, and the Sarah Palin gambit failed. I’m not without sympathy for you — Al Gore and John Kerry did considerable damage to the Democratic brand, and things were in turmoil for both those elections, too. People were angry and depressed. And there are a number of us that still think that Gore was robbed the election in 2000 — even though I was not a fan of his at the time (back then, I was a supporter of Bill Bradley’s and didn’t feel like I had much of a stake in Gore v. Bush — boy, was I wrong on that score).

But things could still swing back in McCain’s favor — the race can change, and it probably will before November 4. But have faith — even if you lose, even if your worst nightmare of an Obama/Biden administration becomes a reality, life will go on. There’s more things that bind us together as a people and society than politics. And I’m not just talking about a love for Batman, or Buffy, or Supernatural, or anything like that. It’s that we’re all Americans, we all believe in the fundamentals of freedom and the founding ideals of this country.

Because trust me when I say this, I’ve lived through 8 years of my worst nightmare. And I’m still here — the country’s a mess, but I have my family and my health. You will be here at the end of an Obama or McCain administration. None of us may be here if McCain gets in, suffers a heart attack, and the keys are handed to Sarah Palin, though. In that scenario, I envision us all as radioactive dust, those of us who aren’t wandering the burned out remains of our country, trying to avoid the cannibals. In that world, only Mr. Smith and his talking roach companion remain, traveling the wasteland, righting wrongs, helping people in peril.

That was a joke.

Sort of.

Okay, maybe not.