Weekend Thoughts

It was a busy weekend, then I was knocked off my feet by some sort of virus. Skipped rehearsal and slept a lot, and feel almost human this morning.

Caught the Sectional final at Bloomington South after wondering whether it would be worth the trip. It was, in a tight and fun-to-watch game with the Columbus North guys winning their second sectional title in 3 years.

The Colts knocked off the Patriots last night. I didn't believe it would happen, and am appropriately chastened for my lack of faith. Surprisingly, the Colt's defense was the story of that game.

There was lots of angst over the weekend about the negative ads the politicians have been running this year. Both parties are involved. It was interesting to sit through a string of about 5 ads last night, with all but the very last a negative about some candidate. Some of them didn't even mention the candidate they were supporting.

Interestingly, I found I actually knew which negative ads were true, partly true, or completely false. Maybe I've been paying too much attention to this stuff. Want to know what ads are true and which are false? Just give me a call and I'll let you know.

The excuse given by the parties for this mudslinging approach was basically that it works. Or that the other candidate did it first, and they had to respond. It reminds me of kids fighting; the defense is always, "He started it!". So our politicians appear to suffer from arrested development.

I wonder what would happen if a politician simply ran an ad something like this: "If you want low taxes, an aggressive war against terrorism, keeping traditional marriage, pro-life, free trade, less government, etc., vote for me. If you want high taxes, retreat from the terror war, gay marriage, abortion, protectionism, more government, etc., vote for the other guy."

Interestingly, almost everyone would probably find some things they like and other things they don't about the candidate. But at least they would be able to decide which candidate is closer to their own opinions, instead of voting (or not) based on which candidate had the more disgusting negative ads.