Barack On!!!

- Dude, I'm so voting for Obama.
- But dude, you should've, like, voted last week.
- No way!!! You for real?
- Yeah, bro.
- My bad.

After reading this little excerpt on the Political Wire, I'm wondering if a lot of Obama's support comprises of the youth vote, who as we learned in '04, usually doesn't bother. Of course, all those internet donations can be ruled out as coming from college kids, who don't have the money to buy a burrito combo at Taco Bell.

But it makes sense: a young candidate running on a platform of change as the I'm-not-one-of-them guy. And there's nothing cooler than America finally having a black president. And, he's the kind of guy you'd just want to hang with.

Reactions to Virginia Tech Massacre - and the candidates' websites.

First of all, the shooting at Virginia Tech is an atrocious tragedy that has caused more senseless pain and grief to innocent people. Having attended the University of Iowa shortly after the shooting that had occurred there, I have had second-hand accounts about how these acts could have been avoided if the general public, and the administrations in charge, weren't numb to the suffering of others.

Secondly, I should mention that these shootings do come with some perspective. This is the loss of life that is occurring every day in Iraq. When we talk about the civilian casualties in Iraq, we are talking about the same people as those lost at Virginia Tech. There is no difference. It's easy for me to say this while I'm an ocean away, but after we collect ourselves after these events, let's take a moment to consider the value of life - everywhere.

Finally, it's interesting to note the responses made by the candidates:

• Barack Obama - immediately upon entering his site, you are presented with his message expressing his sympathies and regret for the tragedy.
• Hillary Clinton - immediately upon entering her site, you are presented with a form to fill out to contribute to her campaign. Her message is found after continuing on to her website.
• John Edwards - immediately a message of sympathy and regret, but also of spiritual healing.
• Rudy Giuliani - his message of sympathy comprises of 3 sentences.
• John McCain - to view his message, one has to click on a link that is currently at the top of a list in a section of his website.
• Mitt Romney - perhaps I went to the wrong website, but at www.mittromney.com, as of 6:05am ET, there is no message.

...also puts things in perspective.

The Best Political Litmus Test? - My Dad.

I called home last night, and while talking to my Dad, I got what was probably the best indicator of what the "average working class guy" is getting from the news. My Dad, freshly retired from the John Deere plant in Cedar Falls, Iowa, tends to go along with the crowd in his opinions, so he is not alone with his views.

Some of the things I remember:

- Of course, all the women will vote for Kooky (Clinton).

- The country is just too young to have a black President.

- I liked what that Thompson fellow has to say. I know that he's a Republican, but he really impressed me.
- (Which one, Fred or Tommy?)
- Uh, Fred.
- (You mean the guy from "Law & Order"?)
- Is he?
- (Yeah, Fred Thompson is the guy from "Law & Order".)
- Really, I didn't know that. But I really liked what he did with Wisconsin.

So what we got so far is a battle of the sexes with Clinton, subdued racism with Obama, and a monstrous mix-up with Fred/Tommy Thompson.

A little depressing...

I know it's automated, but does MySpace really have to put "Tim has 0 friends" on my brand new web space. Does that zero really have to be red? They try to avoid it by putting a couple of default guys, but keeping those guys on is like leaving the picture of the family in your brand new picture frame. And they aren't my real friends.

I should add..,

I think the URL for the blog is a little lame. Hyphens are just cheating. If you're not creative enough to come up with your own blog URL, then you can just use a hyphen to separate the words and voila! new web address.

In my defense, I looked up wisdomwins in the blogosphere and found nothing. I don't know why the address was unavailable - maybe it was a blog of days gone by. Anyway, it's not there, and it was the title I wanted before I even created the thing, so that should give me the hyphen-right.

It's probably no big deal, but I value creativity and stolen names are foul play. Like when I found out "breathing rock" was taken by one of these bloggers. Look man, I've got rights to the damn domain name, that's my turf. Ah, forget it.

Just getting started...

First of all, the name comes from "flotsam and jetsam". At first I thought it was just a clever little play, but I looked them up on Wikipedia, and I found out something that makes it a little more beautiful. "Flotsam" is anythng valuable that is just floating out in the middle of the ocean, usually after a shipwreck, whereas "Jetsam" is thrown out into the ocean by sailors trying to lighten their loads.

Hence, thoughtsam and feltsam are the thoughts and feelings that I've thrown into the ocean of the blogosphere to lighten my load after some shipwreck or another - be it an event in my life or in the world. They are left to drift around until they catch the eye of some casual explorer.

And I can call FIRST, woohoo! I googled "thoughtsam" and "feltsam" with NO hits. That's right, NO hits. This is as of April 14th, 2007. My grandiose accomplishment of the day. I'm sure you're like, "Yeah, ok dude."