Who to vote for this coming Tuesday

I know every faithful reader of this blog has been waiting with bated breath to see who I'm endorsing for next week's elections. Well, the wait is over. Incumbents are indicated by italics and the candidates I'm backing are indicated with an asterisk (*) below.

U.S. Senate - Virginia

• George F. Allen (R)
• James H. "Jim" Webb, Jr. (D)*
• Glenda Gail Parker (IG)

U.S. House - Virginia 8^th District

• Tom M. O'Donoghue (R)
• James P. Moran, Jr.(D)
• James T. "Jim" Hurysz (I)*

Arlington County Board

• Michael T. McMenamin (R)*
• Christopher E. Zimmerman (D)
• Joshua F. Ruebner (G)

Arlington School Board

• Sally M. Baird (I)*
• Cecelia M. Espenoza (I)

Proposed Constitutional Amendments

• Question 1. Defines marriage as solely between one man and one woman - NO
• Question 2. Allows churches to incorporate - YES
• Question 3. Allows tax breaks for new structures in development areas - YES

Proposed County Bond Referenda

1. $35.55 million in bonds to finance the cost of various capital projects for local parks and recreation - YES
2. $31.5 million in bonds to finance the cost of various capital projects for Metro and other transit, pedestrian, road or related transportation projects - YES
3. $27.3 million in bonds to finance the cost of various capital projects for County facilities and infrastructure - YES
4. $79 million in bonds to finance the cost of designing, expanding, improving, and renovating Arlington County's Water Pollution Control Plant, and the water and sewer systems serving the County (including the County's share of capital costs for Washington Aqueduct treatment facilities) - YES
5. $33.712 million to finance the costs of various capital projects and land for Arlington County public schools and community purposes - NO

Just so you know, I'm not reflexively anti-incumbent, but if the incumbents are less than stellar (Allen and Moran, I'm looking in your direction), it's easy for me to vote against them.

Also, if you live in Virginia, but not in Arlington County, here's a link to check out to see who and what are on your ballot.

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Online secrets

Until today, I'd never heard of PostSecret, which, according to Wikipedia, is:

an ongoing community art project were people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

These "postcards" are then reviewed by Frank Warren, who then may or may not post them to the blog (10-15 postings updated each Sunday). Warren, it turns out, is on a national tour to promote My Secret: A PostSecret Book. (In my area, for example, he'll be at Politics & Prose this coming Saturday afternoon.)

Just discovered some other "secret" sites:

• LiveJournalSecret
• Musicsecret's Journal
  

I think some of these bear watching; then again, I think a lot of people are already watching PostSecret: it won the 2006 Bloggy in the following categories:

• Best American Weblog;
• Best Topical Weblog;
• Best Community Weblog;
• Best New Weblog; and
  
• Weblog of the Year.

Two influential women in one blog?!

(1) I realize I'm a bit late on this train, but I wanted to make sure as many people as possible see the recent Camille Paglia interview on Salon. I know the name (i.e., über-intellectual, off-kilter [to many] and iconoclastic feminist), but didn't know much about her views until reading this piece. It's a must-read for anybody who is disenchanted with our current political system as a whole.

(2) Too bad Reese and Ryan are splitting up.
(Hey Reese - call me!)

Happy All Hallow's Eve

I hope everyone has a lovely Halloween. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the holiday as it:

• reminds me of my youth, during which I was allergic to chocolate, thus rendering approximately 95% of my trick-or-treating haul inedible (or, at least, inadvisably edible) to me; and
• brings out the overly-theatrical in almost everyone else - you're adults now, people...you shouldn't be wearing "sexy devil" and/or Scream guy costumes unless you are, in fact, either Mephistopheles himself/herself or plan to go into the not-so-lucrative and less-than-socially-acceptable business of serial homicide.

On a related and humorous note, something from our friends at The Onion:

Science Disproves Vampires

Florida physics professor Costas Efthimiou has devised a simple mathematical proof stating that vampires cannot exist. What do you think?

Michael Poole,
Bog Limnologist
"So I've been sleeping all day in a coffin, hanging upside down in a cave lair, and drinking human blood for nothing?"

Bobbi Delaney,
Copywriter
"I wish I had tenure. If I spent all my time in the warehouse thinking up crap like that, I'd get canned in a heartbeat."

Gavin Jacobson,
Machinist
"This news will likely hit The Count the hardest. Destroyed by the very numbers he loves."

And the award for the tackiest, most thoughtless, most callous costume goes to Bill Maher, courtesy of Hot Air.

On two wholly unrelated notes:

• if you know of any good music blogs, please let me know - thanks; and
• if you ever use Blogger and are thinking of straying from your standard color scheme, don't.

All open-borders folks should read...

...Chip McLean's most recent posting over at Capitol Hill Coffee House. I hate to be preachy on this issue, but I think it's often misconstrued and wrongly characterized in the MSM. Yes, like any political issue, there are wackos on all sides, but in my experience, the majority of folks who feel as I do are definitely not nutjobs. Here's the most important point I think McLean makes (with my emphasis added):

Also unhelpful is the characterization of those wanting tougher enforcement of immigration laws as being "racists". [sic] This isn't about "race" or "Mexicans" – it’s about "illegal" as opposed to "legal" immigrants. The liberals who try to play the race card are missing a very important point – or perhaps they simply ignore it – that while the drain on our resources by illegal immigrants affects us all, it perhaps affects no other group more adversely than black Americans. How so? The cheap labor provided by illegal immigrants has stolen jobs from many in the black community – jobs that could help provide a way out and up. Seems to me that pandering to the Hispanic vote, at the expense of African-Americans, is far more "racist" than building a border fence.

United they stand, but United may soon fall

Last night, after blogging briefly re: hockey, marathoning, and NYC chefs-turned-cynical scribes, I headed to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium to watch the hometown XI, DC United, take on Jolt Cola New Jersey, er, Red Bull New York in the second leg of the Eastern Conference semifinals; United had taken the first contest by virtue of a lone goal by (likely MLS MVP) Christian Gomez. The fans were 100% ready for a renewal of the longtime rivalry, but the local boys played - and were coached - absolutely horrendously for the first 85 minutes. If it weren't for another late Gomez strike, the two sides would likely have gone into extra time and, possibly, penalty kicks, which, in my opinion, is less than optimal for settling who advances and who doesn't, but I suppose it's better than having the two teams just keep playing until one collapses enough for the other to score a cheapie. When the goal went in, the crowd of 21,455 seemed to rise as a giant, thunderous, black monolith.

All in all, it was a good match, with DC advancing by the skin of their teeth, 2-1 on aggregate. Even if they make it past New England next Sunday and into MLS Cup 2007 (which is far from a likelihood), I think Houston (who I can't really see losing to Colorado in the Western final, but who caved in to the scourge of political correctness before their first season post-San Jose began) is the class of the league and will beat United or the Revs without much difficulty.

Yesterday's marathon

First off, I want to send my condolences to the family and friends of the runner who died during yesterday's Marine Corps Marathon. According to the article in today's Washington Post, the man collapsed just before Mile 17, which was not that far from where my friends and I were cavorting about and cheering near the "Beat the Bridge" stage (i.e., where Wonderjack was performing for the runners and their supporters). I saw a couple of ambulances near the end of my stay (I left around 1:45 or so) and was worried about those who might be party to whatever caused the emergency vehicles to arrive. Unfortunately, now, we all know what they were for.

On a much more positive note:

• A big congrats to my friend, Alaina, who ran - and completed - her first marathon; I just missed her running by Mile 20 by a few minutes.
• Mad props (and I do mean "mad") to Dean Karnazes, who is nearing the end of his 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states trek; in my opinion, this guy is off his rocker, but, at least, he's quickly off his rocker.

The Boogeyman and Bourdain

I found this at WILD PUCK BANTER and thought it was one of the more one-sided hockey fights I've ever seen. Of course, I'm a bit biased given that Derek Boogaard is part of one of my hometown NHL teams.

Can you tell there's not much going on for me today other than watching Wonderjack play at the 20-mile mark of the Marine Corps Marathon?

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