The story of my personal political awakening is, I think, one that is shared by many people of my generation.

During my first nineteen or so years on this planet, I thought of politics as an amusingly irrelevant sideshow, reacting to the part of the world that actually mattered. It was an off-kilter steam-powered one-man-marching-band-machine that had been set loose in an abandoned park and forgotten about by most people. People who did care about it had an air of cynicism and/or anger that made them seem like the sort of people I wanted not to be.

There was precious little context given in school for understanding the contemporary political environment. I understood checks and balances, the way a bill became a law, anything Schoolhouse Rock could explain. But there was nothing on mass media, three-second soundbites, character assassination, and all the other shit that goes on. So when you're confronted with that kind of crap from day one, you sort of grow up immune to it.

Advertisements for teenagers to register to vote seemed more like desperate pleas than compelling arguments for participation in democratic society. Seriously, look at some of that stuff sometime and try not to laugh. Then try saying you don't know why the youth vote turnout is so low with a straight face. It ain't possible, Pops!

In this environment, each generation has to be shocked by some event into political participation. The anti-war voters of the Vietnam era are still faithfully voting Democratic, by and large. The Red Scare, lasting as long as it did, brought a lot of people into the Republican fold, from Eisenhower all the way through Reagan. The Great Depression created an ultra-solid bloc of Democratic congressional power, thanks to the huge popularity of FDR's response. It's just something that happens.

When the youth turnout in 2004 broke records, a lot of people assumed they were all going hard left, anti-war, for Kerry. But that was because of a flawed analysis. They assumed because so many young people were against the war in Vietnam that the same would be true about Iraq.

A lot of people in our generation have voted Republican out of a powerful emotional response to 9/11. That's been borne out in a lot of media studies, exit polls, and wizard analysis. People like me, in contrast, are voting out of a powerful emotional response to the war in Iraq.

I was disillusioned and uninterested in politics for those first nineteen years of my life, but one event -- one single event -- completely changed all that. And, horribly, it took an atrocity called "Shock and Awe" to bring that about. Since then, I've been following politics, reading up, and doing everything I can to support candidates that I think have a realistic chance of ending the war. I've volunteered and plan to do more this season.

That's why I'm pleading with anyone I can to help me urge the Democratic leadership to force an end to this ridiculous nomination battle between Obama and Clinton.

Obama has won this thing -- there's no way she can come out ahead in pledged delegates, anyway -- but the problem is it won't be a convincing victory. So Clinton will be able to come up with reason after reason why the nomination of Obama isn't legitimate. There's going to be a lot more smearing and backbiting, and who knows, if it goes to convention Clinton might even make a speech protesting his nomination there. It's precedented, and the Clintons obviously are not going to give up for any reason as long as there's *any* chance they could retain power over the party.

We can't allow this. The war must end. Please help.

So... hey. Haven't blogged in a while. I've got a mountain of reading I'm working on, but wanted to take a break to let anyone who reads this know that I have exciting news.

No, I'm not getting married. Don't worry. I got a dog.

Her name is Maggie. I got her from the animal shelter down off New Bern Ave. She's a Chow mix. They don't say what she's mixed with. Basically she still has the bearish/lion-ish look of a Chow, but without the flab wrinkles. She's medium-sized... 50 lbs or so. Here's a picture of her face I took with Photo Booth:



Now, I've never had a dog ALL to myself before. I had a couple growing up, one of which was technically "my" dog, but I never had to bear the ENTIRE responsibility of either of them... and thus never truly experienced dog ownership.

For me, raising a pet is like raising a child. It's all about what you expose them to. And I, for some reason, have apparently decided to convince Maggie that all pop music ever written has been about her. Here's the most recent example sung to her:

"Why do you keep me hangin' on a string?
Maggie, for you, I'd do anything,
So make up your mind and decide is this real what you feel..."

She seems to appreciate these songs, and got in an insane excitement-mode the other day when Richard busted out some Pixies for her, pointing out, in screamed punk-rock fashion, that she is "un chien Andalusia."

The aforementioned insane-excitement mode is one of the coolest things I've ever seen, by the way. She jumps and does a midair 360, play-bows to me, and quickly does the 360 again. Actually, that's one manifestation of the excitement -- the other is her taking a few quick laps around my coffee table.

Known ways to make her do this currently include slapping on the floor on either side of her body Donkey-Kong style, singing some of the pop music that has been written about her, crouching down in a wrestling pose, and picking up her leash.

More as it develops. Back to the books.