In the Rough - The Blog of Joel McDonald Jr.

Shannon Dunlap calls the show, “more humourous than hilarious”.

The play gets off to a slow start, but the production gathers speed as the number of actors on the stage increases. The group chemistry lends a more relaxed feel, and the players seem more comfortable in large numbers. There are definite moments of slapstick, but overall the humor is sophisticated. The playbill cautions that there will be adult language, and it’s not kidding. I would have kept count, but I ran out of fingers and toes. And that was only the first 10 minutes. Would-be comedians provide their own rim-shots throughout the story.

[Read Entire Review]

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain had their first debate at the University of Mississippi on Friday, September 26th. I wasn’t able to catch the debate live, or for the next couple of days, due to being involved in other activities. Much has been written about this debate, so I’m not going to go into detail about what was said, but I do want to share what I felt each candidate was trying to convey with the answers they gave to every question, and how they delivered those answers.

	John McCain: Refusing to address Obama directly, McCain delivered all of his answers in hopes of conveying that Obama was inexperienced and lacking judgment, naive, dangerous; and that McCain was the unifier and bipartisan candidate, not Obama.
	Barack Obama: Spending most of the evening trying to clarify what he felt were misstatements made by McCain about his voting record, Obama tried to show that he did have plans that he would enact as President by reviewing the various points of those mans, often referring to parts of those plans that "would have to happen".

The subject of the debate was national security. In truth, there wasn’t a whole lot to differentiate McCain and Obama on the subject. It’s not as though one wants the nation to be more or less secure than the other. Iraq was, of course, a major issue with the same stances laid out during the debate as we’ve been hearing for a while now.

One issue that is on everyone’s mind is that of the $700 Billion bailout package that was being negotiated at the time of the debate. Specifically, each candidate was asked how such an expense would change their plans for their presidency. Neither candidate was willing to give specifics about how the bailout would change their proposed plans.

I don’t think it would be fair for any campaign or supporters to call a winner for this debate. For one, the candidates didn’t really seem to be debating the other on the issues. McCain berated, while Obama clarified. What were offered weren’t winning points, just a hodgepodge of comments on the offense or defense. I wasn’t impressed by the answers from either candidate for most of the debate.

The most sincere part of the debate from John McCain was his description of his relationship with the veterans and his emphases that they knew that he would take care of them. I know this had to strike a chord in the hearts of many within or connected to the military community. It seems as though it was, for McCain, and issue on which there was no question about his commitment. This is not saying that Obama would not take care of the veterans, in fact it was Obama who brought up the subject of improving benefits for veterans, but it could be said that McCain commitment was deeper. After all, he is one of them.

The final question given to the candidates was on the current security of the nation. While McCain answered that he felt that the nation was more secure, had a long way to go, and expressed his satisfaction on the changes in the government after 9/11; Obama was very specific and poignant on the issue. Obama answered that while we had investment billions into securing our airports to make us more secure, the reality is that our borders, our ports, and other crucial areas are still tragically lacking in security. Obama stated that our current reality is that our nation is in less danger from being the target of an enemy missile than we are a terrorist carrying a suitcase of nuclear material. This answer seems to show a greater understanding of the specific threats to our nation than that given by McCain.

Humor is often attempted at Presidential debates. Often, it’s the humor that is remembered by most. McCain made a few attempt at interjecting some humor into his answers. On one occasion he said something to the effect of, "I’m not going to set the presidential visitor’s schedule before I’m elected, I don’t even have a seal yet", in reference to the campaign seal created by the Obama team which was inspired by the presidential seal. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your view, the audience had taken a vow of silence; meaning there was no reaction when humor was attempted.

[X-Posted at VB Progressives]

I had read some good stuff over at Lifehacker about Windows Live Writer. I’ve avoided Windows Live like the plague, seeing it at mostly a bad attempt at consolidating web services into one badly designed package. After reading about Live Writer, I thought I’d give it a try.

Installation was smooth, and the program itself is fairly minimalist. Inserting the screen shot to the left was very easy. As a side note, I really wish I had a working function of automatically uploading a picture from my computer to my host for insertion into my blog. That particular WordPress function has been buggy.

Looking at the features ready at hand, I see that I can easily insert a table and a map. In addition to what comes with Live Writer, there are various plug-ins that I will likely be experimenting with, some of which may actually be a solution for the image upload problem I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

One thing I am enjoying is the strict spell check within Live Writer. Even though Firefox has a spell check built into the browser, I find it to be lax in catching many of my frequent errors.

I just noticed that Live Writer is using my current blog design to show me almost exactly how this post will appear on my blog. I must admit, that’s pretty cool.

Live Writer allows me to set categories and keywords, and even pulls in the categories I’ve set up for my blog. Unfortunately, the program does not pull up previous keywords. If anyone at Microsoft is listening, this is a feature I’d love to have!

Wendy Boswell at Lifehacker called Live Writer "slick" (emphases not added). I agree with her. While I’m not sure I’ll use Live Writer for all my blogging needs, I’m impressed how how connected the software is to my blog settings. I don’t think I’d be wrong in suggesting that Live Writer may be the best blogging software available.

From Bearing Drift:

“The latest assault on Christianity and the ability of human beings to profess their faith publicly comes from the state police.

Earlier this month, Col. W. Steven Flaherty, the State Police superintendent, made a decision that is supported by the governor that state police chaplains will no longer be able to mention Christ in their public prayers.”

From HamptonRoads.com:

Thou shalt not mention specific deities in public prayers.

That command was handed down recently to Virginia State Police troopers who work as chaplains, prompting several to resign the religious part of their jobs because they are forbidden to mention a particular god by name.

Republican legislators blasted the policy Wednesday, marking the latest flare-up in the debate over how much religion is appropriate in government.

Del. Charles W. “Bill” Carrico Sr., R-Grayson, declared the decision an “attack on Christianity” and is leading a campaign to have it reversed.

“Censoring what these chaplains can say is a violation of their First Amendment right to freedom of expression,” said Carrico, a former state trooper who plans legislation to undo the restriction if it isn’t rescinded.

As we become a more pluralistic nation, we have to account for other ideas and religions that are not our own. Chaplains, in my view, may keep their faith and profess it from the mountaintops. However, when in service to the the public through public prayer, or tending to the spiritual needs of someone not of their faith, they should apply a type of universal spirituality. This doesn’t require them to understand the details of the faith of others, or give up their own. However, providing a Christian prayer for a group that could be composed of a mixture of faiths is an act of exclusion. It is divisive. It is disrespectful.

The decision made by Col. W. Steven Flaherty was not an attack on Christ, any more or any less than it was an attack on any other deity. The decision is the result of further understanding the spiritual needs of Virginia State Police troopers, and the need to accommodate the various faiths of the troopers.

Celebrations for my birthday started last night at Guadalajara’s. Sara took me out to dinner, where after eating and one jumbo margarita each and the ordering another round we were joined by other friends from the theatre. We had a great time sitting around eating, drinking, and generally being…well…dramatic.

This morning, I was greeted my decorations outside my office door, and inside. What took the cake, pun compleletly intended, was the giant inflatable birthday cake sitting in my office! Dawn really went out of her way to decorate a bit. I was a bit overwhelmed!

I’m looking forward to this evening, having an all I can eat sushi dinner with family at Yukai. Really, it doesn’t get much better than that!

Thanks to everyone for your wishes for a happy birthday!