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Friday, September 5, 2008

Politics, weather, and supersized hurricanes

Friends, colleagues, democrats, republicans, but not anarchists;

Politics and weather were on most people’s minds during the past week, and although the hype of politics expired as the republican convention came to a closing, the weather channel continued to pounce with its lively descriptions and warnings of various tropical depressions. If you live in the south, as I do, you learn to enjoy the 8 days it takes for a tropical depression to become a hurricane and reach land, as if you were given a few days extension on life.

The weather “telling” culture has become like a reality show unfolding like a kitsch drama. If you live on the Gulf of Mexico you know what category 1, 2, 3, or 4 can do, but that is no material for a catchy headline. Yet, if you write, as they do, that a “devastating and extremely dangerous category 3 has just entered the gulf”… you are certain to get the attention you want. And then I read about tropical depression Josephine, which, as one reporter wrote, “was struggling to stay organized”. Excuse me? am I expected to get emotional about a storm that is struggling to establish its identity? And to top it all, last week weather.com was advertising a subscription to a Gold Weather Member Card for $24.95! I guess if you became a gold member, you’d be the first to be notified of any tropical depressions being formed in the eastern Atlantic…

This week I was able to find free time between following the disastrous paths of 4 tropical storms, to watch and listen to the opening speeches on the opening night of the republican convention, when I heard Tommy Espinoza giving an emotional speech praising John McCain. He introduced himself as “a Catholic, where Jesus Christ and La Virgen de Guadalupe are at the center of his home”, and said that he was supporting John, first, because of FAITH...

I thought religion was a very private matter and has no place in politics. And I mean any religion, because if you place God in front and first, then everything else becomes God’s will, or even simpler, we do things in the name of God. If you scroll down you will see the visual type statements I made while reacting to some of the buzzwords flying around this week like Change, Ban on books in a library, experience, the RNC and more. No offense, it’s what I like to do best: react visually.

The first sample is how I feel about the republican convention becoming “one party under God”? Please click on the picture below to see it in larger size.
Enjoy