Dick Cheney has cried foul this week regarding Joe Biden’s comments that the turn of events in Iraq could be “one of President Barack Obama’s greatest achievements.”  According to Cheney, not enough proper credit is being given to former President Bush and his initial insight into the situation.

"FIVE!....FIVE DOLLAR!.....FIVE DOLLAR FOOTLOOOOOONG!!!"

Story from AP (Courtesy of Yahoo! News):

“If they’re going to take credit for it, fair enough, for what they’ve done while they’re there,” Cheney said Sunday. “But it ought to go with a healthy dose of ‘thank you, George Bush’ up front and a recognition that some of their early recommendations, with respect to prosecuting that war, were just dead wrong.

Asked about Biden’s comments, former Vice President Cheney said, “If they had had their way, if we’d followed the policies they’d pursued from the outset or advocated from the outset, Saddam Hussein would still be in power in Baghdad today.”

Biden, appearing on Sunday news shows, said he believes Obama has managed the war in Iraq “very well” since taking office a year ago. He said, however, that he doesn’t believe the war was worth the “horrible price” in lives lost and the initial mismanagement of the war by Bush.

Cheney is partially right, except for the fact that Bush sold the war on the premise of WMD’s, which was never validated.  Meanwhile Obama sold the new efforts on the idea of “damage control.”  Whether Bush ends up being right on this, I’m not sure but I hope he was.  But how you frame the argument makes all the difference.  Voters deserve to have the initial reason for doing something match up with the end result.

In just a few short hours, the final season of LOST is going to hit the airwaves. What is to follow in the coming weeks and months is the culmination of one of the most successful TV shows of the 2000’s. It is not hyperbole to suggest that LOST has drastically changed the landscape of the small screen; it’s success prompted other networks to launch shows like Heros and Prison Break.

But business and ratings aside, it’s the essence of story telling and character building which sets LOST apart. No other show I can remember dives so deep into the back-story of a character; essentially showing the viewer why the character acts a certain way. It’s essential to pulling the viewer in and providing a truly memorable experience. While most shows develop characters within the current story, LOST told their stories from the past seamlessly integrating them into the present.

What other show insipires fans to dress up their food items?

Season 1 to most was the story of a group of survivors of a plane crash. Had that been all the show was, it would have seen modest success based on the production alone. Adding layers upon layers to the story drove the fans insane, but in a good way. The following LOST enjoys on-line is unprecedented and something we are not likely to see again anytime soon. It’s not that far fetched to believe the writers of the show derived inspiration from numerous fan sites, blogs, and chat rooms.

In 4 months, the answers to the questions we’ve been asking since 2004 will be answered in some way shape or form. Certainly not all of them, but I believe a good chunk will be. The menial, “what is the meaning of the book they are reading in Juliette’s book club” question will forever go unanswered. But if you’re upset about that, LOST isn’t for you. LOST is about larger questions, questions we seek the answers to every day.

“Do I put more of my trust into science, or faith?”
“Is there such thing as destiny?”
“Is there a higher power? And if so, does he have my best interests in mind?”

These have been constants in the story of LOST for the past 5 years, and I’m confident the characters in the story will be presented with the answers they are seeking. So while it may not be a suitable answer for you, just remember one thing while watching this season. This was the story of two awesome writers, not yours. It’s been one hell of a ride they’ve taken us on… and it’s just now entering the final turn.

The President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez has suggested that instead of using Viagra, men simply eat pork.  She claims that pork has the same effects on a man’s virility.

Story from AP (Courtesy of Yahoo! News):

“I’ve just been told something I didn’t know; that eating pork improves your sex life … I’d say it’s a lot nicer to eat a bit of grilled pork than take Viagra,” President Cristina Fernandez said to leaders of the pig farming industry.

She said she recently ate pork and “things went very well that weekend, so it could well be true.”

Argentines are the world’s biggest per capita consumers of beef, but the government has sought to promote pork as an alternative in recent years due to rising steak prices and as a way to diversify the meat industry.

“Trying it doesn’t cost anything, so let’s give it a go,” Fernandez said in the televised speech.

Don't Get Too Excited, Ladies...

Cristina Fernandez is not the first politician to butter up a particular group when vying for their support, as its long been a tradition for candidates and incumbents alike to wax poetic about the value of unions, while conveniently enough at a union-endorsed manufacturing site, or the value of farming while conveniently sitting on a tractor in front of hundreds of adoring farmers, and so on, but I’ve gotta hand it to Mrs. Fernandez.  She really took this tradition to a new level.

Out of curiosity I Googled “Is Pork Good for your Sex Life” expecting there to be at least one claim from a renowned scientist, “sexpert,” or therapist.  Apparently the only and first person to have made this claim is Mrs. Hernandez, as all of the first page’s results were related to her comments.  The second page was more of the same, except one Men’s Health article said pork rinds were good for your sex life because they are low in fat and will make you look leaner.  Well that’s a start.

I hope to God Argentina holds their ground on this claim.  And I’m praying that they hire testers to prove their theory by continually eating pork and having sex.  If so, I’m quitting my job and booking the first flight possible to Argentina.

Corporate Vengance: There's an App For That!

Having witnessed their Voice application blocked on Apple’s iPhone applications store, Google has circumvented Apple’s resistance by updating Voice, allowing users to access it via web browser.

Story from AP (Courtesy of Yahoo! News):

Apple has refused to allow the Voice program to be distributed through the iPhone’s applications store since last summer on grounds that it would duplicate or alter important iPhone features. To get around that roadblock, Google is trying to entice iPhone users to rely on a mobile Web browser to access Voice….

The jousting over the Voice application underscores the rising tensions between Google and Apple, the two most valuable companies in Silicon Valley.

Apple’s rebuff of Google’s Voice application triggered a Federal Communications Commission inquiry into whether Apple and AT&T Inc., the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. service provider, were trying to stifle potential competition.

Take that!  Google is just doing what they always do, breaking rules and finding new and usually cheaper ways of doing things, breaking down the barriers between providers and consumers, enabling consumers to call the shots instead of the providers.  Lesson:  don’t fuck with Google.  Or they will fiiiind yoooou… (or in this case just make a web-browser-able application to use on your phone).

Charles E. Phillips, the co-president of software company Oracle and one of President Obama’s economic advisors, was outed for having an affair with YaVaughnie Wilkins, but not via traditional methods.  Wilkins decided to out the relationship by purchasing advertising billboard space in New York, San Francisco and Atlanta and plastering them with the words, “You are my soulmate forever!” accompanied with pictures of Phillips and Wilkins smiling together.

Story from CNN:

A URL on the billboards led curious visitors to a Web site containing personal photo albums featuring the couple at public and private events with friends and family. It also contained love notes from Charles E. Phillips to YaVaughnie Wilkins.

Phillips, 50, the co-president of Oracle Corp., admitted the affair with Wilkins, 42, in a statement released by his spokeswoman Friday….

Phillips, who has served on President Obama’s economic recovery advisory board since February, joined Oracle in 2003. Prior to that, he worked as a tech industry analyst at Morgan Stanley and served as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Often talked of as a potential successor to Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison, Phillips is one of the software company’s most senior and highly paid excecutives. On top of an $800,000 salary for 2009, he took home stock options and other compensation valued by Oracle at more than $18 million.

This story was far less notable for its content than it was for the comments it generated on CNN’s website regarding philandering men.  Some of the notables:

1)  He LIED. To at LEAST one person (his wife and the mother of his child). If he is willing to deceive someone he “loves” so readily, what does that bode for his reliability in all other areas of his life?

2)  Phillips is an opportunist and weasel. He admitted that he had an 8 1/2 year “serious” affair with Wilkins after she put it OUT. He was a former Marine Captain. Would he have been a traitor to our country if circumstances been of benefit to him as he did with his wife?

3)  This isnt about politics! This is about a woman who is sick and tired being lied to for the past 8 years. I think its awesome what she did to him. He should be so lucky it was just a few billboards professing her love him instead of her pulling a Glenn Close and boiling his kids bunny!! Im on her side!!! Way to go sister!

Look, ladies.  I agree with you on some counts.  Cheating is WRONG, and there may be biological differences between men and women, but reneging on your commitments is inexcusable on both sides.  That being said, It’s troubling to see some of the over-zealous responses to infidelities lately.  On the work-related side, if you were to absolve every unfaithful man of their responsibilities to their corporation or government, the entire society would crumble.  I’m not kidding.  The absolute BEST-CASE statistics place about 25 out of 100 odds a man will cheat on his wife.  The most recent statistics are hovering more around 60-70%.  Telling half to 2/3 of the world’s executives, directors, politicians, generals, surgeons, engineers, etc. to lose their occupational function would be the mortgage crisis times 1,000. There are many, many examples of men who were flawed in their personal lives but extremely beneficial to society in their public ones.  Martin Luther King, Jr and John McCain are just two examples.  So long as its not murder, rape or theft, leave people’s personal squabbles to their personal domain.

On the other side, it’s disturbing how people have in some instances applauded violence and career-sabotage toward men due to infidelity.  Let’s recap.  In the last six months, Tiger Woods was ostensibly struck with a golf club while fleeing from his wife, yet no one has really held Elin’s feet to the fire for this.  Chris Henry, a wide receiver for the Bengals was jettisoned off a FUCKING MOVING CAR and was FATALLY INJURED.  His fiancee was not charged, and has faced no real media scrutiny since.  Steve McNair was GUNNED DOWN in a murder-suicide.  People were more empathetic to him, but a large focus was still on his philandering as opposed to the actual murder.  And now Phillips has had his romantic life broadcast for all to see, which is by far the most pedestrian of the four offenses.

If a cheating woman was killed by her husband, the press would’ve practically tripped over their cameras rushing to report the story.  Anyone who had posited that “the woman got what she deserved,” would immediately be outcast as a misogynist, a woman-hater, a replica from the sexually oppressive past.  But when the tables are reversed, women are openly saying “he got what he deserved,” or “I would’ve done the same thing,” with no repercussions.  Again, cheating is wrong but murder is more wrong.  Men are frustrating, and I must admit we have a greater tendency to stray than women.  That does not mean that violence toward men should be overlooked or trivialized.

As for the billboard?  It lies somewhere in between.  If people are telling the truth, they should be able to say it.  However, what is going to happen the day a female executive is outed on a billboard with the following words, “I fucked (Mrs. Executive), take that (Executive’s Husband)” while you’re driving through a metropolitan area?  Wouldn’t that come across as flat out mean?  What if it were accompanied with a picture of the two together, kissing or engaged in some non-pornographic way that would clearly illustrate a sexual relationship?  Would women be expected to take this lying down the same way Phillips is being expected to?  I don’t think so.

Phillips’ actions were inexcusable, no doubt.  But people are tacitly approving vigilante punishments far outside the scope of his transgressions.  The most reasonable comments I saw were along the lines of “If he wants additional women, fine.  But don’t get married then.  Just stay single.”  This seemed to make sense.  In the area of politicians and top executives however, a family-friendly image goes a long way.  Bush’s 2004 re-election came partially due to “family values,” a theme that is very alive and well in this country.  How would it look if a top executive or politician was unmarried, even into his mid-40’s?  Can you name even one notable politician who is single?  Can you name one CEO who is single?  You can probably name some who are divorced.  And you can certainly name some who have “transgressed.”  But anyone who has proactively said, “I choose to abstain from marriage?”  Of course not.   A man who shuns marriage would be a man who shuns family values, at least in the public’s eyes.  So people like Phillips find themselves in odd quagmires.  Public trust is gained far more easily when married than when single.

Again, I am not condoning cheating.  Phillip’s actions are still inexcusable.  But analyzing someone’s incentive structure, there is a HUGE incentive to “appear” married and stable and a champion of family values in our country, even if deep down you have sexual desires that expand beyond the comfort level of your marriage.  If people truly want their leaders to proactively communicate their sexual desires to their partners and the public, then they are going to have to re-evaluate how they judge their leaders based on their marriages, or lack thereof.

Run Innocent Moo-Cows. Run For Your Lives.

In one of the more odd recession-related stories of the year, a farmer-turned-maniac murdered 51 cows in his Copake, NY farm before killing himself.

Story from AP (Courtesy of Yahoo! News):

COPAKE, N.Y. – State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.

Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.

I feel like a bad person because I laughed when I saw this.  Like these aren’t hard times to be any other occupation?  I just can’t imagine cows being the  real target of someone’s frustrations.  Where they not producing enough milk?  Did the farmer simply think they’d become more profitable as hamburgers, only to realize that his cows weren’t good enough for Grade A certification?  What the hell!  THEY’RE COWS.  I mean, I’m glad it’s not people, but Jesus.

Cindy McCain has followed in her daughter’s footsteps by openly supporting gay marriage rights, despite the obvious position of her husband John McCain.

Story from AP (Courtesy of Yahoo! News):

McCain’s daughter Meghan distanced herself from her father’s stance last summer when she posed for an ad for NOH8, a gay rights campaign seeking to defeat Prop 8. Now his wife Cindy is joining in the effort and is also appearing in an ad for NOH8……

Cindy McCain isn’t the first political spouse to do this, however.  During the 2007 Democratic Primary, Elizabeth Edwards stated that she’s “completely comfortable with gay marriage” even though her husband, John, then a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, was steadfastly against it. Michelle Obama has hinted at her support, saying in a speech that connected the gay rights struggle to civil rights: “The world as it is should be one that rejects discrimination of all kinds.”

Even Laura Bush pushed back against her husband’s aggressive advocacy of a federal gay marriage ban. In an interview with Fox News in 2006, the former first lady said, “I don’t think it should be used as a campaign tool, obviously. It requires a lot of sensitivity to just talk about the issue – a lot of sensitivity.”

Weird.  It seems the wives of male politicians are more likely to support gay marriage rights than the politicians themselves, which is about in line with the national trend.  According to a 2008 Newsweek study, women were about 44% likely to support gay marriage, with men hovering at 34%, a solid 10% difference.   Maybe men are more afraid of seeming gay if supportive of gay rights?  No, that can’t be it.