Late at night, the lift bridge can be a welcome sight after a two weeks on the road.



Although I've loved all the places I've visited and the people that I've met, it was nice to sleep in my own bed.

That photo, by the way, is from Pasty Central, a nice site that provides a good insight on the U.P. They also sell pasties to boot.

POWAY -- Thanks to Kerry's strong lead in California, the airwaves in San Diego seem to be clear of any presidential ads. However, this void seems to be more than filled by ads for other races including state office as well as the countless state, county and city propositions.

Going into the 5 o' clock news tonight, I saw one political commercial after another. Since I haven't been following local politics since I live hundreds of miles away, everything is just so darn confusing. Why do people want to close a landfill that was overwhemlingly approved by voters a few years ago? What's up with this lawsuit reform proposition?

I'm generally a supporter of the proposition system, but I'm disappointed by so many issues that confront the voter every two years -- especially when there's two similar-looking propositions that do two totally different things. Another thing I don't like is when voters approve initiatives that strip rights away from others.

Like many people, I think I would vote "no" on any proposition unless there's a really, really good reason for it.

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Note:I find it pretty funny that the state of California hasn't taken my name off the voter rolls since I moved away in January 2001. I wouldn't want to try it, but I guess the old saying "vote early, vote often" could apply to me.

The post-debate "debate" seems to conclude that this debate was a tie between Bush and Kerry with some commentators saying that Kerry perhaps had a slight edge. I know a lot of commentators are talking about Bush exceeding everyone's diminished expectations, but I think Kerry is still doing a good job debunking a lot of media myths about him (like long-winded, too wonky, too French, etc.).

One point that needed verification after the debate was Kerry's comment that Bush is a part-owner of a lumber company. Apparently according to factcheck.org, he is. Daily Kos has some details including a follow-up on an MSNBC article "scoring" the debate.

My thinking is that this lumber comment isn't going to help Kerry and it could help Bush. Most of the 62 million people who watched the debate saw Bush make a joke about the whole affair. I think that's what most debate watchers are going to remember -- Bush was personable during that moment in the debate. For the rest of the country that relies on media coverage of the debate, the fact that Bush ventured a joke on an $84 investment that turned out to be true will probably remove this point from play in most circles.

I know I said that I wouldn't be talking too much about politics in this blog. However, tonight's debate was just a little too hard to pass up. I would normally watch this with someone else and talking with them about it. Because I'm flying solo tonight, y'all get to see my thoughts here.

10:34 p.m. - Wrapping up. I'm now totally convinced that this election's big issue is the "war on terror" and the Iraq war (and whether Iraq should even be considered part of the "war on terror." Kerry's closing statements seem to focus solely on this point.

Bush's closing statements center on the Are you better off now than you were four years ago? question. He didn't say it, but that's what his last words felt like. I think the president's points are "interesting," but I think a lot of Americans could answer that they're not doing better than before Bush was elected.

BTW, Kerry should've let Bush go first in the closing statements. Bush's simple points are relatively good sound bites and I don't think it should've been the last word.

10:20 p.m. - Did the president just go back more than 150 years in his reference to Dred Scott to dredge up some examples of poor judicial judgment? Wow, that's a bit of a stretch. Bush's other example (the Pledge of Allegiance case) isn't all that great either (separation of church and state is in the Constitution, Mr. President), but should help his base.

10:09 p.m. - Whoops! Kerry said something about Bush owning an interest in a timber company. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, Bush turned it around and made it into a pretty good joke. Score one for Bush.

Still, I think Kerry is doing a decent job of pointing out the shortcomings of the past four years. Bush is landing some hits, but some of his rhetoric seems a little off.

9:55 p.m. - I hope that Kerry didn't do his impersonation of Bush 41's take on "No new taxes." Of course, Kerry's statement had caveats, but I'm sure people would find examples of families earning less than $200,000 getting a tax increase. And Republicans can also bust out the old "expiring tax cuts are actually increases" argument.

9:53 p.m. - The tone of the debate has shifted a bit now that they're talking about the economy and tax cuts. Kerry and Bush seem to be doing well although I fear that people tune out the numbers. Bush's economic record hasn't been all that great during the past four years, and I don't think the president can entirely blame it on the six-month recession in his first year in office.

9:11 p.m. - Bush seems to be doing a lot better in this debate compared to last week's relative disaster. Bush keeps hammering Kerry on the whole "flip-flop" issue. I really wish Kerry or someone else would confront Bush on the wishy-washy things he's done over the past four years.

Homeland security, the Sept. 11 commission, UN assistance in rebuilding Iraq -- all those are issues that Bush has wavered on. He was opposed to all of those initiatives before ultimately backing them. The effectiveness of all those initiatives is debatable, but the fact that Bush went back and forth on all of those for the sake of politics is obvious. Bush's "flip-flop" comments are an obvious example of the pot calling the kettle black.

Unfortunately, saying something is so sometimes creates the perception that it's true. Bush's simple arguments do a decent job of making people feel all warm and fuzzy. It would be nice if reality matched the so-called optimism of the Bush White House.

I don't read the massive amount of spam that gets put into my account, but I do skim the headlines in case there's some legit mail that slipped through the cracks.

Today I noticed the spammers of choice trying to pedal the "soft tab" versions of erectile-dysfunction drugs like Viagra. The only thing I'm going to say is -- if you have ED, would you really buy a drug that comes in "soft tab" form?

HANCOCK -- One of the nice things about traveling to the Twin Cities is that I can listen to Minnesota Public Radio's News and Information service while driving through the state. We only get the classical service in Houghton with a smattering of news shows like All Things Considered, Fresh Air, etc. Please give me the BBC World Service over Classical 24 any day.

Leaving Duluth heading back to Houghton Sunday night, we heard the last 15 minutes of a good This American Life episode. Then the vultures swooped in.

There's a new 30-minute program called Pop Vultures. During this episode, they started with a talk about the Neptunes and progressed over a free-wheeling conversation to get to musical epiphanies the host and her friends had (including Garth, let us never forget Garth). The show strikes up a conversational tone, but there's very little meat on the bone.

Yes, the Neptunes are an interesting group. In addition to getting the hosts' impression why this group is important or interesting, why don't we get to know a little bit more about these guys or the music that they play? That sort of knowledge is lacking in pretty much all media these days -- including the so-called Music Television (MTV). Unfortunately, these Pop Vultures didn't quite pick the good meat, as it were.

Garrett and I were incredulous that this show made it on the air. We (meaning Garrett) are reasonably knowledgeable about the material (pop music), but we didn't really take anything new from this episode. It's an interesting concept, but we weren't given a reason why we should care about the opinions of the host and her friends. The musical epiphany part toward the end was interesting, but only marginally so.

The show's conversational tone is similar to one a group might have a party. It's a bit of fun, but nothing of substance is ever discussed. Heck, I had a conversation about Star Wars at the Chinese buffet Monday. Does that mean it should be taped and aired on national radio? Probably not.

They definitely get points for trying something new and daring, especially for public radio. If they kept the conversational tone and added musicians, critics or anyone with something resembling factual knowledge to the mix, I think they would have something more relevant and listenable.