Miraclo Miles

Happy Thanksgiving! Parade, food and football. One out of three isn't bad, especially since it's food. I've never had any use for parades, and football hasn't fared much better. Since most of us more or less start this holiday -- hopefully an extended weekend -- Wednesday night, that seems the best time to place this post. After all, tomorrow we'll be too busy with the details. I saw that Topless Robot posted Tuesday (to avoid the rush and probably to help warn the unwary in case any of these showed up in the listings) a piece on The 8 Thanksgiving Specials No One Is Thankful For . While I was aware of 6 of the 8 I've managed to avoid more than a glimpse of any of them. Maybe in the right company and with enough alcohol some good could come of them, but for now I'm happy to keep them all at this safe distance. Courtesy of Hulu -- since it's much classier to watch the entire show rather than just a YouTube excerpt -- here's the "...

Well, okay. There is one thing bugging me... Starting with a chunk of McCain's concession speech, followed up in Obama's acceptance speech, and greatly focused on via media choice of commentators and subjects to train cameras on... I'm disappointed that this election has been at least momentarily turned into some referendum on race. I see very little to be gained (save by the opposing party, looking to use it divisively) by suddenly moving this to the fore. I understand this is a fantastic milestone in the eyes of many, but especially considering the President Elect's mixed race birth and upbringing I would prefer we simply try to use the opportunity to move, at last, beyond the issue of race rather than to accentuate it. To put it another way, I suspect that more division of a nation rather than unification is achieved by repeatedly showing Jesse Jackson with tears running down his face (as a Man of God he's prone to be emotionally unstable anyway; black or white...

Well, hey. We did it. The calculation of the precise sweep of the win is still in progress - as of this writing Missouri and North Carolina are still too close to call, and there are still some congressional spots in play - but this is our best, brightest shot in what at least feels like forever. (As of this morning, the race in Missouri has McCain ahead by a little less than 6,000 votes, while in North Carolina Obama's ahead by over 12,000 votes.) Thoughts of a McCain-Palin administration were so absolutely horrifying that I don't know whether I would have been able to accept them if that had come to pass. Not being sure how many of the millions who voted for McCain were either hoodwinked, railroaded with scare tactics or single-issue "values voters"... OR were actually fully on board disturbs me. I'm not surprised, just unsettled by it. After the increasingly odious campaign waged by the McCain people and some of their supporters I'm not yet sure how mu...