Arthur Ashe Stadium, Flushing Meadows, NY

This month in Jaquins travels

Fairfax, VA
Clarendon, VA
Arlington, VA
Washington, DC
North Brunswick, NJ
Cranbury, NJ
Manhattan, NY
Hancock, NY
Gates, NY
East Rochester, NY
Walton, NY
Binghamton, NY
Flushing, NY
Brooklyn, NY
Long Island City, NY
Garden City, NY
Newburgh, NY
Waterbury, CT
Groton, CT
Mystic, CT
Westerly, RI
Narragansett, RI
Wakefield, RI
Warwick, RI
Providence, RI
Fall River, MA
Worcester, MA
Lowell, MA
Hyannis, MA
Boston, MA
Exeter, NH

Presidential Thoughts

"The first time America will vote a senile person into the presidency."
"Elect a man with less intelligence than the current president."

If there is anything more that is going to be called tasteless and insulting by Obama or his camp, I will be convinced that he is a cook, doesn't have an inch of humor in his body, co-founded the PC movement, was one of those kids that always stopped the game and pleaded to the teacher "no fair!", complains a whole hell of alot, is pushing the limits of my patience and leading down a dangerous path to a situation where his reactions to minor embarrassment/accusations will lose the election for the democrats.

Can we all agree that this election is for the Democrats to lose? After all, for a two-term president to have a 28% approval rating is obscene, but for his party to stave off the challenging party in light of this lack of confidence would be historic. And yet with a black man running for office, if his camp or Obama himself allows the Jacksons and the Sharptons to sway his duty to represent the American people over to representing Black Americans first, then moderates will swim back over to old faithful, John McCain. All McCain needs is for his camp [not himself] to make a mildly offensive racial comment directed at Obama and just sit and watch the Black power zealots take up arms and mobilize against McCain. This militarization of the 12% minority population will certainly put a scare into a majority of Americans, who may be convinced that Obama will not represent them, but of his ilk by the color of skin. This is all it will take, and reverse reactive racism (coined by Blogriotus as "Triple R effect") will swing this election into the hands of a inept, mentally incompetent blunderer.

We will receive another four years of horrid decisions and snafu management that will set us back another twenty years when it comes to the critical environmental/energy policies that will be drawn up in the next term. And folks, I am afraid we don't have twenty more years to correct the fateful path we have already chosen. The McCain Doctrine, I can see it now. Massive drilling projects, offshore, Arctic and in ten years we will all wonder why a comprehensive plan was not enacted, but sadly, McCain will be dead and so will our national prestige and economic future.

I repeat...I am not a Obama supporter. "He has already been bought and sold"

Not a chance I would even consider the "Green Party" nonsense after hearing their twisted exposee on a NY radio station this week. After spouting ultra liberal folly about conditions in Puerto Rico...a territory that has been offered statehood but has been popularly voted down...I could not help but feel forgotten as a mainstream moderate looking for solutions to real problems. The Green Party is more interested in apologetic reforms and lesbian naming rights (in lieu of GLAD). Wasn't the point of green to represent environmental and consumer policy? When did the Green movement take flight into Puerto Rico and concern itself with removing US military bases? As far as I am concerned Puerto Rico is US soil where Puerto Ricans enjoy the same rights as US citizens. Why do we care if they don't want a military base there? I could care less. It's not whether we have a base there or not that will limit/end our endeavors into the southern hemisphere...that's simply a minor detail. For a national party to be concerned over these marginal and comparatively trivial issues makes me wonder about what goals the Greens are trying to achieve. God bless 'em, because voters won't.

I don't want our problems placated by double dealing and lying Republicans, nor by the spineless Democrats who are afraid of their own shadows. After eight years of being beat-up by the Republican machine, now at the hour of their victory, they shy away from reform because deep inside, they are afraid that their initiatives are bullshit. Atleast the GOP puts their convoluted programs into action, while DEMs pussyfoot around theirs until they even agree their legislation would solve nothing. We need change in policy, not a man spouting a message of change. Where's Ron Paul when you need a real candidate?

Mycology Adventures

Don't worry, I didn't actually taste any. Just an exercise in fungal exploration in my yard.