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Also added search capability. Go nuts.
Thanks.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
I’ve received a bunch of emails – and read a number of posts in the comments section – that questioned whether or not this blog is ageist. It’s a fair question and I wanted to take a minute to offer my answer.
It isn’t. Here’s why:
Before the blog launched, I thought long and hard to see if I could come up with reasons how gender or race could negatively impact on someone’s ability to do an effective job as President… and I couldn’t come up with a single one. But I was able to come up with reasons why age – at least, potentially – could be a factor:
- Memory loss
- Decreased stamina
- Greater susceptibilty to illness
- Possible lack of ability to relate to the issues and concerns of the vast majority of younger Americans
- And, of course, the increased likelihood of dying in office… throwing the country into temporary turmoil and placing a greater importance of the role of Vice President
Furthermore, I got to thinking how the framers of the Constitution saw fit to attach an age minimum of 35 to the office of the President. Presumably, they felt that people younger than 35 lacked the skills necessary to be able to run the country. While I’m certainly not suggesting that we have a Constitutional amendment creating an age maximum, it does tell me that my line of thinking (namely, that age does matter) is clearly not without precedent.
Now, does all this mean that John McCain would AUTOMATICALLY be a bad President JUST because he’s 72? Of course not (he’d be a bad President for a whole host of other reasons!), but I am saying that it’s reasonable to make the subject of his age – and all that it entails – part of a dialogue about his qualifications… and that we shouldn’t run from the topic because it has an “ism” attached to it.
That’s what I say – what say you?
Thursday, May 15, 2008
My Mother is younger than John McCain.
Here’s an email I just received from my mother:
“I am younger than John McCain and I get senior citizen discounts, I can’t bend, my knees hurt, and I just went on Medicare! And PS, the type is too small on your blog.”
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Scrabble is younger than John McCain.
How fortuitous. What might very well be the world’s most boring game is actually younger than might very well be the countries most boring Senator (although there certainly are some quality contenders in that field).
By the way, I tried to rearrange these letters in Photoshop to spell out “He is really old” but it looked like crap. If anyone wants to take a stab at it, send it my way and I’ll give you credit.
(Thanks to Paul, Lisa, Laura, and Stephen)
UPDATE: EpicWes did a great job re-working the image… thanks very much! It’s just right!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Area Code is younger than John McCain.
OK, this is a good one – so good, in fact, that it gets its very own category (“Area Codes”).
While the telephone itself was invented a mere 60 years prior to Pa McCain looking at John and saying to Ma McCain “Someday this boy will grow up to not become President!, the area code wasn’t introduced until the 1940′s.
I find this fact very confusing because, according to census.gov, the population of the United States in 1940 was 132,122,446. Does this mean that less than 10% of the people had phone numbers because, without an area code, the highest number could only be 999-9999?
I’d ask John McCain for clarification but I tend to think that he wouldn’t take my call.
(Thanks Jonathan K.)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Baskin Robbins is younger than John McCain.
In a way, I wish John McCain was slightly older than Baskin Robbins… so then I could write something about “there being only one flavor” when he was a kid. Or reference the scene in Blazing Saddles that showed Samuel Johnson’s ice cream store. But, alas, John McCain beat out Baskin Robbins by a good 10 years.
(Thanks, Grace!)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The TV Dinner is younger than John McCain.
Here we go again – another staple of my diet that is actually younger than John McCain.
First it was Chocolate Chip Cookies, then the Cobb Salad and Cheerios, and now the beloved TV Dinner.
What next?
Nachos? (Uh-oh… 1943)
Famous Amos Cookies (Crap… 1936)
Krispy Kreme Donuts (This is getting ridiculous… 1937)
Kraft Mac & Cheese, Good & Plenty, and Nescafe coffee (Wow… 1937)
Jesus, is there any food this guy ISN’T older than?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
No, this isn’t a post about how Worlds of Warcraft is younger than John McCain. Rather, I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone out there for their incredible support over the last 48 hours. What started out as an idea born from frustration has – so far – grown into something beyond what I could’ve imagined (which makes me think that this Internet thing might really catch on one of these days).
But seriously, I’ve gotten a staggering amount of emails with some really great suggestions (I might not be able to reply to every one, but please know that I’m reading them all). The hits on the blog are off the charts, I’ve been linked to by hundreds of other blogs, and have gotten some pretty amazing coverage. Maybe it’s naive on my part but I’d like to think that, in a very small way, this blog and all the people who participated in it could make a difference come November.
I hope you’ll keep coming back and that you’ll share the site with your friends… not because I’m looking to make a buck off this (note the complete absence of annoying Google ads) but because I want to grow what we’ve started and spread what I think is an important message.
So thanks again – more posts to follow but right now I need some Beef with Broccoli in Black Bean Sauce more than you can imagine.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The Shopping Cart is younger than John McCain.
This seems like something cavemen should have invented (God, I hate those stupid Geico commercials) – I mean, it’s wheels and a bucket. It couldn’t be simpler. So simple, in fact, that one would think that it not only pre-dates John McCain but that it would pre-date his parents and grandparents as well.
One would be wrong.
(Credits to follow soon…)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Nylon is younger than John McCain.
I don’t know why but Nylon was probably the single most popular suggestion that I received since this site went live on Monday (and I received a ton – so thanks to all who sent them in. Keep ‘em coming!).
Nylon was first used commercially in a nylon-bristled toothbrush in 1938 – which makes me wonder what Ma and Pa McCain were using until then to brush little Johnny’s first teeth. It then grew in popularity as something that soldiers could give their wives to keep them off the trail of their girlfriends (and vice versa).
One final bit of nylon trivia? The first three letters of the word are completely arbitrary.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Grapes of Wrath is younger than John McCain.
I have to admit that I never read the book (1939) and was only turned on to the movie (1940) because of the Springsteen album (The Ghost of Tom Joad) but its message is timeless (I guess that’s part of what makes a classic).
In a nutshell, the economy is down the drain, lenders are foreclosing left and right, there are more applicants than there are jobs, and people are in search of a way to return to dignity.
Hmm, I wonder if they’ll ever make a sequel?
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Marijuana Tax Act is younger than John McCain.
This law didn’t specifically make pot illegal – it simply levied a tax of a dollar on anyone who dealt in cannabis or hemp (and there were some pretty hefty fines and the possibility of jail time, too). So does this mean that, when McCain was born, it was completely legal to get baked?
Ah, the good, really, really, really, really old days.
(Thanks Jen and countless others for the tip!)
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Velcro is younger than John McCain.
As chance would have it, today is the 50th anniversary of the invention of Velcro. Happy Birthday, Velcro – and good job keeping John McCain’s shoes closed. (You see, because he’s old and may have trouble with laces. Get it? Get it?)
(Thanks to Noa, Kris, Robert, Dana, Kim, Donna, Luke, and about two dozen other people for the tip!)
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Cheerios are younger than John McCain.
I have 18 month old twins at home and, as any parent will tell you, these little, round treasures of toasted whole grain goodness might as well be called “Crack-ios” or “Crystal Meth-ios”. There’s nothing my kids like more than to take a fistfull of these suckers and get (maybe) one or two right in their mouths.
I look forward to telling them, come this November, that our country had the good sense to elect a President younger than this ubiquitous brand.
And I imagine that they’ll poop in celebration.
(Thanks to Alan, Jake, David, Shannon, and Chris for the tip!)
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Senator Thad Cochran is younger than John McCain.
Senator Thad Cochran (R – Mississippi) is younger than John McCain by a few months and, lest you think I have nothing nice to say about Republicans, has one redeeming quality that I know of (he may have more – but I’m tired). When asked if he would consider the office of Vice President (a far less taxing position than that of President), he said the following:
“When I was much younger I would have probably said, ‘Sure, I’ll be glad to accept it,’ but I’m 70 years [old] and they need a younger person for the job. I would probably tell them, ‘Look for somebody else.’
I’m guessing the “somebody else” he had in mind wasn’t older than him. (That being said, it probably wasn’t Barack or Hillary either, but that’s another story.)
(Thanks to Kent and Derek for the tip!)
