Was this really a debate? It was more like an hour-long attack ad for the Republicans. I don't care about Hillary Clinton's excellent Bosnia adventure. I don't care about Barack Obama's pastor. I really, really, really don't care what kind of lapel pin Obama (or, for that matter, Clinton) wears.

What I do care about are Clinton and Obama's plans for dealing with the problems that America faces. We are stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan without a good exit strategy. We are mired in foreign debt up to our eyeballs. Our economy is cratering. Vast swaths of America have been essentially abandoned to sink into poverty and despair. Energy costs are skyrocketing, we are too dependent on foreign oil, and we lack a coherent energy policy. The cost of health care is hitting the stratosphere, but our health isn't improving. We are trashing the environment and eliminating 50 years of environmental protection. As far as consumers go, it's caveat emptor for contaminated food and poisoned toys. The Bush administration sat on its hands as one of our great cities drowned. It trampled our beloved Constitution, spied on innocent American citizens, tortured prisoners and denied them their basic human rights, and in general acted like a rogue state -- leaving an enormous mess for the next president to deal with.

Did we hear much about these issues during the debate? No. Did we find out what the candidates plan to do to get our wonderful country back on the right track and restore America's good name? No. However, we did hear a lot about some dude Obama knows who was once a member of the Weather Underground.

Shame on Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos! This debate was a joke. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though. God forbid that they press the candidates on the dull, boring issues issues that actually make a difference in our lives. It's much easier to stick to "gotcha" questions, non-issues and sound bites.

You can extend its useful life for quite a while by adding memory, adding hard drives, upgrading DVD drives, upgrading the OS, and so forth. Then, when the PC is finally too ancient and creaky to run Windows apps, you can install Linux on it. My 2000-vintage and 2004-vintage PCs are still going strong with memory, disk and DVD drive upgrades. We'll probably buy a new PC later this year and install Linux on the older one. Basically, we use them until their motherboards die. Can Macs be kept on the road like this?

I was talking about the "Bitter" flap with a friend who grew up in small-town Western Pennsylvania. For generations, the natural order of things in her town was that sons coasted through high school, got jobs with their dads and granddads in the mills, and worked till retirement; daughters got married early to the sons and raised the next generation of millworkers. When she was in high school, though, the mill closed. People didn't know what hit them. It was as if the world turned upside down. Some left town to find work, went to college or trade school, and otherwise adapted to the new way of things. But some are still waiting for the mill to be reopened and make everything right again.

We both think Obama is essentially correct, although he expressed it badly. Of course many small-town Pennsylvanians are bitter and angry. Nobody in power speaks for them or cares about what happens to them, except when it's time to express some faux outrage and scrape up their votes. They have been abandoned on the banks of the old industrial rivers, hands empty of hope. And in its absence, they've turned inward and cling to God and guns because that's what has always sustained them. But of course, politicians are not allowed to talk openly about this truth, that great swaths of our country have been essentially written off.

Thou shalt establish a national energy policy for reducing dependence on foreign oil, developing renewable energy sources, and using thine own country's energy resources wisely.

Lay off your poor dad. If he wants to pull the lever and vote a straight party ticket, it's his right to do so.

OK, so on the new electronic voting machines, you press a button to vote the straight party ticket. Pulling the lever went out with those monstrous mechanical voting machines, which are being replaced all over the country. But the old machines were mysterious. Their automatic polyester curtain veiled the voter in the inner sanctum of the voting booth. The little metal levers and gears were intricately designed and fabricated; companies just don't make those kinds of mechanical things any more. And the machines made such a satisfying whirr and chunk as they recorded your vote. The electronic ones lack that magic, but they still make it easy to vote the straight party ticket. A lot of people will pull the lever or press the button or darken in all of the circles next to their party's candidates. When you know their political party, you have some idea of what these candidates stand for, or purport to stand for. Your dad may simply have decided to take the short cut.

Could the source of your disapproval be that he's pulling the lever for the opposite party? In that case, you should just agree to disagree with your dad on political issues. Don't torpedo your relationship with him over a stupid political argument that you will never, ever be able to win.

Just wanted to second Catherine's recommendation to join your professional society -- especially if it has an active chapter in your area. They offer opportunities for socializing and networking with people in your field, doing some resume-building volunteer work, finding work opportunities, and keeping up with the latest developments in your field.

While we're on the subject of taxes, you can deduct professional society dues either as a charitable contribution or a business expense.