This got me thinking about my team loyalty. With football it's been pretty straightforward: Cowboys fan in the early 70's (it WAS America's team for awhile), but once Seattle got the Seahawks, Dallas was out and the 'hawks are still my team. The Patriots are my other team as a result of having lived in Boston for several years. I follow both teams closely.

Baseball: First team was the Dodgers as Spokane was their AAA team during my childhood. The Mariners were so bad for so long that they didn't really register until the late 80's when the Griffey's came on board. Been a huge fan ever since. The Red Sox are probably my favorite team, and I follow them more closely than any other (this would probably change if the M's were ever in contention again!).

But here's the thing with baseball: when my teams play against one another I never know who I'm going to root for! When I was in college going to Fenway to see the Mariners play I'd wear all my Seattle gear just to get a rise out of the locals in the bleachers (and as a ploy to get Griffey to throw me a ball--he never did), but I was happy with whomever won. Somehow that equanimity disappeared over the years and I am never sure where my loyalty lies in head to head matchups! I was horrified that the Dodgers and Red Sox would play in the Series and I'd be lost! I went up to Seattle to see the M's play the Sox last year, and I took both caps just in case. I ended up cheering the M's--mostly because they needed a win more than Boston did, but I didn't know I would until I was in the stands and the game was under way!

Basketball: I love the Sonics and the Blazers when they're winning. I'm not much of a professional basketball fan. I loved the Lakers in the 80's, resulting in my complete failure to become a Celtics fan while in New England.

Weird.

the Enterpoop crew! That's 3 weeks in a row of tears.

Only one more left? Shit, Obama better win!

Seriously, the auto-refresh feature is becoming a huge pain in the ass when trying to watch video links. I actually think it's more frequent than every 10 minutes!

I'm confused: 'man' does not rhyme with "eight".

P.S. Don't they know that Barney is a gay dinosaur?

I appreciate that these sorts of pieces may motivate some progressives to help get out the vote, and that is no small thing.

But, I fear these "low-information voters" are being used by the left in exactly the same manner as William Ayers is being used by the McCain campaign. It's fear-mongering any way you slice it. And that only serves to agitate the base.

These uneducated, willfully-ignorant zealots are not a major voting block, for chrissakes! They are a tiny percentage of the population--the percentage that can be seduced by a Sarah Palin at that!. There was never ANY question as to who they were going to vote for. Never. They may have stayed home without Gov. Palin, but no amount of reason would have persuaded any of the folks in this video to vote Democratic on Tuesday.

With three days to go, preaching to the choir is not going to win either candidate any new voters. Why not publish some featured articles that can sway independents and undecideds?

Too nuance-y?

with several friends hoping to have the chance to pop open some champagne! If not we'll make sure our passports are in order and look for online deals on flights to Canada and Mexico.

I totally understand that there is a creepy aspect to all of this, but it doesn't exist in there inherently; it's only projected onto all of these kids.

My kids are 10 and 7 now. When my 10 yr old daughter was in 3rd grade she had a friend whose parents referred to Bush only as "President Boob". She thought that was very funny and began using the term. Heard it; liked it; appropriated it. That's what kids do. It wasn't any deeper than that.

Indoctrination is always a possibility, but there's at least one other possibility and I like to think it's more prevelant: education.

Civic duty is important to us, and our children are learning that from us. Both our kids talk about Obama all the time! They are not always (okay--they're rarely) appropriate with how they express it: we had to shush them Friday night when, while trick-or-treating they yelled across the street, "Don't go to that house! It has a McCain sign!!!" (we made them knock anyway). The thing is, they didn't pick this up because we were actively indoctrinating them. They got it from watching and listening to me and my wife talk about the election. My daughter especially noticed that our mood regarding politics took a drastic turn for the better when, after 6 years of Bush, Obama announced his campaign. She preferred not-bitchy mommy and daddy.

When I was a kid in 2nd grade we had a mock vote for president, and I was one of only 2 kids in my class that voted for Jimmy Carter (my parents were/are Republicans who voted for Carter based on his Baptist cred, and a desire to leave Watergate behind). Four years later, I was advocating for Reagan in my 6th grade class: that's who my family was voting for. I read the newspaper everyday from the time I was 12. I watched the nightly news 5 or 6 days a week. Before Reagan's first term was up I was solidly against his administration. My Dad still supported him, but he didn't judge or criticize my position even when we had heated discussions about it.

There is a time for childish ways. That time is called "childhood". The problems come when childhood ends and the individual refuses to put down childish ways. Palin rally, anyone?