The McCain-Obama Ouroborous

Nothing is more twigi than politics. Political gesturing trying to win the Homecoming Queen crown of Presidential office brings out some of the most ridiculous of maneuvers.

Obama's been travelling around the world generating a bunch of press and one of his stops was Germany. While in Germany, Obama was planning on visiting wounded American soldiers at the Ramstein Air Force base but he cancelled the visit.

McCain's campaign swooped down like a turkey buzzard criticizing Obama for choosing political leaders and cheering crowds over wounded American soldiers.

Obama's campaign, like a gunslinger, shot back that the visit was cancelled after the Pentagon was concerned about political activity at a military base.

Hold the press...Ok, well, let's face it...Politicians have been visiting wounded soldiers for a long time. I don't know the Pentagon's exact policy about political visits to wounded soldiers, but I know it's not forbidden. Which makes it easy to believe the McCain's campaign add running in Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. saying that it "Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras."

Obama's people say Obama didn't want injured soldiers "pulled into the back-and-forth of a political campaign." Fair enough, in theory, but why was the visit sceduled at all if that was a concern?

And the Pentagon says, "Obama would have been required to conform to the Defense Department prohibition of political activity, but that the senator was never told he couldn't visit the hospital." So tell your press people and staff, tell the press in general to back off, and visit. That was the original plan anyway.

I know...so far it seems only Obama is twigi so where does the self-eating ouroborous come in?

McCain's criticism...McCain is criticizing Obama for what may be a sincere concern, though late coming, that the trip would be seen as a cheap political photo-op, though without the press, but word of mouth is still powerful. Meanwhile, where are McCain's trips to American soldiers wounded or not in foreign lands? He visited Iraq, Paris, London, and Israel but I don't see anything about visiting wounded soldiers. McCain said, "if I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn't visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event." Which means your criticizing a man who second-guessed doing something you haven't done.

If you can confirm that McCain visited wounded soldiers under the Pentagon's restrictions, please let me know, because right now, their political bickering is making them look both like schmucks. They both look...twigi.

My source: MSNBC

Hollywood Fashion Prejudice

Don't ask me why, but I was browsing the Yahoo News Fashion faux pas thing. Usually these pictures show famous people wearing garish ensembles and you're like, "Ouch, that outfit looks painful." Every so often you see one that doesn't look THAT bad, and seriously, fashion is in the eye of the beholder. I wouldn't want someone judging my clothes every time I walked out of the house, but then I'm a teacher, so I get a break from the fashion critique over the summer.

But then there's this one...

And the fashion faux pas is...?

According to the guy commenting on the fashions, "Did Audrina lose her AmEx? It looks like the reality TV "star" and her bearded boy toy Justin Bobby went clothes shopping at the Salvation Army ... not Saks Fifth Avenue."

Oh, ho, ho...so it's a fashion mistake to dress...normal? That's twigi...

Frozen Food

Have you ever paid close attention to the information you can find on frozen food packages? Have you thought about this information? It can be very peculiar. Take, for instance, Bundinos, possiblt the most bizarre I've found. It's nothing particularly strange, I suppose. There's nothing especially odd about the ingredients. But the package comes with nine little Bundinos. What makes it odd is that they tell us 4 Bundinos make a serving. Do that math. The only way to eat that equitably in more than one sitting is eating 3 Bundinos...or what they are probably hoping for...buying more boxes so that you don't have loose, random Bundinos. 12 would be the perfect number. Then people who wanted to eat less would have equal portions. If you wanted more than a serving, as I admittedly tend to desire (serving sizes don't make any sense to me), then you could eat 6.

But that's not, really, the twigiest thing about the Bundinos. I looked on all 6 surfaces of the box and the Bundinos come with no oven instructions. None. They only tell you how to cook in the microwave. What in the world? I prefer cooking frozen food in the over, and they don't even give me that option! I appreciate how quick and easy the microwave is, but come on, some of us are willing to wait.

But then frozen food preparation instructions are generally pretty twigi. They all warn you that "cooking times may vary" depending upon your individual microwave. But my experience is that they always vary. The instructed microwave times are, the majority of the time for me, too short. I don't ever have to put food back in the oven after the allotted time.

I did cook the Bundinos in the oven I think about 20 minutes and they were great.

6,000 Signs in Georgia...Won't Make a Difference

A 17-Year-Old got decapitated at Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park.

That's a news story no one wants to read. Tragic.

"Six Flags officials are uncertain why the unidentified 17-year-old from Columbia, S.C. scaled two six-foot fences and passed signs that said the restricted area was both off-limits and dangerous to visitors..." - SC Teen struck, killed by Six Flags coaster in Ga., by Mike Strobbe, The State.

Now it's still tragic, but also stupid. What was that kid thinking?

Early reports said that he was going to retrieve a hat. Later "authorities said the rising senior at Columbia’s Keenan High School was taking a shortcut back into Six Flags Over Georgia after leaving for lunch with other children during a church outing." - Teen was taking shortcut back to park, by Clif LeBlanc, The State

LeBlanc's article again mentions the warning signs. I am very sorry for this child's death and I feel for his family's loss. Here's where the twiginess comes in...

"State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said the park must make signs bigger, post more of them and add the words 'extreme danger' within 10 days. " - Six Flags ordered to increase safety signs, The State

Why is that twigi? Well, we know the boy scaled two fences...having to get somewhere by scaling fences is usually a sign in and of itself that you are going somewhere you shouldn't be going. It's been repeated over and over that he scaled fences that had signs on them. I'm not so sure more, larger signs that quantify how much danger is beyond them would have prevented anything. And it sounds like Six Flags did something wrong. In the same article, it says "Thurmond says the park met all other safety standards." Thurmond is the State Labor Commissioner. "All other" makes it seem like Six Flags did not meet the safety standard of warning signs. But in the FoxNews article Georgia Six Flags Batman Ride That Decapitated Teen Reopens, With Changes states, "State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond says the park met all safety standards but the state has issued new requirements."

So, it's not the park, it's the state. The state of Georgia's safety requirements weren't adequate. But weren't they? Again, I posit that 6,000 bigger signs saying "Certain Death Awaits You" would not have prevented this. The only thing to prevent this sort of thing is common sense, because common sense tells you that scaling two fences to an area underneath a rollercoaster is a bad idea.

The twigiest part of this is the line in both The State's and FoxNews's articles, "scaled two fences and wandered into a restricted area, where he was struck by the roller coaster in Austell" and "scaled two fences and wandered into a restricted area where he was decapitated by the roller coaster." Nearly identical sentences with the same oxymoron. How do you "scale two fences" and "wander" at the same time? Wandering means "to move about without a fixed course, aim, or goal" according to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary. He had a course, an aim, and a goal...Without those, the fences would have been deterrant enough. His goal was to scale the fences and get to the other side. "Wander" makes it sound like he really didn't know where he was. He did. Two fences and some signs told him.

This reminds me of Denis Leary's bit about the guy who wanted to make the warning on cigarette packs bigger. I couldn't find a vid of Leary doing the routine, but someone did an animation to Leary's words. Not very good, to be honest, but it allows me to play it for you. It goes into "I'm an Asshole" afterwards, so it's up to you if you keep watching.