I'm sitting here trying to get an inspiration for this weekend. Nothing's coming.
Most of the stuff I frequently think about is all in the past right now. Three of the four debates are in the book with just one more scheduled for Monday night. I couldn't fairly discuss either the two presidential debates or the veep one. I only watched a few minutes of them. I find the kind of demonstrations that are called debates today to be rather non-informative.
The little I've seen so far only solidified my findings. Yes, an argument could be made that the perhaps ten minutes I watched the first one, the fifteen or twenty minutes I watched the veep one, or the twenty or twenty-five minutes I watched the last one is not sufficient to make an honest judgment; but then at my age and predetermined feelings of the debaters, watching the whole waste probably wouldn't have changed anything.
None of that which I watched in the three so far would come even remotely close to what debates were when I was a tad younger. Moderators moderated; debaters gave their statements, then listened to the counter arguments; and sometimes even had another round of civil rebuttal. We were able to listen to rational sides and, coupled with our own backgrounds, either find an argument to support our feelings or be persuaded the opposition was correct.
This year, within moments of the first question the debates fell way back to the days of early debates in America. About all that was missing was the "back to back we faced each other" and the guns.
The three moderators so far this year lost control of the respective debates almost immediately after they introduced the participants. At least during the part of the veep candidate debate Congressman Ryan showed some sign of control and decor. Of course the constant snickering, laughing, and body language of his opponent made that difficult. Those distractions were all permitted by the moderator and the media helped emphasize the utter rudeness by the candidate.
A college professor which I admired very much once explained that people in serious discussion often resort to that activity to hide their inability to offer real ideas or arguments to support their beliefs, often simply because they don't have any. The Vice President proved the wisdom of my old professor.
I almost wanted to watch the whole last debate only to see if the President would ever answer a question. To me avoiding an answer only demonstrates the the person doesn't have one.
One last chance to see a full debate happens Monday. Will I give up Monday Night Football to watch it? Probably not. Except I might watch the beginning long enough to see if, finally, a moderator moderates.
Another item from the recent past I might have commented on: The Earthquake. My house shook as it had never shaken before. Until I saw it on the TV, I didn't know what happened. My wife and I made all the rounds of the house to see if anything had exploded. We then thought it might have been a plane crash. Our daughter called to make sure we were all right and that's when she told us it was on TV and we learned it had been an earthquake.
I had never been in an earthquake before. Well, not quite true. I was around when the one in 1940 hit, but I was just a trifle young and honestly neither remember it nor remember ever hearing my family discussing it. My wife reminded me there had been one in the late 1950s and the TV later told us it was 1957. I never experienced that one which I can say with certainty as I was living in Florida in 1957.
And finally, the other "big" story of the week: I was not on "The List." I won't be on the next release, either. The only TV news truck I'll ever see outside my house is the Publishers' Clearing House one delivering my million dollars. Perhaps I'll increase the chance of that by sending in my whatever one sends in if I ever get another one.
I hope you have a super weekend. I'll try to spend some time getting an inspiration for next week.
Dave
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