Apes on the right, people on the left, just like in politics

[vovat]

I watched part of tonight's debate. I'll probably have some more comments after I watch the rest (bethje taped it), but I have a few things to say now:

• The format of the debate reminded me of a combination of a daytime talk show and a class at school. I remember having to submit questions for speakers. There was one time in graduate school when I forgot to come up with questions. I think that counted as a zero for an assignment, which was unfortunate, but now that class is over with, so who cares?
  
  
• Kerry didn't get off to a particularly good start by saying that he supported the Patriot Act and No Child Left Behind. Granted, he DID say he had problems with how they were implemented, but I thought they were considered to be bad ideas in general. Then again, I've never actually read either of those acts, so I guess I don't know for sure. Maybe I need to do some more research.
  
  
• More questions on Iraq meant more opportunities for the candidates to repeat themselves. I'm not sure why they were accepted. I thought the foreign policy angle was dealt with in the last debate, and they were going to talk about something else this time. I DID like one quote from Kerry, when he asked how we could go after other countries for trying to obtain nuclear weapons when the Bush administration was working on a new nuclear device of its own. That's always puzzled me in general, though. "WE can have nuclear weapons, but YOU can't." I'm just not comfortable with the attitude that the American government in general seems to have, where they feel they're better than any other country, and can MAKE rules, but don't have to FOLLOW them. The Bush administration is particularly bad in that respect, but they're hardly alone. I guess I'm more comfortable with the United States being a superpower than I would with some other countries in that position, but why do we have to have a superpower at all?
  
  
• Did Bush say "Internets," or did I mishear that because I expected him to say something stupid? I know he referred to "the Bush Plan."
  

In other news, there's a skunk wandering around my neighborhood. I saw it crossing the street the other day, and smelled it a few times.

Oh, and does anyone know how to remove things from the startup menu? I have Windows ME, and I'm probably the only person who does anymore, but it's probably pretty similar with other versions of Windows.

Comments

[zaph.livejournal.com]

Did Bush say "Internets," or did I mishear that because I expected him to say something stupid?

He really did say something stupid. "Internets" was, in fact, the word he spoke. :)

[titletownie.livejournal.com]

Politics are really annoying. I think that it's appropriate that you incorporated a skunk into this particular post.

I watch the debates so I can participate in class discussions. Also, as a journalism major, I feel somewhat obligated to pay attention to that sort of thing. Whether I watch it or not, though, I already know who I'm voting for. I definitely want to throw things at both of them. It probably is a lesser of two evils deal for me and I think there will be more problems to follow no matter who's in office, so...I flipped a coin.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think that it's appropriate that you incorporated a skunk into this particular post.

Heh, I was actually going to try to make some kind of transition there, but I couldn't think of a non-awkward way to do it.

It probably is a lesser of two evils deal for me and I think there will be more problems to follow no matter who's in office, so...I flipped a coin.

But if one candidate is clearly the LESSER of two evils, why would you need to flip a coin? Or am I missing a joke here?

[titletownie.livejournal.com]

No joke. I didn't really flip a coin. I made a choice with a basis that might equate to flipping a coin though. Everyone really wants you to get out there and vote. When I feel like we're screwed either way, what's the difference? And no, I'm not going to vote for some guy who might have the greatest plan I've ever heard of but who is only going to get three other votes besides mine. I try to be realistic about all of this. Maybe I'm more of a cynic than a realist, but I don't know if I can help it.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

But in your earlier post, you said it was a "a lesser of two evils deal," while your later comments suggest that you think the two evils are equal. So which is it?

[titletownie.livejournal.com]

I think we are screwed either way. Maybe a little less one way than the other, but who knows?

I think it's easy to see how uncertain I am about this. I probably shouldn't have said anything because...I don't really have anything rational to say about it.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

I feel like we're screwed either way, what's the difference?

Perhaps not much, but "lesser" is an important word to consider here, and you used it yourself. Why flip a coin, if you have a 50% chance of voting for someone whom you consider the greater of two evils?

I'm not going to vote for some guy who might have the greatest plan I've ever heard of but who is only going to get three other votes besides mine.

Good, because voting for a third party candidate this year would be extremely retarded.

[titletownie.livejournal.com]

Ah, maybe I should have just said that I'm not particularly fond of either, but I felt that I should make a choice regardless of how stupidly groundless it might be.

[onib.livejournal.com]

I've been harking on the political side of things a lot lately, so I'll just comment about the startup menu thing. The easiest ways to take things out of the start up menu is to highlight the item like you was going to run it, but right click instead - that should offer you the option of deleting the shortcut. Alternately, you can right click on the startup button itself, which gives you the "open" option. This will open the start button list of programs in directory format. From there, you can drill down to the startup folder and delete whatever you want.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The problem here, though, is that I think it's trying to load a program that's been uninstalled.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Well, if the shortcut to the program isn't actually in the Startup folder of the Start menu, and you're using an older version of Windows, you might check for it in the Windows system files. Go to Start/Run or to the Command Prompt and run the "sysedit" command. This will open up all the Windows startup files within one window. You can search for the file name there to see if it's being started from within one of these files.

Failing all of that, you could always hazard running "regedit" and search through your registry for any occurance of the program name.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

My computer doesn't seem to recognize the "sysedit" command, for some reason. The thing is, I can recall modifying the start menu at the AOL tech support guy's behest back when I was making my unsuccessful attempt to install AOL, but I don't remember how.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Which version of Windows are you actually running?

Oh, and sysedit is supposed to open the following:

C:\autoexec.bat
C:\config.sys
C:\windows\win.ini
C:\windows\system.ini

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm running the ever-crappy Windows ME.

[tisok.livejournal.com]

start->run->msconfig. last tab. uncheck the offending program.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think that worked. Thanks!

[tisok.livejournal.com]

no problem, glad to help.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Well, that's not as bad as it could be. I have a laptop that's still running Windows 98.

Yeah, I would say to edit those files manually and search through them for the name of the program that's loading. If you don't find it, you should be able to right click on the start button and select open or explore to get to the startup folder (drill down into the Programs/Startup folder). If it's not listed in one of those places, then it's probably being kicked off by the Registry and you will need to run regedit and search for it.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Oh well, never mind. I didn't see that you'd already taken care of this.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, at least 98 was the standard for a while. ME seems to be something that they only put on computers for a very brief time (which just happened to be when I got MY computer), and then quickly abandoned.