Could You Vote for Hillary?

Eight years ago (give or take a few months) people started asking me if I could vote for Al Gore. It usually wasn't really a question - it was more of an accusation. They'd tell me that Gore was arrogant and over-educated (I always wondered what was wrong with being over-educated). They'd tell me Gore was stupid, that he thought he'd invented the Internet (which, obviously, he hadn't), and that Al made fun of Oliver North at a 1987 Senate hearing where North told Congress that one day Osama Bin Laden was going to be a problem (You remember that email? The truth is that Gore wasn't on the committee and never questioned North). Then they'd tell me something like that Bush had better judgment and would make a good president - and they'd finish with something about how a Bush presidency would be good for public education in America....


Four years ago those same people started asking me if I could vote for John Kerry. And, again, it usually sounded more like an accusation than a question. They'd tell me that Kerry was a hypocrite because he only threw cheap ribbons that can be replaced anyway instead of real medals at whatever that protest event was. They'd tell me Kerry didn't really earn those three purple hearts, anyway, and that they knew he didn't because Swift Boat Veterans for Truth said he didn't (and we all knew they were a disinterested party speaking on behalf of God and justice). And they'd tell that Kerry was really just a pansy who owed most of what he'd accomplished in life to money he got from his wife with the funny accent. Then they'd tell me that it was unpatriotic to vote against Bush in the middle of a war (even if he started it)....

Now those same people have started asking me if I could vote for Hillary. And it sounds like an accusation again.

I voted for Kerry. I think I voted for Gore, but that was a long time ago and I'm not absolutely positive.

When the Democratic Primary comes around in my state, I'll probably vote for John Edwards. For reasons I can't really quantify, reasons that have as much to do with personality as with politics, I don't really like Hillary all that much. But on November 4th, 2008, if the choice comes down to Hillary Clinton or Fred Thompson, or maybe Hillary vs. Newt Gingrich, I will not stay home and curl up in bed and pull the covers over my head.

The Republicans have spent eight years trying to privatize public education and take America backwards in time to before it was a Great Society. They started an expensive war to satisfy personal agendas. And when it's all said and done I'll go out on November 4th next year and vote for whomever I think is most likely to clean up the mess that George W. Bush and the GOP have made of America. And I'll do it at least in part because it's my patriotic duty.

The answer, then, is "yes." I'll almost certainly vote for someone else when Virginia holds its Democratic Presidential Primary on February 12th. But if it comes to that, I could vote for Hillary on November 4th next year. Quickly, and without much reservation...

Shopping Online: You Need a Good Shopping Cart...

There's nothing like getting a bad shopping cart when you go to the grocery store. Last week I went shopping and the card I got had a back wheel that didn't turn and front wheels that made the cart want to veer left. On top of that, it squeaked.

When you shop online your cart usually doesn't squeak. But whether your experience as a shopper is good or bad depends in part on whether your shopping cart is any good. If you want to sell stuff online and have customers that enjoy shopping with you, you need a good shopping cart.

Ashop Commerce makes a pretty good shopping cart. The company is a leading provider of hosted shopping cart software. It offers a complete solution for merchants to sell online. And its website says that it offers online businesses a 10 day trial period to test some of its software.

There's nothing like getting to the end of an online shopping spree and discovering that your digital shopping cart can't remember what you wanted to buy. So if you're looking for shopping cart software, visit Ashop's site. Their shopping carts seem to be some of the best available...

Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I was financially compensated for this post...

The Cosner Home...

My wife's Dad still lives in the house where she spent most of her childhood in the small community of Red House, Md. The house itself is a beautiful two-storey home with a large basement. Much of the house is trimmed in wormy American chestnut.



The most beautiful part of the home, though, is arguably the yard. The Cosner home is surrounded by flowers - front and back. And as you walkout the back door you are standing in the shadow of a stand of large trees, mostly oaks, that shelter the house from the harsh winter winds of this part of the Allegheny Plateau.



The house sits on the east end of the woods. On the west end of the woods is Benny's garden and his orchard. Potatoes, corn, squash, strawberries, blueberries, currants, cabbage, onions, a few sunflowers, pears and apples grow in the field west of the woods.



You can see pictures of all the flowers, ferns, etc. in the Cosner yard here.

I also have pictures of the garden and some shots taken in the woods online...