约翰·麦凯恩的副总统候选人

今天下班回家，打开电视，CNN 上报道 John McCain 的副总统人选 Sarah Palin (莎拉·佩林)。

刚才想起来写点什么，到网上“古狗”了一下“约翰·麦肯”，结果找到一堆“约翰·麦肯罗”、“约翰·麦肯兹”，到新华网上看了一眼，McCain 翻成了“麦凯恩”。

麦凯恩这招挺聪明的，显然出乎民主党这边的意料，至少这边的这些电视评论“头”们似乎没有什么有深度的话可说。显然这位阿拉斯加女州长不是一个毫无建树的“漂亮脸蛋”，从电视上有限的介绍来看，此人不是一盏省油的灯，对共和党内部的腐败份子也不手软，在阿拉斯加很有人缘。前面在 Larry King 节目上那个共和党女 talking head 拼命鼓吹说她是全国最受欢迎的州长。如果民主党那边一味轻视此人，最终一定会吃亏。

我想，麦凯恩这招势在调动共和党人的热情，至少在一定程度上是会有所成功，至少一个年轻漂亮的女副总统会让人眼睛一亮。不过，就我个人而言，此次总统选举的候选人个人并不重要，党派也在其次，最重要的未来四年我们自己的生计如何。全民医保是最关键的一件，其次能源政策，综合经济政策，伊拉克战争的走向，这与我们每个人的每日生活都息息相关。就 John McCain 数不过来的家居、一年五百万等等，他将来的政策能够有益我们这些离“五百万”相去甚远的人群吗？我想等我一年挣到五百万的时候我或许会支持 John McCain 做总统。

Larry King 之后是 AC360，安德森又出现在新奥尔良。三年前卡特琳娜飓风来袭的时候他也在那里，三年之后飓风古斯塔夫（Gustav）又“兵临城下”。三年前新奥尔良的悲惨画面而今尚历历在目，如果今年再受灾害，就是苍天瞎了眼了。如果真的噩梦又来，共和党的末日政府能够指望得上吗？或许我们都该“吃一堑长一智”吧！

I Pity John McCain

John McCain is a tragic figure of sort.

He spent decades building a reputation as a maverick of Republican. He was winning in the 2000 Republican primaries before he was tared and feathered by Bush and his cohort of scum bags. Then he has to swallow all that defeat and resentment of Bush to hug him. Does anything get more disgusting than that? All just for this one and only chance to get into the White House? What a shame.

The 29th Olympiad Closed

The games have ended. The closing ceremony is done. I have just done watching the closing ceremony thanks to the monopoly of NBC on the TV broadcasting rights in this country. I believe it when the NBC host said the Beijing Olympics was the most memorable among the many Olympics he had been involved -- at least it should be as memorable as any one of them.

All in all, it has been a very successful Olympiad. I didn't realize that Ann Arbor, this small mid-western college town, had so much to do with the Olympics. There are many memorable moments even for me who don't care much about sports. Particularly, Michael Phelps will be remembered for his 8 gold medals in swimming. Usain Bolt will be remembered as the fastest running man. The US has won the most number of medals, while China has won the most number of gold medals. As some NBC commentator said on the screen, everybody won.

Then of course, not everybody has won. I hope that people would also remember Liu Xiang. He is a hero who went down on his battleground. Beijing and its people have endured a lot to make the whole event a success. Then there are those who got swept aside by the enormous force pushing the Beijing Olympiad. It's one big world, but people definitely still have different dreams.

I believe people with the kind of patriotic opinions like Nie Weiping are in the minorities. In that respect, I admire what Lang Ping has been able to do after her career as a player.

China has impressed the world. But on the other hand, the effort to impress has been obvious -- that may or may not be the intension. Also impressive is that China has tried too hard. Especially their effort to project an image of torleration is silly: They tell the world that they allow protest but then make sure no one is capable to follow through with the registration.

第二十九届奥林匹克运动会 · 北京 · 二零零八

昨晚北京奥运会开幕。张艺谋的开幕式不同凡响，无论世人怎么评论。

不过，在中国人举国骄傲的这一刻，我却无法分享同样的亢奋。中国现在也许确实是有钱来充分表现国家的实力，但是这种举国上下把奥运弄成象节日一样，感觉上中国用力过度了些。北京街头的砖墙能够遮住那些强拆的民房，却不能掩盖北京的心虚，那不是一个“和”字能够粉饰的。中国走出秦始皇“焚书坑儒”的疯狂和愚昧，才会真正走向自信。

“爱情”

看着电视上几个年轻的歌星以各自不同的词汇高唱“爱情”，感觉有些滑稽。

少年的时候，“爱情”是一种砰然心动。

青年的时候，“爱情”是爱人身体的甘美。

其后的中年不是一种状态，而是一个不知不觉的过程。这个岁月的“爱情”大概象珊瑚礁一样，那眼中所见的美丽其实是无数珊瑚虫尸体堆砌而来，脆弱，无助。环境污染已经在全世界范围威胁到珊瑚的生存，“爱情”的处境似乎也如是。

秦始皇“焚书坑儒”

晚上电视历史频道播放《China's First Emperor》，现在正演到秦始皇焚书坑儒一段。

中国这一段历史，确实真有决定中国以往所有读书人命运的意义。从此，泱泱大国不再尊重思想、言论，一切都受强权主宰。从这个角度来说，秦始皇也是中国人灾难的起始。从这个角度来说，张艺谋影片中的“英雄”，以及周恩来这样的“人民公仆”从根本上来说也都是皇帝的帮凶。