So it looks like I'm posting about once a month. Hmm. Gotta work on that.

We had a lovely, quiet New Year's Eve. Without a TV, it's difficult to find a way to watch the ball drop in Times Square; there are websites where you can watch for free, but bandwidth is an issue, and I didn't try soon enough to get into the site. Soooo...we watched a countdown clock online, counted down to the midnight, and then just sorta looked at one another. Yeah. Happy New Year.

We toasted with sparkling cider and terrified the cats with a couple of party poppers. Then we went back to doing what we'd been doing before the countdown: reading online, reading a book, watching videos, whatever. We are *such* party animals....

I guess the big news, for me, is that my stories went live at Calderwood Books a week or so ago. So, hey, if Santa brought you an e-book reader for Christmas, check 'em out! And many thanks to Joy and Jennifer and the crew at Calderwood Books for making the process as painless as it has been. You guys are awesome!

Being out of the news biz, I find myself sort of startled by certain things nowadays. For instance, I've been more-or-less successfully avoiding the election news, thinking, hey, it's all hype, we've got *months* before this thing actually happens. And looky here, the Iowa caucuses are THIS WEEK! Holy cow.... The Virginia primary is still a ways off (I *hope* so, anyway, jeez) but I'm still very much leaning toward Hillary. Dammit, I *liked* the Clinton years. And I always thought she'd make a better chief executive than Bill. I'm still not sold on the concept of her being electable in the fall -- the Clintons are so polarizing to so much of middle America. But Obama just seems too inexperienced to me; give him a couple of terms in Congress and let him run again, and I'd vote for him then. The other Democrats -- meh. Edwards never excited me, and I can't even think of the others right now, so clearly they've made a big impression (not). I *am* sad that Evan Bayh's name seems to have been dropped. Evan briefly dated a girl on my hall in college, so I have a soft spot in my heart for the guy.

Of the Republicans, I suppose McCain is the least offensive to me, but I think he's unlikely to win the nomination. He's run so many times now that his persona is a little shopworn, and gods know American consumer culture always wants the New Hotness. Huckabee scares the crap out of me, plus he and Romney both seem too untested (I am mindful of the hash Jimmy Carter, with no national political experience, made of his presidency); Ron Paul strikes me as the Perot of this campaign (highly unlikely to win but could be a spoiler); and I can't think of the others so, again, clearly they've made a big impression on me.

Can we go back to Obama for a minute? Two things I'd like to say about him. One, and this is totally snarky: Did you see the pictures of Obama and his wife with Oprah, the day Oprah announced her support for Obama? Wow, Oprah looked like five miles of bad road, especially compared to Obama's wife. Memo to Oprah's handlers: never, under any circumstances, put those two women on the same stage, ever again.

The second thing: I know I'm likely to get in trouble for this observation, and I risk being branded a racist and whatnot. But I direct you to this story from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/22/AR2007122201762.html

It's about how a racist element is supposedly creeping into the Clinton campaign. On December 12, Clinton's co-chair in New Hampshire, Bill Shaheen, made some remarks about Obama's comments in his autobiography about his drug use in his early years. Obama has said all along that he "came clean" in order to be able to talk to young people about making mistakes and rising above them. But Shaheen said that if Obama wins the nomination, the GOP could use the admission as a window for "dirty tricks". Shaheen said, "It'll be 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?' " Here's the story in the Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/12/AR2007121202793.html

The black media pundits jumped on it with both feet, saying that the Clinton campaign is deliberately conjuring up whites' deep-seated fears of blacks, because everybody knows that all white people believe in their heart of hearts that all black people are drug dealers.

Bullshit. I'm white and I don't believe it. And I'm personally a titch offended that some black folks still believe that all white folks are racists. Whatever happened to judging people by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin? Only white folks are supposed to do that? Black folks get a pass?

Anyway, let's hope we can lay some of this crap to rest in 2008. But frankly, I'm not holding my breath.

One more political observation and then I'll quit: I love watching political experts try to process the concept that somebody might not want to be in politics. Witness Al Gore, whose name keeps popping up as a possible Democratic presidential candidate. After he won the Nobel Peace Prize, wistful pundits could be heard, sighing, "Maybe he'll run *now*...." Yo, dudes: the man has an Oscar *and* a Nobel Prize. What makes you think he'd *want* to be President now? He's having more fun now than he *ever* had in office. Leave the guy alone!