Vote Early and Vote Often

Despite the lack of media coverage¹, the Republican Presidential Primaries have somehow managed to pierce my consciousness. Most of what I think when I think about politics is not really fit for the blog--too many exclamation points and too much foul language². Not putting political rants on the blog doesn't keep them from building up in my brain, but my brain has its own defense mechanism and it involves this song:

This is not merely because I wish many politicians (and, please, oh please, the media "personalities" covering them) would go away, but because in 1987, when I was eighteen, and living between Concord and Manchester, New Hampshire, I attended a Paul Young concert in Providence, Rhode Island with three friends.

On the way home from that concert, I got stopped by a New Hampshire State Police cruiser ten feet over the NH state line for "harassing" a limo that we had been following all the way across the state of Massachusetts in hopes it might be Paul Young. 

It was not.

It was Michael Dukakis--governor of Massachusetts & future presidential candidate on his way to Manchester, NH to announce his (doomed) candidacy.

The state policeman said to me, "The driver of that limousine says you've been harassing him. Have you?"

And I said, "Not on purpose, sir."

He didn't give me a ticket³, just held us up long enough for the limo to lose us--a car load of teenage girls hyped up on that most dangerous of drugs: adolescent hormones.

It may just be the nostalgia talking, but I say: "Paul Young 2016!" If we're lucky, maybe Howard Jones will be his running mate⁴. 

Hey, we could definitely do worse.


1. Sarcasm may be one the baser forms of humor, but it's fun.
2. You know that tipping point when cursing goes from adorably brash to downright offensive? The only thing that gets me there faster than politics is prejudice.
3. Though I've wondered over the years what the specific violation would've been if he had.
4. If we start now, we'll have plenty of time to abolish that pesky natural-born citizen clause, right? With any luck, all the folks who pay attention to that sort of thing will still be grumbling about Obama's "long-form birth certificate."