Mailbag

It would give me great pleasure to include a post every few weeks or so where I answer some of the many questions I have received either though email or snail mail from my legions of followers. I used the term followers only because it is the term used to describe the subscribers of this particular site. At the time of this posting I have exactly two followers. I will not denigrate their loyalty as I am sure that although they are called followers they will actually be leading the charge to spread the word to as many people as possible of the existence of the blogger of la mancha. Of course as this is only my third posting and as excited as I am to have two loyal and passionate followers, I have yet to receive any questions or even any comments about my previous postings to which I can respond. Thankfully I have done many hours of research on other sites and message boards and was able to construct one question that is a composite of some of the many questions I have seen on the internet recently. In the future hopefully I will be able to answer actual questions by the followers of blogger of la mancha.

I read all sorts of things on the internet about how Barack Obama is a socialist, an elitist, a Muslim and possibly worst of all that he is extremely intelligent and does not have a bad temper why should I vote for him?

I understand that I am posting this to the internet so you have a reason to be skeptical of what I am saying. On the bright side you believe all of the crazy things you read on the internet based on your question so that should make the argument easier for me. The characture of him that has been attempted to be painted by his opponents is laughable. They say he is a socialist because he wants to roll back the tax cuts that were put into place eight years ago. Anytime someone decides to raise taxes or cut taxes that could be seen as spreading the wealth one way or the other. He wants to go back to the same tax rates for the wealthy that were under the Clinton administration. I don't recall anyone who had a grip on reality ever calling Clinton a socialist. When Clinton talked about spreading the love he meant something entirely different than socialism. I actually saw an interview with the socialist candidate for president on the Colbert Report, yes we have a socialist candidate for president it is one of the many minor party candidates on the ballot, he was outraged that some were calling Obama a socialist. He said that anyone who knew anything about socialism would not call Obama one. This is an extremely old tactic that smacks of the old McCarthy hearings. If you don't have anything positive to run on attack your opponent and put some label on him that will scare people. People say he is a Muslim. Well besides the fact that he is a lifelong Christian who was criticized heavily for having a controversial Christian pastor. You can't have it both ways. You can't criticize him for having a crazy Chrisitan preacher and then say you are not voting for him because he is a Muslim. Well of course you can do this, but just realize it is not based on logic. I understand that he has a strange name and he looks a little different than anyone who has run for president. I can certainly relate to someone being treated differently for having an unfortunate name.

They used to say John Kerry was an elitist too. Barack Obama like Kerry had a first class education at elite ivy league schools. He of course grew up under entirely different circumstances as a child of a mixed race background to a single white mother. Having nieces and nephews of a mixed race background I find it inspiring that America has come so far in such a short time. I know I have heard some pretty offensive things said about the idea of interracial marriage or dating over the years and my nieces and nephews are a lot younger than Obama so I imagine things were much worse for him and his family. My nephew for example is 18 and getting ready to go to college. Like Obama he is a good basketball player and he is also on the honor roll. He has a wonderful mother who also happens to be my sister so maybe I am slightly biased. His father is also a great guy. It didn't work out between my sister and him, but I don't know that I have met or heard of many fathers who care more for their son than he does. It reminds me of something I heard Chris Rock say recently. I am paraphrasing because I don't have the exact quote. He said he used to tell his daughters they could be anything if they worked hard enough at it even though he didn't really believe it himself, but seeing Obama this close to the Presidency he and millions of other mothers and fathers finally believe it when they say that to their children. He was the head of the Harvard Law Review. He was a state Senator and later a United States Senator from the state of Illinois. Those are some of the most elite positions in all of the world. He is running for the most elite job in the United States so please spare me the argument that he is an elitist. Yes he is intelligent and well-spoken. He eats healthy, exercises, is well tempered, and by all accounts appears to be a loving father and husband. When did any of that become a bad thing. Wouldn't it be great to have the leader of our country be someone that everyone could look up to. You could tell your sons or daughters they could grow up to be anything they wanted to be with a straight face. Of course it might be unrealistic to think they might grow up to be Barack Obama, but really when you think about it, it was unrealistic to think he would grow up to be Barack Obama.

Steal a Base Steal a Taco Vote for Free Either Way

Tomorrow Tuesday the 28th of November Taco Bell will give you a free taco if you go to any participating Taco Bell between the hours of 2 and 6 pm. It is part of a promotion called steal a base steal a taco. The base stealing part of the equation has already been completed as all that it required was for there to be one stolen base during the World Series. It does not increase if more than one stolen base occurs so there is no need to watch the rest of the World Series to cheer for additional free tacos unless you were already interested in watching the games which of course you are free to do.

I imagine that not everyone is excited by the prospect of a free 89 cent taco. It may seem that there are more important things going on in the country than a free taco. I understand the skepticism. Many of you may have been more excited if it was a supreme taco. You don't have to tell me no one understands the importance of sour cream and tomatoes in a taco more than me. For many years I thought supreme was a Spanish word meaning sour cream and tomatoes. I assumed it had been translated from the original word supremo. I was out with a beautiful Latina who complimented me on my supreme mastery of the English language.

I laughed and said that what she had said was cute, but I think maybe something was lost in translation as in English supreme meant sour cream and tomatoes.

She looked confused at first and asked me if I was joking. There is nothing supreme about a supreme taco she replied it could just as easily have been called an ultimate taco or a grande taco, but really it was an excuse to charge 30 cents for tomatoes and sour cream.

Seriously they already have Nachos Bell Grande so that would have been even more confusing. You obviously never studied marketing. Also in my defense your people were a little misleading in their advertising as you stated they were just looking for a way to charge extra for things that most people would normally consider an integral part of a taco.

I can't even begin to explain all of the things that are wrong with that statement, but I am Asian and the guy who runs Taco Bell is an Australian I think and it either still is or used to be owned by Pepsi.

My embarrassing completely true anecdote aside let me get to the point of this post. I like tacos. I am not going to deny that I like tacos, but unless I am already near a Taco Bell tomorrow between 2 and 6 I probably will not bother to make the trip just to get a free taco. In the past this has been the sort of enthusiasm displayed by some when considering whether to vote in the presidential election. That might be a slight exaggeration although if the presidential choice was not on the ballot and it was a congressional race or heaven forbid a state senate race it would be an accurate assessment. Now I'm not advocating giving everyone who votes a free taco. Maybe it would increase voter turnout, but I think maybe we should be grateful that we have the right to vote and it does not even depend on whether or not a baseball team gets a stolen base, although if you were convicted in the past of stealing baseball equipment from your local sporting goods store you may not be eligible to vote. That was not my point though. I don't think the reward for voting needs to be greater but I do think the time frame for when you can vote should be greater. I can understand why Taco Bell would not want the window of time to receive a free taco to be more than four hours, but the window of time for voting in some states is not much longer. Some states close their polls at seven or eight pm. In some more heavily populated areas people have to wait in line for hours to vote. Taco Bell isn't giving away tacos because it wants to be nice. I'm not criticizing them it's just the truth. They realize that if you give someone a free taco they will probably buy more food while they are there. Also if they have never been there before maybe they will try it for the first time and be more likely to go there again in the future. More than anything though if someone gets something for free they are likely to have a positive association with the product. If I had to wait in line for several hours to get a free taco I would not wait in line and if I did then my experience would not have been pleasant and thus the promotion would not have done it's trick. I am not saying America or the voting experience is a product but if you were a young voter in an inner city who was excited about voting for the first time only to realize when you showed up at the polls that it was going to be a two or three hour wait maybe your enthusiasm would diminish slightly. It would probably be disheartening to see footage on television of people in more affluent neighborhoods walking in and not having to wait more than a few minutes if at all. At the very least Election Day should be made a national holiday, but I think it should be a three day weekend to better ensure that those with difficult work schedules or those who have transportation issues will have an easier time making it to the poles. Maybe people would be willing to stand in line for a supreme taco or to vote for the supreme leader of the country a.k.a the President, but if we could make the experience more convenient for everyone there is a chance they would stand in line for a regular taco or perhaps even a local congressional race.

Blogger of La Mancha

I will not allow myself to get too carried away in comparing my new adventure in blogging to the greatest knight's errant in history Don Quixote. Let it be known though that I would be honored if it were to be said my blogs were of such fine quality that even Don Quixote himself, who often said the sword is mightier than the pen, would have given pause when asked if my pen was not worthy of the sword of many a noble knight's errant. Like Don Quixote I am a single man and although I admire him for his devotion and loyalty to the peerless Dulcinea of Tolbiasa I do not believe I could live my life pining for one woman who I could never be with when there are surely many others who, while not near as beautiful or pious, would certainly be a suitable mate. For as Quixote's faithful squire Sancho Panza would say better a sparrow in the hand than a vulture on the wing. He would of course have strung together many more proverbs than I did and likely lost some of the meaning in his original point, but the point is still well taken. While I would of course like for this blog to be a rousing success and to give the spoils of victory to my friends such as Quixote's fame enabled Sancho to be governor of his own island, albeit it only briefly, I would be more than happy with a small but loyal readership. I may not be able to right all wrongs or to be as brave as Don Quixote was but if after reading my blogs there is even one reader of this blog whose life is affected in a positive way for even an instant than I will consider myself richer than the wealthiest lord in all of the known world.

This opening blog is of course a reference to the classic Don Quixote by Cervantes. I have not lost my marbles and decided that I am the reincarnation of said knight-errant. I recently read the book and enjoyed it and when prompted to supply a name for this site the first thing I thought of was to reference Quixote in some way. I initially thought of the blogger of the rueful figure in reference to his name the knight of the rueful figure, but although it may be a better name even I am not capable of that level of self-deprecation. That being said I realize this opening blog probably will have little meaning to those who haven't read the book and may mean little to some who have read it. So if you do not enjoy this initial blog do not despair as I plan to write many more blogs in the future on a wide range of topics so please have patience as I am only a novice in the blogging profession.