Why I don't want to vote for Hillary

Reasons, rational and not, why I truly hope some other Democrat will get the nomination:

• Hatred of the cynical nepotism that motivates Party movers and shakers to back someone with name recognition over other, more qualified, candidates. This is what brought us the current President Bush. It also got Hillary her Senate seat in the first place. Perhaps one can't argue with elective success, but, given the current state of the world wrought by a dangerously incompentent President, how can one not oppose it?
  
• She says she voted to give President Bush authority to start the Iraq war because she trusted him. Presidents should be a better judge of character than that. They need to appoint lots of people to run things. When they screw up, will her excuse be that she trusted them? We've had enough of that from the current President. ('Brownie, you're doing a hell of a job.')
  
• If we had national health insurance, I'd feel a lot better about her. She should have anticipated the insurance companies' reaction to her plan. As Birch Bayh said, "It takes a good politician to make a good president."
• Feminist Idealism. I'd like the first woman President to be one who came to prominence through her own achievements, not that of her husband. Dianne Feinstein , Susan Collins, Nancy Pelosi, Christine Todd Whitman. Someone like that. Had Margaret Chase Smith run for president back in the 1960's, one could argue that she had originally won her seat because of her husband, but by then she had made quite a name for herself on her own. I don't think Hillary Clinton has the long expericence that justifies a run for the Presidency.
• If Hillary wins the nomination, we'll have to listen to that awful Celine Dion song until election day.
  

Sopranos ending

From the spoilers reported on NPR, it was a satisfying ending, at least for me. I've only seen a few minutes of the series. HBO was never in our budget. I noticed that the first season is on DVD at the Goffstown library, but we haven't decided whether to get it out. Even if we do, we'll still be six years behind everybody else. Rod says it's probably too violent for me, but he could be overprotective. We saw the first season of Rome on DVD, and liked it.

I haven't given up on watching the Sopranos some day. (It could show up edited on broadcast TV, as Sex and the City did.) So I like that there wasn't a definitive ending, because when I finally do get around to viewing it, the episodes won't be colored by my thinking "This is a show about a man who eventually..."

The spoiler I'm worried about is the day after the last Harry Potter book comes out. It's a wait to get those books out of the library. That hasn't mattered in the past.

Paris Hilton

I'm such a geek that I have to translate her into Cynthia Duchess from Stranger in a Strange Land in order to understand why we have to hear about her.

I prefer to get my entertainment from fiction. The main purpose of journalism in a democracy ought to be helping us decide how to vote.

3-can 'chili' recipe

Combine and heat in a saucepan:

• 1 can "mexican stewed tomatoes" (we use Stop & Shop brand)
• 1 can beans (e.g. black beans)
• 1 small can tomato paste
  
• frozen corn
• frozen spinach

Serve with rice, cornbread, grated cheese, whatever.

You can stir instant rice into the mixture, if you're really desperate for a quick one-pot meal.