The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Indiana

Kicking back here in the office, watching the Presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, and I was tickled when a colleague noticed something interesting:

John McCain is not wearing a flag pin!

Wasn't that the rap the GOP laid on Obama, questioning his patriotism?

I think we need to look into McCain's background and what his allegiances are! :-)

Many of you out there may harbor the notion that Uncle Rod is an intellectual giant, with rippling biceps and a booming, threatening presence.

Well, that's true, but something you may not know is that I am, on occasion and in the privacy of my own home, a hopeless geek. Especially about all things Bondian.

Thus, I offer to you, my beloved readers, the following link to the theme song for the new 007 film, "Quantum of Solace." It's called "Another Way to Die" by Jack White and Alicia Keys. Enjoy.

www.thirdmanrecords.com

Well, it only took a catastrophic financial crisis to get the politicians back on message. But they are. And now, instead of getting Obama and McCain blaming each other for all the normal problems we have, we get them blaming each other -- and each other's party -- for the catastrophic financial crisis.

Guys, stop it. Now. Don't blame. Don't point fingers. Nobody who is hurting gives a rat's overnight bag who is to blame. Just tell us how you're going to fix it. Give us details.

Today is the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S.

I just watched a replay of NBC's live coverage of the events, the exact moment that the second tower fell. And I felt the same wrenching pain in my gut as I felt in my apartment in Encino, Calif., on that morning, calling my roommates in to watch the unbelievable images.

Was Barack Obama aiming his "pig in lipstick" comment at Sarah Palin?

Are you kidding me? Obama is an eminently intelligent and well-spoken man. I'm sure that, if he wanted to directly, verbally attack Palin, he could come up with something much more devastating than calling her a pig.

For crying out loud, that's something you do on the playground. Then again, we are talking about American politics.

It has been a week since my last blog entry, so I'm weighted down with material, so much so that I can hardly walk.

In this entry, we discuss the phenomenon that occurs when Hollywood throws the world a curveball that seems to come from behind the batter.

Such a curveball is the latest project from Steven ("Ocean's Eleven") Soderbergh.

On two different Web sites today -- aintitcool.com and darkhorizons.com -- I found the following item. And it has left me enervated, puzzled and shaking my head like it's been raining.

I've been out of it for a few days, and thus, no blogging. But this has got to stop.

Admittedly, I'm a Democrat. And although I pride myself on being fairly middle-of-the-road, I tend to be liberal. (There! I said it! Come get me!)

But I'm not naively liberal. And I think both candidates for president, Obama and McCain, have some great ideas and hopes for this country.

Your humble blogger is aghast at the media pundits this morning, as they hammer away at the political implications of the Democratic Convention's first night. While they're all, to a greater or lesser extent, tipping their hats to the appearance of Sen. Ted Kennedy, mere weeks after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

Oh, here's another headline: "Bayh the side of the road."

Or how about "Let bygones be Bayh gone"? Or "Bayh gone era"?

From our colleague Richard Torres: "Barack says good Bayh, and Biden says hello"?

We could do this all day.

OK, someone explain this to me. How come auto dealers have all these dazzling, attractive ads on TV, the kind where the words on the screen either go by in a gnat's heartbeat, or they're too small to be read without help from some sophomore at Purdue, and they all say, "Our biggest sale ever!" As though they didn't have a sale every 72 hours.

But here's the deal. How can it be a "sale" when all of the prices shown on screen are lease prices?