My rainy day craft box

Megadeth guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Dave Mustaine endorses Rick Santorum for president.

I keep meaning to sit down and blog about my actual life, but it takes one of my lifelong heroes coming out in favor of a man who opposes everything I care about to make me sit down and write.

I will put up with a lot from Dave Mustaine and I have. A lot of people have. I think he has garnered that coveted "crazy old uncle" quality within the metal community where he can pretty much say whatever he wants and everyone just shakes their head and says "Oh Dave..." Or at the very worst, they make fun of him and mock him, then sneak off and go headbang to "Hangar 18" and "Wake Up Dead" when nobody is looking.

But I can't look beyond this. And perhaps that is hypocritical of me because I listen to bands who are against the things I believe in all the time. Maybe the problem is attitude. You've got bands like Slayer and Cradle of Filth who blaspheme God for a living but when they're offstage they're all happy and goofy to the point where you want to pinch their cheeks and say "You are just precious!" And then there's Dave who has been accused of many things during his long career but having a sense of humor has not been one of them.

I could also point out that I feel Rick Santorum blasphemes God on an entirely different level that no mere metal band could ever hope to reach. But that is an entirely different discussion.

Another discussion that's worth having but also something of a digression is that heavy metal, for all its talk of rebellion and resistance is by and large an intensely conservative culture. A lot of metalheads don't like change in their music and don't like change in their world around them. There is a big undercurrent of homophobia in the culture. I say these things as someone who loves the scene enough to be honest about its shortcomings. In a way it is not surprising that sooner or later someone of great stature within the culture would come out in favor of a politician like Rick Santorum.

I just wish it had not been Dave Mustaine. I don't hold being a Republican against him. Hell, Jon Schaeffer of Iced Earth, another prominent metal musician whom I admire, is an outspoken Libertarian and Libertarians scare the hell out of me. Schaeffer, however, seems to know how to speak about his political views without alienating his target audience. That is a skill Mustaine has never had and never cared to. Anyway, as I said I could care less about him being a Republican or voting for one. Unfortunately I feel Rick Santorum is the most destructive one available, the one most committed to destroying things I value very highly. So I'm sorry Dave, but after twenty-two years of believing in you and feeling like you were there for me through your music, this is where you and I part ways.

In the aftermath of the election, an expert interviewed on Fox News (I wish I had committed his name to memory,) stated that one of the problems of the Republicans is that they talk about Reagan like he ran two years ago - they need a new hero.

Since then, the lament continues that "the era of Reagan is over! If only we had another Reagan!"

I honestly can't say whether Reagan deserves his heroic status or not. I was a child back then. As long as I had Transformers to play with and Chef Boyardee to eat, I was happy. (Come to think of it, give me those two things now and I'm still happy...) But whether he deserves it or not, it was twenty years ago: get over it.

And I'm not letting Democrats off the hook on this one either. Kennedy was fifty years ago and Clinton got a lot of things wrong but did enough things right to squeak by.

The past, y'all. Stop living in it.

Last night I went to bed high on Obama's victory, had dreams of women engaged in sapphic breast fights, and woke up with a sore throat.

I didn't expect Obama to win by the landslide that he did. It was amazing. But I really want to give my respect to John McCain for the beautiful, classy concession speech that he gave. I've believed in John McCain for as long as I've known who he was. This year I felt that he betrayed me. Last night I watched him become the man I admired again. I hope he stays that way, that he will be willing to help Obama lead this country and that Obama will be willing to let him.

I believe Obama is a good man. History was made last night. I hope he will be worthy of the honor he has received, that he will be the man to meet the colossal challenges he will inherit.

News has just come down that Prop 8 has passed in California. Now I have been saying this all morning so I apologize if you're hearing it again, but it is a message that I feel cannot be stressed enough:

All that the passing of Prop 8 means is that we still have more work to do!

Part of what supposedly makes America great is that we do not rest secure in our victories. We're always on to the next challenge, the next obstacle to overcome. Even if everything about the new administration fails the fact still stands that last night we proved that paradigms can be shattered. So let them have their Prop 8 while it lasts. It's only a matter of time now.

( And now if you're tired of the soap box you can read about that weird booby dream I had last night. )

Watching news channels all day gives me lots of opportunity to compare and contrast the American presidential candidates. What John McCain is doing wrong is this: while Obama is talking about various different things, McCain keeps going back over and over again to the story of "Joe the Plumber." It's to the point where I can't tell whom the senator is trying to get elected, himself or the plumber. The campaign has even found a second blue collar spokesman in the form of "Tito the Builder." A couple of times I've heard Sarah Palin make passing references to a "Sandi the Citizen."

I was not aware that "citizen" was an occupation, let alone one that pays $250,000 annually.

It's not working. Harping on one point of attack just isn't an effective strategy anymore when most people, myself included, vote based on multiple issues. If McCain wins I think it will be in spite, not because of Joe the Plumber. Joe isn't helping him; Joe really can't help him any more than he already has. Neither can Tito the Builder, Sandi the Citizen, Mott the Hoople or Echo the Bunnyman.

Instead of getting people at rallies to chant "I am Joe the Plumber!" what McCain SHOULD have done was drop Joe and claim Governor Schwarzenegger as his mascot. You get people chanting "I am Conan the Barbarian!" at rallies and they're gonna feel empowered!