Quote of the Day/Week_ Al Gore

Today, we continue focusing on politicians who won their party nomination only to lose the general election, with a quote from Al Gore, who actually won the popular vote over George W. Bush in the 2000 general election, which has perhaps made it more awkward for election overseers from America to be trusted in places like Guatemala.

Gore, who turns 64, is also the president of Current TV, which is home to "The Young Turks," hosted by my fellow progressive Turkish-American Cenk Uygur. Gore is also the leading advocate for global warming, and given that it will be 84 degrees in Montgomery, Ala., one has to wonder when those who are vocally against Gore's theories, such as Bill O'Reilly, will concede that the former vice president has some valid points.

But, our aims today are not partisan in nature and to prove that we have a non-partisan quip from Gore:

"Airplane travel has a way of making you look like your passport photo."

SIDEBAR: While the college sports world is focused on the Sweet 16 in men's basketball, post-season women's gymnastics gets underway on Saturday. The University of Michigan, the five-time defending Big 10 championships, head to the University of Iowa to compete with seven other schools, including two highly-ranked teams from Nebraska and Penn State.

On Friday's home meet against the Michigan State Spartans, Michigan won over its rival thanks to junior Katie Zorales (Wheaton, Ill.) and sophomore Joanna Sampson (willow Grove, Pa.).

Sophomore Stephanie Colbert of the home team got a 9.625 on balance beam as the Wolverines won the meet; yes, we checked out her mini-bio on the Wolverines' women's gymnastics home page: Comedian/actor/talk show host Stephen Colbert is not her father.

Quote of the Day/Week- Galileo Galileli

Since we had problems finding a quote from the Danish bishop and scientist Nicolas Steno, who is the subject of today's 'google doodle' as it is his 374th birthday, we are opting to go with the Italian astronomer Galileo Galileli (1564-1642) who would also be very, very old 'if he were alive today.'

In all seriousness, Galileo was responsible for the telescope. His name came up in September when Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, who got one percent of the vote in yesterday's New Hampshire primary, dropped his name when trying to figure out a scientist he could use to justify his denial of global warming....ok.

Here is the quip from the renown Italian physicist:

"By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox."

SIDEBAR: Kudos to North Carolina State University; as we learned from Twitter today, that the school is sponsoring a book drive before tonight's men's basketball game with Georgia Tech, which tips off at 9:00 p.m. The Wolfpack women's gymnastics team has also sponsored book drives, and we imagine many other athletic teams on campus have as well.

Quote of the Week- Lenny Bruce

Today, our quote of the day comes from the late, great comic genius Lenny Bruce (1925-1966), whom I have recently outlived (he died just a few months away from what would have been his 41st birthday).



Bruce was using the term 'yada, yada, yada,' some 30 years before it became a pop culture standard thanks to the term's frequent use on "Seinfeld."



This quote seems quite prophetic considering the recent telecommunication mergers:



"Communism is like one big phone company."



SIDEBAR: We had assumed that Cong. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) was the nuttiest, fringe Republican candidate for president, but it appears this dubious dishonor should go to Gov. Rick Perry (R-Tex).



According to an NPR report last week, Perry, who is a born again evangelical who likes executions (hmmm....yeah, he does seem too much like GWB) stated in Portsmouth, NH, that public schools in texas teach evolution and creationsim. Perry added that there were 'some gaps in evolution.' The day before Perry essentially said that global warming was just 'a lot of hype.'



This lead another Republican candidate, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, who must feel like the only sane man in the asylum, to tweet that he did believe in evolution.



Of course, saying something intellectually sound while trying to become a Republican presidential candidate could cause a person to lose Sioux City!

This and That- I Forgot About Joe Biden

Since I was in high school, I have been a partisan Democrat, so much so that I wanted to vote for Walter Mondale against Ronald Reagan in 1984 even though I was 14 years old at the time.

But, four years later, my opportunity came, and despite pressure from my Turkish relatives in Istanbul not to 'vote for the Greek,' I did indeed vote for Michael Dukakis over George H.W. Bush, even though Reagan's veep carried Virginia and won the election easily.

The field for the 1988 Democratic nomination seemed rather flat at the time, which lead to them being dubbed 'The Seven Dwarfs,' which Eric Alterman of "The Nation" would say proves that there is really no such thing as a liberal media. Of course, Bill O'Reilly would beg to differ, but we don't really care about what he thinks.

Yesterday, I had a chance to take a quiz for the web site for "Mental Floss" magazine which usually has all sorts of interesting quizzes. I had just talked about "snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" with a friend of mine, so the chance to name the 'seven dwarfs' as in the seven Democratic candidates from 1988 seemed rather nifty to me.

But, much to my suprise, I had a lot of trouble with it. After Dukakis, I remembered that Paul Simon (not the singer) and Bruce Babbitt, both of whom have since died, were candidates. I then remembered Al Gore, who as everyone knows became Bill Clinton's veep, but I had somehow forgotten about our current vice-president Joe Biden who was also in that field! This does beg the question, if I run into him someday at a political rally, do I mention this to him or not?!

I did get a chance to see one of the other 1988 Democratic candidates Richard Gephardt speak during a rally in Georgetown, SC, as he was trying to win the 2004 nomination which went to John Kerry. In fact, I rediscovered photographs I took of that event just a few weeks ago.

Speaking of political campaigns, I was just thinking when Mitt Romney, who we can't wait to make fun of again (we called him The Republican Dukakis during the last go around), that during his kick-off speech in New Hampshire that he did sound like Clark Kent and he was trying to convince Republican voters that he would be Superman when it came to reversing the American economic downfall.

Sure enough, some artists at "The Week" magazine had the same idea as they have Romney front and center under the caption "Waiting for Superman," in reference to an accalimed documentary that came out last year. Interestingly enough, Romney said yesterday that he differs with other Republicans in that he thinks global warming is partially man-made. Ironically, Paul Guggenheim, the director of Al Gore's documentary on global warming "An Inconvenient Truth," also directed "Waiting for Superman," which is a film about education.

Lastly, we had a chance to listen to the Turkish psychedelic compilation "Turkish Freak-Out" on vinyl yesterday afternoon just after listening to a streaming of "The Turkish Music Hour" on WUVT-FM (90.7-Blacksburg, Va.), and the recording from Bouzouki Joe Records is very good.

It includes 18 tracks from the likes of Erkin Koray (who turns 70 this month), Ajda Pekkan and the late Baris Manco. I found it at All Day Records in Carrboro, NC, just outside Chapel Hill.

Also, on yesterday's WUVT broadcast, I heard a song called "Sarhos" ("Drunk") by a singer named Dario Moreno (1921-1968). I had never heard of Moreno, and I presumed he was an Italian man who happened to sing a Turkish song, but he was in fact actually from Turkey!