Ciaran’s Omnipurpose Blog

Barack Obama last night gave his acceptance speech for the nomination as Presidential Candidate to a stadium packed with 75,000 supporters. 

I've always been impressed by Barack Obama's oratory. I've also been impressed by his policies. His opponents claim he has none, but I don't agree. Just listen to the man!

After the last eight years of Bush, and some of the farcical shenanigans of Clinton, it can be easy to lose sight of how much power, energy and potential there remains in the USA. I've been dismayed to see such potential wasted under Bush and I have a lot of hope that Obama will turn things around as President.

I thought similar things about New Labour in 1997. I was horribly disappointed by that, and I think I will have any faith in the political classes crushed if Obama wins and willfully wastes the opportunity.

But so many things he says make me think he's genuine. How can you say something like this through a lie?

And you know what - it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.

I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.

But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.

Time, I suppose, will tell. In the interim, you can see his whole speech here: 

You probably know that I really love cats. 

Sadly, I have allergies and I react badly to many cats, but they seem to be fading. We figured that fostering would be a good way to go because we could see if we could tolerate being around the cat, see if we all got along, and perhaps keep the cat around if things worked out. Plus - we'll be helping look after abandoned animals, which is clearly good for the karma, if not so good for the dogma ('arf-'arf).

After a few hours of sniffing around and hiding in various places in the house, the little cat opened up and is super friendly as well as being quite a boisterous handful. I'm hoping we can sleep better tonight than we did last night.

You may recall that I'm a big fan of George Orwell.

I'm very pleased that the Orwell Prize is publishing his diaries in a blog format. Starting with August 9th, 1938, the diaries are going to be synchronised with the same dates 70 years later. This should be a fascinating view inside the head of a man I got to know through his mainstream published works only.

You can find the blog here: http://orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/. I'll also be adding it to my blogroll.