Joe Biden. I have to admit I’m surprised by Senator Obama’s choice for VP. Joe Biden, while being one of the most knowledgeable Senators on foreign policy, is well known for his “off the cuff” remarks that have gotten him in hot water more than once. There was the one remark, just during the recent campaign, about Indian-Americans and Starbucks. I thought it was innocent enough. That remark did blow up in his face, however. Joe Biden is well known for making these type of racially tinged remarks. Contrast that with former Republican Senator George Allen uttering one word, “macaca,” to a man of Indian descent that cost him his seat in the Senate. I don’t care for either the Republicans or Democrats. But, there seems to be a double standard in the press when it comes to those two parties. Back to Joe Biden…I think this definitely hurts Obama for two big reasons; one, he can no longer claim the mantle as an agent for change. Biden is as establishment as you can get in D.C. And, two, Biden as VP glaringly points out Senator Obama’s inexperience. Who will be President and who will be Vice-President? This is possibly a mistake by the Obama camp.

Root canal. The root canal I had last week, the second one on the same tooth in a month, is finally giving me some relief. I have had root canals before, more than I care to say. But, that one was the absolute worst of them all. I have endured different kinds of pain in my life from back surgery to migraine headaches to tooth aches. I have to rate toothaches as the worst kind of pain. When you have a toothache, you feel you are the only person in the world who is in pain. I am not sure I want to go through that again any time soon.

Tropical Storm Fay. Really, Fay turned out to be much ado about nothing here in Mobile. Florida is a different matter. They got a ton of rain and it appears there is another storm on the way. We got about five inches of rain. Trust me that was enough. There was minor flooding throughout the city. But, nothing major that would have caused hardships. I’m just hoping if we get anymore tropical storms, they all turn out as mild as TS Fay.

Finally, yesterday was my brother’s birthday. He turned 53 years old. I stated in a previous “Tuesday’s Rambling Thoughts” my brother and I don’t associate with each other too much. There is no bitterness between us or an incident that caused hard feelings. Mostly, it is due, in part, to our not having much in common, other than being brothers. But, yesterday, we had a great time together. We reminisced about old times that I had almost forgotten about. One incident he brought up was our chopping down the China Berry Tree. That’s a long story. It’s one I’ll share in another entry. But, that story brought great laughter to us both since we both got our rear ends tanned for doing that. It wasn’t funny then. But, it is so very funny now. I had a good time. In fact, we both had a good time.