human too human

has some terrific posts on Bush, including a streaming Eminem get-out-the-vote video . . .

Also check out the frightening Thuggery File on Ornicus, documenting reports of election-related violence perpetrated by the right.

And speaking of frightening, the older I get the weirder Halloween seems to me. What's up with this exuberant celebration of the monstrous? I can see how themes of death and decay come into play given the change of seasons, but doesn't Halloween -- as a marketing phenomenon at least -- overdo it? And where does that sense of glee that I've always associated with the holiday come from? The fact that Halloween is executed at such a fever pitch and with such imagistic extremes suddenly strikes me as more than a little creepy. But then I really haven't been in a festive mood for the last four years . . .