Romney vs. Obama is the most boring, and frankly pointless, election in the history of America. If the political spectrum from crazy insane conservative to big government socialism were charted out on a scale of 1-100, Obama would be a 55 and Romney would be a 45. Neither one capable of making a big decision outside of the mind numbingly boring 46-54 notches. Whoever gets elected is not going to get anything done because that is what our government is really good at, getting nothing done. But, while I still believe that to be true, Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential candidate at least piques my interest in seeing how the debates play out. Ryan is a darling for fiscal conservatives and, unlike Romney, actually seems to have some ideas of his own that he stands on. He is young, not boring, and bears a striking resemblance to Matthew Morrison. In the same way that Obama is going to wipe the floor with Romney in the debates, Ryan will destroy Biden.

Which leads me to my now two year in the making conspiracy theory: Obama dumps Biden in the next three weeks and announces Hillary Clinton as his Vice Presidential running mate for this election. Think back to June of 2008. Clinton was by no means out of the race and was still polling pretty well against Obama for the nomination. But, without much fanfare, she drops out of the race and endorses our now President. Since then, she has been appointed Secretary of State and former President Clinton has been on his absolute best behavior. I like to think that in May of 2008, Obama's people sat down with Hillary's people and hammered out the deal that they'd trade her the SOS position plus the Veep for 2012 in exchange for her support in 2008 and Bill keeping his nose clean.

Romney/Ryan vs. Obama/Clinton. I can get (slightly more) excited about that.

Yesterday, Representative Weiner of New York got on stage to apologize for being an idiot.  And, despite the insane number of jokes that his last name and this situation lend themselves to, the thing that got me going was the sensational coverage by the entirety of the American press. People are idiots and do stupid things. People make mistakes.  People get caught. People in the public eye, for whatever reason, think it won't happen to them. But it does. And then, for the next 3 days, every nightly talk show and front page headline dives into "how the story happen" and an in depth look at the way the events unfolded.

DEAR AMERICA: GROW A PAIR AND QUIT GIVING A RIP.

Surely there's much more interesting things than the latest drama of torrid affairs between ugly chicks and politicians. Surely you have something better to do with your day than care that someone got a Twitter DM and @Reply mixed up.  There is nothing interesting here unless your life is only lived vicariously through the exploits of others and this is the latest escape from the routine known as your day to day.

Between Weiner, Edwards, and Schwarzenegger, my ability to care is at an all time low. Just wait three days until this Weiner story goes flaccid (I had to get one in there!) and there will be another one with a tearful apology at a podium with a blue curtain behind it.

But in the meantime, go live a life that doesn't allow you the time to give a flying flip about this crap.

GROW A PAIR. Be the headlines that matter in your life.

After having an incredible experience at the Rally to Restore Sanity last month, I put together some thoughts on the day and what the bigger story might be. Those thoughts, I am very excited to share, can now be view in my first contribution as a blogger for the Huffington Post. Check it out and let me know what you think: http://huff.to/SanityBlog

I reserve my political and religious rants for those that I have an established rapport with and in settings that are conducive to conversation and respectful debate.  Usually.  But, this is a rant on a subject that hits too close to home for me, both in geography and in ideology, to wait for that kind of setting.

There is a group of Americans, New Yorkers, that purchased a building in Lower Manhattan over a year ago.  The building has been vacant for years and sold for an amazingly low price.  It is in a very slow part of the city without much action.  You have to be intentionally walking down that side street to even see the building.  These Americans want to renovate the building and make it a good spot for the neighborhood and a place that can revitalize this old building and this slow block in the city.

But, these Americans are Muslims.

So therefore it is an issue.

The absolute travesty of the "debate around the Ground Zero Mosque" is we even need to have this 'debate.' The fact that there are other Americans that feel that this is a contentious subject of conversation makes me extremely sad and extremely angry.  Sad that this isn't an announcement in the local paper but a debate that the citizens of the freest country in the world feel the need to have.  Angry at the misinformation and sheep-like behavior of its opponents who obviously haven't spent any time looking at the facts of the situation. The intentional ignorance and suspicions espoused by those saying that these Americans shouldn't have the same rights as any other American based on their faith is ludicrous.

The Park51 project is going to be a community center run by one of the most publically moderate iman's in the world.   Since the horrific acts of September 11, 2001, Mr. Abdul Rauf has decried the extremists in Al Qaeda and has been one of their most vocal opponents in the Muslim world.  The community center that will be housed at Park51 will be open to men and women, will have basketball courts and a cooking institute, and will also be a meeting place for the leaders of several interfaith communities that Mr. Abdul Rauf has been a leader of for years.

If could be said, that for those reasons, women and non-Muslims being allowed inside, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich share the same perspective on the project as Osama bin Laden.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was spot on when he spoke to the issue in early August: "If we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists - and we should not stand for that."

The best perspective I've heard on this ridiculousness of this controversy comes from the media personality I dislike more than any other.  But, on this subject, and perhaps only this subject, Keith Olbermann and I agree. (Seriously, I really dislike this guy, but this is worth taking the 12 minutes to watch)

But, as a skeptic of the media in general, I went down to Park51 this weekend to see what all the fuss was about. What I found was what I had hoped (and known) I would find: New Yorkers of all walks of life going about their day to day, enjoying the freedom that we all have here in America.  The freedom that was, is, and always will be worth fighting for.

Freedom of Religion from Andy Ellwood on Vimeo.

Sometime between when I was a kid and now, the idea of "Participation Trophies" came about. If your kid shows up for soccer practice, games, and you bring oranges slices and juice boxes for halftime snacks, your kid is going to get a trophy at the end of the year pizza party. Whether they team ever won a single game.
Today's news that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize is culmination of the "self esteem gospel" that has been perpetrated through our society and education system for the past 20 years. As long as you feel good about yourself and the effort that you made, don't worry about real tangible results. If you had a good idea and failed, don't worry, it's okay. If you built your company on a bad business model, but were lucky enough to get "too big to fail," the nanny state government is there to bail you out. If you were just tired of the doom and gloom of the financial crisis, don't worry, even without real changes in the fundamentals, a plumitting U. S. Dollar, and unemployment of almost 10%, the stock market will come back by more than 40% some you can feel better about yourself.
As someone who has never suffered from self esteem issues, I have been guilty of efforts without results on multiple occasions. I have been proud of making a list of goals, but not achieving them. I have smiled when thinking about my dreams, but not taking decisive action to achieve them.
I have also learned that nothing of real value comes without extreme dilligence, real results, and excruciating hard work.
Today I learned that the Nobel Peace Prize is no longer something of real value.