Eep, they've changed Blogger yet again.
 
Anyway, first the knitting content:
 
I'm almost done with the second sleeve of the Sitcom Chic. As I said before, I hope to have the sleeves attached before I leave for my trip, because it's easier to have just TWO ends of kniting to worry about instead of two (the body) plus eight (each end of the DPN for the sleeve; I don't own a short, size 8 circular), plus the sleeve on the stitch holder (which is a new one, and has been well-behaved so far, but I don't trust it to cram it in a bag with four or five books, a couple skeins of sockyarn, my toiletries kit, a sleep eyeshade, and my needle-kit).
 
And, a rant:
 
Can we PLEASE stop with the negative advertising, people? In my state there's a congressional race, with two candidates running from the same party (I suppose it's a primary; I've not been as conscious of it as I should). Candidate 1 runs a negative ad about candidate 2, implying that candidate 2 is not "a man of the people." Candidate 2 comes back, claiming candidate 1 is "soft on crime and lets child m*lest*rs go free." Candidate 1 comes back, basically saying candidate 2 is lying and putting a mom of a victim of a m*lest*r up on her ad.  And I think I saw a fourth volley in this series this morning, with candidate 2 responding to candidate 1.
 
And I'm sitting there, gape-mouthed, because I don't know squat about the policies or beliefs of either 1 or 2, I just know that they're willing to tar and feather the other to get elected. And that makes me think that NEITHER one is the one I should pick.
 
It makes me sick. Local/state politics seems much nastier than national politics right now (I know, just wait a couple months, and I'll be even more disgusted).  I'd love to see a candidate run on a platform of "I won't trash-talk my opponent; I will only tell you what is good about me, not what I think [or my handlers think] is bad about the other person."
 
I have no problem with saying that past policies didn't work and that it's time for a change - but name-calling and mud-slinging just tells me that the person calling the names doesn't have anything more substantive to say.
 
It's almost enough to get me to tear up my voter-registration card. Am I the only one who feels like negative advertising is essentially content-free, in that it doesn't give me any useful information (i.e., what a candidate's policies are) that I can use to choose who I vote for?
 
I think I said last year I wanted a p-chip for my television that would block any advertising that ends with "...and I approved this message." I reiterate that request now. Please, engineer guys, make a chip that blocks political ads! It's either that or watch nothing but HGTV between now and November!