Only four more months of summer!

Ah, I love the smell of July in the morning. ... You know what this means, right? It means that there's only a few more months of summer, and that the year is on the downslide towards cooler weather and fun, family holidays. Yay!

Why the flag image, you may ask. Oh, to be patriotic, I guess.
I'm digging that Sen. Barack Obama has gone on record as saying that he will not be attacking anyone's patriotism in this election, as was done with so much vehemence in the last presidential election. I like this tack. In fact, I like Obama more because of this statement. When, exactly, did attacking someone's patriotism become a way of gaining votes? Well, I guess we can answer that by looking as far back as Bush vs. Kerry, but I think it even goes back further than that. Yes, I'll say it: ever since we went to war with Iraq, the Bush Administration and most every other Republican, have made their response to any criticisms, "Well, they're just not patriotic."
What I especially like is that Obama has, by making that statement, put a huge hole in McCain's strategy, I'm sure. And in that, saved the rest of us from ridiculous mudslinging about Obama's patriotism, or what McCain and the Republican party consider his lack of patriotism. To say that I am not looking forward to this election season is an understatement. I hate the ads, the signs, the lies and the brouhaha of it all. If only we could just vote and have that be the end of it. I'm tired already.
To slightly change direction: Brian and I had an interesting conversation last night about flag burning, and he said something quite astute. He said that, even though he had had no cause for burning the flag, he liked that people do it, because it shows that they care. I'll agree with that ... you can't say that anyone who's burned a flag has ever done it out of complacency.