Monday Newsbreak: 8/4

--The presidential campaign is now going on full bore, with both major party candidates beginning to irritate me. John McCain seems to be going out of his way to publicly pander to all of the conservative hot-button special interest issue groups, while Barack Obama’s annoying tendency to use stuttering as a rhetorical device (à la Andy Griffith) is beginning to interfere with his message. I know that the candidates need to select their running mates. But beyond that, what is there really left to do? After all this time and all this campaign’s media supersaturation, are there still people left in this country who are planning to vote and still don’t know these candidates? Why should anyone be better prepared to make a choice in early November than now in early August? Although part of me wants to keep up with the campaign, another part wants me to completely turn my back on it, knowing from past experience the terrible mudslinging that is about to envelop this contest. And don’t get me started on the upcoming conventions. Ugh!

--The 2008 Summer Olympics are officially beginning this coming week in China, although qualifying events for different sports are already taking place in different locations in that country. I know there is a lot of controversy in some circles about how people concerned about China’s questionable human rights record should regard the Olympics this go around. I’ve been an advocate of more openness in societies like this one, and believe that more interaction with the rest of the world is a good thing for China. In the long run, I think it will help the people in that country to have experienced the Olympics on their soil. I remember the time when human rights were reportedly the worst there, when China shunned the Olympics while maintaining its isolation from the world. My focus during the Olympics won’t be China itself, but the actual events that I am interested in. And I don’t plan to automatically root like a programmed robot for the U.S.A. all the time, either. I’ll leave that for others to do, as I am sure some will.

--Exxon/Mobil announced record profits for this past year, exceeding any annual profits for any firm in known history. Yet they are complaining that their profits weren’t high enough! Well, better luck next year, Exxon/Mobil, sorry you didn’t meet your expectations! Does this sound a bit sarcastic on my part? Well, it is, a little. On the other hand, though, just because a company makes a big profit, that doesn’t mean that this money is buried somewhere in a deep hole, lost forever. No, that money circulates right back into the economy. The relatively static statistic of a corporation’s annual profits does little to shed light on what is really going on with the oil industry. I’m more concerned about where these businesses choose to direct their profits than I am about how much they make.