I just watched Obama's major address on television concerning the Middle East. I did it for one simple and intricate reason: I wanted to know what the hell everybody was talking about on Twitter.

Distancing myself from politics has seemed to work out well for me lately. No one has mentioned to me that I have been missed from the political spectrum, and I have found that my answer to political questions is the same and works for both political questions and sports related questions. The answer is, "I don't know…what do YOU think?" In both politics and sports, everyone is simply waiting for me to get around to asking that question anyway, so why not just cut to the chase and save me a lot of effort and wasted research.

Even when I had an opinion on politics and sports, it never changed the broad picture of either and there was no satisfaction. Thankfully, I have enough aggravating things happening in my life that I don't need artificial agendas to snap my synapses into gear.

But I watched Obama's speech and wondered what he wanted me to do about what he was saying. There was no call-to-action for my part, and he wasn't even trying to convince me to vote a certain way. So, while the Twitterverse was alive with activity on reactions, upbraiding, outrages, kudos, baiting, and misinterpretation, I walked away thinking that he should have at least worn a less boring tie.

I read fiction almost all the time. I write fiction. No one will call my novel 5IVE SPEED a work of political magnitude. Thinking about it, I don't think I mention politics at all in the whole book. And yet, everyone who has read the book has loved it. It doesn't support any political party, nor does it even endorse any particular sports team. It's enjoyable in a world that gets all worked up about things they can do nothing about.

Don't get me wrong; 5IVE SPEED has it's share of controversy. It gets people to think, and it might change some people's way of thinking, but these are things that people can actually do something about! But Obama was talking about all these things that are happening in the Middle East and I found myself thinking, "SO WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT?!"

Now let's talk about religion…