I don't recall why or when, but I used eBay to sell off my Bakelite Morse code telegraph key (very much like this one). I honestly don't even remember WHY I had it - I just did. It was cool, especially since it also had the Morse code "key" right on it - making it easy to learn.

I regret never learning Morse code. Sure, I know SOS (... --- ...) but that's it. It was like French in high school - seductive, alluring, but out of my reach for reasons I didn't understand. I understand now, but thanks to the internet, I don't need to learn it.

.- ... -.- / .- -. -.. / --. --- --- --. .-.. . / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / .--. .-. --- ...- .. -.. . .-.-.-

But the point of this post? John McCain. If you've watched him in the debates recently, you might have noticed the same thing I did: he blinks. A lot.

If you think about John's service to this country - something that might have come up at some point in this election season - you'll find that he was a POW. And one of the things that POW's were often made to do - by coercion or even by simply breaking them - was to record a propagandized "confession." In some cases, such as Jeremiah Denton, they were able to use Morse code to send a message to people watching the video. John McCain made one such message, although it apparently didn't include a "secret" message.

I bring this up because of the blinking. Is John McCain sending us all a message? There's hours of footage of him talking, both at debates and just doing stump speeches and campaign stops. Does anyone have the time to look at a video or two and see if there's a pattern? If we can get a "transcript" of his blinks, perhaps we can figure out his message to his "friends"....

Interestingly, when I was writing this, a Google search on the terms "morse code pow film" and the first result was "Film Shows McCain's Release as POW." There is also a forum post on Snopes that discusses McCain possibly using Morse code during his propaganda film - apparently he didn't.

Over on Democratic Underground they discuss his blinkiness - and someone mentions Morse code there. They seem to be joking about it, but I don't see any evidence out there that anyone has done any actual checking on this.

Leaving the politics out of this for the moment, I think it's an interesting challenge: look at his blinks and see if he's sending a message - consciously or sub-consciously. While we're at it, we could take a look at Barack Obama's blinks, just to make things far.

Anyone up for the challange?