Step 1: Walk up to any person you know; family, friend, or total stranger.
Step 2: Say the following and ask them to simply react with their face and hands:
Hot Chocolate
Copenhagen
Hillary Clinton
Then try:
Bananas
Paris
Barack Obama
Just take note of the facial reaction of this person standing in front of you. For the first two, I suspect the possible reactions wil be wide open, yet uneventful. You might get a shoulder shrug with an “I don’t know” sort of expression, or a tilting of the head with an eyebrow raise. The point here is that the reactions won’t be severe.
For #3 just make note of how many eye rolls or thumbs up you get. If my suspicions are correct, Hillary Clinton will take over the lead in “eye rolls” with a possible sneering lip.
And herein lies the problem. I don’t think Hillary Clinton is qualified or deserves to be President of the United States simply because people AROUND THE WORLD who hear her name, or see her face, have such a guttural reaction to her.
This election is first and foremost about America. But let us not fool ourselves; this election is about the World. America has lost its way and lost its place in the world as a shining example of democracy, fairness, opportunity, and mother to the world. Countries around the world, and people around the world, are all used to seeing a woman or a person of color as the head of a nation. So this election is not about blazing new trails as far as the rest of the world is concerned. We, here in America, have made this election about “firsts”, but the rest of the citizens of earth could care less about that.
We need a President who understands our country’s issues, problems, weaknesses, and strengths. But we also need a good will ambassador whom we can trust to represent us, tell the truth to us, and reach out a hand to each and every nation around the globe. That hand must be able to perform a simple handshake, or to lift someone up, or to ask for a lift.
Try the litmus test; change up the first and second questions to anything you want that makes sense to you. But I believe you will see my point for #3. I want a proud smile, not an eye roll. We have enough of that now with Bush and Cheney (and Rumsfeld, and Rice, and Libby, and Rove, etc, etc, etc.)
Many times since I moved to Maine in 2001, I have had regrets about the decision to do so. But I am proud that my State has stood up to the Feds to take a strong stance against “Real ID:, the National ID Card program.
Maine’s Governor, John Baldacci, is behind this revolt. At first the arguments against implementing this nationwide program here in Maine were about the incredibly high costs to Maine’s taxpayers to make it happen. Maine is already trying to figure out how to deal with a $200 million budget shortfall, so adding an additional $200 million just isn’t feasible.
But if you look further into the reasons behind Maine’s request for an extension (extensions already granted to other states like New Hampshire and Montana) you can see some of the real reasons why Baldacci and other state leaders are against this program. Read the rest of this entry »
I have recently discovered that of all the factors that contribute to human health, the amount of money you have, or simply your social status, is the most important one.
It has been suspected for years, and recent studies in both Britain and the United States indicate that even if you are overweight, a smoker, have high cholesterol, and live a sedentary lifestyle, all things being equal, if you are rich you will live longer than if you are poor.
In my opinion, this is all about that elusive factor that is so intangible: Stress.
From personal experience Stress has amazingly poor effects on the body. Sometimes, the body reacts to stress in ways you would never suspect is being cause by stress. Things like, blurry vision (you think you need glasses or to get your current glasses checked). Things like clumsiness, dry mouth, headaches, a runny nose, etc, etc. All of these things and millions of others, can all be attributed to stress.
They say (who are they) that money can’t buy happiness. I disagree. Let’s say you compared two people, one rich one poor. They are both dealing with a recent death in the family. The rich person can still go out for their favorite meal at an expensive restaurant, sip champagne or cognac, with a nice cigar. The one with money who can slap the cash down on the table and walk away without a care in the world about money, will live a much happier, healthier, life than the one who stops at the grocery store and uses food stamps to try and piece together a meal for the family.
It’s just that simple. The research is out there; go check it out.
If you watched Barack Obama on “The View” on Friday, March 28, then I hope you will know what I mean.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck actually tried to match wits with Barack Obama and continually tried to “catch him” by asking the same question in different words about his relationship with Pastor Jeremiah Wright. It reminded me of Wile E. going after the Road Runner only to get foiled time and time again.
Well, as the saying goes, it you want to win a battle of wits, you need to actually have ammunition. Hasselbeck’s arsenal seem to have been depleted, or never actually stocked in the first place. She must think awfully highly of herself to think that she could get some sort of sound bite out of him that she and her right wing, talking-head comrades could latch on to and get into the next 24 hour news cycle. I’d love to see her phone records to find out who she spoke to, or got coaching from, before the Obama interview. She even tried the tactic of ”give him a complement so he thinks I respect him, then try to make him slip up”.
I don’t mind hearing a different view point from the other side (right wing republicans) on “The View”. But when will Barbara Walters finally realize that Hasselbeck has no talent for expressing her own independent thoughts. Everything she says comes from something she heard from somewhere else.
Speaking of Barbara Walters, isn’t it time for her to move on as well. Have you noticed that she has begun demonstrating the severe effects of aging. Or maybe senility? Half the time she can’t remember what she was talking about in the middle of a sentence. Half the time she doesn’t know what the others are talking about. And I feel a bit embarrassed for her when she starts tripping over her own words.
Lisa Ling was on the show on last Thursday. At the end of the interview with all of the other co-hosts sitting right there, Barbara said how much she missed Lisa and that things had not been the same since Ling left. Barbara followed this up with “We still have Whoopi, Elisabeth, Sherri, and Joy, so I guess it’s not all bad news”.
If I was one of the co-hosts I would have wanted to smack Barbara. It’s not that bad? It was as if Barbara said, “they’ll do….I guess”.
I don’t know why I care about the View and write about it so much. I think it is because this show, and its format, provides a great opportunity for the sharing of ideas and constructive dialog. The co-hosts have the chance to get the world talking about what’s happening in the world and provide some perspective. But the whole thing ends up being time filled with coffee clatch gossip and chatter. It really is a shame.
Barack’s appearance on the View was very good. He is so good at atriculating what he says and what he means. I also believe that because of his demeanor, he makes people feel comfortable. None of us is perfect, and Obama would be the first to admit that. But he is a great man, with great ideas, and if I compare him to Hillary or John McCain, I think he is the best choice to lead our country, and the best to represent our country to the whole world. He’s got that certain something. All Hillary really has is a standard eye roll by those listening when you mention her name.
This has bothered me for years and it has finally gotten so bad I just had to write about it.
Does anyone know what “We’ll be right back, but first, this is Today on NBC” means? The sentence makes no sense, yet has been an acceptable mainstay of morning television for years. But that’s not why I am writing this article. I just thought I would get that off my chest.
I understand that some people may get excited about being at Rockefeller Plaza in NYC during the Today Show, I guess. They have had crowds on the Plaza for years and while I have always thought it was annoying to have these hoards of people yelling and screaming, I accepted it as part of the show. Since I don’t watch the show that often, why should I care, right.
Recently, I lost my job and began spending more time watching TV in the morning. I prefer GMA and fight with my friends who watch morning television all the time about which show is better. CBS is just out of the race. I mean, let’s face it, they’re not even in High Definition yet (Hello, it’s 2008!).
It’s one thing for the hosts to be talking about the newest Disney movie, either outside on the Plaza, or inside the studio with a glass wall behind them where you can see the crowed yelling and screaming with signs, and the like.
It is totally different when a very serious conversation is taking place about something like Heart Disease, or Cervical Cancer, and those same happy smiling faces are jumping and yelling and screamming and waving and have the cell phone up to their ear calling their family and friends back home saying “CAN YOU SEE ME, OH MY GOD, CAN YOU SEE ME. I’M WAVING NOW, YEAH, RIGHT NOW, CAN YOU SEE ME, OH MY GOD, CAN YOU SEE ME, I’M WAVING, YEAH, I’M WAVING, I’M JUMPING, I’M JUMPING AND WAVING, I HAVE A RED COAT ON AND WAVING AND JUMPING, CAN YOU SEE ME, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT I’M YELLING AND SCREAMING AND JUMPING AND WAVING – CAN YOU SEE ME, YOU DO, ARE YOU SURE, REALLY, YOU CAN, CAN YOU SEE ME. All the while there is a woman crying on screen during her interview with Ann Curry about how she lost her 13 year old daughter to a drunk driving accident.
I know these people out there can see what’s going on because they know when they are on camera. I blame the Today Show itself, meaning the producers, for allowing this to become the disrespectful custom that it has become.
I’ve seen the director change camera angles at times when it really is inappropriate to have what seems like the bleachers at an English soccer game distracting the viewer when they are talking about something like Autism, so I know somebody out there gets it.
Why does the today show allow this to continue. I ask you, as a viewer, whether a regular viewer or occasional viewer, do you feel that this crowd of waving idiots is necessary? Does it distract you like it does me or am I alone in this?
I understand that when the hosts go outside, the crowd might get a bit excited. But when the hosts are inside conducting an interview and the crowd is outside behind a glass wall, what are they accomplishing by their behavior.
If you went to the Today Show, would you stand there waving, calling your relatives asking if they can see you? I am so sick of this behavior and it is the reason why I find myself turning the channel. I simply can not watch Melanie from Kenosha, Wisconsin, standing there in her semi-pink winter parka, and dingy scarf, and bad hair, jumping for joy and waving like an idiot.
I am sitting here a bit saddened. I have been a supporter or the CBS series “Jericho” since it began in 2007. I found out only today that tonight’s episode wouldn’t be the season finale, but rather the series finale. This is a show that was cancelled once and brought back from the dead by the loyal viewers of the show.
For those of you who haven’t seen Jericho, it is about a well-designed, manipulated take-over of the United States by an evil faction of our own government, disguised as a country wide nuclear attack by terrorists. The show weaved human stories into the larger plot that was a metaphor for the Iraq war and a story about a special American kind of freedom and commitment to our basic rights.
I understand that ratings mean dollars and if you don’t have ratings, a show isn’t going to last. My only hope is that maybe someone like HBO, Showtime, or some other media outlet will take on the responsiblity of this great story.
It was strange that on the same night, part two of the Frontline special “Bush’s War” was on PBS. This was no metaphor. This is a timeline account of the lead up, executions, fumbling, mismanagement, and illegality of the Iraq war. It was difficult to watch both of these shows on one night.
It makes me want to call for the impeachment or arrest if the following for war crimes: Dick Cheney, George Tenet, Paul Wolfowitz, Paul Bremmer, Karl Rove and a host of others. I would call for the impeachment of Bush as well, but I don’t think he was even smart enough to know what he did wrong and he was nothing more than a puppet for Dick Cheney. What is so hard to understand for me is how all of this information was known and nobody did or said anything about it until it was all too late.
How can you “misstate” something that is really just a completely fabricated story?
A misstatement means you had a slip of the tongue or got a fact wrong.
However, twice in recent weeks, Hillary Clinton claims that in 1996 she went to Bosnia and landed under sniper fire. They had to run serpentine fashion, ducking for cover. It was so dangerous that there was no greeting ceremony and they had run to the vehicles waiting for them.
Here are the facts: There was a small greeting ceremony where a girl read a poem, Hillary and her daughter Chelsea posed for picture, and they took a tour of a guard tower. So does that mean that Hillary put her own daughter in danger by bringing her on a dangerous trip to a war zone?She then had Chelsea pose for pictures with her, stood to listen to a poem, and tour a guard tower while local rebels took pot shots at her all without protection?
Not quite, according to John Pomfret of the Washington Post WHO WAS THERE, said that the area where Hillary and her daughter landed was well under the control of American forces. They drove around in regular cars (no armored vehicles), and did not wear flack jackets. Sheryl Crowe even performed there.
Hmm, doesn’t quite sound like the plot for Black Hawk Down, does it? And after being caught in a lie, Hillary Clinton said “I speak a lot of words in the course of a day and if I misspoke, it was just that, a misstatement”.This whole thing sounds a lot like her husband’s famous quote: “It depends on what your meaning of the word “is” is. Read the rest of this entry »
There are now rumblings among the voters that I know (mostly Democrats) who have decided that while it is time for a woman president, it is not this woman (Hillary Clinton). They have also said and discussed openly that if Hillary Clinton were to win the 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination, they would vote for John McCain rather than vote for Hillary Clinton.
I find this troubling, I find it a travesty, and I totally understand it.
I have tried for so long now to convince anyone who will listen that Hillary Clinton is a divisive figure; a person at whom people frequently and openly roll their eyes at the mere mention of her name.
I don’t know how to fix this other than to beg the remaining states yet to have a primary or caucus, and to beg the remaining undeclared super delegates, to vote for Barack Obama.
People on both sides of the aisle, and those in between, are sick of the war, sick of the Bush policies to which McCain wants to remain steadfast, and are sick just plain sick of the Republicans and the fact that the ones in power right now are so out of touch with everything going on in society and the economy. As a result, I don’t believe that if Obama were to run against McCain, that Obama would lose. There is just no way that would happen. But if McCain were to run against Clinton, many would vote for McCain just to spite Hillary Clinton. Hell, I’m thinking of doing it myself just to prove a point. That we would rather have 4 more years of Bush-like politics than have Hillary Clinton in the White House.
So let’s end this ridiculousness as soon as possible. That’s you Pennsylvania, that’s you Indiana and North Carolina. That’s you John Edwards who has yet to pledge the delegates he got to one of the two remaining candidates. And I am talking to you, Super Delegates, who need to make a decision and make it NOW for Obama. The Democratic Party needs to come together as a solid, unstoppable force, united to take control of the war, the economy and this country. Otherwise, hold your breath for another 4 years of death and destruction. We just hit 4000 dead troops today. How many more before you will all look at the big picture. Are you really that beholden to Hillary Clinton? Because she’s is not beholden to you and would throw you under the train in a New York minute.
Often on a Friday night, or on a Saturday morning, I’ll sit in my chair after having just turned off the television and I wonder who I can call. I am so worked up and amazed at what I just learned that I simply must talk to someone.
Where I live, Friday night is public affairs night on PBS. Bill Moyers’ Journal, followed by NOW.
This past Friday, Bill Moyers had, as his guests, Phil Donahue and Ellen Sprio who co-directed and co-produced a film called “Body of War”. The show was basically a very long trailer for the film; the story of Thomas Young. He is an Iraqi war veteran who signed up to join the military immediately after the tragedy of 9/11. The movie is his story and the lies that not only led to the war, but to him being paralyzed.
Real journalism and story-telling doesn’t get any better than this. Many of us won’t have this film playing in our local theater unless you live in a big city or happen to have a more artsy film community. So please go to PBS.ORG and look up “Bill Moyers’ Journal” for March 22, 2008. You can watch the show where Bill interviews Phil Donahue, Ellen Spiro, shows many, many clips of the film, and then talks to them about the film and Thomas Young.
Isn’t it time we are willing to see and admit the truth behind the Iraq war. You should never be afraid of the truth, you should be afraid of those hiding it, or denying it exists.
This is just one of many shows on PBS that all Americans should be watching. Everything from Frontline to Independent Lens, NOW, Expose, and Bill Moyers’ Journal. Years ago I would have turned my nose up at PBS, but to be honest, I get more real news from PBS, and news that I can trust, than from anywhere else.
If you want to see someone give a speech, any speech, from the heart and without relying on note cards of well scripted, specific talking points, listen to this speech by Obama. I have posted Part 1 of 4, the whole speak is here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords/
This is not just a speech on race, it is a speech about humanity and American history. It is a speech about things that divide us and things that unite us. It is a speech about how we are so different yet all the same.
It will be easy for some to dismiss this speech as just another move in the real life chess game we call politics. But even if you don’t agree with Barack Obama’s motives, or his viewpoints, you can not deny the passion from which this resounding, personal manifesto comes.
I am white. I grew up in a white town in New England. I did not know that I went to a desegregated school until I was much older and understood was that meant. I did not know that my best friends, like Andrea and Audrey, Eric and Shelia, who arrived at my Elementary School in those cool yellow buses, came from some place called “inner city”. I did not know what “inner city” meant, other than that’s where they play Double Dutch and my friends from there taught me how to jump rope like that.
In the same way that I can never truly understand the plight of black Americans, Reverend Wright and Barack Obama won’t ever understand how I could not truly understand the racism and discrimination that has taken place in this country for centuries.
Sometime around the time I was born, or maybe it was around the time I was learning how to walk, a black family that my family knew was trying to move into our neighborhood. In the early and middle 1960’s in a small New England town, a black man getting a mortgage to buy a home in a predominantly white town was nearly impossible. The man was about to give up when my father stepped up and spent many, many days with this man, encouraging him, going from bank to bank to bank until he found a lender who would give this man and his family a mortgage for a home in our neighborhood. When the man finally got the mortgage, it took all the money he had but the house needed some work, some of it electrical. My father was an electrician by trade. My father did the work that was needed asking only that the man pay him as much as he could, whenever he could. Every week, the man’s wife would come to our home with an envelope containing a five dollar bill to be applied to the cost of what they owed my father for the work that was done.
I was very proud of my father when I heard this story. Not for what he had done, but because I knew nothing about it until I was about 30 years old. We weren’t taught that racism is an ugly thing and that you should not be racist. We were simply never shown what racism was. We had no idea how to be racist, because we were never taught how to be racist. In the end, this taught us more than anything else could. And I realize now how lucky I am to have come from parents like mine.
So again, I am white. I am also French Canadian. I am gay, I live in Maine, my father was a democrat, my mother a republican (she’ll kill me if I don’t say she’s an independent), and I was raised Roman Catholic. I am quite sure there are even more socio-economic labels out there to which I could be attached. But that does not mean that every statement that either intentionally or unintentionally slips from the mouths of those in positions of power or authority from these labeled groups is a statement with which I agree or support.
I am American but don’t want you to think that I agree with everything or anything the President says or does. I am gay, and while I may agree with some of the gay agenda, I don’t want the marchers in Gay Pride parades across the world to speak on my behalf. I can’t think of anyone person who is a White voice of authority other than that of the white community as a whole. And I don’t want any one of them, or a group of them, to speak out on my behalf on how I feel about blacks or any other race, creed, color, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. And again that doesn’t mean I don’t have my own set of beliefs that may intertwine and overlap with the beliefs of those who think they may be speaking for me. But don’t assume we are all the same.
In my opinion, this is the message that Barrack Obama, who can say it much more profoundly than I can, is trying to get across. We are all associated with groups and as a culture we all like to label people, placing them into neat little piles of belief systems. But judge us not on those piles, but rather on the needle that I am in the haystack.
I’ve searched for an antonym for racism for many years. I don’t like any of them. Words like “tolerance, fairness, socialism” just don’t cut it. The closest word I can come to is “democracy”.
So I was raised in a world of democracy, and by that, in this context, I mean a lack of racism, and never knew it. I did not know that racism existed until I was in my teens and had to ask my parents what it was. So I am thankful that I was raised in an open-minded atmosphere. I am glad that I was raised to judge each person on their own character and not on the label attached to them. And I am thankful that, while I know racism exists and I know we may never, ever be without it in this country, a man like Barack Obama, who from a distance is exactly the opposite of me, is so much like me in is basic beliefs that every man should get to stand on his own. And if you are going to pass judgment on Barack Obama, judge him how he stands, not where he stands.
