Obama Has the One Ring?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Respect My Authoritah
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Dear President Obama,
I have been your biggest supporter.  I campaigned for you, I voted for you, I stuck with you.  But I'm starting to see some similarities in your presidency and some predecessors that really begins to make me question you.
But I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.  If Jon Stewart is correct, you have just been seduced by the power of the One Ring.
So come on Mr. Obama, be Frodo.  At the end have the power to let the ring go into Mount Doom.  Destroy it once and for all so you can become a leader worth remembering.
Maybe that's what Joe Bidden's role is in all of this.  He has to be the Gollum to chew off Frodo's finger to make sure the Ring goes into the fire?

Marrying Edward Cullen: A How-To For the Mega-Obsessed

I found this site while exploring my frequent blog reads.  Now, I will admit I have read the Twilight series.  And I will admit I use to LOVE it... at first.  Then the series progressed and the horror that is Breaking Dawn hit bookshelves.  And I was over it.

I am one of the few to feel this way, however.  And Stephanie Meyer is making the big bucks marketing the crap out of her creation.  So I guess it only makes sense that she would create, and then replicate and sell the engagement ring Edward gives Bella in Eclipse.  (More ahead...)

My Summer Projects!

This summer I'll be super busy. Between working, my internship, and preparing for my Master's program and thesis I have a lot on my plate. However, summer is the season for projects. Therefore there are three things I want to complete by the end of the summer:

Painting My Kitchen

I only moved into this apartment a few months ago. My landlord was nice enough to put in new carpets, add a fresh coat of paint, and redo the kitchen's cabinets. The place looks great. However, there is some unattractive wallpaper hanging in my kitchen. I would love to take it down, and repaint the entire room. I've been browsing the Sherwin-Williams website and I like the color on these walls the best.  It's called Knockout Orange.  The bottom half of my kitchen is an off-white wood paneling so I think the bright orange will really pop.  I think that'll be a nice weekend project sometime when I can recruit the boy and get some work done!

Growing an Herb Garden

Like I said, I live in an apartment and don't have a garden.  However, I would love to grow a small pot of herbs to use in cooking and just to smell nice.  Something like the picture wouldn't be too hard to maintain.  I'm still in the researching phase of this little project but I feel like it wouldn't be too hard and ultimately would be quite rewarding.  Of course, there are those wonderful As Seen On TV marvels that claim to grow an herb garden in a tiny little micro-greenhouse.  ALL FOR ONLY $19.99!  Not sure the success of those but since I'm interested in the basic basil, parsley, oregano, and rosemary it may be a worthwhile investment.

Learn to Drive Stick

Someday I would LOVE to own this car. The new Camaros are just too sexy to resist.  Granted this does have much to do with god-awful Transformers movie (the second one, the first wasn't too bad) but I'm willing to forgive Michael Bay when that car looks like that!  Anyways, if I'm going to drive a car like I'm going to do it right.  And knowing how to drive stick is a big part of that.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm actually a good driver.  But I've never learned stick.  Sad, but true.  So, my final summer project will be to have my boyfriend teach me to drive stick.  Luckily, since his car is stick I have a perfect opportunity to learn.  I've been promising myself I'd learn for years and this is finally the time!

Are there any summer projects you've established for yourself?  What are they?

A Little Chivalry Never Killed Anyone...

I found this post on one of the blogs I read. I have mixed emotions. On the one hand I believe it's important to teach respect, especially in high school where now a days teachers are afraid to even give a student detention because they may be sued. On the other hand the over-the-top enforcement of these rules implies that, women deserve special (aka inferior) treatment. That was the implication when these types of rules first were implemented. I'm not sure. I feel a basic repertoire of respect to all would be more appropriate than "men! don't step on women's toes... they may cry!"

A high school Latin teacher in Arizona has created mandatory chivalry rules for his students in order to force the male students to behave like "gentlemen" with the young women.

Here's the rulebook:

• Boys would hold doors for girls.

• They would ask girls if they would like to be seated, and offer to take their backpacks before they sit down.

• Boys would stand if a girl leaves the room.

• They would allow girls to be served first if food is in the classroom.

• And, girls always had the right of refusal.

Why did he do it? As the teacher, Cord Ivanyi, told ABC News: "This year after watching a mass of boys literally push through a line of girls who were waiting to get food for a class party, I was bothered by the lack of respect either sex seemed to have for the other. The next day, I sat down with them at the beginning of the class and asked them if they considered what decency was."

Some might say Ivanyi's forced chivalry is sexist, because instead of encouraging good manners for all, he's teaching the young men that women deserve special treatment because of their special (inferior?) status. But others would say that there's nothing bad about teaching men to be courteous and respectful and that chivalry is just an expression of good manners.

Is it bad to FORCE men to be chivalrous?

Kick Ass Article of the Week

Parma High School Teens Make a Request for Real Sexual Education

By Connie Schultz
February 24, 2010, 6:00AM
On Monday night, two teenagers stood before Parma's school board and essentially pleaded that the grown-ups in charge change how sex education is taught in their district.
Their courage was a timely reminder that we ignore our children at their peril.
The first student to speak in the room of 150 or so in attendance was 17-year-old Daniel Sparks.
Teenage boys don't come any cleaner-cut or more poised than Daniel. In a strong, steady voice, the junior at Parma Senior High School attacked the district's abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education program, taught by Operation Keepsake.
The program sounds like a military exercise, but it sends kids virtually unarmed into a sexually complex and potentially dangerous world.
This, Daniel told the school board, is poor public health.
"Operation Keepsake has made me question education as a whole, for while they scared us into understanding what could go wrong, they afforded us no information on how things could go right," he said. "On how to protect ourselves, on the effectiveness of contraception, and empowering us with knowledge to make the right decisions before making the wrong ones."
Daniel told the board that, for 19 months, he has been unable to meet or even speak with those responsible for making decisions about how he and his classmates learn about sex, despite his dozens of letters, phone calls and e-mails.
"As a gay student," he asked, "how can I be expected to uphold a standard of abstinence until marriage when I live in a state where I cannot marry?"
Daniel's classmate, 16-year-old Jelena Loncar, borrowed from Operation Keepsake's own language to blast the curriculum for promoting gender stereotypes.
"I personally don't view men as predators or protectors," she said. "And I certainly don't view myself as a treasure or a target. I found it insulting and undermining that Operation Keepsake reduced me to a social stereotype."
Daniel and Jelena added that they were abstinent, but only because access to comprehensive sex education elsewhere helped them make informed and confident choices for their young lives.
The audience was respectful during the students' speeches. There were audible gasps only after Jelena pointed out that, in her high school's sophomore class alone, eight girls were pregnant.
Several parents came up afterward to congratulate the teenagers for their courage and to voice support. Superintendent Sarah Zatik, who earlier in the meeting announced that she was resigning in July, assured Daniel that she would meet with him. She told me later she favored comprehensive sex education, and would form a committee to "start the conversation."
Most parents -- liberal, conservative and somewhere in between -- want their children to abstain from sex, but they also want them to be safe if they choose otherwise. The overwhelming majority of studies have shown, time and again, that abstinence-plus education is more effective than programs like Operation Keepsake.
Abstinence-only proponents are heralding a small study published this month in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine that showed, for the first time, that their brand of sex education reduced sexual activity by nearly a third in 12- and 13-year-olds. The study involved 662 African-American middle-school students in four low-income schools in the northeastern United States.
An editorial accompanying the report cautioned against reading too much into this, and the study's lead author, psychologist John B. Jemmott III, agreed.
"Policy should not be based on just one study, but an accumulation of empirical findings from several well-designed, well-executed studies," Jemmott wrote.
Meanwhile, let's keep this in mind: The Centers for Disease Control reported only three months ago that chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis continue to spread in the United States, and that almost half of the 19 million new sexually transmitted infections each year affect 15- to 24-year-olds.
"We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world," John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Reuters.
"We haven't been promoting the full battery of messages," Douglas said. "We have been sending people out with one seatbelt in the whole car."
When it comes to protecting our kids, perhaps we need more teenagers like Daniel Sparks and Jelena Loncar in the driver's seat.

This is Truly a Tragedy But...

~~~~ Tired

I'm tired of hearing that the shooter was Muslim.  That has nothing to do with anything.  The gunman in Orlando was not Muslim... is his crime any less horrible?

Washington (CNN) -- Ibrahim Hooper knows the drill.
When news first broke Thursday that a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, killed and injured U.S. soldiers, the national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote a statement of condemnation.
He only sent it out later, when reports emerged that the alleged shooter's name was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
"As soon as we saw what appeared to be a Muslim name, we issued our statement," Hooper said. "Until that time, we were praying that no Muslim would be involved."
That's the reality of crisis management for the Muslim-American community, said Hooper, who handles communications for the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.
Even without confirmation that the alleged gunman was Muslim -- there was no immediate determination of any religious affiliation for Hasan -- the mere reporting of a possible Muslim name required an immediate comment, he said.
"That's unfortunately the world we live in nowadays," Hooper said. "So often, Muslims are accused of not condemning these kind of acts."
The CAIR statement said: "No political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence. The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted the all-volunteer Army that protects our nation. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured."
In a separate statement, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, based in Los Angeles, California, condemned what it called the "heinous incident."
"We are in contact with law enforcement and U.S. federal government officials to gain more facts from this tragic incident and work together in dealing with its aftermath," the group said.
Its statement called on "all members of American Muslim communities to be in contact with local law enforcement for the safety and security of their communities and their institutions."
The Islamic Information Center also issued a statement "in conjunction with all the major Muslim organizations nationwide" that condemned the attack.
"While several news reports have cited one of the gunmen to be Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, IIC strongly emphasizes that this attack and its perpetrator are in no way representative of the Muslim people or the peace-loving religion of Islam," the statement said.
"The individuals who perpetrated this attack blatantly acted against the teachings of Islam and humanity," it added.
After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Muslim-Americans reported increased attacks and threats by revenge-minded non-Muslims.
"We've seen this before," Hooper said of a possible backlash. "Whenever there's an incident of this type, there's always the possibility this will happen."
Even non-Muslims could be targeted, he said, noting that Sikhs who wear turbans or Hispanic-Americans can be mistaken as being of Middle Eastern descent.
On Thursday night, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad told a news conference the alleged Fort Hood attacker's motive remained unknown.
"We urge all Americans to remain calm in reaction to this tragic event and to demonstrate once again what is best about America -- our nation's ability to remain unified even in times of crisis," Awad said. "We urge national political and religious leaders and media professionals to set a tone of calm and unity.
"Unfortunately, based on past experience, we also urge American Muslims, and those who may be perceived to be Muslim, to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, their families and their religious institutions from possible backlash."

Come on CNN let it go.

Yaaay for steps in the right direction!

~~~~ Tired

President Obama Signs Inclusive Hate Crimes Legislation

By Cloe Axelson - Oct 28th, 2009 at 3:45 pm EDT

Comments |  Mail to a Friend  |  Report Objectionable Content

Today President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, legislation that will extend new federal protections to people who are victims of violent crime because of their sex or sexual orientation. It is an update to the federal hate crimes statute that Congress first passed in 1968. For the first time, the law that previously protected people from attacks motivated by race, religion or ethnicity will also protect gay, lesbian, transgender and disabled people.

The President will host a reception commemorating the enactment of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in the East Room of the White House this evening.  This afternoon, before signing the bill, he said:

"...After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we've passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray, or who they are.

"I promised Judy Shepard, when she saw me in the Oval Office, that this day would come, and I'm glad that she and her husband Dennis could join us for this event.  I'm also honored to have the family of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, who fought so hard for this legislation.  And Vicki and Patrick, Kara, everybody who's here, I just want you all to know how proud we are of the work that Ted did to help this day -- make this day possible..."

Here’s an excerpt from an editorial in the Washington Post this morning:

PRESIDENT OBAMA is scheduled to sign Wednesday what is being described as the nation's first significant pro-gay rights legislation. Attached to the defense authorization act, the measure would add sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability to the list of protected classes under the 1969 federal hate-crimes law…

The law doesn't outlaw bigotry or "thought crimes." It applies only to "violent acts motivated by" the characteristics of the victim -- acts, not thoughts or speech. But crimes that target someone because of race or sexual orientation are more than offenses against that individual. They can terrorize whole communities.