Obama’s latest trick to get into your living room

Talk about disturbing. The video says it all.

I Think the “Fishy” Smell is Coming From You, Mr. Obama

I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, albiet rather curious, that the White House would ask the public to report their neighbors for any “fishy” reasons. First thought to mind is Nazi Germany, but that’s beside the point.

I’ve been fascinated by the media’s response to White House. This is either a witch hunt or the American media acting as the societal watchdog with a bloodhound’s nose to sniff out “something fishy.” Due to the White House’s response I’m inclined to think the latter. Check these out.

The good stuff starts at 1:00.

Defensive much? I smell something fishy, Mr. Obama… and it’s coming from your direction.

Swine Flu–What’s the big deal?

There isn’t one.
So, what’s the commotion?

The panic stems from the 1918 Spanish Flu killing 50 million people worldwide. The virus was a H5N1 virus. It was believed to come from the swine–hence our nickname for the virus. In 1976 and 2003 SARS, and again in 2006 with the bird flu, false assumptions were made connecting the memory of 1918 with another potential scourge. Now it’s happening again.

Reality is, our 2009 “Swine Flu” isn’t any more deadly than the regular flu virus. It isn’t becoming wide spread. Experts say it appears to losing virulence as it spreads human to human and is not that transmissable.

So, why are the doctors so worried?

The flu virus is such a problem because every year it mutates. That’s why people have to get innoculated every year and not just once–like you would for chickenpox or HepB. Every year medical scientists predict the mutations, narrow it down to the top five, and that year’s flu shot has all the possible mutations. Doctors are skampering around like a bunch of lab rats in a maze because they didn’t predicted this strain.

This virus has done more damage to the economy than the damage it will do to people:

“This time the hysteria may lead to billions of dollars lost to the travel industry, tourism, the Mexican economy, and to closing schools due to hysterical children and overreacting nurses. Vice President Biden’s statement that we should all avoid planes, trains, and crowded places was not at all consistent with the very low prevalence of the virus. It made me think he had become disoriented and suddenly thought he was back in 1918! Even President Obama’s statement that we should wash our hands (of course we should, they are loaded with bacteria and viruses of all kinds) sent the wrong message that there is far more of this particular virus around than there actually is. (The chance that this virus is on your hands as you read this is extremely close to zero).” — Dr. Marc Siegel

Egypt is slaughtering their swine and countries are not importing the animals from the U.S. or Mexico even though it’s impossible to contract it from eating pork!

For perspective, the last pandemic caused by the Hong Kong Flu killed 750,000 people in 1968. When all is said and done, fewer than 1,000 people will probably have contracted the H1N1 virus.

Left-wing demonstrations are worse than right wing demonstrations? YOU compare the videos.

Everyone has see the video of a town hall gathering that booed Sebelius and Specter. The sound clip of “A government that can’t run a Cash For Clunkers program wants to run 1/7th of our US economy? I don’t think so,” has been replaying in my head for the past 2 days.

I was watching Fox yesterday and in an interview someone said how horrible the demonstrations were. How it was a disservice to the Republicans. How it made it them look bad. How it would work against us. How the left has NEVER made such an egregious demonstration.

When it comes to demonstrations and protests, booing is child’s play. Voicing an opposing position is just round table discussion. It is effectively sending the message that they disagree with the speaker. When people start shouting profanities, calling the speaker a “fuck,” filling the room with protesters who curse and entirely drown out the speaker, walk in front of the speaker with protest signs DURING the speech, and throw bricks through windows… THAT is what I consider an unreasonable protest.

The line? When a person or group of persons seek to deny another their first amendment rights. This is what a group of left-wing activists did to a speaker who came in to talk about illegal immigration.

This is just the second half of the speech–after the audience had been subdued.

Here is a full report of the happenings: http://www.newsmax.com/farber/tancredo_unc_speech/2009/04/24/207098.html

So, don’t tell me the right plays dirtier than the left…
What happened to Sebelius and Specter was orderly and non-violent. It was in no way unacceptable. I don’t see it as being harmful to the left—and it was CERTAINLY not any worse than demonstrations by right wingers.

Thank you very much.

What is the common denominator between Russia and North Korea?

Neither of them will have anything to do with Obama.

First Russian diplomats refuse to shake Obama’s hand and now Kim will only deal with (ex)President Clinton. Putting aside all the other broken promises and doublespeak, I’m not entirely comfortable having a president other countries won’t work with or give a proper greeting.

I’m not fond of the man, but I’d never be so disrespectful.
Check out the video below.

Alumna sues alma mater because she can’t find a job…

It’s a prophecy! This is so tempting at this point in my job search.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/03/new.york.jobless.graduate/index.html

I don’t know what this girl is complaining about though. A 2.7 from a school I haven’t heard of? Granted, you probably haven’t heard of my school, but our academics are so rigorous there are no 4.0s in my school. Literally… The highest GPA in my class was a 3.94.

I graduated with a fairly decent GPA–it was far above a 2.7, no less. I have SEVERAL internships–one at large, reputable television station during which I helped produce a nightly news program. Another was at the largest newspaper chain in the state of Virginia, three time state winner for best weekly paper and photography–and I wasn’t just delivering coffee. I covered breaking news and wrote real stories. Even had a few on the front page. I worked as an assistant editor for an international, quarterly magazine that I wrote for, edited, and helped design. I was also the editor of college magazine and wrote for our school newspaper. I have one particular issues in which every single story idea was from me.

Pring journalism is not hiring–obviously. Due to the rise of the internet, papers are doing nothing but firing people. I figured this out my last semester of school, so I got an internship in broadcast, but 6 months of an internship isn’t enough to know how to work all the equipment and I can’t find anyone willing to cut me a break and give me a chance.

So, I’ve been filling out four applications a day for jobs from executive assistants to a cashier. I’ve had two call backs–one from a grocery store, the other from a sporting goods store. I’m not ungrateful. I just wish my degree was worth something.

This pity party brought to you by Leila’s destroyed ego.

xo.

CEOs pay for their own lunches while at the White House?

First no ice cubes or water refills and now this? Who does this Obama character think he is? I sure wouldn’t invite people over and then make them pay for their own meal!

Obama apparently has no qualms asking CEOs of major companies for their credit card number before being serving them lunch at the White House though.

I can’t write it any better than the professionals. Check out the Politico (<3) article here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25627.html

White Rodney King?

This was posted back on July 10th, but it’s is probably one of the FUNNIEST things I’ve seen in a long time. It’s totally irreverent. I would never speak such disrespect–but OMG is it funny!  And just a little bit ironic.

I call it… a pondary.

A pondary is the awkward time in a subject in conversation’s life–a bit like human adolescence–when it is between a ponder and a quandary.

For example:
It occurred to me last night, a month after being married, that the very same appendage God designed for procreation was also designed to flush the body of toxins.

Someone’s got a sense of humor.

Girl, Interrupted vs. East of Eden

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

On Sunday, at my request, my husband and I went to Barnes and Noble. I wanted a new book. I haven’t read a book for pleasure since I began my four year treck of sleep deprivation four years ago. I still have 1776 by McCullough buried in a blue storage tub somewhere. I bought it right before I came to school thinking that of course I’ll have the time and how smart I’d look as a freshman with McCullough sitting on my bookshelf. Turns out I never did have the time. Seeing as most of my classes had 100+ pages reading due per class period I did read a lot of great classics. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Cicero, Homer, Lewis… I’ve lost count. Many of them I wrote 20 page papers on.

Anyways.

My Barnes and Noble expedition ended being a toss up between Girl, Interrupted by someone I’d not heard of and Stienbeck’s East of Eden. If you knew me, this would be typical. I would be drawn to two polar opposite pieces of literature.

As it turns out, I’ve always had a weak spot for the unknown and East of Eden has been around for fifty years. Dear Steinbeck isn’t going anywhere.

“Tough-minded… darkly comic… written with indelible clarity.” – Newsweek

“Searing…. Girl, Interrupted captures an exquisite range of self-awareness between madness and insight.” – The Boston Globe

“Ingenious… designed to provoke unasnwerable questions. Kaysen does not point out morals or impose insights, but lets adroit imagery, powerful scene-writing and the silence between chapters do the work of judgment… [It is] an account of a distrubed girl’s unwilling passage into womanhood… and here is the girl, looking into our faces with urgent eyes.” Diane Middlebrook, The Washington Post Book World

How could I resist? It sounds like my soul transcribed.

I’ve always been drawn to stigmas. That’s what I’ve termed them. People call them societal issues or disorders. They’re subjects like eating disorders, suicide, cutting, depression…

My school was small and Christian, and we largely didn’t believe that our holy community was plauged by such things. So, the first feature article I wrote was on eating disorders.

In retrospect, I think I chose to write about these things to understand them in my own life and the lives of those close to me. In my adolescence, I always understood my friends. Understood what drove them to do thing. Understood myself. Always knew why I was doing whatever it was I doing. At a very young age, I could connect the chip on someone’s shoulder to an underlying circumstance. They didn’t have a daddy. As I grew up, myself and my friends were faced with more grown up issues. The waters became murky. I was throwing up and didn’t know why. They were taking massive quantities of pills and didn’t know why. We all thought we knew why, but what really drives someone to do these things? What do they go through? How can I just get in their head so that we can understand this and fix it!?

Yeah… I’m one of those. A Fix-it-upper. I just need to get it. I need them to get it. And I need you to get it. That’s why I chose those topics. No one wanted to talk about them, but we all needed to.

That’s why I was drawn to the book. Kaysen got it. She was able to stand outside herself and peel back her layers. It’s not an easy thing to do. It’s a chance to see the dark void of someone else’s life. What you saw was a corner, but a corner so terrifying you can’t imagine the entirety that they have to live with day in and day out. So, when you see them or remember them you aren’t so quick to judge.

“Another odd feature of the parallel universe is that altough it is invisible from this side, once you are in it you can easily see the wolrd you came from. Sometimes the world you came from looks huge and menacing, quivering like a vast pile of jelly; at other times it is miniturized and alluring, a-spin and shining in its orbit. Either way, it can’t be discounted. Every window on Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco.”