what a difference a year makes

Anybody else watching Obama speak to the HRC at the moment? Well, my parents and my dog Zöe are sat at the end of my bed watching along with me:















My mom is close to tears and my dad, ever the tough critic, is impressed so far. This certainly wouldn't be happening in my household with the previous President. I know people are still extremely critical of Obama right now and believe he hasn't done anything so far and doesn't deserve this Nobel Peace Prize he just won, but I'm still sticking by him. I've still got faith in what he can do, and this speech he's giving right now is showcasing exactly what I believe he can (and will) do, especially concerning gay rights.

Obama: more school please....

i was reading this article on yahoo news this morning while i was supposed to be doing work. basically, obama wants to add class time, schools to open on the weekend and for longer hours during the weekday. he says that american kids don't spend enough hours in school and this puts them at a disadvantage with students from around the world. i remember when i was in elementary school and my hours were 8 am to 3:30 pm and then we had after school so that ended at 6pm. i was in school for 10 hours and this was elementary school. i had a shorter school day in my high school years. i can see where obama's coming from, but how many hours does he expect kids to be in school? adding class time won't really help if the kids are bored and not paying attention. if they're counting down the time until school ends, and not focusing on what's being taught, then this whole idea is a waste of money and time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090928/ap_on_re_us/us_more_school

You Lie...Kanye!

The most recent buzz is about Kanye blowing Taylor Swift's moment at the Video Music Awards last night. With all consideration I was not pleased with his actions. It was rude and distasteful and kudos to Beyonce who was very gracious in the way in which she handled the situation. However I'm really not making this post to focus on the celebs, I want to draw attention to a somewhat similar situation where South Carolina Republican Congressman Wilson had a huge outburst ("You lie!") during President Obama's healtcare speech to congress. I believe that his comment was inappropriate and extremely disrespectful (these are my opinions and does not represent anyone else but myself). However I am juxtaposing these two incidents in order to ask readers a few questions. Answer one or answer many.

• Why wasn't there as much uproar (from youth) about Wilson's comment as there was for Kanye's?
• Entertainment or Politics?
• Has free speech gone too far?
• Should it (free speech) be confined and appropriated?
• If so will it still be FREE?
• How do we deal with people who exercise their freedom of speech even if we do not agree with the context, time and place in which it is used?
• Should there be consequences?

Images from
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/07ImeU05GK81y/340x.jpg
http://www.exposeobama.com/
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/celebrities/index.ssf/2009/09/kanye_west_apologizes_on_blog.html

Kal Penn in the Obama Administration

Just the other day I found out that Kal Penn works for the Obama Administration and is the Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the White House. If you don't know who Kal Penn is, he played Kumar in the Harold & Kumar movies. Yeah, the guy who had sex with a giant bag of weed in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle now works in the Obama Administration. Even though I'm sure this actor is an intelligent guy (otherwise he wouldn't have gotten picked), I don't understand why they picked the one guy who is a stoner movie icon for the job. I just think it's an irrational political decision. It just makes the government look foolish. I mean Obama already has most of the stoners on his side, so how does this help him out? There had to have been more people that were just as, if not, more qualified for the position than this individual.