Muppets! On 30 Rock!
Artwork by EJ Curry – a local black artist who has overcome all the odds. Oh, and he works a steady gig at my place of employment, Intercontinental Hotels.
This cake car commercial from Cake Wrecks is amazing.
Also, love this Supermom vs. the Diabolical Decorator of Doom story from Cake Wrecks – har!
Well, I haven’t been blogging much lately b/c I’ve been obsessed with the election & reading news reports, crazy rantings from Palin, shouting from Glenn Beck (for 5 minutes at a time before I throw up in my mouth a little) and besides, everyone says it much better than I do (thanks Jon, Tina, Stephen & AKMuckraker).
A belated. . . YAY! for Barack Obama’s win – woo hoo! So relieved. So excited. So thrilled.
Because the angry mob is scared too.
They call Obama a traitor, a liar, a socialist, and a terrorist sympathizer (the Bill Ayers connection is minimal), all from McCain’s misleading attacks on him, just trying to win the election anyway he possibly can. McCain has consistently gone for the jugular, and has made digs at Obama’s character with attacks below the belt. Obama has taken the high road and has consistently criticized McCain’s policies, voting record, and political statements – nothing personal.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson is quoted in the above article: “Red-meat rhetoric elicits emotional responses in those already disposed by ads using words such as ‘dangerous’ ‘dishonorable’ and ‘risky’ to believe that the country would be endangered by election of the opposing candidate.”
When Obama gets elected (and I really believe and hope he will, due to the economic state of our country right now, and more smart people are realizing the real risky option as it pertains to economic and national security issues is to choose Palin as VP), I am worried that we are going to have lots of angry mobs in our country.
I am also worried that many attempts on his life will be taken by this angry mob.
If anything happens to Obama while he is president, I’m moving to Canada.
My Republican friends are incensed that they would ever have to be “forced” to give to the needy or “forced” to help the poor *if* they made over $250,000 a year.
I don’t understand that.
I believe as a society, as people, as children of God, we are all inter-related, even “inter-linked” (using Bush’s words as he described our financial system). We depend upon each other.
The big people become rich because they are smart and innovative. They develop goods and services that would benefit others. The little people enjoy the fruits of their labor, by purchasing those goods and services. The big people become rich from the little people’s support and need of those goods and services. Without the little people to buy their brilliant innovations, the big people would just be smart people with ideas and products and no money.
We are all connected, and one cannot exist happily without the other.
As such, I feel it is morally responsible that those who are able, to help those who are not able.
Although criticized for his moral relativist views, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (commonly recognized as one of the greatest Supreme Court Justices) said it succinctly: “I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”
This Op-Ed piece from the New York Times hits the nail on the head, aghast at Palin’s mocking of Biden in the VP debate for stating that paying higher taxes is patriotic:
Palin’s Kind of Patriotism
Criticizing Sarah Palin is truly shooting fish in a barrel. But given the huge attention she is getting, you can’t just ignore what she has to say. And there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw. It was when she turned to Biden and declared: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”
What an awful statement. Palin defended the government’s $700 billion rescue plan. She defended the surge in Iraq, where her own son is now serving. She defended sending more troops to Afghanistan. And yet, at the same time, she declared that Americans who pay their fair share of taxes to support all those government-led endeavors should not be considered patriotic.
I only wish she had been asked: “Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.
Sorry, I grew up in a very middle-class family in a very middle-class suburb of Minneapolis, and my parents taught me that paying taxes, while certainly no fun, was how we paid for the police and the Army, our public universities and local schools, scientific research and Medicare for the elderly. No one said it better than Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”
I can understand someone saying that the government has no business bailing out the financial system, but I can’t understand someone arguing that we should do that but not pay for it with taxes. I can understand someone saying we have no business in Iraq, but I can’t understand someone who advocates staying in Iraq until “victory” declaring that paying taxes to fund that is not patriotic.
How in the world can conservative commentators write with a straight face that this woman should be vice president of the United States? Do these people understand what serious trouble our country is in right now?
We are in the middle of an economic perfect storm, and we don’t know how much worse it’s going to get. People all over the world are hoarding cash, and no bank feels that it can fully trust anyone it is doing business with anywhere in the world. Did you notice that the government of Iceland just seized the country’s second-largest bank and today is begging Russia for a $5 billion loan to stave off “national bankruptcy.” What does that say? It tells you that financial globalization has gone so much farther and faster than regulatory institutions could govern it. Our crisis could bankrupt Iceland! Who knew?
And we have not yet even felt the full economic brunt here. I fear we may be at that moment just before the tsunami hits — when the birds take flight and the insects stop chirping because their acute senses can feel what is coming before humans can. At this moment, only good governance can save us. I am not sure that this crisis will end without every government in every major economy guaranteeing the creditworthiness of every financial institution it regulates. That may be the only way to get lending going again. Organizing something that big and complex will take some really smart governance and seasoned leadership.
Whether or not I agree with John McCain, he is of presidential timber. But putting the country in the position where a total novice like Sarah Palin could be asked to steer us through possibly the most serious economic crisis of our lives is flat out reckless. It is the opposite of conservative.
And please don’t tell me she will hire smart advisers. What happens when her two smartest advisers disagree?
And please also don’t tell me she is an “energy expert.” She is an energy expert exactly the same way the king of Saudi Arabia is an energy expert — by accident of residence. Palin happens to be governor of the Saudi Arabia of America — Alaska — and the only energy expertise she has is the same as the king of Saudi Arabia’s. It’s about how the windfall profits from the oil in their respective kingdoms should be divided between the oil companies and the people.
At least the king of Saudi Arabia, in advocating “drill baby drill,” is serving his country’s interests — by prolonging America’s dependence on oil. My problem with Palin is that she is also serving his country’s interests — by prolonging America’s dependence on oil. That’s not patriotic. Patriotic is offering a plan to build our economy — not by tax cuts or punching more holes in the ground, but by empowering more Americans to work in productive and innovative jobs. If Palin has that kind of a plan, I haven’t heard it.
