ChangeFest '09 - Obama's Inaugural Speech

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Changefest '09 - Obama's Inaugural Speech

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In many respects, Barack Obama's inauguration speech, like his national security appointments, signaled that his administration will be more or less George Bush's third term, at least in foreign policy. That's not a big surprise to those of us who knew that Obama's foreign policy pronouncements during the primary season were silly, but the Left has been more or less in a state of shock for a while now, and Obama's speech yesterday didn't help matters any.

It's gotten to the point where even comedians have noticed. The punch line of this sketch is no joke. I think a great many liberals are hanging on to the idea that they can trust Obama because he is a liar and doesn't mean what he says. Time will tell whether that interpretation is correct or not. In the meantime, it doesn't speak very well of either Obama or his supporters on the Left.

Source: Powerlineblog.com

Thoughts on the Inaugural

I almost choked on my coffee yesterday morning when I read "Finally .... change is here!!" on a blogger friend's status update on Facebook. Today, a day after the inaugural, this friend is still chanting "Obama, Obama, Obama!" My, my, I was thinking, the MSM must have done an excellent job of glorifying the messiah and his message of hope and change that even Malaysians living as far away as Australia, the Sudan and England are euphoric over Obama's inauguration.

My blogger friend in London said he hurried home from work so he could catch the inauguration ceremony. He thought the inaugural speech was up there with FDR's, and Kennedy's speech. He was moved to tears by the speech. Oh my.

Another Malaysian friend living in the Sudan watched the entire inaugural ceremony, was awed and loved it.

I will acknowledge that it was a historic event yesterday, which can only happen in the USA - the peaceful transition of power, and that a person can be elected to the most powerful office in the land, no matter his skin color.

However, sorry, I did not drink the kool-aid, and won't be joining in the Obama euphoria, hype and mania. I think the mainstream media's fawning and slobbering and lack of objectivity over Obama is over the top, a spectacle mostly seen in a dictatorship like North Korea.

My two cents.


Recommended Reading:

Judge Obama on Performance Alone
Let's not celebrate more ordinary speeches
by Juan Williams

Plan to limit access to the pill

A Portland School Committee member wants to give parents the power to keep their children from participating in a controversial new plan to make prescription birth control available to students at King Middle School.

Benjamin Meiklejohn submitted a resolution Monday, to be considered by the committee on Nov. 7. The proposal would give parents the option to block access to prescription contraception if they enroll their children in the King Student Health Center.

Meiklejohn's proposal also would limit access to prescription contraception such as "the pill" and "the patch" to students who are at least 14 years old.

Full story here.

At least one parent is not going to roll over and flow with the punches regarding the decision made by the school board!

I don't know how successful this parent will be because according to that same news two of the Committee members on the school board who voted for the middle school girls to have access to the pill are not going to vote to reduce that access.

I am still incredulous that the school Committee can make decisions affecting minors without the consent and knowledge of the parents.

As one commenter to this whole business has said, "School Vouchers". If school vouchers were as readily available as the pill and condoms, a lot more parents would choose to take their kids out of such schools which don't seem to care about parental rights over their own kids.

If the School Committee succeeds in keeping their previous decision, I think parents who disagree with that decision should take the school board to court. Parents should never allow their rights to be usurped by a group of people on the school board.

California Burning

Does it seem like California is burning? CNN is reporting that 250,000 have fled the raging fires in San Diego. My neighbors just moved to San Diego a few weeks ago. I hope the fires are no where near the neighborhood they have just moved to. It would be terrible if it did! :-(

Malibu is suffering the same fate as San Diego. Modest homes, mansions and churches have not been spared. Governor Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency throughout seven counties in Southern California on Sunday.

Sometimes you have to wonder if the fires were not intentionally started by arsonists. Whenever the Santa Ana winds start blowing, fires seem to be the order of the day. California, at least in northern California where I live, has a lot more rain this year than it did this time of the year last year or in previous years. Whatever dampness that was present in the areas is as good as dry tinder, the way the fires are going.

If indeed the fires were caused by arson, and if any of these arsonists is caught, he or she should be put away for life. A pyromaniac like that should never be left to run around because he will do his evil deed again and again. Nature herself is the source of many fires, she does not need Man to help her.

I am sorry that many have lost their homes in these fires. I think it is terrible to lose everything you own. Yes, homes may be rebuilt, and possessions may be accumulated again, still it is traumatic to lose every earthly possession you've got.

I will have to re-assure my parents back in Malaysia that the fires are no where near where we live. Every time there's a tornado, a flood, or a fire, they get anxious.

Jindal All the Way!

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Republican Rep. Bobby Jindal was elected governor of Louisiana on Saturday to become the first Indian-American to lead a U.S. state.

With most of the precincts counted, Jindal, 36, had 54 percent of the vote to win without a runoff in Louisiana's electoral system, where candidates of all parties run in a single primary.

Full Reuters story here.

Congratulations to Bobby Jindal! I am not Indian but as a fellow Asian, I think Bobby Jindal's victory is a huge triumph. No longer will the likes of Mrs Clinton's and Joseph Biden's stereotyping of Indians be tolerated.

If not for Kathleen Blanco's dirty final campaign tactics in the last gubernatorial elections, Bobby Jindal would have been running for re-election this time around. And who knows how differently Hurricane Katrina and Rita would have been handled in Louisiana?

With this win, Bobby Jindal, at 36 is the country's youngest ever elected governor. I have no doubt that Jindal will be a very good governor for Louisiana. I hope he keeps his promise of ending corruption and of getting rid of those feeding from the "public trough". About time.

Brain Eating Amoeba

Don't we already have enough to worry about, like terror sites offering videos on how to fly 747s, and wondering if the next time we get on a 747 there could be terrorists on board who had learned to fly such a plane from videos found on terror sites?

Do we now have to think twice about taking a swim in the lake for fear that an amoeba might eat our brains?! Eeeekk, doesn't that sound like a scene from an Aliens movie?

PHOENIX (AP) - It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die.

Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future.

"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better," Beach said. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."

According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER- ee-uh FOWL'-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases—three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s.

Full story here.

P.S. Yes, it is true that people don't normally learn how to fly planes from videos or flight simulators alone, but with the terrorists, they only need to know how to guide the plane to their intended target or just crash it so they can kill themselves and everyone in the plane. Not a very happy thought especially for someone like me who is always very tense when I have to fly any where.

Unbelievable!

Do you believe Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he said, "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon, I don't know who has told you that we have it."

If he is right then Iran must be the only country in the world where there are no homosexuals! All homo-phobics should move to Iran where there are no homosexuals to bother their sensibilities!

How about what he said about the treatment of women in Iran? "Women in Iran enjoy the highest levels of freedom." All feminist organizations in the world should rejoice over this fact!


"If the Holocaust is a reality of our time, a history that occurred, why is there not sufficient research that can approach the topic from different perspectives?" he asked. No amount of proof or research will ever be sufficient for a well-known Holocaust denier and an anti-semite like Ahmadinejad.

Questionable Art

Should we let artists follow their own instincts even though the subject of their art could be considered obscene or pornographic?

It is reported that Elton John's private collection has been "seized by police from a gallery on suspicion it may have breached child pornography laws". The collection was seized because there was an image of a naked young girl photographed sitting down with her legs wide apart.

I have a few photos of my kids naked but not in any poses that one might call provocative. They are mainly of them in the tub, covered in bath bubbles. If someone takes a picture of a young child naked and the image that it projects is intentionally provocative, then I would be leery of the intention and innocence of the art. I would object to that kind of art because I think that kind of art is exploitative.

A follow-up article on the subject by Richard Dorment suggests that it is not the job of art galleries to censor the work of artists. Instead they should put up signs warning visitors of what they are about to see.

I don't have a problem with that except when it concerns images of children in questionable poses. Child pornography is becoming mainstream, what with the unrestricted access to such pornography on the internet. I don't need art galleries to be promoting child pornography. I don't think images of children in sexually provocative poses will ever become "innocuous" to the next generation as Richard Dorment suggested in his article. As long as there are parents and people who object to adults exploiting children for sexual purposes, images of naked or semi-clothed children in suggestive poses will continue to be objectionable.

Weird News of the Day

I first heard the following story a few days ago on the Tom Sullivan Show. Tom Sullivan suggested that it wasn't accidental that the woman sold the turtle containing the ashes of her husband's previous wife. I think it wasn't accidental either! :-) What do you think?

(08-07) 17:25 PDT Elmira, N.Y. (AP) --

A woman recovered a ceramic turtle containing the ashes of her husband's previous wife Tuesday after accidentally selling it for 50 cents at a rummage sale.

Anita Lewis of Elmira said she didn't know it held the ashes when she sold the turtle Saturday to a woman who had plans to use it as a cookie jar, despite being unable to get the lid open.

Terrence Lewis' previous wife had collected turtles, and the couple's home was full of them, Anita Lewis said.

When she realized her mistake, she began a frantic search. An anonymous caller's tip to the Star-Gazette of Elmira led her to a Salvation Army Thrift Shop in Horseheads, where she found the turtle.

Weird News of the Day

This morning on Paul Harvey's News and Commentary, Paul Harvey related this funny story. Maybe funny is not the correct word.

FREDERICK, Colo.—A Catholic priest faces an indecent exposure charge after police said he went jogging in the nude about an hour before sunrise.

The Rev. Robert Whipkey told officers he had been running naked at a high school track and didn't think anyone would be around at that time of day, a police report said.

He told officers he sweats profusely if he wears clothing while jogging. "I know what I did was wrong," he said in the report.

Whipkey did not return phone messages. His attorney, Doug Tisdale, told the Longmont Times-Call that Whipkey had no comment.

Whipkey, 53, was arrested June 22 in this small town about 20 miles north of Denver. An officer said he saw a naked man walking down the street at 4:35 a.m. The U.S. Naval Observatory Web site said sunrise that day in Frederick was 5:31 a.m.

The officer said when he shined his flashlight at the man, he covered himself with a piece of clothing he was carrying.

The Archdiocese of Denver said it takes the incident seriously but is awaiting the outcome of the case. Whipkey, who also officiates at parishes in the nearby towns of Mead and Erie, remains an active priest.

If convicted of indecent exposure, a misdemeanor, he would have to register as a sex offender, prosecutors said.

What do you think? Is the priest a pervert? He WAS running in the dark and it WAS before sunrise. Do you think that was indecent exposure? With the scandals facing Catholic priests, I don't think jogging in the nude is a good idea, even if he meant no harm.

Chinese Pilots and Products

I heard this on the radio this morning. I am never ever going to fly Air China!! As it is, I am always very tense when I have to fly any where. Imagine if I was flying in a plane where I know the pilot does not speak much English and therefore is not able to understand what the air control tower is saying? That would be terrifying. On my last trip home to Malaysia we flew Cathay Pacific and I was happy to note that the pilots were native speakers of English.




Many years ago when I was teaching in Vietnam, one of the guys in my class at the Research Institute of Fruit and Vegetable was an air controller. He said it was important for him to be able to speak English because among his job was to communicate with planes that fly over the Vietnamese air space. I said, "Oh, I see."

What is it with a lot of the products that come from China? Have you heard about the toothpaste that is made in China and available at most of the dollar stores here in the US? I buy my toothpaste from the 99 Cents store but thank goodness I have never bought any that came from China. One of my kids love to eat the toothpaste off her toothbrush! Imagine your kid consuming some anti-freeze agent!

And now the warning is on the safety of the seafood from China. I buy a lot of shrimp or fish that is either from Vietnam or China. Shudder! It is laughable when I heard on the news today that the Chinese government guarantees the safety of their food products. Who is doing the guaranteeing? They do not have agencies like the FDA that regulate the safety of food and drugs.

When I was home in Miri late last year, I talked to a friend who was working in China. We talked a bit about China and about how impressed he was with the economic growth of China and how soon it will overtake the US as the biggest economy in the world. That may be so, I said, if China remained intact as a country. He told me that the grassroots political movement in China was strong and that everyone was united in the economic success of the country. Oooooookk!

Whatever it is, I will never be able to view the Chinese government without suspicion. Just the fact that the government is still run by communists is enough to keep that suspicion. In my mind they view the US as a useful trading partner, but the US will never be an ally.