Obama uses an Apple Laptop

This is just one of the many fascinating facts you may not know about Obama. And I know someone who would be giggling like a schoolgirl at this ;)

Adding to this, a few excerpts of the most surprising facts :

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
  [Achieve Nerdvana would have a field day!]
• He has read every Harry Potter book
  [Uh… I only read the first one. But that was a birthday present.]
• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can’t stand ice cream
• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
  [I’ve eaten snake and roasted grasshopper in Sri Lanka.]
• He can speak Spanish
  [Learned it in school, but that was years back. I can’t even order an ice cream in Spanish.]
• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
  [150lbs for me. The president is in better shape than me :( ]
• He doesn’t drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
  [I don’t drink alcohol, but I do go through at least a couple of gallons of coffee a week]
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
  [This isn’t so much a “youth” trend as a silly one]
• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
  [Imagine that, someone who actually practices what they preach]
• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were “street urchins”

See, these are things that just didn’t come up during the campaign. I think these details about candidates should have been brought to our attention way before the elections. We’re seeing a man with a lot more life experience (which may be worth its weight compared to political experience) than most others who persued the job.  Someone who actually got to spend time and absorb the local culture (rather than spend time being imprisoned by it or spend time ignoring it staring at snow and moose and oil).

And someone who is actually aware that Americana is a spectrum of experiences rather than a monotone sheet of ideology.

Jeremiah Wright is a crazy racist: Or how to skew public opinion by selective editing

Not even a week has passed since the new President has taken office, and there are people still spewing the same skewed opinion.

Have any of you seen the phrases in context? Be aware, he is speaking to a primarily black congregation.

Angry, upset, perhaps even mistaken about a few facts, but definitely not racist. Never mistake passion for insanity.

Here is a man who is trying to explain how the cycle of violence will only continue with retribution and the petty partisans can only use it to further their own agendas. Those who only hear what they want to hear in this are only lying to themselves. You’re not doing yourselves or your children any favours by doing this.

Hatred is a funny thing. Those who are quick to see it in others are often the ones filled with it.

Time to reexamine your values and morals. Are you truly being virtuous or moral when you accuse this man of being racist?

Full Disclosure :
I’m not a Christian. In fact, I’m barely a theist. I’m also not a “Liberal”, at least in the way the term is being thrown about. I do, however, try to be objective whenever I can.

Barack Obama has 1,113,855 friends

Well at least at the time of this post…

There was some friction about Obama’s use of his Blackberry in the last few days, so it’s only natural for the new Commander in Chief to also have a MySpace page. I’m sure his MySpace blog won’t be used for official announcements, but chances are, you can catch a glimpse of what’s next on the social agenda.

RE: Now We Wait To Hear Medvedev Policy Speech

This is a response to Sean Wilson‘s recent post regarding the Russian foreign policy speech. Specifically, his first response to a comment. I don’t always agree with his opinions, but I always find them fun to read. Please check out his blog.

 

It’s true, Russia does blame everything on the U.S.
But the concern now is that the U.S. is Velcro® and every attack, insinuation, and insult seems to stick.

I’m not so sure that they see the American light fading so much as they see their own lights shining brighter. The government there isn’t as influenced by popular culture/opinion as in the U.S. and their assessment is, consequently, less coloured.

And by lightS, I include China and India in there as well. Russia, in particular, has always had those resources, but just not the means to fully exploit them. This is true in China as well, to a lesser degree. India, the new kid, just stepped into Muscle Beach and intends to fully exploit the exposure.

But I don’t think it’s a good idea to support independence movements within the bloc just yet. We’re in turmoil as well, and if it’s not executed properly (as is very likely) this will come back to bite us in a way that will make Afghanistan look like San Francisco.

What Americans do extremely well is use its existing strength, means, and ingenuity to exploit the moment. But Americans are not as adept at adaptation when it comes to foreign assault (political, diplomatic, and incidental) as the public isn’t as lovy-dovy with the government right now. Responses are somewhat sluggish lately and often inappropriate (it seems). This is because we’ve started removing our trusty shades.

In this atmosphere Americans shouldn’t use the same attacks in this state.

But let’s not delude ourselves. Russia is still Russia.
Irrespective of the current political ideology that’s very important to remember in all future dealings with the country. Governments may change in the blink of an eye. People, as a whole, are quite a bit slower at change.

It’s a brave new world out there, and America will need to rely on its greatest strengths far more than any time since WWII. Some ideas may die a painful death in these times, but let’s keep the funerals short so we can move on to bigger and better things.

Obama on a Food stamp?!

Yet more embarrassment from the Republican party. Why do they even bother hiring these people in the first place? I appreciate the fact that certain Republicans are finally standing up to this nonsense.

This would have been funny if it weren't so tragic

According to the L.A. Times :

“A Republican women’s club in San Bernardino County sent out a recent newsletter with a photo of Barack Obama surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon and ribs, sparking widespread outrage and rebuke from GOP leaders and Democrats.”

Her excuses :

“I apologize to anyone who was offended because that was not my intent”

And…

It was just food to me. It didn’t mean anything else.

… According to Press Enterprise.

a) You have to be a blithering idiot to not realise the specific foods mentioned have intimate ties to racism in American culture.

b) You have to be a blithering idiot to pull this stunt when your own party is desperately trying to win the hearts and minds of minorities (some of whom are present in your own organization).

c) You are a blithering idiot… And a bigot. Which is the worst kind out there, since you don’t even seem to realise what it is you’ve done.

Of course the Obama folks have their own nasty attacks at Palin… But my God!