Given the state of our economy, is this what Obama is handing out in our stimulus package?
In an unrelated note, how the heck do people get normal sized images on blogger without pixelation?
Showing posts with label obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obama. Show all posts
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Separated at Birth
Is it my imagination or does Bernie Madoff look like an aging version of Alexander Hamilton?
Given the state of our economy, is this what Obama is handing out in our stimulus package?
In an unrelated note, how the heck do people get normal sized images on blogger without pixelation?
Given the state of our economy, is this what Obama is handing out in our stimulus package?
In an unrelated note, how the heck do people get normal sized images on blogger without pixelation?
Monday, January 26, 2009
On Leadership
I put the following quote -- attributed to Norman Lear -- at the end of a keynote speech I wrote for my boss recently but, upon re-reading it over the weekend, I couldn't help but think of how it parallels the state of the nation today and Obama's (and our) challenges ahead.
“To be an effective leader, you not only have to get the group of followers on the right path, but you must be able to convince them that whatever obstacle stands in the way ahead, whether it’s a tree or a building that blocks the view, you’re going to get around it. You’re not going to be put off by apparent barriers to your goal. All journeys are filled with potholes and mines, but the only way we can move beyond them is to approach them, and recognize them for what they are. You have to see that it’s only a tree, or whatever, and it’s not insurmountable. Everywhere you trip is where the treasure lies.”
“To be an effective leader, you not only have to get the group of followers on the right path, but you must be able to convince them that whatever obstacle stands in the way ahead, whether it’s a tree or a building that blocks the view, you’re going to get around it. You’re not going to be put off by apparent barriers to your goal. All journeys are filled with potholes and mines, but the only way we can move beyond them is to approach them, and recognize them for what they are. You have to see that it’s only a tree, or whatever, and it’s not insurmountable. Everywhere you trip is where the treasure lies.”
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Mini-weekend: Day 2
Another four-day work week! Or as my friend/client Dawn said to me, "You claim you're down to a four-day week but you worked all weekend. You're really just down to six days." Yeah, thanks buzz kill.
Plans for today include:
1) Laundry (in progress)
2) Getting my head around my Schwab account (God help me, literally)
3) Dinner with Miche at Olives
I also hope to dust, talk on the phone, read a bit, whatever.
And I finally just watched Obama's speech. I don't care what MSNBC says, I thought it was powerful.
"America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."
Plans for today include:
1) Laundry (in progress)
2) Getting my head around my Schwab account (God help me, literally)
3) Dinner with Miche at Olives
I also hope to dust, talk on the phone, read a bit, whatever.
And I finally just watched Obama's speech. I don't care what MSNBC says, I thought it was powerful.
"America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Where Were You When?
I was searching for an interview that my friend Dave, who works for the AARP, had conducted with Martina Navratilova when I happened upon an article on their site entitled, “Where Were You When?” in which AARP staff members describe the ten moments they’ll never forget. Since I was not yet on this planet or too young to remember, I cannot comment on the assassinations of JFK, MLK or Robert F. Kennedy or the shootings at Kent State but some of these other events do stand out in my aging memory bank.
December 8, 1980: John Lennon is killed: I was preparing for midterm exams on the couch in my parents’ living room. I was a junior in HS and had the radio on while studying. Go figure.
January 28, 1986: The U.S. space shuttle Challenger explodes 72 seconds after takeoff, killing all seven crew members. My roommate Berrie and I were in Professor Bob Arnold’s film class at SU where he announced the news. I remember the horror not entirely registering with me until later possibly because I hadn’t yet seen the images.
November 9, 1989: Borders between East and West Germany open—leading to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. I was sound asleep in my room at Brad and Kristin’s house on French Road when my girlfriend Meg called to wake me up. “I knew this is something you wouldn’t want to miss.” Although it was cool to watch, I would rather have been sleeping. She also called a few months later, again really early in the morning, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. I’m still tired . . .
August 31, 1997: Princess Diana dies. I was in a cab headed back uptown having just left my friend Barton and his photographer friend down in Union Square when I heard that she had been shot, er, I mean in a car accident. The next morning, as we took the train out to the Hamptons to celebrate my girlfriend Laura’s birthday, the news of Diana's death was all over the airwaves. Two years later, again headed out to the Hamptons, I remember being at Penn Station as people were freaking about JFK Jr.’s missing plane. The worst was confirmed when we got to Laura’s house. It was almost a surreal, “how can this be happening again?” experience.
April 20, 1999: The Columbine High School massacre occurs in Littleton, Colorado. I honestly cannot remember where I heard this news. I remember watching the coverage and wishing that those boys could have had the foresight to realize that the pains of high school fade quickly upon graduation.
September 11, 2001: Attack on the World Trade Center. I was at my desk here in Rochester when my husband called. I immediately called a girlfriend who I used to work with in the World Financial Center to make sure she was okay. She actually picked up her phone in her office and chatted with me for a minute to tell me that they were evacuating the building. I heard later that another girlfriend from work had gotten off the subway in the WTC and when she saw everyone running, she assumed there was a gunman. So, instead of leaving the building, she stayed and hid behind a garbage bin. It wasn’t until she realized that there were no gunshots that she decided to run in the same direction as everyone else. She was halfway uptown when the building collapsed behind her.
What’s missing from this list?
October 3, 1995: The end of the OJ trial. Working at Draft, we all went in to the conference room to watch the verdict being delivered on TV. Wow. Talk about a collective groan heard worldwide!
Sidebar: I have been reading bits and pieces of Leonard Mlodinow’s book, The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, which shed light on how the jury was fooled by misleading statistics. During the trial, lawyer Alan Dershowitz shared that in the U.S. each year, 4M women are battered by their male partners, yet only one in 2,500 is killed. His argument was that just because O.J. was a known abuser, the chances of him actually murdering her were slim. However, that wasn’t the relevant statistic. The opposite side of the equation, which never surfaced in court, was relevant: 90% of all battered women who are murdered are killed by their abusers. Retrial!
Pan Am Flight 103, Lockerbie, Scotland. December 21, 1988. This tragedy, more than any other, has directly affected people I know and has haunted me for years. One of my girlfriends, who was supposed to be on that flight but decided to travel in Europe a bit longer, lost many of her close friends from SU that day—along with her faith. I remember my sister calling to tell me what had happened. As a former student of the SU London Centre only three years earlier, I felt devastated by this tragedy. And 20 years later, it still makes me cry just thinking about it.
But, more importantly, what’s next?
Tomorrow: the Obama inauguration! Good luck to the man who has to pick up the pieces after “Mission Accomplished.” I can’t wait to tune in!
December 8, 1980: John Lennon is killed: I was preparing for midterm exams on the couch in my parents’ living room. I was a junior in HS and had the radio on while studying. Go figure.
January 28, 1986: The U.S. space shuttle Challenger explodes 72 seconds after takeoff, killing all seven crew members. My roommate Berrie and I were in Professor Bob Arnold’s film class at SU where he announced the news. I remember the horror not entirely registering with me until later possibly because I hadn’t yet seen the images.
November 9, 1989: Borders between East and West Germany open—leading to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. I was sound asleep in my room at Brad and Kristin’s house on French Road when my girlfriend Meg called to wake me up. “I knew this is something you wouldn’t want to miss.” Although it was cool to watch, I would rather have been sleeping. She also called a few months later, again really early in the morning, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. I’m still tired . . .
August 31, 1997: Princess Diana dies. I was in a cab headed back uptown having just left my friend Barton and his photographer friend down in Union Square when I heard that she had been shot, er, I mean in a car accident. The next morning, as we took the train out to the Hamptons to celebrate my girlfriend Laura’s birthday, the news of Diana's death was all over the airwaves. Two years later, again headed out to the Hamptons, I remember being at Penn Station as people were freaking about JFK Jr.’s missing plane. The worst was confirmed when we got to Laura’s house. It was almost a surreal, “how can this be happening again?” experience.
April 20, 1999: The Columbine High School massacre occurs in Littleton, Colorado. I honestly cannot remember where I heard this news. I remember watching the coverage and wishing that those boys could have had the foresight to realize that the pains of high school fade quickly upon graduation.
September 11, 2001: Attack on the World Trade Center. I was at my desk here in Rochester when my husband called. I immediately called a girlfriend who I used to work with in the World Financial Center to make sure she was okay. She actually picked up her phone in her office and chatted with me for a minute to tell me that they were evacuating the building. I heard later that another girlfriend from work had gotten off the subway in the WTC and when she saw everyone running, she assumed there was a gunman. So, instead of leaving the building, she stayed and hid behind a garbage bin. It wasn’t until she realized that there were no gunshots that she decided to run in the same direction as everyone else. She was halfway uptown when the building collapsed behind her.
What’s missing from this list?
October 3, 1995: The end of the OJ trial. Working at Draft, we all went in to the conference room to watch the verdict being delivered on TV. Wow. Talk about a collective groan heard worldwide!
Sidebar: I have been reading bits and pieces of Leonard Mlodinow’s book, The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, which shed light on how the jury was fooled by misleading statistics. During the trial, lawyer Alan Dershowitz shared that in the U.S. each year, 4M women are battered by their male partners, yet only one in 2,500 is killed. His argument was that just because O.J. was a known abuser, the chances of him actually murdering her were slim. However, that wasn’t the relevant statistic. The opposite side of the equation, which never surfaced in court, was relevant: 90% of all battered women who are murdered are killed by their abusers. Retrial!
Pan Am Flight 103, Lockerbie, Scotland. December 21, 1988. This tragedy, more than any other, has directly affected people I know and has haunted me for years. One of my girlfriends, who was supposed to be on that flight but decided to travel in Europe a bit longer, lost many of her close friends from SU that day—along with her faith. I remember my sister calling to tell me what had happened. As a former student of the SU London Centre only three years earlier, I felt devastated by this tragedy. And 20 years later, it still makes me cry just thinking about it.
But, more importantly, what’s next?
Tomorrow: the Obama inauguration! Good luck to the man who has to pick up the pieces after “Mission Accomplished.” I can’t wait to tune in!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Twenty Two Times Two!
Yea! Today's my birthday. My acupuncturist was telling me that 44 denotes a powerful year in numerology. She also mentioned how Barack Obama will be our 44th president. Coincidence? I think not. I'm looking forward to brandishing my new found strength by dominating the world this year, too!
On an unrelated note, if you're sick of online shopping and want a few minutes of browsing fun, head over to Sleeveface which describes itself as "one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion."
Inspiring, right?! Makes me want to create a photo of my own to submit over the holidays!
On an unrelated note, if you're sick of online shopping and want a few minutes of browsing fun, head over to Sleeveface which describes itself as "one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion."
Inspiring, right?! Makes me want to create a photo of my own to submit over the holidays!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
And They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love
As a result of this election, I'm being inundated with heaps of upsetting messages from my Christian friends including:
Most importantly, I firmly understand why people don't want to be associated with my belief system. My walk with Christ is just that: my walk. Not yours. Not anyone else's. But if we continue to be unloving toward those who are not on the same path, then I can guarantee that I'll be walking alone. Who on earth would want to join me?
- Emails regarding Obama's potential choice of "fanatically pro-abortion" Kathleen Sebelius for a cabinet position. Yet, according to an April 2008 press release from her office as governor of Kansas, "Over the last several years, we have worked on lowering abortion rates in Kansas by focusing on adoption incentives, extended health services for pregnant women, providing sex education and offering a variety of support services for families. Those efforts are having a positive impact; recently we learned that the abortion rate in Kansas continues to go down." In addition, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, abortions have declined 9% since she took office in 2002. What gives?
- A celebratory email regarding California's Prop 8 decision which my girlfriend Melanie at Left Coast Mom thankfully covered exceptionally well regarding the embedded hypocrisy. So if my hubby dies, I cannot remarry as a Christian because I have no intention of procreating? Yeah, okay.
- Prayers regarding if the enemy is behind Obama's victory. Meanwhile, we're in two wars and the economy is tanking. Are those crises Obama's fault? No. So why is the current regime somehow more acceptable and more Christ-like? I sincerely do not get it.
Most importantly, I firmly understand why people don't want to be associated with my belief system. My walk with Christ is just that: my walk. Not yours. Not anyone else's. But if we continue to be unloving toward those who are not on the same path, then I can guarantee that I'll be walking alone. Who on earth would want to join me?
Monday, October 27, 2008
Reading, Writing and Right Wing Rhetoric
Son #1 said to the hubby after school today, "I heard that if Obama wins the election, we'll have to go to school on snow days."
Yes and abortions will be mandatory.
Yes and abortions will be mandatory.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Joe the Plumber
Dick, Paul and Warren
And Biden, too
General Jim Jones joins the crew
Obama and the gang have so much fun
Working together, they get the job done
Can we fix it?
Joe the Plumber
Yes we can!
(My apologies to those of you with young lads out there who now have the Bob the Builder theme song stuck in your heads.)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Zinger!
"Well, you know, Sen. McCain, in the last debate and today, again, suggested that I don't understand. It's true. There are some things I don't understand.
I don't understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 . . ."
-----------------
Funny!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
McCain v. Obama
Here's to me stepping, once again, into territory where I don't belong and my economist brother piping in with details regarding where my logic is flawed! (Bring it on.) But really, who's going to win?
Today's polls show the candidates neck-in-neck: 47% McCain v. 46% Obama. ABC.com boasts myriad conflicting articles as I type, "Public still doubts Palin's readiness," "White women shift to McCain," and "George Stephanopoulos examines how Sarah Palin has boosted McCain's campaign."
A lot of my friends/neighbors are split. My Obama-oriented friends are filled with passion and outrage. They send missives all day long. My McCain-favoring friends are quietly smug. They somehow don't need to fight for their cause; it's a given. Perhaps mere mortal words cannot state their case effectively.
If I turn to my trusty Facebook, the "One Million Strong for Barack" group has 707,941 members and "Barack Obama (politician) has 1,855,105 supporters; whereas, the "1,000,000 Strong for McCain/Palin" group has a scant 65,820 members and "John McCain (politician)" only has 337,872 supporters. Quite a contrast.
While I realize that Facebook is not a representative sample of the U.S. population, it is an interesting dynamic. I think the numbers may actually support the key finding of my random qualitative survey of friends and neighbors: one segment vehemently supports its candidate and the other segment appears to be simply accepting its candidate to a moderate degree.
I wonder how the passion (or lack thereof) will manifest itself in driving people to the voting booths come November. If you want me, you can find me left of center off of the strip.
Today's polls show the candidates neck-in-neck: 47% McCain v. 46% Obama. ABC.com boasts myriad conflicting articles as I type, "Public still doubts Palin's readiness," "White women shift to McCain," and "George Stephanopoulos examines how Sarah Palin has boosted McCain's campaign."
A lot of my friends/neighbors are split. My Obama-oriented friends are filled with passion and outrage. They send missives all day long. My McCain-favoring friends are quietly smug. They somehow don't need to fight for their cause; it's a given. Perhaps mere mortal words cannot state their case effectively.
If I turn to my trusty Facebook, the "One Million Strong for Barack" group has 707,941 members and "Barack Obama (politician) has 1,855,105 supporters; whereas, the "1,000,000 Strong for McCain/Palin" group has a scant 65,820 members and "John McCain (politician)" only has 337,872 supporters. Quite a contrast.
While I realize that Facebook is not a representative sample of the U.S. population, it is an interesting dynamic. I think the numbers may actually support the key finding of my random qualitative survey of friends and neighbors: one segment vehemently supports its candidate and the other segment appears to be simply accepting its candidate to a moderate degree.
I wonder how the passion (or lack thereof) will manifest itself in driving people to the voting booths come November. If you want me, you can find me left of center off of the strip.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Huckle Up
What happens if you weigh the election issues that are important to you and then vote on a five-point scale of "strongly opposed" to "strongly support" according to topic-related statements?
Let glassbooth do the work for you.
Apparently I should be voting for either Obama (70% similarity) or Huckabee (69% similarity) . . .
What this survey mechanism doesn't account for is my level of confidence in any candidate's ability to actually accomplish what s/he is touting in his or her platform.
Let glassbooth do the work for you.
Apparently I should be voting for either Obama (70% similarity) or Huckabee (69% similarity) . . .
What this survey mechanism doesn't account for is my level of confidence in any candidate's ability to actually accomplish what s/he is touting in his or her platform.
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