What is the "Fil Rouge" in your work life? No matter the type of job you had, what was the aspect that you enjoyed the most? Even if you you worked in Tokyo for some time, later in Seattle and then in the countryside in Provence, what guided you every time along the way? What did you find totally unbearable? What was fascinating? What did that lead you to?

Discovering our Fil Rouge is an exciting way to explore our life and find what is important for us in our work. How could you apply these findings in your work, or in the quest for the work you would love to have?

In thinking about those factors that will motivate my voting choices this November, one question continually tugged at my consciousness.  What does the President of the United States really do every day?  In order to develop an answer, I must digress once again.

A recent gathering of friends and family at my home saw the battle lines being drawn as the conversation turned to the upcoming election.  As with any political debate, the true feelings of the participants toward their chosen candidate (and against the opponent) became increasingly obvious as the discussion grew more heated. 

Not surprisingly, in my living room the focus was eerily similar to that of the propaganda spewing forth from the Republican campaign – specifically: very little emphasis or detail on hot-button issues.  Instead, the pervading disagreement was over who has more experience and is, therefore, more qualified to be President of the United States.

Even after yesterday's post, I realized I'm not as tired of this topic as I had thought.

However, if the dialog is to center on credentials, there has to be one major caveat.  Voters who plan to base their choice on qualifications should be keenly aware of what the president actually does every day.  I suspect that may not be the case for many of the people who will cast a ballot this November.  

Moreover, my recent observations have given me the impression that some of the combatants in our armchair political debates may not even be aware of the duties, responsibilities, and limitations imposed upon the chief executive in Article II of the U.S. Constitution.  This would seem to be a necessary jumping-off point for any examination of the day-to-day functions performed by our president.

So, assuming that you’re already acquainted with the aforementioned Constitutional specifics (or that you hit the above link and boned up), let’s imagine a classified ad for President of the United States.  To create this simple “Help Wanted” ad, I’ll flesh out one that appeared in an April 2008 article from the Washington Post:

“CEO needed to supervise 3 million employees.  Must be at least 35 years of age, native-born, willing to work from home.  Multi-tasking ability a must.  Exceptional people skills and a good head for figures required.  Must be able to deal constructively with multiple sources of friction and opposition.  Spectacular public failures likely."

For my money, the most important part of this brief job description is the part that reads: “Must be able to deal constructively with multiple sources of friction and opposition”.   Some of the most notable failures in presidential history have been those self-described “mavericks” who were, in reality, unable or unwilling to compromise when they could afford to and stroke leaders in Congress or the leaders of foreign powers to get things done when it was necessary.

In other words, the successful applicant will possess abundant intelligence, charisma, cunning, and pragmatism so as to allow him /her to successfully advance a domestic agenda while, at the same time, keeping us on good terms with our foreign allies.

That being said, let me answer the fundamental question posed in the second paragraph of this post: what does the president really do?

A typical day in the life of our Commander-in-Chief may involve any or all of the following:

·     Receiving a massive amount of data in the form of briefings and/or written reports on any number of matters of national interest – including domestic budget issues, world social & economic news, national security/intelligence data, military operations, current and future legislative & judicial proceedings, etc.

·     Assimilating [hopefully] all of the above and using it to make informed decisions

·     Meeting with Cabinet secretaries and support staff

·     Meeting with foreign dignitaries

·     Making and answering numerous telephone calls – usually with a view toward pushing whatever policies comprise his political agenda

·     Assimilating [hopefully] all of the above and using it to make informed decisions

·     Preparing for various personal appearances and speeches – most notably the State of the Union Address

·     Attending the aforementioned personal appearances and giving the aforementioned speeches

·     Preparing an annual Federal Budget to be delivered to Congress

·     Reviewing bills that have passed the House & Senate or are pending so as to prepare for signing/vetoing same

·     Reviewing the credentials of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people who may be considered for appointment to government positions.  e.g. Federal Judges

·     Assimilating [hopefully] all of the above and using it to make informed decisions

The above is, by no means, a complete list.  I’ve never been President of the United States so it’s entirely likely I may have missed some things.  Nevertheless, it seems like a daunting job that places never-ending demands on the time, energy, and intellect, and emotions of whomever gets elected to do it.

All of this makes me question [at least one of] the candidates’ preparedness to undertake such a challenge.  Maybe the number of years of political experience they possess isn’t the most important criterion by which their readiness should be judged.  In addition, perhaps we voters had better consider other factors like intelligence, energy, multi-tasking ability, communications skills, and charisma

Taking all of this into account, who is better equipped – McCain or Obama?  I know who I’d pick.

Since I was privileged to participate in the closing day events of the festival, I would like to share with you some of the pictures I have taken on that day.

A wooden sculpture inaugurated by the Dy. Mayor

Higher up the hill... the new statue of Our Lady (unveiled 1953)

Ffynnon Fair (also: Ffynon Mair), St. Mary's Well, which lies on the hillside

Pavane: Playing their own brand of live early music, including harp, oud, lute, hurdy-gurdy, medieval fiddle, bass viol, recorders, crimhorns, shawm, gemshorns, cornamuse, percussion.

Robin and Bina Williamson: The famous couple performing with a wonderful alchemical blend of harp, fiddle, flute, percussion and evocative East-West harmonies in an inspiring style recently described as 'Indo-Celtic Delta.' I was rather surprised to know that Bina was a Punjabi!

Frenetic Engineering Big Fire Show: ...as seen at the Royal Wedding, Cannes Film Festival, Glastonbury Festival, etc.

Yesterday, Gracia, Shan Wen and Hannah asked me to go ice skating with them. It was rather random. Hahah! No idea why they called me along. But that's not the point. The point is that I'm actually going to do something new, ice skating. Haha!

We were supposed to meet at 11am. Then Divya and her brother came, at 11. I was there at 10.50am. Haha! Guess what time Gracia came? She came at 12pm! Haha! She has contracted the Shan Wen disease, a diesease for being totally late. So at 12, we went to Kallang Entertainment Centre, or whatever place that is. Haha!

Got there, had lunch with them, KFC actually. Did not feel like eating KFC actually, but then the 2 girls wanted to. Well.. No choice, I'm so soft hearted. Haha! So, in the end, just ate at KFC. Then went to the rink which had lots of people. OH MY GOODNESS!

I was going to embarass myself so badly. Haha! I kept falling on my butt and hands. Haha! Not a good experience. Not good at all. But new, so it's fun. But I only skated for like an hour. Haha! Did not feel like embarassing myself any furthur. Haha!

So.. After skating, we went "shopping".  The 3 of us were comparing our clothes. Haha! They asked like how much I was worth, as in my clothes, nothing else. Haha! Let's see.

Topman shirt : $70

Levi's Jeans    :$89

Adidas shoes: $90

Total             : $249

Haha! Is that really very much? I know of more people who dresses up in much more expensive clothes than me. Yeah, so they were saying how rich I was. But nah.. I'm not. Just an ordinary boy with ordinary allowance. Besides, my family going through a rough time. Yeah. Shopping spree, we went into different boutiques to shop. Haha!

Divya and Gracia said that Brasse was somewhere that I would shop. I wouldn't disagree, but then it's not somewhere I would frequent because the shirts are like $79. Though the shirts are nice, it's just a little too expensive for me. Haha! Then we continued to Britishindia, 70% discount!!! I went in there like some little kid who wants to buy a lollipop, came out like a kid who got his lollipop. Haha! Simply fabulous. The discount really saved me lots of money. I just bought a T-shirt with "Single Minded" printed at the front. Cost me $9. Compare it with the original price of $23, it's really cheap right? Haha! Though it wasn't really 70%, I still saved a huge sum. Haha!

Then Gracia wanted to buy Wii, so we followed her to the gaming shop, no idea what it was called. Haha! Yeah, so the both of us made a deal. She'll get the Wii, I'll get the PS3, then I'll bring it over and play at her house. Haha! Cool right?

YAY! Nodame Cantabile has a second season! Nodame Cantabile : Paris-hen. Haha! I love Nodame so much. Wouldn't mind having a girl like that in my life. Watch it people!

Guys.. Watch Nodame okays? Haha!

I plan to post anything and everything that I could think especially related to my interests such as computers, news, music, education, people, events and Christian Life.

Why I create blog? Because in here, I can express my thoughts and ideas in which everyone can see and read. In Blog I can express my happy and stressfully experiences at the end of the busy day .

It's time to say HeLLo World..and WeLLcOmE to my blog.

Jest to okazja żeby dowiedzieć się wszystkiego o tym zacnym (chociaz troche nie docenianym w Polsce) trunku. W trakcie imprezy można spróbować ponad 400 rumów. Byłoby by to nie lada osiągnięcie swoją drogą m.in. z powodu kwoty którą trzeba by na ten cel przeznaczyć - 400 GBP.

Wszystkie próbki są płatne 1GBP za 15ml.

Na pewno wypróbujemy kilka nieznanych trunków i zdamy wam relacje.

The Rum Experience

Sure, doctor, what can I do for you, says the patient.

"Would you scream in the most earsplitting, piercing screams you can manage? Try to make it sound as if you're in terrible pain." The doctor says.

"But why, doctor, you've always been gentle with me and your treatments have never caused me any pain?" Asks the patient.

"Yes," Says the doctor in a matter-of-fact tone, "but I have a 4 o'clock tee time at the golf course I don't want to miss, and my waiting room is still full of patients."

From: www.onlyfunnystories.com

However, I must share the following:

After putting a short program on the board, I told the students to type "R," "U," "N" and press return to see the program execute.

A hand went up in the back of the room, waving to get my attention, and the person attached to the hand said, "I did what you said and it didn't work." Knowing full-well that all of us make mistakes when typing at the computer, I suggested she retype "R," "U," "N" and press return. A few seconds later, the lady's hand goes up again. "It still doesn't work," she said.

So... I went back to see what the problem was ... only to find that instead of typing RUN, she had typed in the following: ARE YOU IN!

From: www.onlyfunnystories.com

Now, as you may or may not know, SGI sells top of the line computers used in many different industries. On average, they're about three times as expensive as personal PCs and are meant to be used by professionals in the industries they're used in.

Anyway, the following call came in:

Customer: "I just received an Onyx yesterday, and I tried to set it up today and it doesn't work."
Tech Support: "It just doesn't boot up?"
Customer: "It doesn't even turn on. I see nothing on the screen, and the fan doesn't even turn on in the back of the system."
Tech Support: "Is the monitor functioning? Is there a little green light in the lower right corner of the monitor?"
Customer: "Yes, there is."
Tech Support: "Ok, is the computer plugged in?"
Customer: (irritated) "Look, I think I know how to set up a system. I'm a college graduate, you know."
Tech Support: "Ok, let me finish typing up this report, and I'll send it off. You will get a reply within one business day."
Customer: (exasperated) "Thank you. Geez, I mean I paid a huge amount of money for this computer. The least you people can do it make sure it works before sending it to me!"
Customer: "I mean, to add to the poor quality control, you even sent me one extra power cord."
Tech Support: "One extra cord?"
Customer: "Yes, it looks just the one I used to plug in the monitor and computer, but that's all you sent to me. I have no use for this other one."
At this point, I thought I should inquire a little more...but use a bit of tact to do so.

Tech Support: "Sir, can you double check the serial number on the back of your computer?"
Customer: "On the back of the computer?"
Tech Support: "Yes, sir."
Customer: (sigh) "All right, all right, hold on..."
I heard a few muffled grunts as he crawled over his desk to see the back of the computer. He repeated the serial number from the sticker. I didn't bother to verify it.

Tech Support: "Thank you, sir. Oh, by the way, can you check to see if the computer is plugged in?"
Dead silence. I could just picture the man's face when he realized that the computer was never plugged in in the first place and that the "extra" power cord he was holding in his hand was for the computer. I didn't wait for a response from him. I thanked him for calling, hung up, and closed the case.

From: www.onlyfunnystories.com

"My son BIll," says one, "has made quite a name for himself in the home-building industry. He began as a carpenter, but now owns his own design and construction firm. He's so successful in fact, in the last year he was able to give a good friend a brand new home as a gift."

The second man, no to be out done, tells how his son began his career as a car salesman, but now owns a multi-line dealership. "George is so successful, in fact, in the last six months he gave his friend two brand new cars as a gift."

The third man's son, Albert, has worked his way up through a stock brokerage, and in the last few weeks has given a good friend a large stock portfolio as a gift.

As the fourth man arrives at the tee, another tells him that they have been discussing their progeny and asks what line his son is in.

"To tell the truth, I'm not very pleased with how my son turned out," he replies. "For 15 years, Frank's been a hairdresser, and I've just recently discovered he's gay. However, on the bright side, he must be good at what he does because his last three boyfriends have given him a brand new house, two cars, and a big pile of stock certificates."

From: www.onlyfunnystories.com

Rumor.  Rumor.  Rumor.  Or is it?

It was two weeks before the DNC convention in August that allegations initially surfaced. A personal friendship, between Senator Barack Obama, and a woman named Vera Baker working for Obama as a "Finance Director" for his 2004 campaign for U.S. Senate, however have resurfaced.  Although another woman was listed and paid as a finance director during this time, this young woman was also.  A sudden relocation to New York occurred.  Michelle Obama seemed unusually more angry during that timeframe.  "And then, even more suddenly, Vera Baker was relocated to the island of Martinique, where she remains." according to Hillbuzz.  

Jammie Wearing Fool and Ace of Spades HQ notes the following.

...The woman is "working" in the Caribbean drawing a salary from.... uhhh... let's say from someone who is a big, shiny part of the dirty Chicago political machine. And it makes no sense that she's doing her supposed "job," for which she seems unqualified anyway, in the Caribbean, of all places. It's unclear how she could possibly do this job at all, never mind from the Caribbean. And she's been there for at least a year. (At least.) This isn't some sabbatical or few months' of "work" on an island paradise.

This woman was a major, big-time fundraiser. She raised x millions of dollars for various Democratic interests (connected to Obama) and then opened her own shop in DC. Since she was (as any fundraiser does) getting a cut of the take, this was a lucrative job. But she, for reasons unfathomable, suddenly shut the shop down and decamped to a little Caribbean island. And somewhere along the line got a "job" from her own Fred Baron. Which conveniently put her far away from Obama, Michelle, and the media.

Within hours of the Daily Mail article breaking, she called the Illinois hq of the Obama campaign. They wouldn't talk to her.

Incidentally, didn't Obama vacation in the Caribbean after he won the primaries...? Oh that's right, he did. I raised this with my source who, alas, hadn't even made that connection.

The Daily Mail notes the following.

‘They said she was removed from her position and the political scene because Michelle got wind of the fact that she had a close friendship with her husband,’ the source said. ‘She disappeared, then she reappeared in the Caribbean.’

The Mail on Sunday located the woman in the Caribbean, where she now works. She denied that Mrs Obama had raised any objections to her job on the 2004 campaign.

‘No,’ she said. ‘Nothing happened. I just left ... at the end of the campaign.’

Asked about the claim that Mrs Obama accused her of having a close friendship with the Senator, she said: ‘I have no comment on anything.

‘I switched careers. That’s it. I’m a Democrat and I support Senator Obama ... I don’t have anything to say.’

She added that she emigrated to the Caribbean from the US after falling in love with the man with whom she now lives.

Senator Obama’s team did not respond to our request for comment.

But one day after we contacted Obama’s team, a London law firm informed The Mail on Sunday that it had been retained by the woman to help her to counter the whispering campaign, which they said was ‘absolutely false’.

No Quarter is holding out for a little more information to see if it is worthy of substantiated presidential race talk.

Thanks to Gateway Pundit for bringing it all together.

Hints & Innuendo

October 12, 2008.

See:

• http://hillbuzz.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/who-is-vera-baker-and-why-is-she-in-martinique/
• http://ace.mu.nu/archives/275417.php
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1076695/Obama-hit-affair-smears-following-claims-attractive-aide-banned-wife.html
• http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/10/did-obama-have-affair-with-vera-baker.html
• http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/10/12/is-vera-baker-surfacing-as-a-potential-story-in-the-presidential-race/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmuPW1Tw-5U

or rather,

Bey is Back?!

or rather,

Oh...Bey is Back.

That's right, apparently management has decided that the public has recovered from the lil Beyonce overdose we suffered last year. gimme another hit of that good stuff!

personally, when i read that she was about to drop another album Nov. 18th [whaaat?!] I groaned audibly, then proceeded to roll my eyes, then proceeded to do my signature head shake. in my humble opinion, i think she needed to chill for a good 3+ years. it's just like momma said: 'give the public a chance to miss you.' and momma ain't never lie...

The public's relationship w/ Beyonce is such a complex one. we love what she does & revel in her many talents, but at the same time, it's too much! what're you doing over there in that boomerang commercial? why is there an angel wrapping his wings around you?! why, why, why?!

oh, and if you're wondering what this fabulous picture is above, everyone's favorite superstar diva woke up one morning & decided to be Etta James*.

classy!

lmao!

...actually, i find beyonces power kind of alluriiing...

listen, i don't have such high expectations for the acting. i let that dream go after the Pink Panther or w/e, but i do hope 2 gah beyonce can make the vocal transformation & do etta justice!

musicwise, bey's simultaneously released 2 new singles [which can be surreptitiously downloaded here on the downlow--you didn't hear it from meee!]

ACTUALLY, turns out the vids with the downloads have been deleted for copyright reasons, illegal blahblahblah BUT! peep the official video NOW NOW NOW before it, too, gets deleted. 'Go now, don't be stupid!' hehe:

i actually like the ballad, 'if i were a boy', even tho a lot of folks don't like how it deviates from that signature beyonce club banger-scream-throw your lace front around-style that we all know & love...also, some fun lil trivia: the song was actually originally written & sung by a lady of lesser melanin by the name of BC Jean, whose original version + download can be found here. errbody's all like 'what's wrong w/ that girl, she let beyonce steal her song n whadnod?!' umm, actually, she let beyonce put bout 6 mil in her bank account. do you realize if you sell a song 2 beyonce & she actually sings it, you rich, fool! smh. anyway, that's just what i heard 'long the grapevine. grapevine always be tellin me stuff.

the uptempo dance song 'single ladies', however, is laughable to me [beyonce fans, don't send me hate mail. i know how y'all are] one minute she's like 'you can look, just don't grab it,' now she's all 'if you like it, put a ring on it'

...

that's that married talk getting to her head! plus it just sounds like she just put some new verses over Will Smith's 'switch' hehe. so, not the best songwriting. i'm just trying to figure out what's this marketing strategy they have going on here, because there must be a strategy...matthew didn't raise no fool. maybe they've secured so many fans of the old beyonce, they're trying to lock in the more pop rock crowd...?

you decide!

one thang is 4 sure--with the name Beyonce, there comes a requisite sense of drama. i invite you to enjoy this drama in the video below. observe the ridiculousness that is [2008 b.p.r.**] beyonce until next post! hollaaaaaaaaaa

A.

*note: more on Beyonce/Etta James casting here and here.

**a second note: b.p.r. = before pop rock era

Manhattan's City Journal's Obama’s Boys of Summer.  A Who’s Who of 1968 radicals supports the candidate from  June 29, 2008, and Sweetness and Light's highlighting of the same article in the SDS/Weathermen Support Barack Obama from June 29, 2008, reveals the Socialist past and present history between Senator Barack Obama and his closest campaign advisors.   William Ayers and Benardine Dorhn are only the surface. 

This article serves as a good introduction to Obama's radical advisors.

Backing a major-party candidate for president would have been anathema to Michael Klonsky 40 summers ago, when the organization he led, Students for a Democratic Society, urged young people to spurn elections. “By ’68, our line was ‘Vote in the Streets,’” Klonsky told me last spring. “We thought we had to fight with Eugene McCarthy and those people.” In August 1968, protesters clashed with police outside the Democratic Party’s national convention in Chicago—but far from being political innocents who took to the streets to protest Vietnam War hawks’ capture of the Democratic presidential nomination, many of them never supported antiwar candidates McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. “Those of us who have been in the streets for the past five days didn’t give a flying fuck whether McCarthy would win or lose,” SDS declared in posters around Chicago, “and now that he’s lost, still don’t.” On the eve of the general election of that year—in which less than 1 percentage point would separate the popular-vote totals of Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey—Klonsky’s SDS bluntly proclaimed: “The elections don’t mean shit.”

Klonsky, whose disgust for mainstream politics led him to launch a new, Maoist Communist Party in the 1970s, today supports Barack Obama so enthusiastically that until recently he was blogging on the Illinois senator’s campaign website. And boycotting this November’s election, Klonsky maintains, would be a “tragic mistake.” He notes that Barack Obama isn’t Hubert Humphrey, 2008 isn’t 1968, and the strong movement he served back then is “relatively weak” now. “My own support for Obama is not a reflection of a radically changed attitude toward the Democratic Party,” Klonsky recently explained to me. “Rather, it’s a recognition that the Obama campaign has become a rallying point for young activists and offers hope for rebuilding the civil rights and antiwar coalitions that have potential to become a real critical force in society.”

Michael Klonsky is hardly the only ’68 radical supporting Obama this year. In 1968, when Mark Rudd organized the student strike that shut down Columbia University, the SDS chapter that he chaired ridiculed Kennedy and McCarthy as “McKennedy,” claimed that “neither peace candidate offers an alternative to the war policies of Lyndon Johnson,” and suggested “sabotage” as an alternative to voting. Rudd succeeded Klonsky as national SDS leader, presiding over the organization’s metamorphosis into Weatherman and performing “a liaison function” for the plot to bomb a Fort Dix soldiers’ dance that instead killed three Weathermen, including two of Rudd’s Columbia SDS colleagues. Today, Rudd renounces bombs, embraces ballots—and supports Obama. “Probably the biggest difference between Columbia SDS people in 1968 and in 2008 is forty years,” Rudd explained in an e-mail. “Most of us have lived with compromise our whole lives. As kids we were raving idealists who thought that ‘The elections don’t mean shit’ was a slogan that meant something to somebody. It didn’t.”

Then there’s Carl Davidson, who was one of SDS’s three elected national officers in 1968, when the organization first urged young people to refrain from voting. His disillusionment with traditional politics became so pronounced that, in the post-sixties hangover that followed, Davidson joined Klonsky in rejecting traditional politics for fringe Marxist movements. More recently, he helped organize the 2002 rally in which Obama first spoke out against the Iraq War and now serves as the webmaster of Progressives for Obama. “The last thing we need is a simple repeat of 1968, which saw Nixon and the new Right as an outcome, as well as the defeat of [Humphrey],” Davidson contends. “One thing I’ve learned. Social change is not made by elections, but it certainly proceeds through them, not by ignoring them or chasing the illusion of end runs around them.”

Former SDS president Tom Hayden is also in the Obama camp. Hayden organized the made-for-TV protest outside the 1968 Chicago convention. But the catharsis of throwing debris at the Chicago police, the purer-than-thou sanctimony that tolerated no distinction between Lyndon Johnson and Eugene McCarthy, and the exhilaration of “voting in the streets” instead of in election booths combined to ensure liberal defeats. Hayden’s orchestrated anarchy proved more damaging to Humphrey’s presidential aspirations than any dirty trick Nixon’s henchmen could have dreamed up. Klonsky remembers Hayden plotting to spread nails on a highway; another SDS leader recalls Hayden encouraging activists to firebomb police cars. If the Democrats couldn’t run a convention, many Americans wondered, how could they run the country? “Did the radicalism of Chicago elect Richard Nixon?” Hayden asked, clearly pained, in his 1988 memoir. “Having struggled with that question for twenty years, I find there is no ‘neat’ answer.”

Now Hayden is one of the organizers of Progressives for Obama. “The difference is that back then the Democratic Party was directly carrying out the Vietnam War, which meant there was no anti-war critic to vote for after Kennedy was assassinated and McCarthy defeated by the establishment,” he offered in an e-mail last month. “Today the Republican Party is directly carrying out the war, which obviously will make a lot of people favor changing the presidency despite the uncertainty of what the Democratic candidate will do when in office.”

Progressives for Obama resembles a Who’s Who of SDS luminaries. In addition to Hayden, Rudd, and Davidson, the group includes Bob Pardun, SDS’s education secretary during the 1966–67 school year; Paul Buhle, a radical professor who has recently attempted to revive SDS; Mickey and Dick Flacks, red-diaper babies who helped craft 1962’s Port Huron Statement, a seminal New Left document; and SDS’s third president, Todd Gitlin. Age and experience have mellowed some of the SDSers in Obama’s camp. Gitlin, for instance, has evolved into a respected Ivy League professor and milquetoast liberal. But others still glory in a past that can only damage Obama’s future. The aging New Left still practices a therapeutic politics that places a higher value on feelings of personal liberation than on restrained pursuit of political aims.

Obama has already taken political hits for his connection to Weathermen Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. In the sixties, Ayers advocated that young people kill their parents, and Dohrn praised the Charles Manson murders. Alongside their Weather Underground cohorts, the pair declared war on the United States and participated in a bombing campaign that hit the Capitol, the Pentagon, and numerous law enforcement agencies. The couple eventually reinvented themselves—first as academics, then as players in Chicago-area Democratic politics. Obama praised Ayers’s book in the Chicago Tribune, sat with him on a foundation’s board, and benefited from a fundraiser held at the couple’s home. Ayers spoke at events organized by Michelle Obama; Barack Obama spoke at events organized by Ayers.

With the public revelation of this unseemly relationship—between unrepentant terrorists and the man who now seeks to oversee America’s war on terror—and the impact it’s already had on voter attitudes, one would think that other sixties extremists might be more reserved in proclaiming their support for Obama, knowing the damage such associations can do to his candidacy. As for Obama, he’ll need to do some distancing of his own. He protested that he was only eight when Ayers, Dohrn, Rudd, and company embarked on their bombing campaign, and that’s reasonable enough. But he’ll need to go further.

Fortunately for him, the Left has a long history of cold-shouldering predecessors to perpetuate its ideology, cleanse it from past failures, and make it appear fresh. The New Left dissociated itself from the Old Left’s Russophilic dogmatism through the Port Huron Statement and other declarations of independence. Even the phrase “New Left” was adopted to divorce the Left from its history.

SDS’s history offers a template for eliminating the embarrassing past. Jack London, Upton Sinclair, and others founded the Intercollegiate Socialist Society (ISS) during the Progressive era, but by World War I the word “socialist” had fallen from favor. So, with the Left seeing labor unions as the agent of societal change, the ISS became the League for Industrial Democracy (LID). Then, by the end of the 1950s, theorists Herbert Marcuse, C. Wright Mills, and Norman O. Brown scoffed at the idea of blue-collar workers—often violently hostile to the Left’s aims—as transformative agents, and the LID’s student arm, the Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID), rechristened itself Students for a Democratic Society. Just as SDS killed SLID as the fifties became the sixties, Weatherman killed SDS as the sixties became the seventies: SDS’s spirit of “participatory democracy” could not peacefully coexist with the vanguardism of Weatherman. And now, completing the circle, the SDS alumni of “progressives” for Obama resurrect a term that would have been more familiar to their distant forebears in the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. On the Left, everything old is eventually new again.

In 1968, the Left served as unwitting allies of Republicans, costing the Democrats the White House by rioting at their convention and withholding votes from Hubert Humphrey. In 2008, it is their vocal support that may cost Barack Obama the presidency. Obama can take a page from the early days of the New Left, which—initially, at least—refused to allow discredited radicals to discredit it. Either Obama publicly divorces himself from radical supporters whose association does more for them than it does for him, or he faces the prospect of Bill Ayers as his Willie Horton.

For more information, see Loudon: Toxic Trio! Ayers, Davidson, Klonsky Linked to Pro-Obama Organisation from September 27, 2008; and Loudon: Even More Weathermen For Obama — Connections, Connections, Connections on Ocotber 9, 2008.  These are the real eye openers and can be found through The Real Barack Obama. 

"Bring The War Home.  Chicago.  Octo. 8-11.  SDS."
"Days of Rage poster."
Image courtesy of http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/weatherunderground/film.html.

See:

•  http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0629df.html.  Obama’s Boys of Summer.  A Who’s Who of 1968 radicals supports the candidate.  June 29, 2008. 
• http://sweetness-light.com/archive/whos-who-of-1968-radicals-support-obama.  SDS/Weathermen Support Barack Obama.  June 29, 2008.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Rage
• http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/loudon-even-more-weathermen-for-obama-connections-connections-connections/.  Loudon: Even More Weathermen For Obama — Connections, Connections, Connections.  October 9, 2008 
• http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/loudon-toxic-trio-ayers-davidson-klonsky-linked-to-pro-obama-organisation/.  Loudon: Toxic Trio! Ayers, Davidson, Klonsky Linked to Pro-Obama Organisation.  September 27, 2008.

~ Necessary for an understanding of identity, culture, and personal history in the outside world.

Each of these domains and the institutions within them is organized to reinforce and reproduce the prevailing social hierarchies of race, class, gender, and sexuality. They do so by producing and disseminating ideas that justify these inequalities, by concentrating government power and social control mechanisms among dominant groups, and by distributing society’s valued material and social resources unequally to Whites, the middle and upper classes, men, and heterosexuals.”

Pg 26 – “Just as race, class, gender, and sexuality are interconnected dimensions of oppressions, so are social institutions intertwined with one another.” ~ Identities also intertwined with cultures and personal histories.

Pg 27 – “Families are institutions where the ideas that bolster and justify the dominant power structure are reinforced daily in an intimate setting.” ~ Personal history comes much from family.

Pg 28 – “A primary task for dominant groups is to maintain their control over subordinate groups. To do so, they must (1) structure ideology so that exploitations is explained, justified, and rationalized and is seen as a natural, normal, and acceptable part of social life; (2) structure the polity so that the state supports and enforces the exploitative relations; and (3) structure the economy so that the exploitative relations continue – that is, the poverty and labor of the exploited enhances the welfare of the exploiters.” ~ Culture and experience affecting others identity externally.

Pg 28 – “Subordinate group members sometimes restrict their own lives out of a belief in the negative views and limits imposed on their group by the dominant ideology.” ~ Personal history affecting culture differently.

Pg 28 – “Subordinate group members sometimes restrict the lives of other members of oppressed groups or of their own groups out of a belief in the negative views of and limits imposed on another subordinate group or on their own group.” ~ Personal history affecting culture differently.

Pg 28 – “People resist oppression.” ~ Good quote. Necessary to understand why people do certain things.

Pg 29 – “Resistance also occurs at the micro level of the individual and the family when individuals develop an alternative consciousness, insist on self-definition and self-valuation, and refuse to incorporate negative images of their groups. An alternative consciousness is often nurtured in a community of resistance, such as a racial ethnic community, a community of workers, a gay and lesbian community, or a women’s community. When groups publicly resist oppression, the individuals within them can participate in the development of a positive definition of self in the face of dominant culture oppression.” ~ Changing culture and personal history changes experiences and identity.

Pg 20 – “The dominant ideology (belief system), particularly about race and gender but also about social class and sexuality, that pervades the media and dominates public policy is that the United States is or should be a gender-blind, race-blind, classless, and sexually restrained society.” ~ Shows how dominant views exist, but do not always occur in the way they think they should.

Pg 20 – “We do not hear the term class blind used in public discourse because the dominant ideology of class differs from the ideology of race and gender.” ~ Dominant thoughts overpowering the oppressed.

Pg 21 – “Why would we use denial and blindness as bases for social policy and the assessment of moral rightness? To do so implies that we seek not to see and therefore not to know.” ~ Interesting quote.

Pg 21 – About ideas on race, class, gender, and sexuality…
“1. Because members of privileged groups are not disadvantaged and in fact benefit from
these systems, people in these groups find it relatively easy to dismiss the claims of oppressed groups as unreal. ~ Dominant group not having a firm identity prohibits them from fully understanding an oppressed group.
2. In our education and in mass media we do not systematically learn about the totality of the experiences of subordinate groups.” ~ Identity being formed by media exposure.

Pg 21-22 – “In short, we typically learn of these groups only as they can be seen to present “problems” or threats to the dominant groups or as exceptions to the “normal” way of life.” ~ Problems with the dominant viewing the oppressed.

Pg 22 – “These systems are never perfectly patterned – some people have experiences that defy the overall patterns.” ~ Exceptions.

Pg 22 – “So even though a pervasive pattern of oppression exists, there are always individual exceptions. And these exceptions tend to reinforce the views of dominant groups that the system is not oppressive but is indeed open and fair, because those who have benefited from the current arrangements are not inclined to see the ways that the exclusion of others has made their inclusion in the successful mainstream possible. ~ The importance of personal history into culture and identity. While the exception might occur, the exception’s personal history will differ greatly from the others in the group.

Pg 22 – Good explanation of miners using a canary to social atmosphere.

Pg 23 – “These systems are not immutable – they change over time and vary across different regional locations, different cultural milieus.” ~ Identity, and everything that makes identity, is not static.

Pg 23 – “Because of the pervasive, persistent, and severe nature of oppressive systems, people resist subordination. And in their resistance, they can develop positive skills, talents, and abilities. These skills will fortify them to survive and to challenge more effectively the very system designed to limit their opportunities to use their skills, talents, and abilities.” ~ About experience and what forms experiences and why people have certain experiences that affect them. Also, explains why personal histories of the oppressed can be so very different from the dominant, or why the identities of the oppressed may form more quickly than the identities of the dominant, due to the fact that the oppressed experience more and have to form their own identity quicker in order to fight the oppression.

Pg 23 – “Since members of oppressed groups can withstand and even succeed while facing oppression, dominant group members often consider that success to mean that the oppression either does not exist or is not severe. But it is not the oppression itself that creates the success that some people experience: It is the human will to resist oppression and overcome obstacles that makes this success possible. Resistance in individual and collective forms pressures the dominant system to change and transform over time.” ~ How change occurs, through individuals’ experiences, changing of personal histories and cultures to affect final identity.

Pg 24-25 -  Good table on oppression and systems of oppression.

Pg 26 – Ways in which dominant groups oppress others:
“• Ideological. Control over such belief-shaping institutions as schools, the legal system, and the media enables dominant groups to shape public images and cultural beliefs about both dominant and subordinate groups.
• Political. Control over political decision-making processes enables dominant groups to shape public agendas and social institutions in a variety of ways, such as through political platforms, government operations and public policy.
• Economic. Control over such material resources as good jobs, wages and benefits, quality housing, health care, quality day care, and education makes dominant groups more competitive in the workplace and in community life.”
~ Necessary for an understanding of identity, culture, and personal history in the outside world.

Pg 5 – “The interplay of exploitation and the struggle against it have always characterized the relations of dominant and subordinate groups in this country. Yet despite major changes in these social relations over time, the same groups who seized power and established this nation-state in 1776 – married (heterosexual), upper-class, White men – continue to dominate it politically, economically, and socially.” ~ So while things change, kind of like how identity changes, minor things to change, but the major aspects stay the same unless something drastic happens.

Pg 6 – The author speaks of analyzing social life in much the same way I want to analyze identity, with complex solutions with multiple facets and unranked.

Pg 8 – “Because the privilege – advantages, benefits, options – of one group is dependent upon the oppression – disadvantages, harms, restrictions – of others, privilege and oppression cannot be understood in isolation from one another.” ~ This affects identity and culture, as well.

Pg 9 – “Education is the formal institution whose central purpose is to promote dominant culture beliefs about how and why society is the way it is, including the rationale for our systems of race, class, gender, and sexuality.” ~ Important for why understanding identity is good.

Pg 14 – “Then multiple cultures can bring diverse knowledge and perspectives to bear effectively on the complex issues facing modern societies in an increasingly interdependent world system.” ~ The importance of diversity in society and in cultures.

Pg 17 – “…Pattern of social relationships among people – that are…complex…pervasive…variable…persistent…severe…hierarchical.” ~ This is important for identity since identity is primarily built from social relationships.

Pg 17-18 – Explains oppression and stereotyping in society. ~ Good for notes.

Pg 18 – “Social location refers to the social “place” of an individual or group in the race, class, gender, and sexuality hierarchies as well as other critical social hierarchies such as age, ethnicity, and nation.” ~ Another important piece of personal history and culture is where it takes place.

Pg 18 – “…Is a structure of inequality that is intricately intertwined with and mutually reinforces the other systems. The meanings of race, class, gender, and sexuality are not fixed, immutable, or universal but arise instead out of historically and geographically specific group struggles over socially valued resources, self-determination, and self-valuation.” ~ Has the idea that everything is constantly changing. Also, the idea that personal identities and cultures affect one another and change one another constantly.

Pg 19 – Defines race, class, gender/sex, and sexual orientation. ~ Good for notes, just in case.

Pg 19 – “Every social situation is affected by societywide historical patterns of race, class, gender, and sexuality that are not necessarily apparent to the participants and are experienced differently depending upon the race, class, gender, and sexuality of the people involved.” ~ Every experience is viewed different depending on a person’s personal history, cultures, and identity.

Pg 19 – “Systemic patterns of inequality can also be obscure to those disadvantaged by them because they lack access to information and resources that dominant groups control.” ~ How domination continues. Why forming identity is important is to experience these things and to break the domination.

Pg 91 – “Thus, students best learn about other cultures when they experience them directly rather than simply reading about them in class. Similarly, critiques about social justice issues in society are more effective when witnessed firsthand.” ~ Experience is more important than verbal.

Pg 92 – “…One of our basic assumptions is that multicultural education often begins at a place that is too challenging for students without significant experience with culturally different people.” ~ Challenge and support again.

Pg 95 – “For example, with a theoretical understanding of culture, traditions such as food, music, art, and dance go beyond artifacts to be admired and demonstrate complex relationships between history, group identity, self-worth, and individual and group empowerment. Admiration, accompanied with a deeper understanding of why groups do what they do, helps dispel stereotypes and is an early step in prejudice reduction.” ~ Also into building identity based on how to embrace other’s identities and incorporate that knowledge into one’s own identity.

Pg 95 – “Again, the personal interaction with subject matter and people makes this a qualitatively different experience that has greater potential to promote self-authorship.” ~ Experiencing something creates more of a change in personal history, which affects identity development.

Pg 96 – “The emphasis on the individual reinforces the personalization of culture and the development of respect for culturally different people. The respect is based on a complex understanding of both culture and the importance of values and beliefs to individuals. With this understanding, it is then impossible to advocate for the amalgamation of cultures.” ~ Personalizing allows for students to incorporate more into personal history, which affects identity development.

Pg 96 – “…All cultures within our society shape each other and that the inclusion of all cultures would require the reconstruction of U.S. society. On a personal level, students may incorporate elements of other cultures into their own lives, perhaps through behavior, values, or educational activities. On a societal level, students may act to oppose inequity and work toward the inclusion of our society’s multiple cultures.” ~ This is so the personal history changing through experience and then affecting identity development!

Pg 96 – “They can not only take ownership of their own beliefs, actions, and relationships but also take ownership in societal transformation.” ~ What changing identity does to society as a whole.

Pg 96 – “Students needed a number of experiences and cognitive challenges to achieve greater understanding and appreciation of others, including exposure to people and communities that were ethnically or racially diverse.” ~ More experiences leads to developing a stronger, more solid identity faster.

Pg 96 – “Students needed a number of experiences and cognitive challenges to achieve greater understanding and appreciation of others, including exposure to people and communities that were ethnically or racially diverse.” ~ Challenge and support of experiences leading to identity development.

Pg 96 – Students need to change from having self defined from outsiders to self defined by self. ~ Back to not having one’s identity consumed by others.

Pg 97 – “The focus on experiential activities of each step, such as different culture immersion, observation and interpretation of campus cultures, the use of popular media, and so on, helps students develop their own knowledge about the construction of culture and their role in culture maintenance and change.” ~ Leading students to personal identity development.

Pg 113 – Cognitive dissonance needed to evoke change in person’s viewpoint. ~ Important part of how to identity develop!

Pg 114 – “…One oppressed identity might be qualitatively different than another and how multiple oppressed identities might increase the impact of White privilege.” ~ The idea of different personal heritage’s thinking the same basic idea being completely different and affecting things differently.

Pg 116 – “Movement toward a self-authored multicultural perspective required the students to reevaluate what they knew about diversity and contemplate what life might be like as a member of another cultural/racial group. While some students were able to make more progress in creating a self-authored perspective, many were unable to challenge or question the knowledge they had gained from their families and communities.”  ~ Idea that one must first know and understand one’s own identity before being able to understand another’s identity aspects.

J'ai vraiment pas le tour avec les animaux, et c'est pas faute d'essayer.

L'autre jour, l'heureuse remplaçante de Juliette (finalement appelée Maya) a pris sa place dans mon coeur très aisément, au risque de m'envoyer en enfer par mon manque de compassion. Maya est quand même beaucoup mieux. Bien plus mignonne, elle ne meure pas de peur à rien. Quoique je n'ai pas encore le tour avec elle complètement.

Mais l'autre jour, lorsque j'étais en train d'entrer nos score de Rock Band 2 avec Yoda, Maya vient sur le divan s'assoir sur mes genoux pour ronronner.

Ce fut la première fois qu'un chat me collait. Généralement, ils sentent mon complexe je-veux-t'approcher-t'es-trop-mignon-mais-je-suis-allergique-fout-le-camp-*explose*. Ou alors ils sont simplement pas colleux.

Ce fut une des plus grandes joies ponctuelles de ma vie.

Tout d'abord, changements, je peux pas le nier. Grosse histoire et rebondissements à publier éventuellement. Mais également haine envers mon réveil-matin maléfique qui tiens absolument à chambouler complètement mon agenda à me faire rater une journée entière de cours, un repas gratuit avec des milliers de dollars cachés sous le fromage, le débat des chefs et une activité environnementale. Ugh souffrances! J'aurais dû m'acheter le réveil-matin-sécheuse. Je pense encore à toi, élu de mon coeur.

*wiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrhhh*

Ceci était un bruit de sécheuse. Grumble.

Par contre, j'ai fait mon capitaliste pour fêter un peu et je le regrette toujours autant. (Sérieusement, ça me fend le coeur, je niaise pas...) j'ai réussi à trouver le reste (actuel) de Family Guy, les derniers films que je voulais m'acheter, l'intégrale de death note (OMG L tu est trop génial je t'aime tellement *amour inconditionnel* je ne peux regretter de t'avoir enfin entre mes mains!).

Et je commence à aimer la lecture grâce à Asimov. Mais j'ai également lu Fight Club (mon film préféré, adapté d'un livre, qui l'eût cru), qui est beaucoup plus décousu que le film (nice job le réalisateur d'avoir réussi à démêler ça) et qui comporte quelques scènes plus gore, et des personnages plus humains et plus identifiables. Et naturellement j'ai enfin mis la main sur ma bible: Les Aventure de Sivis Pacem et Para Bellum.

Ok, I had to get that out of my system just because the title of today's entry left me thinking about Jimi Hendrix, whose first album was released in 1967 on (you guessed it) Track Records.  Be that as it may, I've chosen once again to expound on politics.

Is anyone else growing tired of the incessant questioning of Barack Obama's qualifications to be president?   Perhaps my memory is faulty but I don't recall this much emphasis being placed on a candidate's experience or lack thereof in prior presidential elections.   Even if my memory is way off, I can't see why the question would even been raised - except perhaps to bolster the confidence of the GOP in their candidate who's been involved in Washington politics for over two and a half decades.  Obviously, Senator McCain is experienced.  Does that qualify him to be president of the United States?

What about Barack Obama?  Is he experienced?  Of course.   The salient point seems to be that some people confuse [relative] political obscurity with lack of experience.   Not many people had heard of Barack Obama before his address at the 2004 DNC.   However, Senator Obama has spent ten years in public office (8 as an Illinois state senator before his 2 years in the U.S. Senate).  Prior to his election to office, Obama worked at a civil rights firm as well as teaching Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.  He has served as editor of the Harvard Law Review and also spent 3 years as a community organizer.   Needless to say, he has a wealth of experience.  Does that qualify him to be president of the United States?

Well, as far as I can tell, the most important qualification a presidential hopeful brings to the table is his character.   A successful president needs to possess charisma and pragmatism.  He needs the strength of his convictions but he also needs to know when it's acceptible to compromise with a view toward getting larger things done.    He needs to be the type of person who can leverage the support of those around him - the cabinet, the congress, foreign leaders, and, perhaps most importantly, the general public. 

So, where am I going with all of this?  I think it's to point out that I care more about the candidates' abilities than their years in public office.   I don't want a "maverick" as our next president no matter how experienced he is.   I'm uncomfortable with the idea of a bellicose president because I suspect he'll have difficulty accomplishing anything truly worthwhile...to say nothing of the fact that I disagree with most of the policy proposals I've heard from John McCain.  The bottom line, however, is that I place a lot more value on Barack Obama's ability to work constructively with the people around him than I do on John McCain's "experience" as a congressional "maverick".

Now...excuse me while I kiss the sky!

When I visited one site, it was saying "Live chat" with a real person. When I started the chat, I thought that it was one another search engine answering my answers. (Partly because it was late at night and I had to enter my name before starting. When it started, it was saying "Hi, Junyoup"). In less than a minute, I realized it was a real person taking my questins and answering them. Compared to other systems that pretended real, the live chat system gave me realistic interaction (I felt that I was talking to a sales person at the real shop), even though I was chatting through a medium, which is a computer.

I think today there are many formalistic interaction that pretend to be real. I wonder how real they can really be.

Lapar tak kurasa... namun beban dan tanggung jawab dalam perantauan ini semakin besar...

Yang penting sabar dan ikhtiyar...

Semangat!!!