Presidents Day - Let's Watch Some Videos
I haven't been very good about updating the blog recently. We're sort of between controversies in the community, the Culture War battles have mostly been won by the good guys in Montgomery County and the United States as a whole seems to be in good hands, on the right track, recovering from the insanity we suffered for the past eight years.
Plus, I've been busy rehearsing with a new band, The Colliders. We're a three-piece band made up of guys from our Rockville neighborhood, Twinbrook Forest. We started out intending to play "rockabilly" but in fact our repertoire includes country and blues material as well, and we rock a little harder than most of the rockabilly bands. My description is that we play "rockabilly and everything else." Anyway, we've got a gig this weekend, and since we do mostly three-minute songs it takes a lot of them to fill up four hours. So we've been busy.
Over the past couple of days there have been several videos online that you might want to see. I don't usually post videos, partly because for a lot of us, especially government employees, they are blocked at work. But the government folks have today off, so here are a few good ones that you can see on your home computer. I am copying and pasting code from various web sites, and I hope these work. Fill up your cup and click on these links.
First, the American Psychological Association has a great video up about homosexuality. It's a cartoon that answers a lot of questions in a nice, bold way. You can read the text of it HERE.
From the historical perspective, in the past couple of weeks we have seen the new guy and his team, with the support of the people, setting about the business of running the government. The Republicans attempted to undermine the economic stimulus, and they failed. Saturday Night Live captured the image that America is seeing -- check out this skit, it's perfect, and not too far off the mark:
Suze Orman gives financial advice and also happens to be a lesbian. Her Valetine's Day message is forceful and to the point -- as usual, she focuses on the financial aspects of a situation, in this case marriage -- watch this:
Tell me -- who doesn't have a crush on Rachel Maddow? She is a breath of fresh air and a joy to watch. For President's Day, her discussion of President Obama's Lincoln Legacy Project is exactly on-target. This will give you a clearer view of Obama's goals -- she makes the good point that it was much harder to repair the divisions in our country after the Civil War than it will be now.
Finally, this video is just interesting. A lady shows you "Condition 1" weather in Antarctica. That is where the wind is blowing at more than 65 miles per hour, visibility is less than a hundred feet, and the wind chill is less than minus one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. She walks through her dorm and opens the door, and it is like the Door to Hell. You have to see this. Oh, and have the sound up when she opens that door, that's half of it.
Plus, I've been busy rehearsing with a new band, The Colliders. We're a three-piece band made up of guys from our Rockville neighborhood, Twinbrook Forest. We started out intending to play "rockabilly" but in fact our repertoire includes country and blues material as well, and we rock a little harder than most of the rockabilly bands. My description is that we play "rockabilly and everything else." Anyway, we've got a gig this weekend, and since we do mostly three-minute songs it takes a lot of them to fill up four hours. So we've been busy.
Over the past couple of days there have been several videos online that you might want to see. I don't usually post videos, partly because for a lot of us, especially government employees, they are blocked at work. But the government folks have today off, so here are a few good ones that you can see on your home computer. I am copying and pasting code from various web sites, and I hope these work. Fill up your cup and click on these links.
First, the American Psychological Association has a great video up about homosexuality. It's a cartoon that answers a lot of questions in a nice, bold way. You can read the text of it HERE.
From the historical perspective, in the past couple of weeks we have seen the new guy and his team, with the support of the people, setting about the business of running the government. The Republicans attempted to undermine the economic stimulus, and they failed. Saturday Night Live captured the image that America is seeing -- check out this skit, it's perfect, and not too far off the mark:
Suze Orman gives financial advice and also happens to be a lesbian. Her Valetine's Day message is forceful and to the point -- as usual, she focuses on the financial aspects of a situation, in this case marriage -- watch this:
Tell me -- who doesn't have a crush on Rachel Maddow? She is a breath of fresh air and a joy to watch. For President's Day, her discussion of President Obama's Lincoln Legacy Project is exactly on-target. This will give you a clearer view of Obama's goals -- she makes the good point that it was much harder to repair the divisions in our country after the Civil War than it will be now.
Finally, this video is just interesting. A lady shows you "Condition 1" weather in Antarctica. That is where the wind is blowing at more than 65 miles per hour, visibility is less than a hundred feet, and the wind chill is less than minus one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. She walks through her dorm and opens the door, and it is like the Door to Hell. You have to see this. Oh, and have the sound up when she opens that door, that's half of it.
posted by JimK at 8:48 AM
29 Comments:
where's the gig, Jim?
btw, to fill up the time, try the old Grateful Dead strategy and improvise some solos, then try some scat singing, introduce the whole band with some anecdote for each, do a little fire breathing with a bottle of vodka and a lighter, and, at the end, do the whole "manager's trying to make me get back up on stage" routine, then, In-a-gadda-vida, for the encore
c'mon, use some imagination
What's with the video from the Citizen's Advisory Committe up on CRC's website?
Looks like pure black stereotyping to me as well as soft porn.
Got a question for the CRC? Go ask the CRC.
CRC CONTACT INFO
CRC, Inc.
P.O. Box 183
Damascus, Maryland 20872
staff@mcpscurriculum.org
CRC Spokesperson & Media Contact
Michelle Turner
michelle.turner@mcpscurriculum.org
Phone: (301) 335-6042
Andrea- not anon
1. Hey, Antarctica! I am the grants person for Antarctica at my agency. Looking at that video, you wouldn't think so many people want to go -but they do. We even have a program in which we send artists, writers and filmmakers there(no money for their time or work- they have to get that elsewhere- but we do transport them, give them shelter and arrange some access)
2. Rachel Maddow walked past me on the Mall on Inauguration Day and read out my mini-sign ("Yes, we did!"). It's good we got cable 5 months ago(after that short 14 year break) so I knew who she was- and could say " Rachel Maddow- it's you!"
Let's hear it for President Barack Obama. Signs of bipartisan support are emerging...
Obama Gains G.O.P. Support From Governors
By JACKIE CALMES
WASHINGTON — President Obama must wish governors could vote in Congress: While just three of the 219 Republican lawmakers backed the $787 billion economic recovery plan that he is signing into law on Tuesday, that trifling total would have been several times greater if support among the 22 Republican state executives counted.
The contrast reflects the two faces of the Republican Party these days.
Leaderless after losing the White House, the party is mostly defined by its Congressional wing, which flaunted its anti-spending ideology in opposing the stimulus package. That militancy drew the mockery of late-night television comics, but the praise of conservative talk-show stars and the party faithful.
In the states, meanwhile, many Republican governors are practicing a pragmatic — their Congressional counterparts would say less-principled — conservatism.
Governors, unlike members of Congress, have to balance their budgets each year. And that requires compromise with state legislators, including Democrats, as well as more openness to the occasional state tax increase and to deficit-spending from Washington.
Across the country, from California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger to Florida’s Charlie Crist and New England’s Jim Douglas in Vermont and M. Jodi Rell in Connecticut, Republican governors showed in the stimulus debate that they could be allies with Mr. Obama even as Congressional Republicans spurned him....
Continues here.
Nobody "spurned" Obama. They respectfully disagreed. Your type of inflammatory rhetoric is the essence of the partisan rancor you complain about. The partisanship had its roots in the Clinton presidency.
Wow, big surprise that governors are in favor of the government giving them money to balance their budget.
Of course, one way on which Obama is unusual is that Americans have preferred governors for presidential candidates for the last forty years.
Probably, we'll go back to that next time and the next president will be a Republican governor of some sparsely populated Western state.
Let's see, who could we consider?
CRC says Jim K. voted for this video and knows all about it. Blacks are getting mad about it.
Gays should get mad about it too. After all if they agree with abortion, that means there are fewer babies for the gays to adopt and the gays want to adopt children.
It is true that JimK voted with the citizens advisory committee majority to approve this video as an additional resource, with a recommendation that health teachers allow sufficient time for discussion.
JimK
What kind of discussion?
Health teachers are not qualified to discuss medical procedures.
Schools should not get into recommending medical procedures and risk getting sued if something goes wrong.
Nobody "spurned" Obama. They respectfully disagreed. Your type of inflammatory rhetoric is the essence of the partisan rancor...
Pay attention when you read. I didn't write the stuff in italics, Jackie Calmes of the Washington Post did.
Wow, big surprise that governors are in favor of the government
Governors and Senators, who are elected by the entire population of a state rather than by residents of some partisan, gerrymandered district, support both spending and tax cuts to repair this broken economy and to help out families who are losing their jobs and homes. House members apparently think their show of unity to "just say no" to bailing out Americans who are losing their jobs and homes was important and will mean voters will flock to vote for them in the 2010 midterm election. Like Frank Rich said in his column on Valentine's Day, "There hasn’t been this much delusional giddiness in these ranks since Monica Lewinsky promised a surefire Republican sweep in the 1998 midterms."
Here's a bi-partisan yuk yuk for you, barryo. Those crazy House GOP members!
GOP lawmakers tout projects in the stimulus bill they opposed
David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Rep. John Mica was gushing after the House of Representatives voted Friday to pass the big stimulus plan.
"I applaud President Obama's recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America's future," the Florida Republican beamed in a press release.
Yet Mica had just joined every other GOP House member in voting against the $787.2 billion economic recovery plan.
Republicans echoed their party line over and over during the debate: "This bill is loaded with wasteful deficit spending on the majority's favorite government programs," as Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., put it.
But Mica wasn't alone in touting what he saw as the bill's virtues. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, also had nice things to say in a press release.
Young boasted that he "won a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners last night in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."
One provision would have made it harder for minority businesses to win contracts, and Young explained that he "worked with members on the other side of the aisle to make the case for these programs, and was able to get the provision pulled from the bill."
Yet later in the day Young — who recently told McClatchy that he would've included earmarks, or local projects, in the bill if it had been permitted — issued another statement blasting the overall measure.
"This bill was not a stimulus bill. It was a vehicle for pet projects, and that's wrong," he protested.
That was more in line with the Republican message.
Young wouldn't return a request for comment on the apparent contradiction of his press releases....
So were they against it before they were in favor of it, or in favor of it before they were against it?
Oh and BTW barryo, I notice you still haven't provided any specific tax cuts that have created new jobs or have prevented another family from losing its home to foreclosure.
A new one for a sunny day:
I'd heard (from such as Rick Warren) lgbt relationships compared to incest and bestiality. In a link to a bizarre NARTH article, CRC gives us a new one:
they compare being gay to killing your own offspring and eating your own kind
What will they think of next?
I think this stuff has an impact: I originally got involved in the ex-gay crap because Anita Bryant said if I were gay that I would be a child molester
You must be a true fan!
Anything else you do just because Anita told you to?
Being gay is like a day without sunshine.
Everybody knows a life in the closet is a life without sunshine.
Andrea- not anonI see where the new hero of the GOP- Michael Steele- said that providing work isn't a job because the work will end. I guess he hasn't been paying attention to all the jobs that ended in the past year. I'm waiting for Princess Sarah and Mr.Steel to duke it out. I am still sad that Bobby Jindal won't run too. It might be too much fun. Still, I've got PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
Wall Street Journal reports
February 17, 2009, 10:56 am
Congress Gets Highest Approval Rating in Two Years
Susan Davis reports on politics.
The Democratic controlled Congress has its highest approval rating in two years, according to a Gallup poll released today.
At 31%, the approval rating is “still quite negative on an absolute basis,” the polling outfit notes, but consistent with historical averages. Congress is never particularly popular—a 35% approval rating is the average for Gallup polls since 1974.
However, Congress’s approval rating jumped a notable 12 points from January to now, built almost entirely on more favorable view from Democratic voters whose approval ratings jumped to 43% now from 18% in January. Similarly, independent voters’ approval jumped to 29% from 17%.
For all the talk of bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle, Republican voters’ approval rating in the same one-month period fell to 19% from 23%.
“The more positive ratings for Congress among Democrats may also reflect an implicit endorsement of the work Congress has been doing to pass the economic stimulus plan,” Gallup writes.
Congress approved the $787 billion stimulus package last week with just three Republican senators joining Democrats to pass the bill. President Barack Obama will sign the bill today at an event in Denver, Colo.
See also Gallup.com
...Congress' approval ratings have been below 30% pretty consistently since October 2005. There have been a few exceptions to this, with ratings as high as 37% in early 2007 after the Democrats took party control of Congress after their victories in the November 2006 midterm elections, but those quickly disappeared. More recently, approval ratings of Congress had been about 20% or lower, including an all-time low rating of 14% in July 2008.
This month's sharp increase largely reflects a more positive Democratic review of Congress. Since the previous measure from early January, Barack Obama has been inaugurated as president, and now Democrats have party control of both the legislative and the executive branches of the federal government.
Democrats' average approval ratings of Congress more than doubled from January (18%) to February (43%). Independents show a smaller increase, from 17% to 29%, while Republicans are now less likely to approve of Congress than they were in January...
fascinatin', Bea
the Democratic Congress is only lacking approval from 69% of citizens
any thoughts of your own?
Sure barryo. I'm no dittohead. I think it's great that Americans' view of Congress has become more positive as they watched Congress work out the details of this much needed stimulus package. They want our President to succeed.
The dittoheads are the only Americans rooting for Obama to fail to overcome the quaqmire Bush/Cheney left.
A day without anonymous is like a day without hemorrhoids.
"I think it's great that Americans' view of Congress has become more positive as they watched Congress work out the details of this much needed stimulus package."
Don't think that's what happened. The slender minority of Americans who want to see us become socialist were greatly distressed that the Democrats elected failed to keep their promises. Now, that Congress has approved a massive spending bill whose purpose is mainly to support the democratic agenda, they're happy.
That's the difference. Most Americans see that this "stimulus" will not be beneficial to our economy.
"They want our President to succeed."
Who doesn't? I'd love to see him succeed in learning how to improve our economic situation. He's not there now.
"The dittoheads are the only Americans rooting for Obama to fail to overcome the quaqmire Bush/Cheney left."
Very slowly, now. How did Bush cause our economic quagmire?
Because, to me, the world looks just the same and history ain't changed.
Tax cuts, deficits, governmental intervention in housing markets...
What am I missing?
"Americans' view of Congress has become more positive..."
Don't think that's what happened.
Well, you're entitled to your GOP-NO opinion. Gallup said and the WSJ reported “The more positive ratings for Congress among Democrats may also reflect an implicit endorsement of the work Congress has been doing to pass the economic stimulus plan,”
barryo continued "The dittoheads are the only Americans rooting for Obama to fail to overcome the quaqmire Bush/Cheney left."
Very slowly, now. How did Bush cause our economic quagmire?
There you go again, barryo, putting words in my mouth. It's vocabulary lesson time:
cause, transitive verb
1. to serve as a cause or occasion of - cause an accident
2. to compel by command, authority, or force - caused him to resign
left, transitive verb
1 a. (1) bequeath devise (2) to have remaining after one's death
b. to cause to remain as a trace or aftereffect
2 a. to cause or allow to be or remain in a specified condition
b. to fail to include or take along
c. to have as a remainder
d. to permit to be or remain subject to another's action or control
e. let
f. to cause or allow to be or remain available
3 a. to go away from : depart
b. desert abandon
c. to terminate association with; withdraw from
4. to put, deposit, or deliver before or in the process of departing
I'd love to see him succeed in learning how to improve our economic situation. He's not there now.
You seem to believe that the only way to stimulate the economy is with tax cuts. Unlike you, Obama and the majority of your fellow Americans who elected him President, know that continuing to cut taxes without targeted spending, as the GOP has done for most of the past 8 years, will only continue to harm the economy, which continues to spiral downward.
You have never expressed any interest or hope for Obama to succeed (other than "in learning"), in fact, you often express your interest in Palin running in 2012 and your expectation that she'll win the race. You must think it's great that Palin's positioning herself for the race by talking about not accepting Alaska's share of the stimulus package money, just like GOP Governors and 2012 Presidential hopefuls Jindal, Barbour, Sanford, and Otter have done for their states. But that's just GOP smoke and mirrors for all of them. Maybe if she stops accepting the $1.84 Alaska gets from the federal treasury for each dollar it puts in (and Jindal gives up his $1.78/$1, Barbour gives up his $2.02/$1, Sanford gives up his $1.35/$1, and Otter gives up his $1.21/$1), she can tout her refusal of federal funds, but until she does that, she's just another GOP hypocrite, among several, who gladly consumes any and all pork sent her state's way. Each of these GOP governors would rather see the economy fail than to oversee targeted spending to jumpstart it.
Thank you Joe Klein at Time Magazine for writing and posting Shouting Fire
Take a look at this Drudge front page, all red and crazy. Over a CNBC commentary? It's obvious that Drudge, like Rush Limbaugh, is rooting for Obama to fail. But this sort of, well, crap, is downright pestilential. Real human beings have real investments--401ks, homes, small businesses--that are on the line. Again and again, I'm infuriated by those in the media who somehow don't understand that this crisis is real and can become worse. You can quibble all you want with Obama's stimulus plan or bank bailout or, in this case, his home mortgage relief plan, but I simply have no patience at all with those who aren't praying for these programs to succeed.
hey, Jim, where's your gig this weekend
we all want to come out
I don't want to use this blog to promote the band, but since you asked, we will be playing tomorrow, Saturday, at 9:30 at Dad's Pub, which is at the corner of Norbeck and Bauer, near the Safeway. It's our first gig and it will be a little rough, but please feel free to come on in. It's a nice friendly neighborhood place with pool tables and food.
JimK
I don't see anything wrong with promoting the appearance.
I know the shopping center well. Back in my "wild oats" high school days, my friends and I would often stop by and pick up munchies at the High's when driving around in our smoky van.
I'll try to come if I can and I promise not to heckle.
Colliders is a much better name than Guzzlers. You guys aren't a bunch of physicists, are you?
how'd the gig go, Jim?
I think the gig went really well. We had no disasters, it seemed like we mostly remembered intros, endings, chords, and lyrics. The place wasn't the most crowded I've ever seen it but people were dancing most of the night, we got lots of compliments, the owner booked us back again and said he really liked us.
Guys from other bands came in and checked us out, came up and talked shop about equipment and stuff, and I understand they were impressed, which matters to a player. We weren't sure how our material would go over, mostly rockabilly with some honky-tonk country and blues, but it did. I think the Colliders will do okay.
JimK
Sounds cool. Wish I'd have made it.
I wouldn't worry about the crowd size. If everyone liked it, the word will spread.
Let us know when the next date will be.
You missed a really great show! The Colliders rocked the rafters with their outstanding talents and kids from 1-92 danced the night away!
Thanks, Jim. Please do keep us posted on upcoming gigs. My compliments to The Colliders!
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