Ob(s)ama's gonna take away yer guns!

It's articles like this that annoy me

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32988155/ns/us_news-life/

Actually not the article itself, but the lunacy of the American people. How much simpler can this be put? OBAMA DOES NOT WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR GUNS!

But the fear - the fear- the very IDEA - is causing all this insane FEAR.

and trust me, folks, since the President is seeing such flack over an issue such as Health Care, which he thought would be a slam-dunk (dang, I thought everybody wanted health care) then you know for a fact he's not going to go near a hot-button issue like gun control.

So don't fear, you hastily-armed war mongering psychopaths, you will always be able to buy your bullets and have your nine-year-old blow away their faces when they find your toys in the back of the closet, OK?

So don't worry . . . just don't take your guns to town.


VG

Oh Jimmy my Jimmy

Oh Jimmy my Jimmy



that's how my poem will start, my Ode to Jimmy Carter, a man whom I greatly respect, because he has actually done more for the cause of peace than any other person on this planet, and we simply don't know it, because, like all true acts of kindness, they were done without fanfare and without a desire for applause.



Heck, I even defended him against my own supposedly Christian brethren who wanted to vilify him and condemn him to Hell for daring to renounce his Baptist membership. (By the way, for those of you still on the fence about this whole Jesus thing, here's some good news: Christ is completely non-denominational - denominations were made by humans, all that is Christlike is from God)



Yet, still, oh Jimmy! I still can't believe that you actually came out and said that the conservatives don't like President Obama because they can't stand having a black man in the White House. (and as an aside, how come Nas has not made a hit song "Black Man in the White House" yet? I've been waiting for him or somebody to make a record like that!)



Maybe Mr. Carter is simply speaking the words that nobody else will speak - and if that is true then more power to him! He knows these guys better than I do - he runs in their circles . . . perhaps he's airing their dirty laundry, because he knows it's time to do so and he's the guy who can do it.



The conservatives, of course, deny this, and the liberals distance themselves from it because they openly fear the Republican party. (Let's face it folks, in this playground of US politics, the liberals are the four-eyed nerds and the Republicans are the playground bullies.) So they don't want to anger them any more than they have to.



But still, I want to give the conservatives SOME credit - I actually want to beleive that they don't care that President Obama is (half) black (and ALL American!), and that their ire is simply because they do not like his policies.



Let's face it - the Republican Party has always been the anti-government party - they don't want government in anything . . . which always makes me wonder why they're there - it's like choosing to go to a college that you want to see lose its accreditation, or taking a job at a company that you want to go bankrupt. Perhaps this self-loathing is the reason behind much of their detestable proclivities.



Still, if we stick with the "small government" sentiment, then of course they're going to hate what the President seeks to do. And they HAVE burst blood vessels in their heads over the words "public option" . . . so I would truly like to think that they are against him like they would have been against Hillary had she won.



But then, that would have been sexist, and I personally beleive that sexism is still more rampant than racism - well, at the very least in the nasty political cartoons and jokes, one can still show Hillary hiking up her skirt to use a man's urinal but you can't draw a cartoon about a monkey on the loose and mention Obama in the same panel. Both are detestable, and should not exist in a civilized country, but the former was promulgated all over the Internet to laughs and gaffs during the campaign, but the latter was shunned and denied and despised.



Perhaps, though, it is that cartoon that made Mr. Carter make his statement. Perhaps he sees that, behind this veneer of supposed intolerance to anti-black ideas, there still lurks the same "lynch all of THEM" mentality that only occasionally leaks out into the surface of our public consciousness.



Perhaps my Jimmy is correct after all, only time will tell.



VG

President Subverts Our Youth by telling them to work harder

Yup, he's certainly done it! Obammy's just a turnin' our kids into Socialist Pinko ZOMBIES - how?

By telling them to work harder in school! Oh - my -Lord! How dare he try to empathize with them, how dare he try to encourage them to do their best? To get an education and overcome their circumstances?

And the promises he's made!! He's actually BRIBING our children, with such goodies as TEXTBOOKS! AND COMPUTERS!

I know his dastardly plan! He's going to educate our children and then they'll be too smart to FALL FOR REPUBLICAN LIES!!! and when they're too smart to fall for Republican lies, then maybe they'll make a country that truly does have Justice for All (and not just them rich companies!)

and to see what kind of socialist lies our President is trying to force feed our children, here is a transcript of the speech he's going to give (I just pulled it from the Associated Press):

Prepared text of Obama's speech to school students

By The Associated Press (AP) – 9 hours ago

The prepared text of President Barack Obama's back-to-school address scheduled for Tuesdays, as released in advance by the White House:

Hello, everyone — how's everybody doing today? I'm here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we've got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through 12th grade. I'm glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn't have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday — at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn't too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I'd fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I'd complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I'm here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I've given a lot of speeches about education. And I've talked a lot about responsibility.

I've talked about your teachers' responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer — maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper — but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor — maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine — but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life — I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can't drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don't do that — if you quit on school — you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.

Now I know it's not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that's like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn't fit in.

So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I'm not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our first lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don't have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there's not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life — what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home — that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No one's written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn't speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I'm thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who's fought brain cancer since he was three. He's endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer — hundreds of extra hours — to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he's headed to college this fall.

And then there's Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she's on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren't any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same. That's why today, I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education — and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you'll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you'll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject you study. You won't click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures. J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can't let your failures define you — you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've got to practice. It's the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it's good enough to hand in.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust — a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor — and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you — don't ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best. It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you've got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down — don't let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

and stop calling liberals "socialists"

Let's get it straight:

Liberals are those who believe that the government has a duty to protect the people.

Socialists are those who subscribe to an economic system in which the government owns a significant percentage of business services, especially all those businesses that provide utilities, medical services, and transportation.

The Democrats of the United States do NOT want government to own all that. They simply want there to be an "option" - one of many choices, so that people can have a full range of choices from which to choose.

That is not Socialism. That is government entering into the free market.

Other players in the field don't like it because they know that the government can provide the services cheaper, because they already have a "locked in" revenue source (us) - so they got p'o'd and have unleashed their dogs ("the Republican idealogues") to convince the ignorant masses ("you, the insipid American public") to hurl epithets and make a bunch of noise into scaring the liberals into submission.

So, now that you have it straight, will you calm down enough just to check out the choice being offered?

I mean seriously, forget my insults, forget what your masters (Hannity and Limbaugh) are telling you, and just read the proposal for yourself. I know it's a tough read and hard to understand, but truly, you are just as intelligent as they are (because they're stooooopid!) and so why would you rely on their uninformed interpretation of a text even they haven't read!

and again,


stop calling the liberals "socialists" - they're not.

Now, the Brits - THOSE guys are socialists!

VG

Another reason why you Yanks 'r nuts

Watching a show on TV about a guy who in 2005-06 saw that house prices were rising much faster than incomes, when usually they rose together - so he got whiff of hint of a bubble that would someday burst - so he followed the trail through scam artist startups who sold mortgages to anybody on the street, then bundled them up and sold them to investment firms, who promptly sold them to places like China, and this guy on the show said that he knew this was a problem and that this was wrong and a lot of people were going to get hurt . . .

so he looked for a way to make a profit from it.

That's what the show was about - how he saw a giant disaster, and looked for personal gain.

And you Yanks would call him a bloody hero?!

Again, I get sick down in the guts when I am again confronted with this kind of largesse, this egregious greed - it's like a thick stewy smelly slime that we spew all across our culture, then we eat it up again, licking our lips voraciously.

Nuts.

VG