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He's outraged!
Obama said, "I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday."
Because in the 20 years he attended this church, he certainly never knew about Wright's comments, thoughts, feeling, or anything else. But now, since the fact this his own judgment comes under scrutiny (since he has no real record to go by, his apparent judgment is looked at) he's simply outraged. He wasn't outraged for 2 decades, but now he is. He acts as if what Wright says now is something new. Phoney.
Posted by Kevin at 2:58 PM | Comments (0)
"This is his [McCain] solution to the problems of the energy crisis and your tax bills," Obama told several thousand at a noisy rally in Wilmington. "Keep in mind that the federal gas tax is about 5 percent of your gas bill. If it lasts for three months, you're going to save about $25 or $30, or a half a tank of gas."
I'm not exactly sure why Obama thinks a few months of an 18.4 cent cut in gas prices would somehow not be a good idea. Would he think that a natural drop in per-gallon prices of the same amount also aren't a big deal? I think his numbers, considering most families have multiple drivers, is incorrect. Plus, the fact that people tend to drive more over the summer months, so this could be a good amount of savings in American's pockets. Especially, for people who have longer commutes or sit in traffic much of the time. Not to mention how a 24.4 cent drop in diesel fuel somehow isn't good for truckers (and the rest of us, since when they pay more, we pay more). If saving $30 doesn't mean much to Mr. Obama, he can certainly whip out his wallet and give me $30.
"That's his big solution," Obama said of McCain. "He had the gall yesterday to tell me that because I don't agree with his plan, I must not be sympathetic to poor people. This is at the same time as he is proposing hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for corporate interests, for the wealthiest Americans."
This is a typical Obama statement. Instead of addressing how his plan is better, he just doesn't give what his plan is and changes direction.
Oh.. wait..
"There's a problem, everybody's upset about gas prices. Let's fund some short-term, quick-fix so we can say we did something, even though we didn't do anything," Obama said. He argued that reducing consumption and increasing the use of alternative fuels represent real long-term solutions to rising gasoline and diesel fuel prices.
His plan is the same as everyone else's. Figure out how to reduce consumption and use more alternative fuels. Not original, and those things will take years. What's wrong with some short-term thing? What's wrong with a variety of short-term solutions to help us not-so-rich people? For 98% of Americans, $30 here, $20 there, $50 over there can make a difference.
So, Mr. Obama, I'll wait for my $30 from you since that's such a piddly amount.
UPDATE: I had gone to the Obama website, and sent an email asking for $30, since it's no big deal to Obama. Of course, I know I wouldn't get it, or that the email would even be read. However, by sending an email on their web form, you apparently get subscribed to their mailings (There is no way to not have this happen on the form, or any verbiage that it does happen). Anyways, today I get an email from "Barack" asking for a $25 donation. So, let me get this straight.. $30 in our pockets is no big deal, but we should send him $25. Just ask many people sending him $25 makes a difference (to HIM), $30 in all our pockets would make a different (to US).
Posted by Kevin at 4:17 PM | Comments (0)
Kyla recently took the SCAT (School & College Ability Test), and we've patiently been awaiting her results. Today, I got them and she has been accepted into the Young Scholars Program next year. It's similar to an Advanced Placement, in that next year she'll go to the middle school once a week and take classes there (it's part of a Gifted and Talented program). We're very very excited for her. Her scores were quite fantastic:
Verbal Reasoning:
Better than 98% of kids in her grade from across the country.
Better than 59% of the kids in 8th grade from across the country.
Quantitative Reasoning:
Better than 99+% of kids in her grade from across the country.
Better than 63% of the kids in 8th grade from across the country.
Congrats Kyla!
Posted by Kevin at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
Funny, I was just thinking this two days ago. I thought I heard something about the gov't talking to oil companies about all the money they are making off us, and thought "Well, so is the government. They should stop taxing gas for a while." It would be good if they do this, as I cringe when I go to the gas station these days.
I also wondered what would happen if we ('we' as the US, or "Western" nations) said "We'll only play $75/barrel of oil." We all know there is really no reason for these high oil prices, aside that we keep paying it. I'd think $75/barrel is probably reasonable, so that's what we should pay. What would happen? They won't sell to us? We could use our reserves, while the fact that we aren't buying boosts supply, which would naturally lower prices. Crazy thought, but I'm not really sure it wouldn't ultimately make prices lower. This scenario would never happen, but I think it could work!
Posted by Kevin at 3:31 PM | Comments (0)
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/16/iran.sept11.ap/index.html
"Four or five years ago, a suspicious event occurred in New York. A building collapsed and they said that 3,000 people had been killed but never published their names," Ahmadinejad told Iranians in the holy city of Qom.
Yes, they have. They were all read aloud on the last anniversary. He'll deny the Holocaust, and now will deny 9/11? This is the guy Obama wants to sit down and chat with.
Posted by Kevin at 1:47 PM | Comments (0)
This is something I'm having a hard time with. Kyla, and friends. Or, lack thereof. I know she has school friends, which she gets along with in school, during school hours. Kids that she'd probably have a good time with outside of school beyond the birthday parties. But, she's sort of a loner. She has her one BFF, who is a great kid. But, she'll be moving this summer.
I keep trying to encourage Kyla to call other kids once in a while to start building some new friendships. At least one of the girls is also friends with the BFF, so they could, theoretically, all play together. But, Kyla doesn't do it. Frankly, I'm tired of it.
Let's take today. It's a 1/2 day, and beautiful out. She came home, played the Wii for a bit and asked to call the BFF.. she did, but noone was home. I suggested calling the other girl. She said she did, but I never saw the "Phone in use" on my phone. So, I knew she was lying. She says she doesn't know why she doesn't want to call her. Maybe a fear of actually making the friend a "friend"? I really don't know.
What I do know is that when I was her age, I had friends. If I wasn't playing with someone, it was because nobody was home but not for lack of having kids I'd play with. Sure, I'm a loner now part because of choice and part circumstance, but not when I was 9 or 10. I can recall about 10 kids who were within bike riding or walking distance who were "tier 1" friends.
I'm really not completely sure what to do. I will be cutting of all electronics from her. Maybe that's it. Too much DS, Wii or Toon Town that playing with kids "might" be fun, when those other things "are" fun. She's going to have a pretty miserable Spring Break if she doesn't start dialing that phone!
Posted by Kevin at 3:07 PM | Comments (0)
Late night on the 31st I figured I had to do something to prank someone, anyone, at work. So, I IMd my CTO and suggested that I lock everyone out of the time management system (which most people would use every morning), with a note like:
"Sorry, this account has been disabled. Please contact [CTO name] unless he has already set up a phone conversation with you."
He liked the idea, so at 9am on the 1st, that's what I did. You'd log in, or hit any page once logged in, and see that message. He then took it a step further. After a while, he sent out an email to the company. It said, something to the effect of, 'You have likely noticed you've been locked out of the time system. Please see this blog post for an explanation...." Then it went to an (internal) blog saying we had been bought out, he didn't know about everyones job, etc... Finally, with a link at the bottom to a press release, which really said "April Fools" when you clicked on it.
This would work if two things happened. First, someone forgot it was April 1st. Second, if they didn't click on the PR link. Both happened :-) Some people were pretty freaked out, and the prank went off pretty well.
The best thing about it, is that people want to get him back! I'm just a silent partner in it.
Posted by Kevin at 9:15 AM | Comments (0)
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-01-voa63.cfm
It's funny, since nobody cares about Tibet until there is violence there. Once people get hurt, suddenly lawmakers care. Or, do they? I don't think so, it's the latest cause of the week, but they really don't care. If they did, they would have done something in the decades since China occupied Tibet.
Posted by Kevin at 5:27 PM | Comments (0)
I need a better way of organizing my notes. I have always been in the habit of just using a single text file, where I track and note various things. But, that file is now very long. It works well for me, but I think I duplicate some things, and some things I don't need anymore, or do need but don't need them in the file.
How do others organize these things? There is probably some OS X app which could better organize these things, and I just haven't seen it. It's probably noted in the text file to look for something.
Posted by Kevin at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
I always liked April Fools Day. I could have an excuse to play dumb pranks which spawn from my odd sense of humor. But, it's sort of hard when you're a telecommuter.
Posted by Kevin at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)