Truth be told...in cartoons.

In High School, I became very political and grew obsessed with political cartoons. I would cut them out of newspapers and magazines, then put them on my notebooks and my school calendar. I even started an issue of my high school's ACLU newsletter (Yes, we had an American Civil Liberties Union club in high school) that focused only on political cartoons of the day, which was during the 2000 elections. From time to time, I enjoy a good political cartoon, but mostly collect wacky and weird stories from the newspapers.

While I have been in South Africa and learning about the domestic politics, I have fallen in love political cartoons again. There is an artist/cartoonist names Zapiro here in South Africa, who I think is so talented and can say so much in one picture. Most of his cartoons focus on South Africa, but some cover international news like the Europe crisis and Egypt. My favorites are the commentary on the controversial President, Jacob Zuma, for which he is getting sued by for defamation. The topic and issue of freedom of speech is very interesting one here because it often conflicts with the other constitutional right of human dignity (like does it cover public figures, like Zuma). These constitutional issues are very interesting to me because South Africa is a developing democracy and country, and it has never had to deal w/ these issues before.  Being here in Cape Town during the controversy over the Spear painting has been really interesting because it has raised these constitutional issues and also raised issues of race that hasn't been dealt with since apartheid. Zapiro recently made his own commentary about the issue freedom of speech and distaste for Zuma's hypocrisy, which has gotten him in trouble again. I am interested to keep following this issue when I return back home to the States. 

But for now, here is a link to Zapiro's delightful tribute to Madiba for his 94th birthday. Enjoy!

July 18th

This passage is from a recently read chapter from Long Walk to Freedom:

"But now the white man had felt the power of my punches and I could walk upright like a man, and look everyone in the eye with the dignity that comes from not having succumbed to oppression and fear. I had come of age as a freedom fighter."

My experience here has been transformative and inspirational. I feel political active again (something which died or was hindered in Washington -one would think the opposite would happen), which feels nice to be so passionate again and mentally provoked. Traveling alone has causes a lot of great self-reflection and becoming comfortable with who you are as a person. And it has concreted within me, what I know about already about myself and shown me things about myself that I had wondered about (if I was capable of doing certain things and how I would fair in new situations), which have all been positive (to me, at least). I wonder what else I will feel when I return back home to the States... but, I will let you know when that happens. 

But back to the point, today is Mandela day. I spent my 67 minutes of this day, which honors Mandela's 67 years of fighting injustice at the Siyaphila crèche in Nyanga, where we celebrated Madiba birthday. It was (also Siyaphila's 2nd birthday the day before) really great afternoon of service. The little ones had so much fun - we played with balloons, painted faces (I thought I could be, but found I was not a good face painter) and made masks for them to wear as they decorated biscuits and ate cake - and we did too. Also today, I finally visited the District 6 Museum, which was an area  in Cape Town where Colored, Indian, and African people were forcibly displaced and removed because of apartheid. It was a reminders of the sad injustices that Madiba fought against. I am so thankful for him and that he made South Africa a better place. I saw it quoted that we should be thankful for just breathing his air and I agree. I feel so lucky to be in South Africa. I hope that every day could be Mandela day. 

 

 

 

My rant.

Call me heartless, but I think that Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two journalist accused of entering North Korea, are stupid.

Never ever mess around with a hostile country. I think that should be a given rule. If you want to report on the humanitarian situation in North Korea expect that there will be danger. Haven't you seen the movie "Up Close & Personal"? Robert Redford died in that movie. 12 years in a labor camp is not that bad in comparison. But, I doubt that Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee will do the 12 years. They will probably be used as bargaining chips and eventually returned to the United States, where they will write a book about their experience and become media darlings. North Korea will finally receive an envoy and negotiate for benefits despite failing to stop their nuclear program, like always.

I went to North Korea last winter on a tour and I have never felt more uncomfortable and scared in my life. That was just a day tour so I can't imagine the fear that those two women are facing, esp. after their sentencing. But, they did illegally enter North Korea. Earlier reports said that the N.Korea soldiers asked them to stop taping on the border, but they did not. Also, their camera man ran away and let the two women get caught. Chivalry is dead. I may think Ms. Lee and Ling are dumb and naive, but I do feel sympathy for them and their families. I especially feel sorry for Ms. Lee's four year daughter, who has no understanding of world politics and only knows that she misses her mom. She's probably the greatest victim of this situation. Besides the United States Government that must cooperate with this hostile government for their stupidity.

The only people that are dumber than Ms. Ling and Lee are the people that "tweet" and comment say "Nuke" or "invade" North Korea. What good would that honestly do? I think the US military is already quite overextended. If you are really "irate" then write an email to the State Department or your congress person. Better yet, join the military. Also, did you care before when South Korean and Japanese citizens were abducted on their country's territory? Nope, I didn't think so.

So, how about we practice something we haven't done in awhile. 8 years to be exact. It is called Diplomacy. Send my beloved Al Gore over there or Hilary Clinton to begin negotiations with North Korea. Or ask our US government to put pressure on China to assist in the release of the two journalist and ending the nuclear program. China is suppose to wield power with North Korea. China already wields power over the United States. So I doubt asking Chinese overlords for more help won't hurt.

Check out Jezebel for more coverage. I will return to my heartless shell now.

This is frightening!

No, not the video for Lady Gaga's Paparazzi (which, is scary and should be discussed.) music video.

But... someone my age has been leader of North Korea! I can't believe that Kim Jong-il has
named his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, to be his successor. This young kid will now be in control of a nuclear arsenal of missiles. That is just frightening. Can you imagine this kid getting drunk and shooting off a missile for fun? I can't even cook rice when I am drunk.

Little is known about Kim Jong-un, like his age. Supposedly, he was born in 1983 or 1984. I wonder if he is well educated? What are the requirements to become the next great leader of North Korea? Also, what will Kim Jong-un's older brothers think? This might not be a good transfer of powers, esp. when "a society that values seniority his youth could be a problem."

I pray that this young man is smart, rational, and has good judgement. Scary stuff.

Image from Korean times.

seven months of stupidity

The expert, Richard L. Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said that while Mr. Coleman’s side might argue that the election had problems, “the position of the justices appears to be: ‘You need to do more than that. You need to show us that whatever problems there were likely affected the outcome of the election.’ And that’s a tough standard to meet.” John Schwartz, June 1, 2009, New York Times "Minnesota Justices are Skeptical in Senate Case"

No shit,man. This is Coleman's third attempt to overrule Franken's victory. Just. give. up. The third time is not the charm. If you ever want a future in Minnesota politics again - Just. give. up. It has been 7 months already, spring has sprung!

Funny politics

"When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account."

Who said that? Sotomayor??? No. It was Supreme Court Justice Alito. Gotta love Conservative Hypocrisy!

Why was it good when Alito says his Italian background would make him a good Judge? But, Sotomayor almost made the same point and she is viewed as a racist. Xenophobia?

Sotomayor's speech was also taken out of context. If you see what she actually said , you will see that it was manipulated and spun to look like a bigger deal than it actually is. But, Alito blatantly says it. Plus in our heterogeneous society, we should have representatives that look like our population. Sadly for some, not me, that is not white.

"I would hope that a wise [not all] Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

A justice should be weighed on their actions and legal rulings and not speeches (especially, taken out of context). Check out the Huffington Post's "Sonia Sotomayor: 10 Things you Should Know." It will be a very exciting summer in D.C.

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new news

I hope this is true b/c it would be AWE-SOME! Girl power!

We've got a long way to go

No country is perfect. In the United States, people take pride in the fact that the United States is a melting pot of diversity. The comments of the story that I am sharing even displays this pride. But, America still has a long way to go. I am not sure if prejudice, racism and xenophobia ever disappear, but I hope it does. Japan, in this regard, has a longer ways to go.

NYTimes: Japan Pays Foreign Workers to go Home.

To me, it is obvious that Japan needs to end its strict immigration policies and racist/xenophobic attitudes towards immigrant workers, especially since Japan's population is declining. Japan is facing a tsunami of demographic problems because of its low fertility rate (1.3 babies), it can no longer replace its population (2.1). This has significant economic and social problems. Japan also lacks an appropriate system to care for its elderly, especially since the government covers health and pension expenditures. What will the future generations do about this problem? It is also reported that younger generations of Japanese people are passing away earlier due to poor diet, aka eating western foods. It is often the younger generation that cares for the elderly. The problems seem endless...

Solution? Some look towards women (Prime Minister Aso just announced $1.5 Billion to Child-Care Spending to keep Mom's working), some to immigration, and others (a smaller community) say robots. I think a three pronged approach would be better, but I would put emphasis on better working conditions for women, changing traditional views of gender roles, and increasing immigration to skilled workers. Less emphasis on robots due to crimes perpetrated by robots.

No country is perfect and every country is facing difficult problems, but their success is dependent on how each country reacts to them.

Is it Spring time in Minnesota yet?

I love political dramas. As a honorary Minnesotan, I have been watching the drama unfold between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. To sum up my opinion of Norm in two words is easy. Sore loser.

The Politico reports today that Norm filed an appeal to the Supreme Court regarding 4,400 rejected ballots. However, the Minnesota State Canvassing Board certified Franken as victor on January 5, 2009 and the lower court upheld this certification. This is not the first loss for Norm, who appears to lose to anti-political candidates. In '98, he lost a bid for Governor of Minnesota against former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura (aka my dad's lookalike) and now, the former comedian. I doubt that the Supreme Court will revise the lower courts decision. There is nothing new that is being presented before the court. Ultimately, 2.9 Million Minnesotans voted and more preferred Franken or the third party candidate, not Coleman.

What is the precedence for the length of time for Minnesota to have only one representative in the Senate? Is that even legal?

What everyone should take away from this political drama is that every vote counts. FDR says it the best:

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

I'm not the only one that thinks that Norm should concede. The Politico reports that "Democrats, Minnesota media and even some Gopher State Republicans for [Coleman, have asked him] to concede." As my dad says " justice, just like the Spring thaws, works slowly in Minnesota. But by the end of April, usually the ice comes off the lakes, or as Aunt Priscilla said, it sinks...and Minnesota moves to a new season." Spring has arrived for D.C. and I hope that Minnesota's spring will come early for Minnesotans. Norm is a resilient person so he will never sink to the bottom, but he should concede so that Minnesotans can receive the representation that they deserve in the Senate.

eh

It's Friday! I seriously have nothing to write about but, I thought I should post something. I hope that you watched this episode of the Daily Show between Jon Stewart and CNBC’s Jim Cramer. Jon Stewarts coverage of CNBC has been quite damning, especially in Jim Cramer's lack of warning of the financial crisis. This episode called the "Wall Street Brawl" does not even seem like a brawl, but a verbal beating of the usually loudmouthed Cramer, who just laid there while Stewart berated and tore him a new @sshole.

This kind of conversation really pulls into question the role of the media and whether people in the media are truly asking the right questions and "looking out" for the public. Where were the difficult questions prior to the war in Iraq? No one was asking them. What is the purpose of the media, if it is not acting like a watchdog and calling everything into question?

We've got a long way to go...

Eleanor Roosevelt once said that States must look inward because “human rights begin‘in the small places, close to home…the neighborhood, the school or college, the factory, farm or office…..Unless these rights have meaning here, they have little meaning anywhere.’” (Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper, Eds., Lori L. Heise, “Freedom Close to Home: The Impact of Violence Against Women on Reproductive Rights,” in Women’s Rights/Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives (New York: Routledge, 1995) 239)

Happy International Women's Day! Visit Jezebel to see images from around the globe from both today and yesterday.

Obama Fever

I have obama fever literally. Well not fever, but obama cold-like symptoms. It was worth it. Now, when are they going to remove the porter potties from this city? I may feel like sh*t, but I don't want to see nor smell it.

Ox > Mouse

I saw this article below from BBC, regarding the predictions for next year and thought that it was interesting. My prediction for 2009 is no more parking tickets/stop light tickets. 2008 was an expensive year for my car, Winston (Churchill, not after the jewelry). Apparently, yellow means slow down and stop in the middle of the intersection. But, to my defense there are signs that say "Don't block the box."I digress... Happy New Year and I will be wishing you, dear reader, a joyous 2009.

Correspondents look ahead to 2009

A new year is upon us and the Chinese tell us it is the year of the ox - steadfast and patient.

But what are the main news events we should expect over the coming 12 months?

Four top BBC correspondents will be joining Stephen Sackur for BBC Radio 4's Correspondents Look Ahead.

Here they predict the biggest news story of 2009, and explain what they are looking forward to most and least. Each also notes something entertaining they expect to happen.

What issues do you think will make the news in 2009?

---

It's going to be a big year for global democracy. Indians, South Africans, Indonesians and Israelis all go to the polls

Stephen Sackur
Presenter, Correspondent's Look Ahead and Hard Talk

I am looking forward to seeing the Republicans re-group... the fight between Sarah Palin and other wings of the party

Justin Webb
North America Editor

The worldwide economic slowdown could affect badly needed aid and international initiatives on climate change

Lyse Doucet
BBC World News special correspondent

I am looking forward to the US legal system moving into the indictment stage on some of the people at the top of the banking and insurance industry

Paul Mason
Economics Editor, Newsnight

I am waiting for signs of change in Zimbabwe, the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan

James Robbins
Diplomatic Correspondent

To actually read the articles, please click the link boxes. Aaron informs me that placing the entire article on my blog is obnoxious to read. Enjoy!

There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says, "may you live in interesting times" and that we do. With the recent actions in the Middle East, War in Iraq and Afghanistan, strife in Southern and Southeastern Asia and Africa, and economic recession - 2009 will be far from boring. I guess we will have to be patient, like the Ox, and see what the future will bring us. For me, no parking tickets, but enjoy the predictions and please share with me your predictions!

Sharing is Caring: News Article

'This Is the Destiny of Girls'
Across Much of South Asia, a Daughter's Life Is Circumscribed By Tradition and Poverty. But for Some, the Dreams Die Slower.

By Mary Jordan
Saturday, December 13, 2008; A01

LITTLE RANN OF KUTCH, India -- In the soft light of dawn, the cracked, dry seabed stretched endlessly in every direction. Jyotsna Patadia was alone -- she is often alone -- in her family's grass hut, a speck of life in the emptiness, cooking potatoes and onions over an open fire.

From October to May, Jyotsna, 15, works here in the desolate salt pans of western India, where her parents earn a living coaxing salt from the ground. The family arrives when the summer monsoons end and the water submerging this vast plain recedes.

Her two younger brothers stay behind in their village, Kharaghoda, a chaotic mix of camels and water buffalo, schools and vegetable sellers, newborn babies and blind old men.

Though the village of 12,000 is a seven-hour walk from Jyotsna's isolated hut on the salt pans, it might as well be England, it feels so different and far away.

"It's easier to be a boy," said Jyotsna, who was forced to drop out of school at 10 to help her parents. "They get to go to school."

Jyotsna's mother said she could not afford to let all three of her children study, so she picked her daughter to work. It is a familiar story in much of the developing world, and particularly South Asia. In India, half the women older than 15 are illiterate, twice the rate for men, and millions of poor girls are pulled out of school to help at home, often when they are 10 to 12 years old.

"I regret she has this hard life," said her mother, Ranjanben Patadia, 35. "But this is the destiny of girls. It was my destiny, too."

Unlike her mother, who never set foot in a classroom, Jyotsna did study on and off for a few years, thanks to a major government effort over the past decade to enroll all children. Though Jyotsna can still barely read or write, that progress has made her more aware of what she is now missing.

Human rights advocates say millions of teenage girls like Jyotsna are less resigned than their mothers were to the age-old preference in India for sons.

"Boys have more options," Jyotsna said one recent day as she tidied the one-room hut where she spends most of her time. She is told she is too old to play running games, yet notes that boys her age can.

Boys freely come and go, she said, but once girls reach puberty they are kept close to home, another reason that the start of a girl's menstrual period often means the end of her schooling.

"I would like to learn more," said Jyotsna, whose name means moonlight. She said people gossip that older girls who go to school "are too outgoing." But if she had more education, she said excitedly, "I would talk in front of 50, even 100 people!"

* * *

To this day, in some parts of India, fewer than eight girls are born for every 10 boys, because parents abort female fetuses, a legacy of a centuries-old mind-set that values boys more. Sons carry the family name, inherit land and become the main breadwinners.

In this patriarchal society, fathers and brothers are widely seen as the decision-makers, many even telling wives and sisters what to cook and when to leave the house. Especially in rural India, girls are far likelier to die before age 5, because scarce food and medicine are given first to their brothers.

"The constitution says, yes, women are equal, but society says, no, they are not," said Veena Padia, program director in India for the international aid group CARE. "We really feel angry and frustrated, at times even disgusted," at the bias against women, she said. "Mind-sets take a long time to change."

Padia said that middle- and upper-class women have made significant advances and that it is poor and marginalized women who suffer the greatest discrimination.

There are so many girls like Jyotsna in the salt pans, working while their brothers study, that CARE is supporting Ganatar, a local group that digs pits and covers them with burlap roofs to serve as makeshift classrooms. The hope is that parents might send their daughters to school if it were closer.

When girls marry, as Jyotsna is expected to soon, they move in with their in-laws. Many view it as a bad investment to spend scarce cash on pencils and notebooks for a daughter who will work most of her life for her husband's family.

"They call it 'watering somebody else's garden,' " said Susan Durston, an education adviser with UNICEF.

Long-standing social customs and beliefs bar girls from school in many parts of South Asia.

In Bangladesh, "Eve-teasing" -- bullying and sexual harassment -- hounds girls from class. In Afghanistan last month, Muslim extremists threw acid in the faces of girls walking to school as a warning to stay home. Zealots in northwestern Pakistan recently torched 150 schools for girls.

Usually, though, a quieter discrimination steals a girl's chance to learn. Every day, parents decide, for instance, to buy a bicycle so their son can get to school but refuse to spend money on a book for their daughter.

* * *

Jyotsna's brother Bharat, 13, bounced out of bed in a house that has everything Jyotsna's hut does not: electricity, a television, plenty of water, cousins dropping by.

After filling up on steaming tea and warm millet bread his grandmother served him, Bharat dressed in a spotless blue-checked shirt and blue pants and ran out the door into a dirt street filled with rickshaws and a buzz of laughter and life.

It was 7 a.m. and time to go to the Kharaghoda public school, just across the road.

When the bell rang in the courtyard, Bharat and others lined up to sing the national anthem. One boy beat a drum, two others clashed cymbals. Hands at their sides, the students stood in front of a picture of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge. There were 60 boys and 30 girls.

A 10-year-old girl named Hiral straggled in late, holding the hands of her brother and sister, ages 3 and 5. They would sit beside her all day in class, a practice teachers allow to encourage girls to come to school even when their parents make them babysit.

Bharat had no such distractions.

At 8 a.m. sharp, with his thick black hair combed neatly and his eyes bright and eager, he sat near the window in Classroom 4 reading about how India won its independence in 1947.

His room, in a century-old building that was once a jail, ached for paint. It is not that anyone here has much, human rights advocates say, but rather that what little there is so often goes to boys.

In Bharat's class there were 21 boys and nine girls. The male teacher -- many elementary school teachers in India are male -- spoke near a poster with pictures of 24 Indian leaders. With the exception of Indira Gandhi, all were men.

The teacher, Surendra Zala, lectured about British colonial rule. Speaking in the local Gujarati language, he told his students it was important to learn English, "because you need it to be connected to the world and the Internet."

Bharat listened intently, neatly jotting down notes. His cotton book bag bulged with 29 workbooks and notepads. History is his favorite subject, and Mahatma Gandhi is his hero because he "won independence peacefully," he said later.

Geometry was next, and then recess, when Bharat stopped drawing rectangles and ran toward a wobbly aluminum slide in the dusty schoolyard.

In English class, he pulled out his notebook full of random sentences: Dev plays cricket. Meet my friend Pittu. There is a peacock in the garden.

A cooling breeze drifted in through the classroom window.

* * *

Clack. Clack. Clack. The "machine," as everyone calls their water pump, sounds like a heartbeat. And in a way, it is. If it stops, so does life here. No more salt, money, meals. Jyotsna's parents earn $500 annually from mining salt, and that all depends on the rickety old pump sucking briny underground water to the surface.

Once there, the water is channeled into hand-dug ponds. The sun bakes it, and the salt crystals left behind are sold to flavor potato chips and scrambled eggs in distant lands.

One of Jyotsna's chores is to make sure that the machine, just outside the family's hut, keeps clackity-clacking. Sometimes it overheats or the fan belt breaks. Jyotsna then signals for help by holding a mirror up to the sun, creating flashes of light, and her parents come running.

At 6 one recent morning, Jyotsna had her breakfast: a cup of black tea. Milk doesn't exist in this place with no refrigeration. She brushed her brilliant white teeth with a toothbrush she keeps in a cranny in the dried-grass wall. There is no sink, no toilet.

Her parents had left before sunrise. They earn 35 cents for every 220-pound bag they fill with salt, so they start early and work late.

Dressed in a saffron-colored salwar-kameez, her bead necklace held together with a safety pin, Jyotsna folded the covers on her parents' cots. She sleeps on a thin bed of blankets in the dirt.

As daylight broke, she swept. The night's wind, as always, had blown back the caked mud she brushed away the day before. Her tiny 4-foot-10 frame bent at the waist, she tidied her patch of the plain, again.

By mid-morning she had warmed the previous night's lentils, bread and other leftovers and carried them to her parents for breakfast, a water jug balanced on her head.

Her parents struggle in the heat, and her father, Bhopabhai Patadia, 39, sometimes collapses. He has high blood pressure, as do many people here, because too much salt seeps into his body through cracks in his bare feet.

"I have the same problem," Jyotsna's mother said. "But I don't take medicine. We can't afford medicine for everyone."

In the evening sometimes, her husband smokes a bidi, a cheaper version of a cigarette. It's an indulgence, his wife explained, that "is only for men."

Jyotsna's father handed his daughter his empty water cup with a kind nod but not a single word. Then he and his wife began another shift in the unrelenting sun.

"No, it's not fair" that young boys study and girls work, he would say later. "But what can we do?"

Back at the hut, after washing the dishes, Jyotsna put chilies on a stone and ground them into a red paste, an hour's work, the start of another meal.

* * *

By noon, Bharat was home again, eating spicy bread flavored with chilies and vegetable curry.

"I will do my homework later," he told his grandmother as he flipped on the old black-and-white TV set. It was too hot to play cricket, his passion, he explained, so he lay on his bed to watch TV, his hands behind his head.

It was cool inside; he didn't bother with the overhead electric fan as he watched a show about the Hindu deity Lord Krishna, interrupted by a blaring ad urging people to buy gemstones corresponding to their zodiac signs.

Any chores to do today?

Bharat shook his head no.

"The boys don't do anything. Just eat and play," said his grandmother, Shanti Patadia. "We have to teach the girls how to work in a house because they will get married, but the boys don't even know how to sweep."

Bharat nodded.

"If a boy would do all these things in the house, people would think he is girlish," his grandmother said. "People would laugh."

Bharat said he misses Jyotsna, especially at mealtimes. "If she were here," he said, "she could help with the cleaning and cooking."

Next year, Bharat will ride his bicycle to the secondary school, farther away, where there are three boys for every girl.

"I hope the boys still talk to me when they become government workers," Shanti Patadia said, delighted at the idea her grandsons might one day have a handsome salary and easier lifestyle.

As for Jyotsna, she said, with a grandmother's knowing look, "In a year or two, we will get her married."

* * *

As the sun burned in the afternoon sky and turned these barren plains into a flat oven the size of Rhode Island, Jyotsna clung to the shade around her hut, sweeping, cooking and washing.

The nearest neighbor is a mile away; families live apart so their pumps aren't competing for the same salty water. Her brothers hear news at school and on TV. She did not know that all of India had just celebrated a successful lunar mission and planted its flag on the moon. She had never heard of Barack Obama.

"If I had a choice, I wouldn't marry," she said, her eyes tearing, as they often do when she talks about what life will bring her next.

As she pulled a few more onions from a burlap sack, she said she daydreams of cooking like a chef she once saw on TV: "I dream I can buy the ingredients and know how to write down the recipes."

She said she could copy words from a blackboard but is unable to write down words she hears spoken.

"My brothers, they will study. They can hope for different things," she said. "What can I be?"

Funny and Slightly Educational

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Yes, Gay Marriages will save the economy.

Thanks, Ali!

Slightly unrelated: One of My Loves, Margaret Cho, looks FAB! Also, is Maya Rudolph pregnant? She looked skinny/her normal self during her appearance during the "Solid as Barack" skit.

Okay, back to top chef...

Funny:

Editing and voice overs.

I think good editing and out of place voice overs is the reason why I watch trashy/reality TV shows. It is hilarious! I thought I would share these two clips that I saw recently. The editing cracks me up!!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I don't really think Entourage is that funny. Maybe b/c I don't have male genitalia. But, you will never have to watch it again after this clip. Hilarious!

Hey Keith, did you ever think it is you and not me? I typically like Keith Olbermann, but he has been bothering me ever since he told the ladies at the View that he didn't vote this year. Hello? Really? You have no right to ever complain again. Respect -10. But, this is hilarious:



Thanks, 23/6! And yes, I agree with Keith's comments on Prop 8.

Really?

I am not sure why I post blog entries when I should be sleeping! But I am.

Did you see this video (above)? I found this video from CNN hilarious. First, that was not a real question. Second, do people really believe that if elected Barack Obama will cover the United States with a red wave of communism? It is quite obvious that this woman has an agenda. A McCain Agenda! I would have the same response, if I were Joe Biden.

But, here is her response to her interview:


Honey, where were you during the questioning of George W with the WMDs and Iraq? Your line of questioning (or lack thereof) caused the proper reaction from the Obama-Biden campaign. If I were running for President and she asked me this question, I would have shot her in her face (STALIN STYLE, BEYOTCH!). Now, my comment is out of line.

Girl Crush

My new lady loves:

1. Campbell Brown

Why? Watch the video. Campbell not only has an awesome name- I love campbell soup- but she is wicked smart! I would totally have her be my backup in a knife fight. She doesn't need an actual knife, b/c her words are more damaging!



2. Rachel Maddow

I love watching her go off! Like, here! It is so nice to hear someone that has the same perspective and outlook as me on TV.

3. Amy Poehler

Tina Fey may be one of Jezebel's Decision 2008: The Top Ten Campaign Objects Of Our Affection, but Amy is mine! She made Sarah Palin likeable (to some people, but NOT me) by rapping this song (below). I think her pregnancy made her funnier. She will be missed by me on SNL, but congrats on the baby and possible "Office" spinoff!!

What do you think?

This photo is from Time's Photo of the day. Do you think the little bird is able to look into Putin's eyes and get a "sense of his soul" or did the little bird see "KGB," like McCain said.

Apparently, Putin likes baby animals because he just got a Tiger cub for his birthday. But, then again he shot an adult Siberian tiger in September. Maybe Putin only likes babies. I would love for there to be a blog of Putin kissing babies (human and non-human), just like "yes, we can kiss babies."

Hilarious!

This is so funny: http://www.palinaspresident.us/

Okay, back to my vacation...

UPDATE: Apparently, Sarah Palin will be on SNL tonight, October 19, 2008. I hope she cancels to help the economic crisis like John McCain during Letterman.