DDay,

Per your comments regarding Obama campaign volunteers, here's an interesting article about "where they are today" in The Nation:

"The Obama Generation, Revisited"

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091123/mendez_berry

re: comment. (I love a good debate) I remember one assertion which I expected flack for: “The Obama campaign was more about pigment and personality than policies or principals. It appears that this continues today.”

My reply:

Many factors come into play in elections. We know that there were many people (even Democrats) who said they wouldn’t vote for Obama because of his ethnicity and others who voted for him because of it. I don’t know how that balanced out in the end.

I don’t think there’s anything to groundbreaking to say that an election had more to do with personality (let’s include appearance in personality) than policies or principals. More people probably vote based on party loyalty and personality than knowledge of the issues and after 8 years of Boy George the odds really favored any Democratic candidate over any Republican.

Being black (and youthful) definitely energized and boosted the black and youth vote. His calm demeanor helped too, as did his appealing family. It also attracted liberals who were swept up in the historical significance of the moment, but you can’t leave out what an unappealing team McCain/Palin turned out to be. How many times can a campaign jump the shark? I don’t know but it seemed that the McCain campaign was playing Double Dutch with sharks as jump ropes.

I was listening to the segment on curcumin yesterday and wanted to add that curcumin is in turmeric. Turmeric is one of the ingredients in curry, but it is turmeric that has the curcumin in it.

Also, if you are taking blood thinners including aspirin, or even using a ginger supplement ,you have to be careful, because curcumin is also a blood thinner. If you have heavy menstrual cycles you shouldn't use blood thinners at that time or sometimes one week before so check with your naturopath.

It might be that the curcumin supplement would be all that you need. So be sure to read up on any herbal supplement you plan to take to be sure it doesn't interfere with other meds. You might also learn that the herbal supplement could replace a med you are already taking which would be even better.

Anyways, I learned a hard lesson in what the “generation gap” means the other day. I was sitting near two girls on a bus, and they began singing a cappella a song I had not heard in quite a while, and note for note at that. It was a disco-era tune called “Emotion.”

I remember that song, I said. That was Samantha Sang . The girls looked at me as if I was crazy. Somewhat miffed at their reaction to my knowledge of Seventies top forty pop, I repeated my contention that singer’s name was Samantha Sang, from back in 1978, and that it was a song written by the Bee Gees (Barry Gibb’s background vocal practically overwhelmed Sang’s tiny voice). No it isn’t, they said with that female sarcasm. It was all a bit frustrating to be told I was wrong by girls who were born 15 years after this song hit the top 10 (back in the day when the charts were full of gold). Yes it is, I rather more earnestly repeated, stating that what they heard must have been a cover song. At least they knew what a “cover” version was; they reluctantly acknowledged that the “version” they had heard was by Rhianna. Fortunately, Rhianna has been in the tabloids recently, so I didn’t have to ask “Who’s that?”

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that there is a gap in what was and what is. Back in the Sixties and into the Seventies, people were singing songs about peace, love and social harmony. The Eighties were the “me” generation, the Nineties a complete muddle as the memorable pop single no longer drove record sales, and today I just get a headache no amount of aspirin will cure. Music once expressed our hopes, idealism and aspirations, and how we wished the world to be, rather than how it was in reality; now it is more often about conflict, whining and vulgarity. Instead of taking to the streets in protest, too often we hear of people being gunned down by “musical” rivals. What are young people saying today through the music they listen to? I’m not sure, but it doesn't seem to me that it's inspiring them to do much of anything that is positive on a community, political or social justice level.

To BRoll,
Inadvertently, I guess I made my point. How can one understand the complexities of the economy if you have to take off your shoes to count to 20 (I assume that was an exaggeration but it is illustrative). Complexities is probably the wrong word. It should be the word that describes how can we understand the long term effects of economic policy, especially when the short term effects seem bad. The inverse example is Thom's favorite whipping boy, Ronald Reagan (of course, it was really Alan Greenspan, since as Oliver Stone said on Bill Maher, Ronnie was a moron). He made the economy look great by tripling the national debt ceiling during his 2 terms. A significant portion of our current annual debt (like 50%) is paying off the compound interest of that economic policy.

With all the talk about an issue of gay rights on Thursday's show, I have to wonder if Mark will feel compelled to respond with one of his homophobic posts. We'll find out on the Friday blog.

chuckle8

It sounds like you’re saying that you think that Obama’s most significant policy action was his economic stimulus package because you believe that it slowed down job losses.

I guess that the issue will be what the longer term effects of that spending will be. It’s quite possible that aspects of the stimulus plan. A lot of people are concerned that the money wasn’t and isn’t being used in the most productive manner.

As far as explaining it to the average person, I’d drop talk of trigonometric tangents. I have to take my shoes off to count to 20, so I have no idea what a trigonometric tangent is.

It’s been my opinion for a while the issue that’s going to make or break the Obama presidency will most likely be the economy. If it improves in a way that affects average citizens positively Obama has a good chance of being re-elected to a second term. As an important side benefit, if the economy recovers during his administration, it could have a positive affect on race relations. If this black president manages to preside over the recovery of this economy, it would boost the opinion of many people about the abilities of black people. But that might be a bit much to expect.

So?...If the TSA strip searches your wife would you prefer a)straight man, b)straight man, c) a Gay man or d) a Lesbian? Regrettably, this whole discussion is indicative of the Rise of American Militarism!

rewinn

you wrote:

2B Roll : tell ya what: men can vote on whether vasectomy is legal, women can vote on whether abortion is legal. Deal?

I reply:

Sorry, no deal. This is an issue of major societal importance although I don't think it should be. It is because it's been made a moral and religious issue by cynical politicians and politically motivated religious leaders.

Further more, gender isn't as big an influence on views on abortion as religious beliefs and affiliations and even geography. If we put it up to a vote, I have a feeling that abortion would be illegal in many red states.

What gender does seem to influence on the question is the intensity of the feelings on the issue, with women having more intense views on both sides of the issue than men do. Higher percentages women than men are strongly in favor or strongly opposed to greater restrictions on abortion than men are.

I think it's a false assumption that men are against abortion and women favor it. There are many women who are against abortion mainly based on religious beliefs or the belief that our humanity begins at conception.

Here's some poll results about views on abortion from the PEW Research Center http://people-press.org/commentary/?analysisid=88

Note the results in the second graphic in the article. On the question of whether there should be more restrictions on access to abortion, if you add the "favor" and "strongly favor" responses women and men have the same score of 35%. If you add the "oppose" and "strongly oppose" number, it's women 59% and men 57% which is explained by the "Don't know ". The 2% difference is explained by the "Don't know" results with 6% of women and 8% of men saying they don't know.

If we decided to limit voting on the issue by gender, people find other issues they could claim where only members of certain groups should have the right to vote?

If you're looking for a certain outcome, in this case, guaranteeing a woman's right to choose, look at the second to last graphic. When you look at which religious groups are more likely to oppose restrictions on abortion, Jews are the hands down winners with 87% opposing more restrictions.

So let's say only Jews can vote on abortion. Deal?

When I joined the Marines back in 1973 I didn't know about "gay" yet. Shortly after my base (29 Palms) put me up for Marine of the Month in early 1975 I had become worldly enough to think I might be gay and so, to the astonishment of many of my fellow Marines, I did not re-up later that year (since it wasn't really an option for me at that point). But that's just my story.

What I view as the biggest danger in not letting people serve openly (in any government position) is that this makes them vulnerable to blackmail/coersion by anyone who "knows their secret".

While this works for those that are in the business of manipulating others, I don't really see the value of it to the country as a whole.

William Henry and Whitley Streiber (remember Communion?) Discuss "V"

'Just came across this:

http://www.unknowncountry.com/media/index_rev.phtml?cur=474