#welovenhs

The GOP received a harsh spanking this week via Twitter, but not from the usual culprits (Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann, etc). After certain GOPers began bashing National Health Service (NHS), tweeters from across the pond raised their arms, tweeting favorable and personal accounts of tax-funded healthcare. Even Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined the chorale:
Did you hear about how Stephen Hawking got dragged into the healthcare debate? If not, you're in for some gut-wrenching LAUGHTER. Then read this satirical post about it.

"President Obama is now my homeboy too," says 11-year old reporter, Damon Weaver

Damon Weaver gained national notoriety via a YouTube video of his interview with Joe Biden last year. And recently, Obama granted the young man an interview.

You can tell the kid is shaking in his boots but he maintains his composure well throughout the entire video. He definitely has a bright future ahead of him. How awesome is it to be 11 and have this interview on your resume?

I'm sure he had everyone in the room rolling with laughter he reminded the President that Joe Biden is one of his homeboys. Just watch the video and then show it to your lazy siblings/cousins!

Karaoke Madness

My family's blood is laced with an unwieldy addiction to karaoke.
We're not competitive with each other, but we are known to stir a crowd.
We're a band of karaoke connoisseurs!
I LOVE my family.

My karaoke co-conspirator.
You can see the reflection of the TV with the karaoke lyrics in the background.

Good news from the West Bank

I know I blog a lot about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and most of it not so happy stuff. But Thomas Friedman's Wednesday column actually highlights some good things coming from the West Bank thanks to Prime Minister Salam Fayyad:

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to the wider Middle East what off-Broadway is to Broadway. It is where all good and bad ideas get tested out first. Well, the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, a former I.M.F. economist, is testing out the most exciting new idea in Arab governance ever. I call it “Fayyadism.”

Fayyadism is based on the simple but all-too-rare notion that an Arab leader’s legitimacy should be based not on slogans or rejectionism or personality cults or security services, but on delivering transparent, accountable administration and services.

Fayyad, a former finance minister who became prime minister after Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007, is unlike any Arab leader today. He is an ardent Palestinian nationalist, but his whole strategy is to say: the more we build our state with quality institutions — finance, police, social services — the sooner we will secure our right to independence. I see this as a challenge to “Arafatism,” which focused on Palestinian rights first, state institutions later, if ever, and produced neither.

Things are truly getting better in the West Bank, thanks to a combination of Fayyadism, improved Palestinian security and a lifting of checkpoints by Israel. In all of 2008, about 1,200 new companies registered for licenses here. In the first six months of this year, almost 900 have registered. According to the I.M.F., the West Bank economy should grow by 7 percent this year.

Sorry for the long-ish block quote, but the whole piece is worth reading.

Congratulations Judge Sotomayor \\ have a great weekend!

Congratulations to the newest member of SCOTUS, Judge Sonia Sotomayor!
All Democrats voted yes and 9 of the 40 Republicans voted yes.
The NYT has this nifty chart of how the Republicans voted & interesting stuff popped up:
(1) Six of the nine Republicans that voted yes, were from states Obama won.
(2) Three of the nine Republicans that voted yes, included Lindsey Graham (S.C.),
Christopher Bond (Mo.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.)

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We're nearing the end of the summer so I'm going to have fun in the sun this weekend.
Have a wonderful weekend!

thursday thank you's

thank you, DICK'S, for the veggie omelette with extra tomatoes and four cups of coffee.

thank you, J., for providing me with sustenance and inspiring conversation.

thank you, tailor lady, for hemming my pants for my interview tomorrow.

thank you, tailor guy, for running after me into the parking lot with my mom's drycleaning that I left inside.

thank you, borders, for having Beowulf on the Beach in stock.

no thank you, sleezebag at the post office, for whistling at me this morning. you singlehandedly devolved the male race.

overall, thursday was a great day.

good night!

a song for snogging.

What words do you live by?

"Life has meaning only in the struggle.

Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the gods.

So let us celebrate the struggle!"

-Swami Sivananda

@ The Griffith Observatory

Repeat Assault

"Smack Into You" by Jon McLaughlin

It's not the kind of song you'll find in the annals of superbly-made music. But my mood gravitated me to this. Apparently, it's not an official song of his and Beyonce supposedly has a version of this on her album.

Smile...for your Sears Portrait!

Photographer: "1, 2, 3, 'Bikini'!"

Kim, Clinton & Co.: (chirp chirp)

Why the long faces? Could they not come to a consensus on the background? Look Kim's and Clinton's hands. Kim's hands placement make him look eager to leave and awkward. Whereas Clinton looks like he's trying to hide something.

My mandatory department store portrait, circa 1991:

Poetry meets art in the bathroom of a cafe (in Berkeley)

Do you enjoy a good mind f**k?

Then feed on SoulPancake.com

It spewed from the loins of Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight Shrute), which makes it doubly awesome.