Your Move.

Now with Pres. Obama in his first days in the high office, all eyes are on what, if any, campaign promises will he keep? Which promise will be the first that he'll grant? Personally, I believe he will act either on the shape of the economy or on the war in Iraq. I know that if I were president right now, I would be so over whelmed by the terrible shape of the world that I inherited from Bush that I would probably freak. In addition, the federal government is investigating "Gitmo" and trying to tie the Bush administration to torture. To what extent the charges will be, I am not sure, but the real question is should Obama block the investigation and pardon the Bush administration for anything that the investigation may turn up, should he act like an Illinois democrat and support the investigation and make the Bush administration not only suffer and ruin what reputation/integrity it still has, or should he just take a neutral course and stay out of it and let the investigation continue and potentially have a trial? Though there are arguments that could be made for every side of this issue, I believe that the safest course is just to stay out of it. If people go to jail, they go to jail.

Give It Up!

In the summer of 2007, I was in Vienna, Austria. It was a very lovely city. I highly recommend going there for a few days of your life. There are no words for how awesome the city is and how the city is old, but at the same new. They have the perfect mix.

This blog however isn't about how nice the city is, but rather about Mexico! You see, 516 years ago, Cortez and the Spanish Conquistadors took over Mexico. In the process, after Montezuma II died, the Spanish took Montezuma's headdress, the last authentic Aztec headdress ever made. The headdress is "made of over 450 bright green tail feathers of the quetzal bird, known as the crown of the last ruler of the Aztecs, Montezuma," ("No bilateral problems - except for Montezuma's crown of feathers"By Anne Dellemann). However, the headdress has a greater, sentimental, philosophical, historic, cultural, and spiritual meaning for the indigenous Aztecs that are still alive today.
Currently, there is a group of about 100 indigenous Aztec decedents in Vienna protesting the Austrian government. The Austrian government is thinking about giving the headdress back as a "gift," but to me, that would seem like an insult. I say just give it back. It's apart of Mexican history and is one of the most important pre-Colombian history artifacts.

I Have A RED EYE

Today in class, Mr. O'Connor showed us the front page of the newspaper called The Red Eye, the page, in white letters on a back background, stated "IS RACISM DEAD?" My answer in short is no, not even close. The article went on to talk about, wait for it, Barrack Obama. Racism is just in a different form than what we remember back from the MLK days. I sincerely believe that Americans are much more tolerant of color then we used to be. However, I strongly believe that our [America's] racial profiling, stereotyping, and religious tolerance has gotten much worse. Nowadays, many ignorant Americans believe that if someone is Muslim, they are automatically a terrorist. I just want to say "CUT IT OUT!!!" It's profiling like that that give America and Americans a bad name. I, for one, could not care less what the hell you are. If you want to be Muslim, be Muslim. If you want to be Voodoo, be Voodoo. If you want to be a Scientology worshiper, pay your fee and worship, just don't throw your beliefs on me, that's all I ask. In the end, please, don't profile or act like your better than another race because in the end, we're all the same-human. We're all the same species weather you like it or not so just deal with it.

Big Freakin' Deal

In class this week, on numerous occasions, talk about the picture of Obama in a bathing suit, on a beach in Hawaii. We also discussed that he was video taped and shown nationally playing basketball. The class went on to say that Obama is really the first president that has ever been pictured like this, on vacation, or at leisure. Now my point about this is that so what he's on vacation?! I take vacations. I was just in Florida and I don't see my picture all over CNN, FOX, MSNBC, or some other news station. So what's the big deal about it anyway?

Why Me?

This post is not going to be a very intellectual, political, or deeply thought out post that I've been staving off for a time when I run out of ideas. That said, however, this post does come a little late. In the MLB off-season, the GM's (general managers), Owners, and sometimes even Managers gather in Las Vegas where they will be dealing trades, deals, and talk about how to improve the MLB and their profits in the upcoming season. The Cubs, however, driven by their 100 year championship drought, fought bitterly, only to fall 150 miles short of receiving Cy Young award winner, Jake Peavy. I don't know why I'm even upset right now. What should I expect? I believe in a team that you can count on not coming through when the time demands it. O.K., we did get Joey Gathright, a speedy left-handed hitting outfielder from Kansas City which, because he played for Kansas City, leads me to believe that no one either: A. Knew about him because the Royals secretly genetically engineered him in an underground laboratory under their stadium, or more likely B. He's no damn good. I will give the Royals this, they weren't the worst team in the league for the 1st time in a few years so congratu-freakin'-lations! I still remain a Cub fan, I just got to see how this one will pan out for the Cubs.

The Ultimate Economy Stimulus

War in the past, believe it or not, has saved the world. In the great depression, what got the world out of a depression? War. Currently, we need something to get our economy going again. We need to get the people excited about something. What took our minds off the near apocalypse of the Cold War? The great Space Race. Right now, if were to go to the Moon, people might get excited for that, but we'd need something bigger. We could go to Mars and find bacteria that was once living and revive them back here on Earth. There are plenty of people who'd be willing to give up their lives for a type of discovery such as this. There is overwhelming evidence that there was once live on Mars. To what extent? Not the large scale Ecosystem that Earth owns, but a much more premature Ecosystem, a more basic Ecosystem. Later, we could see what these organisms would evolve into. Yes, it would be costly and risky, but if we find out that we're not alone, people would get excited instantly and get everything going again. In the end, I go back to my original point which was that we just need something to get excited about.

Who Do You Trust More AMERICA????

O.K., You are a witness in a crime and you're called up to the stand. You are asked to take standard oath where you are asked: "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" Nothing out of the ordinary, standard procedure. However, while you are taking the oath, the standard is that you'd have your hand on a Bible if you didn't ask for anything special. If you lie at this point, you cold be convicted of 'perjury.' Here's the question- why the Bible? I know for a fact, because I'm more of an Agnostic, I wouldn't feel that bad if I lied. However, if I was to swear on a copy of the Constitution, that would be meaningful. Now if I lied, I would feel as though I betrayed my country. I don't think I could live with that. After all, the Constitution is more than a series of pages that holds the outline of our government and our way of life, but what our Founding Fathers fought and died for. How can anyone let George Washington, our first and greatest president down? Today, everyone talks about what is "American" and "un-American." I believe that putting down the Constitution is the most un-American thing anyone could do to this nation. Therefore, I strongly support the idea that when someone is called up to the stand and is asked to take an oath of truth, they swear on a copy of the American Constitution. I believe that it comes down to this- Do you love your religion more than your country?