Snoop: Obama needs to be the Commander-in-Chef

by stuperb on November 19th, 2008

Snoop Dogg has some advice for the President-Elect on fatherhood:

He says, “Mr. President needs to learn how to bake a cake. That’s points for the man of the house - because I did that. I bake cakes and popcorn and cotton candy…

“Then they like for you to get out of their face and let them be kids.”

Points for the man of the house? I’d think after the big White House and the new puppy he’d be sitting pretty, but I guess it’s always good to accrue political capital.

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Poor Sarah

by stuperb on November 19th, 2008

Events took a tragic turn yesterday when the Senator and 7-time felon Sarah Palin likes to pal around with lost his re-election bid to, of all things, a Democrat. That’s right - Anchorage mayor Mark Begich has beaten Senator Ted Stevens by about 3,700 votes.

Why poor Sarah, you ask?

Because: this means that a Democrat will represent Alaska in the Senate for the first time since 1981; that the Senate no longer has to oust Stevens, its longest-serving Republican member; and that Governor Palin won’t be able to nominate herself to run against Begich in a special election after Stevens is given the boot.

Nope. Poor Sarah will have to cool her heels for a couple of years in Alaska, building that pipeline she promised to build, balancing the budget, and inviting media personalities over for some moose chili and interivews.

The 85 year-old Ted Stevens may be headed for prison, but Sarah Palin is probably the one crying about it.

And may this be the last post I have to write about her.

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Logic seeps in

by stuperb on November 18th, 2008

Abortion in the United States has been legal for 35 years, and the debate still rages today.

One of my biggest frustrations about the rabidly anti-abortion crowd is that I’ve always felt their efforts could be better focused on the education & prevention side of the equation.

In my opinion, the two sides aren’t as far apart as it appears at first glance: both could probably agree that they’d like to reduce the number of abortions. The difference is in the method. As a pro-choice woman who nevertheless finds abortion very sad, I’d like people to be educated about sex, its consequences, and options before they become pregnant. I’d like contraception to be more widely available, discussed and encouraged. I’d like adoption to be an easier road to travel down, and I’d like it to be better supported and publicized. I’d like pregnancy to become something we don’t hide or shame people about.

But I don’t think the best way to reduce the number of abortions is to make it illegal, or to picket abortion clinics in order to shame women out of having them.

And finally, it appears that some “pro-life” groups are understanding that as well. Granted, it’s not because they have decided that making abortions illegal is a bad idea; it’s because recent efforts to restrict them and Obama’s election to the Presidency has made them pause to regroup. But I think that motive may not matter in this issue if the end result is positive. From the Washington Post:

Frustrated by the failure to overturn Roe v. Wade, a growing number of antiabortion pastors, conservative academics and activists are setting aside efforts to outlaw abortion and instead are focusing on building social programs and developing other assistance for pregnant women to reduce the number of abortions.

Some of the activists are actually working with abortion rights advocates to push for legislation in Congress that would provide pregnant women with health care, child care and money for education — services that could encourage them to continue their pregnancies.

“If one strategy has failed and failed over decades, and you have empirical information that tells how you can honor life and encourage women to make that choice by meeting real needs that are existing and tangible, why not do that?” said Douglas W. Kmiec, a law professor at Pepperdine University who served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. Kmiec, a Catholic who opposes abortion, was criticized by some abortion foes because he endorsed Obama.

I think I just fainted.

Seriously, this represents a huge step forward. Not only are they likely to see more positive effects, but it represents a chance for us all to find common ground.

Of course, there are detractors.

The new effort is causing a fissure in the antiabortion movement, with traditional groups viewing the activists as traitors to their cause. Leaders worry that the approach could gain traction with a more liberal Congress and president, although they do not expect it to weaken hard-core opposition.

“It’s a sellout, as far as we are concerned,” said Joe Scheidler, founder of the Pro-Life Action League. “We don’t think it’s really genuine. You don’t have to have a lot of social programs to cut down on abortions.”

This is the kind of attitude I don’t understand. If the end goal is to reduce the number of abortions, then why is rigid adherence to old strategies the only acceptable answer? That sort of stubbornness seems counterproductive.

I’m glad to see at least some activists are allowing logic to dictate their course of action.

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Cue Nervous Laughter

by stuperb on November 17th, 2008


Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

I don’t know anyone like that, do you? Heh, heh.  Why? What have you heard?

I did wonder a bit, before the election was over, what I’d spend my time thinking about afterward.  Turns out that there’s endless speculation about Obama’s cabinet to mull, future GOP rivals to wonder about, and even a few Senate races left undecided. So, all this talk about the election being “over” and people needing to “get over it” or to “get a real life” seem a bit premature, to me.

Beyond that, I can fill the void with early holiday shopping. Just trying to stimulate the economy!

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Second Life? Try getting a first life, first.

by stuperb on November 14th, 2008

from CNN:

LONDON, England (CNN) — A British couple who married in a lavish Second Life** wedding ceremony are to divorce after one of them had an alleged “affair” in the online world.

Second Life users can interact and form relationships with other players’ avatars.

Amy Taylor, 28, said she had caught husband David Pollard, 40, having sex with an animated woman. The couple, who met in an Internet chatroom in 2003, are now separated.

“I went mad — I was so hurt. I just couldn’t believe what he’d done,” Taylor told the Western Morning News. “It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over.”

Taylor said she had caught Pollard’s avatar having sex with a virtual prostitute: “I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It’s cheating as far as I’m concerned.”

The couple’s real-life wedding in 2005 was eclipsed by a fairy tale ceremony held within Second Life.

But Taylor told the Western Morning News she had subsequently hired an online private detective to track his activities: “He never did anything in real life, but I had my suspicions about what he was doing in Second Life.”

There are so many things wrong with the story above, it’s hard to know where to start. Let’s see…..

1. A wedding on Second Life? Seriously? Did you have a real-life wedding, too, or were your guests too lazy and cheap to leave mom’s basement to attend?

2. Um. You hired a private detective to find out what your husband was doing in an online game? You do know that said investigator was laughing at you the whole time he was investigating your husband, right?

Get a first life.  THEN work on the second one.

** in case it’s not obvious by the context of the story, Second Life is an online virtual world/game. Here’s more info. Just do me a favor and don’t get married there.

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