11:09: Just walked home in the cold from my morning class, and now am happily sitting with my 3 kitties watching what is sure to be one of the most memorable political events in my lifetime.
My eyes are already starting to well up a little, just watching them come on to the stage. I'm glad I passed on watching this at school, cause now I can bawl my eyes out at home and not, you know, be in public.
Later today the Dead will be playing! I'm going to try and liveblog some of my thoughts during the inauguration.
Al Gore, the man who should be the outgoing president, is stepping onto the stage right now.
11:18: Bill Clinton is walking and talking to Bush the senior, leaving Hillary to trail behind them like a lost puppy. Barbara Bush is up ahead.
11:49: Reverend rick douchebag is talking. He sounds like he's sobbing. All this god and heaven stuff at a government function makes me mighty uncomfortable.
11:52: "All this in the name of Jesus" MIGHTY mighty uncomfortable.
11:54: I didn't even know Aretha Franklin was still alive!
11:55: Her voice isn't that great anymore. :( She needs to be singing at a lower octave.
11:57: They're administering the oath of office to the VP. Isn't Bush not legally president anymore as of noon? Does that mean that from when noon until whenever they swear in Obama there will be no president?
11:59: More music, Itzhak Perlman is playing. I thought he was dead too! Which famous violinist was it who died a few years back if not him?
12:05: he's taking the oath!! (and the violinist I was thinking of was Isaac Stern)
12:05: He's president!!!!!!!!!
12:07: "It is my great personal honor to welcome the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama"
and there comes the tears
12:09: He's talking about being true to the ideals set forward by our founding documents. Here here!
12:10: aww he stumbled during a great line in his speech about meeting challenges
12:11: all are equal all are free and all deserve a full chance...
12:14: we're lowering the cost of healthcare by using technology? A far cry from what this country needs.
12:16: The market can't be a free market. Now there's a message I can get behind! The destructive reign of Reagonomics is over!
12:17: We're ready to lead the world once more? Face down facism and communism? Errr.....
12:19: "We are a nation of christians and muslims, jews and muslims. And nonbelievers." woo! nonbelievers! :)
12:20: He seems hesitant and nervous at times. This speech isn't as great as some of the campaign speeches I've seen. Understandable though, there was so much pressure on him to give the greatest speech EVAR.
12:22: Why is MSNBC cutting to pictures of random audience members (well not random, anyone with anything soldier-related)? I want to see Obama when he's talking!
12:24: "As a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served in a restaurant can now stand before you to take a sacred oath." welling up again...
12:26: So he didn't just declare the United States to be a Muslim state. There went that theory....didn't get assassinated either I'm happy to say! (Don't tell me you weren't worried about that too!)
12:29: I was going to skip the poem to go put my laundry in the drier, but it pulled me in...I like it!
12:31: "What if the mightiest word is love?"
12:32: I'm going to skip the bennediction to go throw my stuff in the dryer.
12:36: laundry in dryer. This dude doesn't seem to be as offensively religious as the other dude, although I missed the first few minutes.
12:37: "let all those who love justice and mercy say amen"
Amen!
12:38: seachanters are singing the anthom! Seachanters!
12:40: shaking hands, and now he's indoors.
It's over! Everyone survived! President Obama is our president! President Obama! That is so great to say!
Now to find out when/on what channel The Dead will be playing...
12:50: MSNBC just said "President Obama walking with former President George W. Bush." Have sweeter words ever been spoken?
12:53: The former President walks with his wife holding onto his arm: President Obama and the First Lady are just straight up holding hands. <3
1. If you ever get a chance to hear Itzhak Perlman play - go see him. I saw him once about 35 years ago.
ReplyDelete2. Aretha is the Queen of Soul and she can sing in any octave she damn well pleases!
"Rejoice, rejoice, we've got no choice, but to carry on." (Stephen Stills - the best line he ever wrote.)
Yea darn that free market!
ReplyDeleteI'd much rather give government assistance to a woman on welfare who just had her fourth child with 4 different fathers.
I would. Who cares how many fathers they have, they are still children, and they still need basic things like food and shelter. Are you completely inhuman, or have you just never met someone with kids from more than one father who has fallen on tough times? Why are you so disdainful of people who are not like you? You would rather their kids starved to death or were taken away from them to be put in the foster care system? Are their kids going to be better off that way? Really?
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile the free market (ie, complete deregulation of businesses, which has nothing at all to do with the welfare system) has given us the current state of the economy. So good luck with that.
AE, its not to late to do Teshuva.
ReplyDeletelol, do teshuva for what? Being a liberal? or is that just a comment on my general life?
ReplyDeleteAgreed, these children need their basic needs to be taken care of. One of the basic needs is a good parent. Having four children with four different men is a sure indicator that one is not a good parent. In this case these children should be given away, at least there is a chance they will be properly raised...
ReplyDeleteNow, current economic situation is a direct result of a non-free market. We are seeing a result of a policy initiated by Carter and pushed and expanded upon for three decades. Which policy? To give poor people who can't afford a mortgage a way to get a mortgage anyway. Just 6 short years ago, Senator Shumer pushed for more "deregulation" in mortgages, so that more and more people could be loaned money at a sub-prime rate.
what does a woman's sexual behavior have to do with her ability to be a good parent? I've slept with more than 4 guys, does that mean I'd automatically be a terrible parent? Jebus, it's like you guys live in the Victorian era!
ReplyDeleteI'd rather their children be given to foster care. Having 4 children from multiple fathers is indicative of irresponsibly and implies that they're not able to properly raise a child. Further, that unstable and despondent situation is not conducive to a child's welfare and future success. These women know that they'll be sufficiently compensated by the government and thus don't value personally responsible behavior. The safety net, in addition to the issue of unfairness, that the welfare state implies reinforces this socially destructive behavior. I have no problem with people having sex. I do have a problem with people having unprotected sex, followed by illegitimate children being raised in an unhealthy cesspool of social and economic stagnation, drugs, and poverty. These individuals rarely ever become upstanding members of society.
ReplyDeleteWht mlevin said wonderfully about free market is my response on that issue. Though I'm not in favor of complete non-regulation. The government should hold minimal responsibility.
wow, first of all you seem to be ignorant of how welfare actually works...people can't just live off the government, because welfare has a 5 year lifetime limit per woman. Women also have to work 30 hours a week (or more, depends on the state) to get welfare at all.
ReplyDeleteSecond of all, who are you to judge anyone else? Have you never made a mistake in your life? How can you determine what does or does not make a good parent? Maybe someone was irresponsible with contraception, or maybe her contraceptive method failed a bunch of times, or maybe she just really loved all 4 people and wanted to have kids with them. Walk a mile in someone else's shoes before you judge them.
Third of all, the theoretical woman you are describing makes up maybe 1% of all welfare recipients, so you're just setting up a straw man to hate there. The vast majority of welfare recipients are on welfare for less than 2 years, and are usually on it because of temporary unemployment spells. Like what happens when we have a 7.2% unemployment rate in the country. Which is what the unemployment rate is right now.
Fourth of all this: "I do have a problem with people having unprotected sex, followed by illegitimate children being raised in an unhealthy cesspool of social and economic stagnation, drugs, and poverty."
That's a LOT of assumptions you are making about welfare recipients there. Did you know that 1 out of 3 children born today are "illegitimate" (which is such an outdated notion anyways), so 34% of kids are born outside of marriage? If we took away every kid who was raised in poverty and born out of wedlock, that would be at least 25% of kids in this country. You think they should just all be taken away from their parents if their parents fall on tough times? The government has to pay for them either way- it's not like foster parents just take them in for free.
I don't get this hatred for people who have a different lifestyle then you. Like seriously, inhuman.
That 1/3rd number is for the United States in case that wasn't clear
ReplyDeleteFirst, you're right, currently you can't live off welfare for more than 5 years, but Obama promised to change that, so since this post is about why people are not thrilled to have him as a president, this is one of the reasons.
ReplyDeleteSecond, yes, people are allowed to make mistakes, but four times is not a mistake, four times is a pattern. She is having unprotected sex with losers. How do I know that because a) she got pregnant four times b) these fathers have no jobs or skills, otherwise instead of approaching government, she would be approaching these four fathers for child support. c) born out of wedlock today is a meaningless,s statistic. Many couples have only religious ceremonies, so the are able to cheat on government. Many successful women choose to have a baby, late in life, without a complication of a husband. Thus, although these children are raised in a stable loving environment there is nothing wrong with their family structure.
The situation we oppose to is an irresponsible woman, who is being rewarded by the government, continuing with her unhealthy lifestyle and teaches it to her children. Statistically, these children don't have a prayer. So, if they are taken to the foster home, there is still a hope that they will grow up to be productive members of society.
Third, assumption was not made about all welfare recipients, it was made about a certain type of a welfare recipient, the type which gets rewarded by the government for their irresponsible behavior.