Jun

http://www.wsmv.com/politics/19761259/detail.html

In case the link above isn’t working (or more likely, some Republican donates a new sound system to the news station and gets them to just pull the story), let me summarize – a state employee (an aid to a Republican senator, chair of the state Republican Caucus no less) used a state email account on a state computer to send a “racist” (that’s the word the article uses, I am not embellishing) email about Barack Obama. It depicts portraits of all the Presidents of the United States – except for one. Instead of Obama’s picture, there is just a black rectangle with big white eyes in it. I have, with some trepidation, posted the image below. The employee sent the message to 20 other state legislature employees – all Republicans.

Okay, regardless of how I feel about this deed and the attitudes behind it, I gotta say … how NOT smart do you have to be to pull a stunt like that using your official state email account on your official state computer?!! In this day and age you’ve just GOT to know that that’s going to come back and bite you …

When asked her actions, she apologized only for sending the message “to the wrong group of people”. Seriously?!! Who would the RIGHT group of people be?!! I have, as you know if you read this regularly, posted many a disparaging story about (mercifully) former US President George W Bush. Some of those have also had funny (I thought) pictures to go along with them. One of my favorites was a picture of him making the same facial expressions as a chimp, which I had on the wall in my office for some time:

So the question is, when do you cross the line? Is calling someone a moron and equating that person with a lower-on-the-food-chain animal the same as making fun of them because of race? I think not, but other people have made the argument that you’re buying into stereotypes and exploiting them either way.

Tough issues … there’s a lot about this incident that is outrageous, and a lot about it that is just sad. It certainly doesn’t exactly paint the south in a favorable light, but you know what … given the backlash in Tennessee and some of the other southern states, I’m not sure that’s not as it should be. Sigh…our country still has “a ways to go” (as they say here in the south).

Okay, this story got picked up by CNN, now, so less likely it will just disappear. We’ll see in a week or so, though, my experience is that these things flair up and then dissipate quickly…

  

Jun

mommy set me up so i could blog!!!
i miss you guys so much

love
Samara

  

Jun

  

Jun

This week’s TOT topic is my favorite things to do during “me” time…hmm…

1. Just HAVE some me time – I have been slammed at work lately (two grant proposals in the last 5 weeks, plus end-of-semester and a conference trip), and now advising incoming students about fall registration … SO I have almost forgotten what “me time” feels like!
2. Sleeping – see above
3. Listening to music – and, if no one is home, singing along! %-)
4. Reading a good book
5. Scrapbooking
6. Take a hot, HOT bath
7. Just sit and enjoy the silence
8. Okay, I can’t think of anything else. Maybe if I HAD more me time…sigh…

  

Jun

I don’t care HOW shock absorbant this thing is, my iPod is NOT docking in a basketball goal! %-)

http://www.macworld.com/article/139478/2009/03/spaldingihoop.html

  

Jun

Had a HUGE grant proposal due this week, so I am late getting this up…so, this week’s topic is 10 Great Songs from last year. I was tempted to just pick 10 songs off the AT&T Team USA soundtrack they had available during the summer Olympics in Beijing – what great songs! Very uplifting and inspiring, I listened to them over and over. But, for this list, I managed to restrain myself and look at the whole year. There were actually a number of songs from 2008 that still make my current personal “hot 100″ list (in random order):

—Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It (Darius Rucker) – how awesome to see him back!!! I still miss Hootie, but he makes a surprisingly good country singer…
—Love is Free (Sheryl Crow) – fun song AND great concert
—We Run (Sugarland) – ’cause doing what you shouldn’t's half the fun…
—Incomplete (Alanis Morissette) – so good to hear her back, too
—Single Ladies (Beyonce) – I know, I know, but it’s insanely compelling
—Real (Goo Goo Dolls) – just awesome
—In Color (Jamey Johnson)
—I Was Here (Lady Antebellum) – great new group, despite the dumb name; this song was the highlight of the Olympics album
—What If It All Goes Right (Melissa Lawson)
—Crazy Ever After (The Rescues)
—Bad Girl (Danity Kane) – yeah…
—I Don’t Care (Fallout Boy) – the album has the same name as my fav California winery … yay!
—Come on Get Higher (Matt Nathanson) – I know, technically the album came out in 2007, but it was actually the Sugarland cover in 2008 that made me aware of the original … GREAT song
—It’s a New Day (will.i.am) – yes we can!
—What About Now (Daughtry) – I’m a sucker for “seize the day” music…
—Untouched (The Veronicas) – love this group, don’t know why they haven’t been more popular

—note: at the time, I loved Dreamer (Chris Brown), another highlight off the AT&T Olympics soundtrack … but, the whole beating-the-crap-out-of-Rihanna thing now colors this to such an extent I can’t listen to it anymore

I know that was more than 10, couldn’t restrain myself…