Entries in the Category "obama"
Staying in school is apparently controversial
So the New York Daily News would have us believe.
Really, the reason President Obama's speech to school children was considered 'controversial' is because he chose to make one at all. Some school districts banned their students from watching the speech; some just allowed their parents to 'opt out' their kids. Why? So they could avoid socialist indoctrination! The right wing is apparently feeling so powerless against Obama's monster charisma that they are seeking to shield their children from seeing him or hearing him at all. (Don't get sucked into his liberal vortex! He'll hypnotize you with his eyes!)
I hope if any of those parents have any education themselves, they're feeling really stupid today, now that the full text of the speech as well as video is online. They can read or see for themselves now and discover that actually, Obama is hammering home the message of personal responsibility, pretty much the most un-socialist tenet there is. You have to stay in school, you have to want to learn, you have to work hard. That's what he said. Don't expect handouts. Don't expect to make a living as a rapper, a professional basketball player, or (this was my favorite) a reality TV star. You know that there are teenagers of all colors out there right now thinking that their golden ticket is not law school, but in fact VH1 and its multiple opportunities to date aging rock stars.
I continue to be surprised by how Obama repeatedly encourages Americans, especially minority Americans, not to allow racism, lowered expectations, or social circumstances to stand in the way of success. Here he tells the members of the NAACP that they need to stand up and raise their kids right. He's drawn some real controversy (legitimate controversy, not stupid controversy) for making statements like this. Some people believe that even a well-intentioned kid can't survive in a broken institution, and that first we have to fix the institution. But Obama's about tough love--don't wait for someone else to lay out the red carpet, I got up at 4:30 in the morning to study, and so must you.
There are a lot of valid viewpoints on both sides of this stance that he's taking. But I think one thing we can agree on is that our president has a lot of nerve, and that's very cool.
to the NAACP: "I want [your children's] horizons to be limitless. I don't -- don't tell them they can't do something. Don't feed our children with a sense of -- that somehow because of their race that they cannot achieve."
to schools, yesterday: "But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying."
Websites of Note, 1st Edition
I have tons of websites that I’m obsessed with and visit regularly or more than regularly; I expect that, like “Why am I watching this?” from the other day, this topic will recur.
LOSING THE COW
This short blog I found in sort of a roundabout way; the blogger was a recapper at Television Without Pity (which I’ll cover on another day), then I followed her from there to her personal blog, on which she linked to this blog, which was devoted solely to her weight-loss efforts. Though she updated it a couple of times in 2008, the posts are largely from a few years earlier.
People who know me know that I am emphatically anti-diet, and, while I don’t discourage physical fitness for anybody, I find the obsessive pursuit of it a bit pointless. (It’s like this: I’ll walk the dog and do Pilates sometimes, but I won’t beat myself up if I skip a month or two. And I’m never giving up cheese.)
What does this site offer me, then, that I find so noteworthy? Philosophy, plain and simple. You have to start with the first post, in which the blogger (whose name is Linda Holmes, incidentally, and who now writes for yet another site that I like) explains how her approach, honed over 30 years of lifetime overweight-ness, differs from everyone else’s.
It’s like trying to win a tug-of-war, and you pull as goddamn hard as you can, and you don’t make any progress at all. And it seems like you should be able to do it, but you just don’t. And when you seek advice, you get the same piece most of the time: “Pull harder. You’re not pulling hard enough.” ... Here’s the advice you don’t get, that you should get:1. Tie the rope to something secure.
2. Walk along the rope until you find the other end.
3. There will be a guy standing there. Kick the shit out of him.
...More after the jump.