Practice what you preach

Here's an email I received a few days ago supposedly directly from Joe Biden. And he even knows my name! *fake sarcastic gasp*

Mehak -- 

The McCain campaign is on the ropes, and sadly it's no surprise they're responding with attacks and outright lies.

I've heard some pretty unspeakable things in the past few days -- deeply offensive smears that we'll hear over and over again until Election Day.

John McCain and Governor Palin are setting a new low in presidential politics with their dishonorable campaign.

Barack and I are out there every day fighting back. But we need your help.

Make a donation of $5 or more right now to show John McCain and Governor Palin that when they attack us with lies and smears, it literally makes our campaign stronger.

After last night's debate, it's clear why John McCain doesn't want to talk about the issues facing ordinary Americans -- especially the economy, which his own advisers admit he can't talk about without losing.

Barack won last night by offering clear plans to rebuild our economy from the bottom up, lower healthcare costs, and end the war in Iraq responsibly.

McCain tried to push more of the same disastrous Bush administration policies -- more tax cuts for the wealthy and giant corporations, deregulating the healthcare industry and taxing employer-based healthcare plans, and continuing to spend $10 billion a month in Iraq.

So what's left for the McCain campaign? Negative attacks and lies.

And it's even worse from some of the well-funded outside groups supporting McCain, whose sole purpose is tearing Barack down with smears.

Instead of focusing on the issues that really matter, our opponents are doing everything they can to encourage this toxic atmosphere.

We cannot stand by and let them get away with it.

We need to increase the cost of these desperate tactics for McCain's campaign. Please make a donation of $5 or more right now:

https://donate.barackobama.com/costofnegativity

Thanks for your support,
Joe

So, let me get this straight. Joe Biden, Obama's running mate, is emailing me smears, slurs and accusations against McCain with a FORM letter asking me to give them money to stop McCain from using smears and slurs.

What happened to the American dream?

Screw college, I want to learn something

There's this place at the corner of my mind where I want to care about what's going on around me. Where I want to understand what that funny haired man is blabbering about. I haven't felt that tug in a long time and I don't know what to do with it anymore.

I thought, ever since I graduated, that there was nothing left to learn, in the academic sphere anyway. Or, rather, nothing left worth learning. Now, I find myself wanting to learn, just for the sake of knowing more, but there's nothing. I want these people to teach me something new, tell me something I don't already know, but they don't. They tell me everything I've heard before. 

They give me long sets of numbers to memorize --the value of this, the rate of that--but they never tell me what the numbers mean, where they come from, why they are what they are. Isn't that what matters in the end? Knowing WHY rather than WHAT? But, in this world, it's all about the whats, isn't it? Who has the highest pay, who has the highest grade, who accomplishes the most, weighs the least...

And so my mind wanders. I go to class for the physical exercise I get walking there. I take the tests like a robot. Is that what our universities are producing? Breathing robots, number spewers that can't make educated decisions about the things that really matter to them? Is that really what I'm paying for? It doesn't seem right.  

And people on the street complain when people in the big house screw up. What else are they supposed to do going to institutes of higher education that don't even educate them? Don't teach them applications, only numbers. Lots of numbers.

It's a bird, it's a plane...no! It's Superbama!

At least that's what it felt like when  I went to go see Obama at Michigan State today. Don't ask me why I went. It was mainly because I felt I needed the exercise (that is, after all, why I go to class) and there's no exercise like walking straight down Grand River in the rain and getting splashed on by cars. In all seriousness, though, I went because I had heard he was a great orator and...I wanted to judge for myself. What I found was a little more than I had bargained for. 

The line, I expected. The hustle and bustle, I expected. The $2.00 bottles of pop...eh, chalk it up to capitalism. But what was with the metal detectors? And the frisking. Isn't that a little extreme? Plus they stole my water bottle. They didn't even steal the bottle on the plane (just made me dump out the liquid). But, for Mr. Obama, the whole bottle's gotta go. So much for his environmental initiatives. 

Those are still individualized complaints though. Specific to me. What really got to me was the way the whole thing was set up. It was a "get more voters" fest with undertones of a party. With "change" signs everywhere. There was music. And dancing. Like a "pre-show". Want to know what the "during-show" was? People were climbing on the porter potties to catch a glimpse of him. And one fell down (a potty, not a person). While someone was in it. Needless to say, I didn't stick around for the "post-show". 

I don't think people would have been more rowdy if Obama were 50-cent rapping away on that platform. When did presidential campaigning turn into a concert with the singer's lyrics focusing on issues he doesn't even support in reality (see bottle rant above)? I guess it was around the same time people started caring more about the VP's daughter's pregnancy status than the VP's leadership abilities...

"Public university" doesn't mean publicly aware

It's a little (if not extremely) sad that I'm in a university where I'm bombarded by people asking me to register to vote (some guy came by my Journalism class today and gave us a 20 minute spiel about it) but I still have to get my news from Time Magazine/the internet/my dad (recently). Why is no one talking about the financial crisis?! 

I wonder if all universities are like this. Or is it just Michigan State? *waves to college readers out there* If you're reading, comment and tell me whether or not your campus is buzzing with morbidity over the onset of the next Great Depression. 

Now I'm being morbid!

So why aren't we talking about it? Is it because we're scared? Isolated? Or do we have better things to worry about? If it's option c, that's scary: the future of this country lies in the hands of 30,000 students more concerned about this weekend's football game than the economy's meltdown. 

(Wall) Streets paved with gold (it's really plastic, but who cares until the paint chips?)

My mom called me yesterday. She said my dad was stressed out because Merrill Lynch declared bankruptcy. I was driving (please don't hurt me mom). I almost hit the guy in front of me. I felt the need to confirm. My mom repeated: "Dad's really stressed out." Me: "THAT'S nothing new, I meant the other part." Mom: "Merrill Lynch declared bankruptcy." scccreeeeeechhh (my brakes).

Of course, my mom, being the bread maker instead of earner in the family, got it wrong. Merrill Lynch did not declare bankruptcy...they were bought by Bank of America. I guess I can see how that works: bankruptcy, Bank of America, what's the difference? A lot less than first meets the eye. 

So I rushed back to my apartment, called my dad. No answer. Called again. No answer. Called again. Got yelled at by my dad. Realized there were other places to get information. Turned on the computer. Internet was broken (serves me right for trying to get free internet). Screamed in frustration. Picked up my Time Magazine. Thank God for Time Magazine. On the cover, in bold letters, were the exact words I wanted to see: How Wall Street Sold Out America. I read the article. I didn't understand very much, so I read it again. I'll let you read it for yourself because it's too much to explain here.

Basically, add hubris to greed, pinch of ignorance (or handful, really) and bake it all in a governmental laissez-faire plan and you've got the heart of the current financial crisis. The government bailed AIG out, but watch Lehman Bros. collapse. How far are they going to let this go? Who's the next one to fall? More importantly, who's the next one that's going to get bailed out and how much is it going to cost America this time around?

From houseboat to mostly house with a dash of boat

There's a new trend emerging in Holland. Thanks to, yours truly, global warming (*frustration* it's climate change!). These new houses, currently small in number, are, quite possibly the houses of the future because they solve the problem of flooding. According to many climatologists, if we stopped producing all carbon right now, we would still be underwater-eventually-but, if we continue to live the way we do ("business as usual")...let's not go there (think Noah's Ark -- times 30). But I digress.

The main point, that we can either change our lifestyles or change our coping strategies, is what Holland is focusing on. Since the probability of drastic globally social and economic change in the next x number of years is, um *opens calculator, realizing it is unnecessary* zero, the only option is to change our coping strategies (or move to Mars, but who wants to be dissected by aliens or become morbidly obese like in Wall-E?)

So how do these "floating houses" work? They're built on a foundation, already underwater, that's made out of buoyant materials. That way, when it floods, the houses still float, just higher up. But, wait! Don't hop into your SUV guilt-free just yet! What about all the developing countries (like India and Bangladesh)? Or, more importantly, what about the US: New Orleans didn't have floating houses and I highly doubt Florida's getting them anytime soon, not to mention that floating the Toys 'R' Us in Times Square (complete with ferris wheel) is really going to raise the price of those cheap plastic toys your kid/dog/deranged aunt is chewing on right now.

What do you think? Is this a better idea than decreasing our consumption of grocery store bags and increasing our recycling efficiency? Is this really where scientists' and innovators' energy should be going? Or is there something better that can be done? 

Check out the npr article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18480769

A little reassurance

I can't remember who said this, but it gives a little hope in a world full of people who smile while pulling the trigger:

Be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you just

like everyone else.