Raise Your Hand If You Hate Hillary

Ok so you probably think I'm about to bash Hillary Clinton. I'm not. I'm not her biggest fan but my views are definitely irrelevant to the topic. I want to talk about what seems to be the strange phenomenon of the love/hate Hillary relationship. Never have I seen anyone so loved and then on the other extreme so hated by people. Hillary's supporters would probably walk out in front of a bus for her, and her opposition would gladly push her in front of one.

My sister seems to fall in the later category and I sentimentally thought of her when I saw this sign on facebook on the bumper sticker application. Anyone but Hillary seems to be a battle cry that a large population loudly shout. It's unfortunately a topic that can bring Democrats and Republicans together, at a time when red states and blue states seem to define the country. It begs the question of how Hillary is going to overcome her Achilles heel, that population that will literary vote for anyone but her.

As much as my feminist side might want to cry "sexism!" I don't think it's the case. I don't think that Hillary being a woman is what makes those who hate her hate her. I think it's a different quality, that X factor as they say. Most haters of Hillary claim to hate her because of an overall feeling of sleaziness, that they would hate just as much in a man.

Anyone But Hillary has a following, and a website that sells merchandise with catchy phrases such as "Life Takes Visa, Hillary Takes Cash." One t-shirt has pictures of all the other candidates with checked boxes next to them, surrounding the "Anyone But Hillary" campaign slogan. I find this strong opposition bewildering, and also very amusing. But more than anything I wonder how Hillary hopes to overcome this. Though the thought makes me cringe, if she does beat Obama in the Democratic campaign because of support from those who love her, how does she plan to combat whoever the Republican nomination is, since he will be someone besides Hillary? It seems to me that the country will finally pull together and muster up enough votes to keep her out of the white house.

Anyway heres an entertaining video from my new favorite "fake" southerners that I feel expresses the views of all too many Americans.

Refreshing and Hilarious Spin on Reporting

I'm originally from Maryland. Born and raised. In no way would I consider myself to be from the south. Maryland's region is technically called the mid-atlantic and I can distinctly see the difference from my home state and South Carolina, or Georgia, or Texas. Yet when I came up to school it was like a different world. I can't even count the number of times I saw someone or experienced something and felt the urge to take a picture for a friend back at home so they could understand that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

I, unlike many friends from high school, needed to experience something different. I liked the environment and I thought the liberalness of Boston was pretty refreshing, especially coming from such a close minded culture. I've also always been interested in politics and current events. I consider myself pretty informed and educated on the topic, which was definitely a conscious decision.

Because of my background and my experiences, in my opinion, one of the big problems of the media today is a sense of elitism. That sounds kind of silly I know, since most broadcasters try to talk in a way that the common person would understand. But like Barack Obama said in a recent speech, politicians don't talk like regular folks. Neither do the press.

That's why I found it not only extremely amusing but also extremely pleasing to come across a form of youtube videos called Red State Updates with Jackie and Dunlap. These videos had short, funny reports on current events and politics. The two commentators are two southern hillbillies voicing their opinions. Some of the language is crude and possibly at times offensive (though unfortunately if these characters were real would probably be a lot more offensive). But what I find so intriguing about it is the level of understanding, relation, and interest this could spark in some people.

If you listen close enough, these two guys are actually talking about current events in politics. Those who are uninformed can listen to this for a laugh, and actually get some real information out of it. Their homepage says "Get Learned Up"--funny and true. There have been comments posted about those who are displeased and call the guys fake southerners. Maybe it's because I'm not quite from the south and can't necessarily call myself a southerner, but one thing I'm sure of is that %90 of kids I went to high school with would rather watch this clip than CNN's newscast any day.

Be Kind Rewind

I'm browsing The New York Times website today and stumble upon an article about a new movie coming out with Jack Black and Mos Def that is about a video rental store accidentally erasing all their videos. The article discuses the life of the VHS and how DVDs have come to permanently replace them. In essence, the movie is a nice memorabilia for the VHS, something entertaining to remember it by, hence the title "Be Kind Rewind."

I find this movie very intriguing because, despite my youth, I find myself getting lost in trying to keep up with all these new technological advancements that are meant to make my life easier, and yet I feel like they are completely unneccesary. Of course I would prefer watch a DVD over VHS, the quality is nicer it's easier to "fast forward" or skip chapters (in DVD talk) theres no need to rewind or worry about the tape getting unraveled or have to wait while it did that weird "tracking" thing.

Sometimes I wonder though about the attitude of technology users today.
I just need an Ipod I can watch movies on. And I seriously do not have enough time to watch the half hour news at night so I have to watch it on a podcast. Don't even THINK that I have time in my busy schedule to rewind that VHS I have at my house...that's only used to prop up my plasma screen T.V.

So I know I sound like some old guy that had to walk to school five miles uphill in both directions in the snow, that yearns for the good old days when he got five channels on his black and white T.V. and they only came in when the antenna is at the exact right angle.
But I am not saying that at all. I love new technology especially when it makes my life easier because I am fairly lazy like most Americans. I also think that technology that enhances journalism is the best kind of technology because I'm a fan of journalism and of ways that journalism can draw in young people who don't want to buy the newspaper anymore. They need to be informed just as much as their whining grandparents.

I guess what I'm asking is for apple to not come out with a new version of itunes every couple of hours. That does NOT make my life easier. I spend a half hour *downloading a new version that happens to be able to read my mind and just know what songs I want in which playlists (*not an actual function). And maybe for my printer to only have three different functions (fax, copy, print) instead of 15. Then I won't have to take it to get fixed every time the printer gets confused about which function it's performing and decides to completely shut down instead.
And seriously lets have more things to honor past technologies that have long passed their expiration dates, like the VHS.

Clearing Up the Language of Laws Is Always Better

In a democratic country, it's important for the people and the government to be both advocates of freedom and advocates of justice, two things that are sometimes difficult to reconcile. For instance, it was important to define exceptions to the free speech amendment so people couldn't make others feel that their lives were in danger. Today in with the war on terrorism, it's hard to tell where that line is crossed by the government and how closely laws are followed.

Despite the issue of whether or not laws are being obeyed, clarity is a very important aspect in the making, or amendment of a law. For example, obviously for many medical and health related facilities there have been laws passed refraining from patients being forced into care.
The language of the law however is often fuzzy as in the case for Virginia. Virginia, according to an article on washingtonpost.com has some of the toughest involuntary care of mental illness patients. It states that one has to be checked in if one is an "imminent danger to self of others." Yet there are no guidelines to who qualifies as an imminent danger, and how imminent danger is defined. In light of the Virginia Tech shootings, there has been pressure to clarify the language.

The new proposed amendment would say that in order for a person to be forced into care for a mental illness, that there must be "'a substantial likelihood'" that the person would cause 'serious physical harm to himself or herself.'" The bill has gotten bipartisan support, though there are of course some who oppose it as a threat to civil liberties. I think that this would be the opposite to a threat to civil liberties.

Language to clear up an already existing law, I believe is usually a positive thing, as long as it does not change the meaning of the law. I don't know who would argue that putting a person who is a substantial threat to others into a mental facility is unjust. Even a free society puts borders around freedom, many times that have to do with the protection of others' lives, otherwise no one would feel free.

Of course I am not necessarily an advocate of the government tapping phone calls. That obviously crosses the line. And I do not want to say that this amendment will perfect the law. There is no way to guarantee complete justice or complete freedom. The new wording is still unclear and does not necessarily solve the problem. It does however, take a step toward tightening up justice, and also insuring freedom.

Obama Is My Homeboy

Barack Obama is too inexperienced. He's only popular because he's the "cool" candidate. MTV and Oprah endorse him; that's why he's got all the young people voting. Jeez young people are just sooo uninformed and Barack is just waaayy too naive about changing the way things are done in Washington.

So I agree with some of the above statements. Young people are often uninformed. And yes they are easily influenced by celebrity endorsements. Why else would Huckabee want to associate himself with Chuck Norris?

Barack Obama is also very young and less experienced in politics than the other candidates. He uses this to his advantage but it does have some serious draw backs.I understand that I shouldn't jump on the bandwagon just for the sake of it.

I'm also a registered Republican. I am very moderate and tend to lean more to the liberal side in social affairs and more to the conservative side for economic affairs. But in fear of abandonment from my father, I registered Republican. Even still, many of Barack Obama's views and solutions seem questionable to me and I wonder if he's being too hopeful.
But then I hear him on T.V. or on an Internet video and I can't help but love him. He makes me laugh, he does appeal to a younger audience, and best of all he seems like he's talking to me. I fell like I could hang out with him on the weekend and he could make me understand all the inner workings of something almost foreign to me...like the stock market (I'm a total stock market idiot). He just has that quality. I also read his book this summer which made me appreciate him as a person who has experienced personal struggle and yet has come to a point where he is confident in the person he has become and I respect self awareness, especially from an African American candidate.

But I try my best to resist the charm and I tell myself to check out the other candidates, especially since I can't vote for Obama in the primaries. I read the other candidates websites, even watched their YouTube debates. Yet no one else gives me the feeling of such authenticity.
So I have finally come to accept that yes, despite all the surrounding hype, despite my inability to cast a vote for him in the primaries, Barack Obama is my homeboy. And yes I will probably buy the t-shirt, just like thousands of other students.

Banana Crisis

Sitting in my magazine class last week, I listened intently to the other students explain their ideas for our next stories. The girl sitting next to me was to go next. "Apparently the bananas that we eat may be going extinct," she said. Wait--what? bananas going extinct? Now that's interesting.

She went on to explain that she had heard from a member of Northeastern's Council for University Programs, or CUP, that Northeastern would be holding a banana awareness week because there is a banana crisis in effect. I couldn't help but laugh. Seriously banana awareness, like breast cancer awareness or hunger awareness? Do bananas really fall into the same category? One of the ideas CUP had for banana awareness week was to take away all the bananas on campus and have, in effect, a "banana blackout."

Recently Burger King did a similar thing in a commercial to promote the sandwich, The Whopper. They told all the costumers that day that ordered a whopper that it was discontinued. The people reacted as if someone has just told them they will have to amputate their left arm. And the reactions are real.

I'm guessing CUP hopes there to be a similar reaction to the banana blackout: pure chaos and anger all around. I'm not quite sure that the assumption that students value their fruits on the same level that they value their fatty, greasy meals is accurate.

In any case, I had to read up on this banana crisis right away. It was too funny to not tell my friends about it and you better believe I had to get my facts down before I did that. So I found an article on the BBC website which discussed the threat of disease and pests. Apparently if they are unable to encourage people to buy bananas that have been grown with the help of pesticides, or if they are unable to clone or find ways to adapt to other types of bananas that are not yet edible, bananas may be gone forever.

My teacher asked the student if she could contact any banana enthusiasts. I found this conversation extremely amusing. After leaving class however I began to think about life without bananas and, in all truthfullness, I came to the conclusion that it would be very saddening to see them go. My two year old niece absolutely loves bananas. What would I tell those innocent little eyes when she asked for a "nana pease?" What about life without banana splits? Or strawberry banana juice without bananas? All joking aside, lets hope this whole banana crisis is put to rest so we can all rest assured that our bananas are safe.