Monday, July 28, 2008

Friday, July 25, 2008

Growing up American

As arguments against the positive points of Presidential Candidate Barack Obama's Overseas tour pile up, it only stands to prove the point of the Ugly American moniker US citizens want to dissipate.
Many of the naysayers have no insight of how they sound to the rest of the world. They sound bitter and hateful.
Obama is doing little wrong. He is not providing fodder for late-night talk show monologues and comedians that would stand to make him look doddering and foolish and out-of-step with the country.
However, my country and its future is no joke to me.
Obama is in-step with the country and is a front-runner.
Some in the world refuse to reward excellence and wonder why the youth of today are confused. Adults blame MTV, music videos and the underground urban culture.
I blame so-called adults who appear to be children, themselves, emotionally.
I know no one likes to be one-upped but on the same turn, no one likes unsportsman-like behavior. Or whining.
By the way, kudos to the Black French people's resurgence of the black consciousness movement in France.
I found out when CNN reporter Christian Amanpour asked about it during a press conference with Obama and Nicholas Sarkozy, President of France. She said the resurgence was due to Obama's barrier breaking progress in the U.S. election process.
Obama spoke of strengthening French - American relations and European relations on a whole.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The Winds of Change blow through Barack Obama

Kismet. His speech was so good. It was if he were making beautiful, sweet love to the audience--it was strong and passionate. It was like the purity and softness of a mother feeding her baby and singing it a comforting song of gratitude. The gentility of it was like sunshine on a bright afternoon. Barack's speech in Germany Thursday held thoughts of a bright future.
It was as simple a concept as a parent raising a child. His words expressed love for his nation and the world. It was like a man, caring and yearning for his lover, wanting her to run away with him.
"Baby, it'll be alright, we're going to make it," is all he had to say but we, being his audience--all Barack Obama lovers-- were as timid as virgins.
He gave us reassurance until we yielded unto him and matched his want, his need.
Barack stirs up the yearn for freedom.
You too, know that yearning...know the dream of freedom.
The speech went on. Barack talked of war and rumors of war and warriors and survivors and how when strengthened we would see light on the other end of our universal struggle.
However, his speeches are much more than details repeated back when asked, "what did he say?"
It is a feeling and a concept of love. The love that binds the human spirit to this world. Barack's words are edifying.
He talked of no more nukes, then talked of a strong European Union rejecting the cold war of the past.
He spoke of of his father and grandfather and how they used the idea of the American Dream as a backdrop in making a better life for themselves and their future generations.
We watched every gesture, pause and intonation Barack made that day. We watched for flickers of emotion which would show in his eyes.
We felt the rise and fall of each breath of his speech, for as he is ever hopeful, so too are we, right along with him.
God lives in all of us through his spirit. Much of God's spirit was with Barack that day, during that speech.

Barack Obama's Great Uncle shares liberation memory

Obama's great-uncle recalls liberating Nazi camp from Associated Press

Hot dogs, sausage and bacon

Sodium nitrite, with chemical formula NaNO2, is used as a color fixative and preservative in meats and fish.
As a food additive, it serves a dual purpose in the food industry since it both alters the color of preserved fish and meats and also prevents growth of Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria which causes botulism. In the European Union it may be used only as a mixture with salt containing at most 0.6% sodium nitrite. It has the E number E250. Potassium nitrite (E249) is used in the same way.

While this chemical will prevent the growth of bacteria, it can be toxic for mammals. (LD50 in rats is 180 mg/kg.) For this reason, sodium nitrite sold as a food additive is dyed bright pink to avoid mistaking it for something else. Cooks and makers of charcuterie often simply refer to sodium nitrite as "pink salt".

Various dangers of using this as a food additive have been suggested and researched by scientists. A principal concern is the formation of carcinogenic N-nitrosamines by the reaction of sodium nitrite with amino acids in the presence of heat in an acidic environment. Sodium nitrite has also been linked to triggering migraines.[1]

Recent studies have found a link between high processed meat consumption and colon cancer, possibly due to preservatives such as sodium nitrite.[2][3]

Recent studies have also found a link between frequent ingestion of meats cured with nitrites and the COPD form of lung disease.[4]
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Japanese DVD Where Women Just Stare at You. Yup, Just. Stare

Japanese companies are always looking to meet the needs of the "niche-ist" of niche markets. Now there's a DVD for men who like their women to just look at them. And maybe blink a couple of times. The Avex Group is trying to reach such men (Hikikomori) with a new DVD - 'Just Looking' - as "corporate social responsibility"

read more | digg story

Monday, July 21, 2008

My Plan for Iraq

On my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war.

read more | digg story

Obama ready to woo NWI

"I have a love for America," Dolores Brown told a group of Barack Obama campaign volunteers Saturday. "I have two sons who fought in the war. One went to Iraq and one to Kuwait," said the Merrillville resident. "I ask myself why."

read more | digg story

Black. Female. Accomplished. Attacked. - Michelle Obama

There she is -- no, not Miss America, but the Angela-Davis-Afro-wearing, machine-gun-toting, angry, unpatriotic Michelle Obama, greeting her husband with a fist bump instead of a kiss on the cheek.

read more | digg story