We're All A Little Bit Racist

The United States of America has an African-American president. What does this mean for the African-American community? The spot-light. CNN has been running a special program on being Black in America and the issue of racial discrimination has become just as important a topic as Health Care, Immigration, Terror, and the Economy.

As the first African-American president, Obama has tried his best to be well-spoken, articulate, presentable, mature, and has proven to display impeccable ethics. This is how an African-American man has become president. A few weeks ago, the president spoke at a NAACP (still self-titled 'colored people') event. When I started watching his speech, I swore I could see the Reverend Wright speaking in front of me. At this point he was an African-American person speaking to African-Americans and if that were the way he had spoken throughout his campaign- he would have never been elected.

This brings me to the latest in the Gates controversy. Now the media has brought in the 911 caller- WHY??- she is upset because in the police report it states that she saw 2 black men with backpacks and now she rebukes this statement in fear of being called racist. And why hasn't SHE been invited to have beers with the president- SHE's just as deserving in this case. Frankly I don't think anyone really cares about the caller, what does she have to do with the professors arrest, oh that's right- nothing...

I'm not even sure why these two men are going to the White House- is Obama the almighty equalizer? And why do they have to drink alcohol to solve their problems? Is it because that is just how white cops in Massachusetts solve their problems- over a beer? And what would one want to say to the officer who arrested them in front of their house for yelling racial comments at them? 'Um, I know you were just trying to do your job, but you suck!'

This is the meeting to end all racial discrimination in the United States of America... :/

Racism is probably not going anywhere, at least not the harmless kind of racism. As one of my favorite Broadway Musicals, Avenue Q, puts it 'everyone's a little bit racist'. Why? Because sometimes people perpetuate their stereotypes. Racism will disappear when everyone is the exact same- and who would want that??

Here is the link to the Avenue Q song- its hilarious and kind true when you think about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbwNSNLPIfw&feature=related

My Brain After College

The other day a co-worker of mine came into the restaurant complaining about the amount of college level homework she has to do. In the best valley girl voice you can think of: 'Oh my gosh, I am swamped. I have a research paper to do, three more assignments due tomorrow, and a midterm next week'. All I could think was 'ahhh the good ol' days'.

While in college I had the same attitude of feeling burdened by excessive school work. Now that I serve food to annoying complaining customers (well they're not all that bad), I feel as if my brain is deteriorating. I would give anything to do a research paper, learn about a new culture, or discuss the ethical ramifications of peoples actions. You know that saying 'you never know what you've got till it's gone'- that couldn't be more true for me now.

5 years of critical thinking, studying for tests, and learning new information- now I'm left with a piece of paper in a pretty frame, $12,000 in debt, and I smell like food...

That's where you all come in- thank you- even if this is your first time reading this blog or you've been keeping tabs since I've started, I have you to thank for keeping my mind going- giving me something to think about, something to learn more about, something to comment about- keeping my brain sharp for the wonderful day when someone wants to pay me to use it- not just ask if you would like fries or coleslaw.

'Why not go back to school and get your Masters Michelle?' Nice thought hu? I would love to but without a full time job the prospect of adding thousands of dollars to my already consuming debt, doesn't seem like the best plan. Even if I did get my Masters, then I'd be too qualified for the positions I want.

As for politics, nothing special going on- Palin is leaving (Finally and hopefully for good!), Swine flu spreads quickly but still hasn't killed as many people as the seasonal flu does, Republicans don't want socialized health care, political leaders are corrupt, Michael Jackson took a lot of drugs, and people died.

Personally, I'm just waiting for Kieth Olberman to come back- somehow Howard Dean just doesn't do it for me.

Health Care and Salt... Kinda

Thought #1:

The topic people are talking less and less about: 'Health Care'. The Democrats came up with a plan and as Obama states, this plan will be funded 2/3rds by reorganizing bad spending and 1/3 by equalizing the taxes on the rich with the taxes on the middle class. Here is 'their' plan:

Seems confusing hu? Well not really if you follow the lines and understand what it all means, it makes perfect sense and includes an option for those who will still not be able to afford the plan, improved education for medical staff, and takes into consideration that a large percentage of the applicants do not speak English.

However, in perfect Republican fashion- this is just too confusing and they have a better idea. They didn't just want to pass something so important on a whim and they felt rushed- which is funny because they passed the 'Patriot Act' in the blink of an eye because we were at 'war' and disregarding all of Americans rights is not as important as health care... right : / Anyway since it's 'them' against 'us'- the Republicans came up with a better plan, here is 'their' health care plan:

(sorry, can't make it smaller, suggestions??)

Haha- do you get the joke??? I don't either. So I'm going to get health care from ? who gets paid by ? and helps all those ???'s. ?

This seems like a ploy to me, as history shows us Congressman do not like to work, they do their job sure but get about 100 days off a year- if not more! Most people get oh something like 2 weeks and a few scattered holidays here and there. The congress is about to go into recess- 'oh finally a break from all these health care ?'s' - but people are still struggling with cancer and can't put food on the table because of thousands of dollars in health care bills... oh to be a congressman!

On a more positive note- Denny's is being sued!! As a former employee of the fine restaurant establishment- YEAH!! Why you ask? Well it's a shock but a man from New Jersey claims that one meal at Denny's has 4 times the amount of salt a person needs in one day. Put in another way- after eating one meal at Denny's one should not eat any more salt for at least 4 days. He thinks this is unfair and that consumers should know this before consuming a meal, lets take a look:

One LumberJack Slam includes-

Two buttermilk pancakes (smothered in butter and syrup of course)

A slice of grilled honey ham (fried in butter)

Two bacon strips and two sausage links (all fried in oil)

Two eggs* (any way you want :)

Plus hash browns or grits

Choice of bread (smothered in more butter)

Not only do people order this meal, they EAT this meal. Here is the evidence for the law suit- the nutritional facts:

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 22 oz (616.0 g)

Amount Per Serving

Calories 1170 Calories from Fat 513

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 57.0g 88%

Saturated Fat 16.0g 80%

Cholesterol 590mg 197%

Sodium 4200mg 175%

Total Carbohydrates 109.0g 36%

Dietary Fiber 5.0g 20%

Protein 52.0g

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Haha, 197% of your daily value of heart clogging grease- 175% of your daily sodium. No wonder Americans need socialized health care or maybe Denny's needs to CALM DOWN!! Hey but look 20% of your daily fiber- more than a serving of cerial or oatmeal- just so you can poop out all that 16 grams of saturated fat (FYI: 1 gram is like 1 paperclip). Gross...

Here are the links to my info (all the rest provided by the Google)

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/07/23/Lawsuit-alleges-unsafe-salt-at-Dennys/UPI-96431248407431/

http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-dennys-lumberjack-slam-i119912

http://www.dennys.com/en/cms/Breakfast/40.html#B29

Thought #2:

I have a gold chain but i'm not sure if it is real gold. So I go to the most used search engine in the world 'Google' and went to search 'how do you know if its real gold'- as we all know Google tries to guess what you want to search- after typing the first five words this is what Google predicted for my search- based on the most searched question- here are the results:

"How do you know if..."

-a guy likes you

-your pregnant

-a girl likes you

-you are pregnant

-you are in love

-a boy likes you

-you love someone

-you have herpes

-you have a yeast infection

-you have diabetes

So these are the most popular searches for 'How do you know if?' What does this tell us about Americans- everyone wants to fall in love, birth control doesn't always work, nobody wants STDs, and we all eat too much.

The Power of the Internet

So I just got done reading the Police Report against Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Remeber the black professor who got arrested outside his own house and the officer refuses to appologize.

Anyway- I read the report- me- a 22 year old jobless nobody read the police report from a contriversal case.

And about 2 weeks ago, I read Michael Jackson's Will- his will, on the internet...

Is it just me or should I not have acsess to these documents, but I do- and that is the power of the internet.

I just hope they start realising Bush administration documents- those would be fun to read!!

Drink age to 18 with a 'Drinking Lisence'??

With all this talk about Health Care, one thing most people agree on is that prevention and education are the best tools for ensuring a more healthy population. Put down the Cheedos and hop on a bike- and all that jazz.

In the same light I recently read an article in TIME magazine (when I still had the money to have a subscription) about Presidents of the most prestigious Universities calling for reform to the drinking age. They are at the forefront of a growing problem with under aged drinking at college. The solution they say- lowering the drinking age to 18 AND requiring all 'drinkers' to take courses in drinking and receive a 'drinking license'.

Interesting idea, but will this really calm the over active hormones and freedoms that run rampant from freshman to about junior year of college? Not likely. The health center hands out free condoms and every child that goes to public school receives sex education- do college students still get pregnant and STDs ??

Maybe prevention and education are the best answers- maybe people are going to do whatever it is they want to do no matter what (for the most part ;)

Republicans...

Listening to Obama's press conference about health care and he mentioned how Republican opposition has been all politics...

My view of Republicans- a few fat picky eaters going out to dinner:

"What... what is that- did you say 'Stimulus Package' oh I don't know about that. Is that, is that pork in there?? This will never fly. Hum.... ok I'll try some, smack smack smack, eh- not bad"

"Did you say SO-TA? I don't even think I say spell that, no thank you, not for me. Bill? Did you just say you liked it? Ok pass it this way!!"

"What's that other dish we got here? 'Health Care Reform'? But its got all that green stuff all over it, I don't want to pay for that... what's that?? Its paid for?? Ok Glen fill my plate up, ummmmmmmm!!"

Haha, I think Republicans argue for the sake of arguing, cuz maybe- just maybe- one time they'll actually be right... and a democratic senator will cheat on his wife- then they'll be even :)

Land of the Free and Heavily Taxed

Back in 2004 I took the initiative and signed up for my own health care insurance. It was a 'Tonic' plan by Blue Cross geared to hip cool funcky young adults and cost me about $70 a month. About a year ago I received an addendum to my insurance, it now did not cover ANY emergency care: ambulance, emergency room, emergency care, ect. In addition, although the rate had slowly gone up over the years, my rate was to be raised to $125 a month, that's $1500 a year. Now as a healthy young adult with no record of hospital stays, no allergies, no regularly taken prescriptions, no chronic diseases, and no need for optical care, what am I paying $125 for if it doesn't even include emergency medical coverage? The twice a year doctors visit, which cost me $20 anyhow, for a simple prescription and a pat of the back?!?!

This is just one of the many problems with health care in the US. During my summer travels I went to Norway where they have universal health care coverage, i.e. even if you are homeless you can go to the doctor- for free. In order for this to happen, the citizens are taxed about 30% of their income- the flip side- the average income is about $60,000 and the girl who served me a hot dog got paid $20 an hour. The down side- a beer cost around $12, not so good for tourist. Socialism works for Norway, their life expectancy is 4 years longer than the US and is increasing. Why not try some of the European tactics the US has tried to stay away from for so long??

So what is Obama to do? We've elected him to solve EVERY problem in the US, even the ones that haven't occurred yet. Just today he had a news conference with the Prime Minister of the newly stable independent democratic Iraq (Bush's fault or Obama's fault?) AND a news conference about his plans for health care. With a rate of about 3.8 million obese people, 45 million uninsured, 14.7 million people unemployed, and 37 million Americans living below the poverty line- What are Americans really expecting Obama to do? The Republicans are screaming let the weak die and the Democrats are convincing everyone that the government knows how to spend their money better than they do (may I refer to my previous blog about how well the defence Department spends Americans money).

In less than a year Obama can't fix all our problems- what can President Barack Obama do? Laugh, joke, keep his pose, and move forward. The stimulus slowed the recession and kept a lot of jobs from being lost- maybe the health care plan will work, maybe it wont, but as long as he smiles and makes a witty comment people seem content to give 30% of their hard earned money to the over bearing government- in the land of the free- for people who get diabetes because they eat 3 Carls Jr. meals everyday and somehow can't afford to pay for medication...

I suppose this is one time I should be happy to be unemployed :)

**All info was found online through the wonderful, ominous, all knowing Google

Housing complex owners vote to ban smoking -- inside homes!

I can't exactly pin point when people actualy came to the realization that smoke was gross but its spreading. Smoking bans began in the early 1990s with California leading the way and New York soon to follow. 19 years later, there are still 15 states in which one can smoke in a restaurant, a bar, their home, their yard, at a school, or at an open shopping mall, I'm sure there are even places you can smoke inside a shopping mall.

This is weird for me as I grew up in California and my memories begin right about the early 90s. I do remember visiting my grandparents in New York and being ostracized from the rest of the restaurant and hidden behind wooden bars- I suppose to keep the smoke in. More recently there have been bans of smoking in apartment complexes, as the smoke goes through the air system and into non-smokers apartments. Not that there would be any more toxins in the air than if that person were to walk outside in LA and breath, its still a good excuse.

When you really come to think about it, smoking is gross. It makes you smell gross, it makes you look gross, it makes you feel gross- you get my point. What is even grosser than smoking is smoking indoors, both my parents smoke indoors and everything is always all yellow, sticky, and smelly. My sister rented an apartment where the previous owner had smoked inside, even though they 'painted' over it, every time she took a shower the ceiling would drip tar. Disgusting, right?

To keep with the spirit of indoor smoking being gross, think about the people you know who smoke indoors- they're kinda gross too. So if you are living in a housing development and someone moves it and smokes inside, not only does your house smell if you share a wall, trying to sell the property would be hard, and you have to live next to someone who is gross. I think every complex should have the same ban and I am surprised that not all states at least don't allow it in restaurants. I would say that air planes are the only place nation wide where you can't smoke, no matter what, which is awesome! Just imagine sitting on a 5 hour plan ride next go a guy who light up every 1/2 an hour- ew!

So the point to my story is that a housing complex in Eau Claire, Wisconsin has decided to ban smoking inside of people's home. The controversy? Even though no one who lives in the complex smokes, they don't think what one does in the privacy of their own home is their own business. Impeding on people's rights? Not really, if you don't like it, don't move there. Personally I think they should ban smoking everywhere public- you can smoke on a slab behind the Wal Mart, that's it...

Here is the link to the article, where you can also read about 'Moments in Life' in Eau Claire, WI and get $100 tickets to
Bud Light's Country Jam Festival... YEHAW!!

http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-news.asp?id=BKKD5TMRL20

Who are these people defending?

CNN- Politics: Defence Department Paid Millions in Wages to Invalid Accounts

Between the failed attempt to get vengeance for 9/11 and an unjustified war on a foreign county, I'm not surprised to read that the "Defense" Department has been paying millions of dollars to invalid account through their 'Defense Civilian Pay System' raising questions about the oversight of the Defense Departments $148 billion employee salary budget. Let me break the numbers down for you: $15.4 million deposited into invalid accounts, 98 social security numbers that were never issued by the Social Security office (including ones with all zeros), $905,000 paid to deceased employees, $2.3 million dollars paid to 1,921 account to employees who were listed as being younger than 14 years old, and $11.9 million deposited into 16 account for 186 different employees.

Now the word defense refers to 'protection from harm', although this government department did not 'harm' anyone, what is going on here? I can understand that it is difficult to manage a payroll of $148 billion dollars but there is no excuse for invalid social secuirty numbers or payment to deceased individuals. How impersonal is the Defence Department to not even know when one of their employees have passed away. In addition, these are civillian employees, what do all these people do for the defence departments? What are they paying $14 BILLION dollars for?? How are their 1,921 employees under 14?? What are they doing, keeping an eye on the other kids in high school to make sure they dont blow something up? With all of these payroll errors, how does the defence department know that Employee # 11432 isn't working for Russia, or worse a terrorist organization? The article highlights that the lost amount of $15.4 million is only a small amount when compaired to the total of $14 billion, tell that to the people who are paying 30% of their income to the government, maybe they have a different opinion on what a small amount is.

It's nice to see Washington clean up- we have a new ethical, moral, upstanding president, more and more senators are being exposed for infidelity, the former administration is being looked at more scrupulously, and crooked financial institutions have realized that scaming people with no money just to make a HUGE profit is probably not the best idea. Now its time to look at more and more factions of our American government and close the gaps where American's money is leaking through. Maybe if they fix the payroll at the Defense Department I can keep an extra $5 on the taxes that come out of my paycheck... get some ice cream with my friend SS# 000-00-0000

To read the CNN article please click below:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/17/defense.payments/index.html

Hummmm, that's funny, I can't seem to find the article anywhere on Fox news, that's so weird...

Why start a blog??

So it all started out as a regular Saturday morning shift at the Green House Cafe when I got into a conversation with my last table of the day. I explained that I graduated from the local State University in May and that I have been trying to find a job, a real job not serving tables, ever since with no luck. They began to rack their experienced brains to come up with a solution for me... call the places, go in with your resume, include a picture, and persistence pays off. All wonderful ideas but I've heard them all and with 400+ applicants per jobs, filtering systems, messages on answering machine, "please do not contact us", and competing against masters degrees, these suggestions fell through the cracks. Luckily for me, these men had another idea... 'why don't you start a blog?' Then I thought, 'hum, why don't I start a blog?', this is one thing I can add to my resume that gives the employer a little more information about who I am, what I think, how I operate, and what is important to me. So here it is, my blog, I never thought I would have one but now I'm excited to put my thoughts on, well computer screen, and see where it takes me.