The Topic of Great Randomness

[bookgirl]

I got to see my first snow!

Your first snow? Wow, I can't even imagine. Growing up in Utah has spoiled me I guess.


My little cousin just had her first birthday this week. We had a party for her on Saturday. I bought her one of those little mowers that when you push it, it makes popping noises. I was so excited to see her play with it that I took it out of the box and put it together for her, the whole time I was putting it together she sat next to me with her little hand on my knee and watched me. So adorable. When I left she was happily pushing it around the living room. Her parents could only watch and shake their heads. They had pretty much planned on me getting the most annoying gift possible.

[Glede]

Aww, that's so cute! I used to love those popping things!
....
I'm gonna be an aunt soon. My little baby niece is due soon. June or May. Her due date at the moment is on my B-DAY!

[Wiccangixie]

OMG! That's so exciting, and very cool if you end up with the same b-day as your niece lol! Wow, I hope she comes out before then, not too soon, but I want my bff Leda to have an awesome b-day AFTER the little one comes That way she can see her aunty for her b-day.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Folks, you're rapidly approaching mod queue levels again.


So, is anyone else watching the inauguration? I'm streaming it at http://msnbc.com/. The quality's great, but I'm afraid of bogging down the T3 as more people sign on closer to noon. The break room has a TV: maybe I should switch over to there for lunch...

[EricG1793]

^ Yes - I didn't realize I could watch it online! Thanks for sharing.

There are actually two channels to watch it from - NBC News and MSNBC TV. I can't make up my mind!

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Well, Keith Olbermann is anchoring the coverage on MSNBC. That's a good thing as far as I'm concerned: others may disagree.

He posted on Daily Kos yesterday part of the text of his most recent special comment calling for the prosecution of torture during the Bush administration:

In point of fact, every effort to merely 'draw a line in the sand' and declare the past dead, has only served to keep the past alive -- and often to strengthen it.

We compromised with slavery in the Declaration of Independence --and four score and nine years later we had buried 600,000 of our sons and brothers in a Civil War.

After that War's ending, we compromised with the social restructuring and protection of the rights of minorities in the South. And a century later, we had not only not resolved anything, but black leaders were still being assassinated in the cities of the South

We compromised with Germany and the reconstruction of Europe after the First World War -- nobody even arrested the German Kaiser, let alone conducted War Crimes trials, and 19 years later there was an indescribably more evil Germany and a more heart-rending Second World War.

We compromised with the Trusts of the early 1900's, and today we have corporations too big to let fail.

We compromised with The Palmer Raids and got McCarthyism, and we compromised with McCarthyism and got Watergate, and we compromised with Watergate and the junior members of the Ford Administration realized how little was ultimately at risk, and grew up to be Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

I've seen political discussions degenerate quickly, but I've also seen them remain respectful despite disagreements. Remember, we'll all friends here, and we don't serve the Lone Power.

[marina salem]

Well, besides the practice SAT essay in English and the test in Trig today, school was completely pointless. I kid you not. In every class save Trig we watched the inauguration/after-party shtick. Five of seven classes were spent with the projectors showing CNN or ABC, while the actual inauguration of Obama and Biden only took maybe five minutes of one class, not including Obama's speech. My life would not have been complete today (total sarcasm) without seeing obscure government officials walk down a hallway, hearing commentary on various peoples' dress, or knowing that commemorative crystal bowls and pictures have been given out to prove that this historic event ACTUALLY HAPPENED. Really. We know it happened. Breathe, people.

Obama supporters, please don't label me racist or a hater. I have nothing against the man. I'm sure he is a good person, a good husband, friend, and father. Do I want him to succeed? In certain things, yes. I would like him to keep this country safe, to secure the border, and to help get us out of the current economic problems. Some of his economic and healthcare plans, however, I feel need to be seriously reworked. Greater taxes on the rich will not help. The top 10% of wage earners already pay 66% of the taxes. The top 50% of wage earners pay 97% of the taxes. Guantanamo Bay needs to be kept open. The people kept there are terrorists captured on the battlefield that even their home countries don't want back. They aren't entitled to the same rights as law-abiding American citizens.

However, he is now the president, so I give him my respect as a citizen.

I hope Ted Kennedy recovers from the seizure he had this afternoon.

Did people have to boo when President Bush and Dick Cheney came down that hallway? Really, folks. It's been eight long hard years for them, keeping so many ungrateful people safe, and Cheney's in a wheelchair for goodness sake. Show some respect.

Is this too political for the ToGR? Probably. My apologies.

On a lighter, unpolitical note, my volleyball team had our third tournament over the weekend. We did okay, somewhere in the gold bracket, and what's better is that our coach wasn't mad at us, seeing's how we won two matches in a row Monday morning to even get into the gold bracket. What that boils down to is that we don't have to run extra suicides next practice.

I'd better do some homework before the big basketball game tonight. My presence is probably going to be required. Don't ask me why.

[Glede]

My brain hurts from reading your guy's posts. It's lie screaming at me: "TO MUCH POLITICS!!!! STOP IT, OH PLEASE!" lol. srry, that was rude. I just dont like politics.

So, I finally turned in my rough draft of my persuasive essay. Dogs are Better Then Cats, is what is is. My sister and dad laughed when they read it. They both said it was bluntly funny. *shrugs* I'm always like that. Random, funny, blunt, bold, nervously shy, weird/insane, excited, hyper, etc. THAT"S ME!

Oh, I'm sorry Garret! It's just... sometimes there's not much to say.
Forgive me?

[kk]

I watched the inauguration on television, and I slept so late, that I woke up right as the VIPs were arriving... I can't remember what time that was... Hmm. But through the whole thing, my sister kept interrupting the speeches and oaths, and commentary, with "This is so stupid! Why are we even watching this?" and "I wanna leave! This isn't fun!" My sister is eleven, and knows nothing of politics.

I think the channel I was watching it on was CNN... And afterwards, they were selling t-shirts that said, "I watched the inauguration on CNN!" That's when I turned off the TV.

I really liked the prayer that the pastor said. I thought it was very well said, and thought out.

[bookgirl]

Did people have to boo when President Bush and Dick Cheney came down that hallway? Really, folks. It's been eight long hard years for them, keeping so many ungrateful people safe, and Cheney's in a wheelchair for goodness sake. Show some respect.

They actually did that? I can't believe that! That is so low class. What is to be gained by showing such disrespect to men that have devoted their lives for the past eight years to keeping us Americans safe? I think everyone has forgotten that after 9/11 we did not have a single terrorist attack on our shores, he at least needs some respect for that.

However, he is now the president, so I give him my respect as a citizen.

I feel the same way, I don't agree with all his ideas, but he is our Commander in Chief and I will support him.

Bah. I'm getting too negative in this post. So this last week my choir participated in Gospel Fest. My college hosts it every year, so of course WSU's Choir gets to sing in it. It is one of the most interesting things I've ever participated in. And I mean this in a nice way! No disrespect to the Baptists. But you know how in movies you see people jump up in the audience and shout things like "hallelujah"! or "Amen"! Well that really happens. And I can tell you, it is really hard to not laugh when you are singing and people are yelling at you like that. hehe. It was fun though, we did a lot of clapping to the music, my hands were red by the time we were done.
And again, I mean this in a affectionate way! I'm not saying it to offend.

[eowyngirl]

Wiccangixie: I know that textbook-burning feeling well.

kk: *snort-giggle-rofl*Ha. There is nothing else to say. Except...what do we want? The video link! When do we want it? NOW! Oh--and--sorry about your sister. I would probably smack her over the head with a newspaper, but then again, I'm very impatient. Oh, dear. CNN t-shirts? Really? Oh, dear. And by "the pastor", do you mean Rick Warren? If so, I think so too. I don't agree with Warren's personal views by any means (<--emphasis here), but I thought it was a nice invocation and would have applauded if I didn't think something would be thrown (many of the people in the room were very very anti-anything-Rick-Warren-says-no-matter-what) at me.

Garrett: I hope your mother-in-law recovers. Best wishes to you and your wife. Unfortunately I was unable to watch the inauguration live because I was at school, but I went to a cafe a few hours ago where they were replaying the whole thing and watched it. The speech was absolutely wonderful, and I'm so glad Obama is our president now.

Nella: Yes, sadly. No, that is not sad...at least I hope not, because I'm the same way. And I, too, am uneasy about the "reputation"/"status" thing. I don't quite understand the point of it all, and ranking people in any way makes me a bit nervous.

alla: I had never heard about the "sea kitten" thing before; that is ridiculous. Calling fish "sea kittens" isn't going to make people who eat fish stop eating fish, it's going to make them choke on their fish due to uncontrollable laughter. As you said, though, that's only my opinion.

Glede: Congratulations on the niece! I hope she's born on your birthday--one of my cousins and I share a birthday, and it's really cool.

marina_salem (and bookgirl in the second part): Firstly, I'd like to say that I think you're lucky to have seen the inauguration coverage--I was in school all day and didn't see a thing until my history class, where we watched streaming coverage of the luncheon on CNN. I really wish I'd gotten to watch the news all day. Now, on to where I do agree with you. I am a Democrat and support Barack Obama with all my heart, and strongly disagree with most of the things Bush and Cheney have done. HOWEVER. I also have a huge problem with people booing Pres. Bush and VP Cheney. No matter how anyone feels about their politics, Bush was still president of the entire United States, and is now our former president. This means that, in my humble opinion, we owe him and Cheney some respect. Even though, again in my humble opinion, they did a very poor job in the White House--it doesn't mean they aren't (weren't) still our leaders. So...yeah. *sigh* ...Congratulations on volleyball!

Glede: Okay, I'll stop being political now. I promise. Which is difficult, because I love politics. Also, please be gramatically correct? And try not to post if there's not much to say...take notes, or something. Sorry, I'm not trying to be mean--it's just that I can't stand bad grammar and short short short short posts. Here, I'll hand you a brownie to prove that I'm not mean. *bakes brownie in special heat-free virtual oven, hands it over*

Happy Inauguration Day, everyone! I will contain my excitement. I promise.

School is still very busy, so now that I've responded to everyone, I will go back to homeworking. Bah humbug.

[Wiccangixie]

Something interesting happened today: my dad cried because of the Inauguration. He surprised me, and when I asked him why was he crying, he told me that he was crying because he's proud of how this country changed. Today I had an epiphany, I'm proud of my country. America has changed so much in these past years, and I'm proud of it. Sure, there's a long way to go before things get better, but I think its safe to say that we had a great start

[Lazy Leopard]

Even over here we seemed to get almost wall-to-wall coverage of the US Presidential Inauguration yesterday, fluffs, stumbles and all. I hope the new team will do better than the previous incumbents. Good luck to them. I expect they're going to need it...

Thanks, Garrett, for the "Daily Kos" quote. There's a quip that's done the rounds before now that goes "History repeats itself. It has to, because nobody listens.".

I like the new "Member Points" reputation thing. It seems aimed at encouraging useful, helpful and interesting conversation. I'm not so sure about the "Activity" thing, but I hope it'll be better than the "Top poster" rating it replaced. Always a bad idea rewarding volume rather than content.

...and for the folks who like noisy baby toys, here's a For Better or For Worse cartoon.

[kk]

Eowngirl: Which video? I mentioned two of them... One video is on youtube, but I only put the other one on facebook, so far. I think I might just put it on youtube... I'll be sure to link to the vids sometime...

Haha, might as well do it now... for the first one, at least.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5qbIvCVaus"]YouTube - Bunnies[/ame]

That's the vid of my rabbits, Cadbury, Hunny, and Angel practicing spinning around in circles... But they didn't want to do the trick, unless they saw that I actually had a treat for them, first. The treat being a piece of cheerios cereal... They're better at that trick, now... This was taped a while ago.

You probably meant the other video. But that's okay... I'll link to that too, soon enough...

Haha, my mother's obsessed with Rick Warren. She went all fangirlish when he started praying.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

I feel the same way, I don't agree with all his ideas, but he is our Commander in Chief and I will support him.

That's one of my pet peeves right there. Obama is not our Commander in Chief; he is the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States".

Soldiers obey their commander. Citizens tell the commander what to do.

Guantanamo Bay needs to be kept open. The people kept there are terrorists captured on the battlefield that even their home countries don't want back. They aren't entitled to the same rights as law-abiding American citizens.

I'm not going to argue economics with you: we could both pull figures out from here to Doomsday to support our positions. :-) However, I have to take issue with these statements.

a) Since when do rights only apply to citizens who haven't been caught breaking the law?

b) They aren't terrorists: they're accused terrorists, some of whom were turned over to the US for rewards. Some of them undoubtedly planned or carried out attacks on US or allied forces: keep them in prison. But give the rest of them a chance to prove their innocence -- or better yet, make the Army prove their guilt, which is the way it is supposed to work.

When did this nation start assuming that rights only applied to people who "deserved" them?