A Liberal President? Surely, you jest...

Today, I finished reading No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin. :::Applause::: It is quite a book. Weighing in at about 638 pages, plus 100 pages or so of references, it was a daunting task. However, it flows very well and the chapters are broken up into subsections, so it makes it easy to pick it up and put it down and not lose the thread of the narration. I recommend it for all.

It was enlightening to learn just how liberal FDR was, especially for his time. And then Eleanor was even more liberal than he was. She was friends with this guy who was in this youth socialist organization, and she tried to get him installed in the administration. Franklin would do something and then she would be on his ass, telling him how he didn't do enough and not to give up the social justice causes they had fought for during the New Deal. Social justice...when was the last time a major politician even said those two words? Then I read that Obama is going to cave on extending the Bush tax cuts. According to DKG, (we're BFF so I can call her DKG) at the end of World War II Americans who were in the lowest 50% of income earners increased their portion of the income pie by 16%, while the top 20% of income earners saw theirs drop by 6%. It was to quote "the greatest-indeed, the only-redistribution of income downward in the nation's history." And here we are 65 years later, watching the gap between the rich and the poor increase to absurd levels, and about to give people who make more than $2 million dollars a year almost $330,000 more annually. I mean I'm pretty sure that the 50's were a good time for the U.S. economy, and I don't think it is any coincidence that it was probably the strongest point in history for the middle class.

I know that during his election, Barack Obama made a big deal about reading Team of Rivals, but I think that he should be reading this book. Lincoln isn't the example that you need, it's FDR. He was a liberal who stuck to his guns and turned out to be a pretty awesome president. Oh yea, and he got elected four times.

An Historic Moment

Move over Nancy Pelosi, first woman Speaker of the House. Now we have John Boehner from the great state of O-hi-o, who will become the first Orange-American Speaker of the House. He's the first person of Orange descent to be in Congress since this man/ball:

Brand New Day

So I've decided to relaunch the blog! :::Thunderous applause from the three followers:::

I'm hoping for at least bi-weekly, and it will mostly be political stuff, I need the structure of commenting on something specific. Otherwise, I just get overwhelmed and don't write for months and months.

Stay tuned!

Seriously?

First of all, I want to receive some credit for two blog updates within a week. I'm trying people, I really am.

Second, this afternoon I was sitting my anatomy conference, which is basically a huge lecture for dental students and the program I am in. I'm sitting in the last row, which is where all the cool kids sit. This morning, I took the exam to become a census taker, which started at 9:30 AM. It was only supposed to take an hour and a half, but due to the extremely slow talking of the census test administrator, it took almost two hours, so I didn't get to eat lunch before I had to get the train for my class at 1. So while in lecture, I start to eat some of the snacks that I had brought with me, because I'm starving. It was the excellent "Nuts about Dark Chocolate and Raspberries" trail mix from Trader Joe's and a classic: cheddar Goldfish. I was very much enjoying myself. After about ten minutes, the kid sitting next to me goes "Do have any louder foods to eat?" He certainly wasn't joking, and he had an uber-serious "You're talking while teacher is talking" look on his face. At this point, without really thinking or censoring what I said, I went "Do you have a bigger stick to put up your butt?" This probably wasn't the best response, because we had to sit next to each other for the rest of the lecture, but it was pretty much automatic. I could fucking hear the professor while I was eating, so I'm sure that this kid could too, unless he's deaf, which I don't think he was because he spoke to me without using sign language. Not to mention that the professor is fucking reading off the slide, which is being relayed on a projector screen the size of a two story wall. Like seriously, who does that? I'm minding my own damn business, eating some great snacks and you have to fucking be the lecture police and tell me I'm disturbing your lecture experience. If you have such a problem hearing the professor, why did you choose to sit in the back row? Plus, he was being annoyingly academic, nodding with the professor, stroking his chin to think of responses to rhetorical lecture questions, just basically being a brown-nosing, douchebag of a dental student. Not to mention the fact that he was shorter and possibly skinnier than I was, so I probably could have kicked his ass if I wanted. And he probably has a small penis.

The real question is what kind of loud and crunchy snack should I bring to class tomorrow...

Open Letter

Dear girl in the train station taking self portraits with her cell phone camera,

Hi, you probably didn't notice me because you were really into your little photo shoot. I mean I guess I understand trying to take a picture of yourself if you're in front of a famous landmark, like say we were at Independence Hall or the Art Museum steps, but we were on Track 3 at Suburban Station waiting for the 3:22 R3 to Media. I mean it's a pretty depressing backdrop, what with the white walls and the dark mysterious stains on the cement. Not to mention that the lighting is horrible. All pale white people look blue, so harsh subterranean flourescents are not going to be your best light. Not to mention that you stood blocking the way for other passengers trying to get by. Also, I saw the really stupid, pouty Top Modelesque poses you were trying to pull off. Tyra says smile with your eyes, not squint them so that you look like you're having a difficult time reading the train schedule. Oh yea and your wardrobe choice was a little casual for a photo shoot...A hooded sweatshirt? Stacy and Clinton would not approve. I'm sure that 2.0 megapixel, plastic lens camera will be sure to give you a nice grainy blur when you post that puppy on MySpace later tonight. Although, I'm not sure that the 45 year old pedophiles posing as 20 year old guys trying to get you to meet them in a dark, unpopulated location for various sexual encounters will mind all that much.

On some of the later shots, you may notice someone in the background giving you really bizarre and horrified looks, almost like they are trying to express "WTF?" through facial expression alone. That would be yours truly!

Thoughtfully yours,

Megan