300th Post!

Milestones are fun to acknowledge, so for all to know, this is my 300th post. This is insignificant on nearly all levels... sooooooooooo, moving along. :)

Depression Weight

No, I'm not talking about eating too much while depressed, I'm referring to a phenomenon many food experts see on the horizon. Studies show that as people struggle economically, one of the first places they cut back in on healthy food, i.e. substituting potato chips for real potatoes. The result? Weight gain during economic depression.

Ummmmmmm

Just sayin'.

Non-Paper Daily, 1.9.2009

*Michelle Obama's mom, Marian Robinson, is moving (it looks temporary) into the White House with the Obama family to help take care of the kids. Strikes me as a good message for Americans: Family helping family and sticking together is a positive thing.

*Dude ate his eye. I guess he won't be needing it soon. Sounds like a sad story.

*It looked like Roland Burris (guy who is supposed to replace Obama in the Senate) was not going to be seated, then it looked like he would, now it looks iffy again. The Illinois Secretary of State is refusing to certify his appointment and the US Senate won't seat him until "his credentials are in order." Time will tell. BTW The basic argument against seating him is that he was appointed by a guy who previously tried to sell the senate seat to the highest bidder. Here's the case in favor of seating him.

Blagojevich

Dude finally got impeached.

Good. This is the last thing we need to be worried about at a time when our economy is on the brink of disaster, we still have hundreds of thousands of troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world, and problems like global warming, health care, etc loom ever larger.

Apparently it's not just that he tried to sell Obama's senate seat, he's accused of generally being a corrupt politician. If he's guilty, and all indicators point to yes, then kick him out and let's tackle the real problems we face.

Blog Title

Never have I ever ready a better blog post title:

Bulls Cloned From Decade-Old Frozen Testicles

Non-Paper Daily, 1.8.2009

*Oh no. Militants in Lebanon shot rockets into Israel, igniting fears of an expanding conflict in the region. What is going on over there? What is Israel's plan, kill everyone?

*More on Israel and Gaza: UN and Red Cross relief has been slowed and, in some cases, stopped into the most devastated regions of Palestine. Certainly that means more lives will be lost.

*As much as I hate the Sooners, and against all the pundits, I'm picking Oklahoma in tonight's BCS national championship game. Time to watch the game!

Non-Paper Daily, 1.7.2009

*Household name Dr. Sanjay Gupta may be the next Surgeon General. Hooray?

*Russia turned off its as supplies to Europe via a Ukrainian pipeline. What does this mean? Rich Russians are mad at rich Ukrainians... so, not much.

*Obama said today that reforms to entitlement programs (ie social security and medicare) will be part of balancing the budget. Pretty bold statement considering how sacred those programs are; we'll see how that goes.

*The state we can all spell, Mississippi, now has the highest teen pregnancy rate. For the prize they knocked off Texas and New Mexico in a heated contest for the honor.

Interesting View on the Recession... Depression

A few months ago I said I would link to interesting articles and blog posts. True to my word (!) here is an interesting take on the current recession... err, depression? The basic argument is this: The various financial and social programs we have in place thanks, in large part, to FDR, are keeping us from soup lines and bank runs. Kevin argues that the last 12 months--stock market crashing, mortgage disaster, etc--have been just as bad as the lead-up to the Great Depression, but the effect is different thanks to a more advanced government.

The post is short, go take a quick look.

Bliss

When asked today if he had any New Year's resolutions, an 8th grader said, "My New Year's resolution is to finally get a world record."

Like, duhhhhh.

They Call it Twitter Because They Couldn't Call it Stalker

During Christmas break I discussed Twitter with a friend. She was unfamiliar with the phenomenon, as was I only a few days before, so I described it based off the "Twitter in Plane English" video on Twitter's homepage. In that video Twitter describes itself as a way for people to inform the people in their network of what they are doing between the important events in their life. For example, someone may write an email or chat on IM about eating breakfast with the family, working, and going to a concert that evening. Twitter, however, allows those folks to share the "little things that happen in your life." Those little things? Mowing the lawn, drinking coffee, picking your nose, etc.

At the end of the conversation my friend say with a wonderfully straight face, "Sounds like they called it Twitter because they couldn't call it stalker."

I laughed and laughed. With the fear of sounding reactionary and, dare I say it, like a fuddy duddy, is Twitter a bit much? Is Twitter the 21st century stalker?

Non-Paper Daily, 1.6.2009

*Roland Burris, the guy embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich appointed to fill Obama's senate seat, was refused admittance into the senate today. On a funny note, he was supposed to attend meeting on Blagojevich's impeachment probe at the same time he is in DC, when asked how he would deal with that he said, "I'm the magic man." Give that man a seat!

*My head hurts.

*For about an hour today it snowed harder in La Grande than I can ever recall... just sayin'.

*A list of the Top 10 bills to be dropped (introduced) in the Senate and their summaries. It doesn't mean they will be passed in their current form, or that they will be passed at all, but for policy wonks it's a way to get an idea of what to expect in the first few months of Obama's presidency. Here's a quick review of what is there and what is missing.

Al Franken

Today the elections folks up in Minnesota formally anointed Al Franken as their next senator. Hooray! Of course, there will be more court challenges, but at this point it looks pretty concrete... er, more like written in concrete that is quickly drying. That puts the final total, at least assuming Illinois ends up with a Democrat to replace Obama, at 59 Democrats, 41 Republicans.

Two Weeks

I've essentially been gone from blogging for two weeks. Interestingly enough, the world doesn't stop when I stop blogging. Go figure. Here's a quick recap about what's been happening:

*Israel is blowing a bunch of shit (and people) up over in Gaza. Ugh.

*The crazy Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich decided to appoint Roland Burris to Obama's vacant senate seat even though ole Rod is under investigation for trying to "sell" that seat for money and influence. Democratic Senators say they will refuse to seat Burris. This should be interesting.

*The Utah Utes dominated the University of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, completing the season as the only undefeated college football program. Should we be saying, "National Champion?"

I'm sure there is more, but I'm currently distracted by the UT vs OSU Fiesta bowl match-up.

Back!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I never would have thought just how hard it is to blog when I have tons of free time. Weird. Anyhow, now that school is back in session* we'll be back to regularly scheduled blogging. Rather than try to recap what's happened the last two weeks, I'm going to move from this point forward as though nothing has happened in the world. Kapeesh?

*Today, after being in the La Grande School System for twelve and half years, was the first snow day ever. We're getting dumped on.