Yes We Can Change! I Hope!

We are now well aware that "going green" is not portrayed in the media as a salvation of our planet, but as a means to be hip and acquire more stuff. Politics dictate trends--consumer, fashion, disposal of past trends--so that while grassroots organizations have existed since the beat generation to protect our vulnerable earth, Al Gore gets rich by showing us, with large charts and an automatic ladder lift, what we've chosen to ignore and have found inconvenient for years.

With a new administration come new trends. President (i was getting sick of that required "elect" distinction) Obama's focus on service and civic engagement, while no less legit than environmentalism, is becoming yet another American trend. Starbucks has announced their new inspired ad campaign-slash-initiative to comply with Obama's urge for community service. By pledging 5 hours of (national) community service, a customer is rewarded with a large (venti??) coffee that we can only hope is fair trade. [Please note that no where does Starbucks encourage bringing a reuseable mug on your way to clean up a park or read to a child.] Starbucks makes sure the customer realizes that 5 hours isn't really that much time; it won't interfere too much with his busy, self-serving Americn life. Much like "going green"catered to the stubbornness of citizens by pushing hybrid Lexus SUVs, name brand peace signs, and energy efficient dish washers, Starbucks assures that the customer doesn't have to go too much out of her way to feel like a good American again.
This, once again, brings up the question of motives. Did that yuppie suburban woman start bringing a canvass bag to Trader Joe's because she can't bear to imagine where her plastic bags end up or because Oprah said so? Did the busy businessman start using earth-friendly cleaning products because he doesn't want chemicals ending up in his water or because of his brand loyalty to Clorox? Are we supposed to help better our community because we're passionate about changing things on a domestic level or because Obama and our Favorite Coffee Shop (TM) told us to?
And does it matter? If 100 million caffeiene addicts actually accomplish 500 million hours of community service for the wrong reason, is there such thing as a wrong reason? Or should they get praise for being dutiful capitalist citizens? The coffee is free after all.

The 44th President or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love America

On January 20, 2009, Inauguration day, former Vice President was wheeled onto the Mall in an sadly hilarious metaphor; he and his buddy George Bush are lame ducks, now irrelevant that their reign of power is through. (Mr. Cheney pulled a muscle while packing up his things. No one was willing to help the old curmudgeon. Ha! And my boy Anderson Cooper called him Dr. Strangelove. Ha! Ha!)

It’s the day that everyone* has been waiting for: today, the United States becomes Obamanation. Or, as one clever sign stated, we are “One Nation Under a Groove.” While we are deep in a dark winter, today is the beginning of a brighter day, a better era.

I'll admit that I caught the Obama bug: I have hope. The inauguration is just expensive fluff and brouhaha but I sincerely believe that not only will President Obama bring about real change and will change the way Americans view race and gender.

President Obama stepped onto the Mall to address those who voted for him and those who didn't. With the world watching, the President spoke of personal responsibility and non-partisanship. As Robert F. Kennedy once said, "this [is] difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in" and there was a distinct feeling on the Mall today that our new president knows what direction we need to take.

I’m a critic (although not paid, so I suppose I’m just critical) but in my opinion, the inauguration was not without flaw. Our nation has seem to forget that there is a separation between church and state (it's in the Consitution, guys). The God shout outs were many and redundant; for all of Obama's chatter about being a diverse country, at the inauguration it was assumed we are a country exclusively of Christians. Furthermore, the Reverend Rick Warren, mega pastor! and vocal supporter of Proposition 8, was not appropriate. I get it, Mr. President: you want to include all Americans, even Red Staters. But to have a man who does not support equal rights and so hypocritically spoke of God's "loving everyone" is not instep with Obama's message of change.

Still, the Obama Administration will create change and encourage progression. This country needs a makeover: America is that popular high school girl with a bad reputation. Everyone fears her, resents her and doesn't like her. We have two failing wars, a dismal economy, health care and education issues, and a gross rollback of personal rights. We need change, and a lot of it.

While this is the beginning of an era, the Obama era, it is also the end of another. George Bush, don't let the door hit you on the way out. President Obama, we have confidence in you. Please, don't let us down.

*everyone is 54 percent of Americans that voted for Obama and let’s be honest, the rest of the world. And c’mon, red states, just admit it—you like the guy too.

Thanks Yahoo News

Clarkson's glossy new look:
"American Idol" Kelly Clarkson trades in her smoky rocker look for bright red lipstick. 

» A return to pop sweetness
Kelly Clarkson videos, photos, songs

and, thanks google:

Related searches: kelly clarkson fat

Face-value

Branded like a cow.

Thanks, everyone, for putting those expensive Psychology Degrees to degrading, belittling, corporate use.
(Chewing gum makes a person very attractive and witty)

A New Year

jeff buckley, hallelujah

Keep this in mind when you think of Jesus

Collective memory, a term coined by sociologist Maurice Halbwachs in the early twentieth century, is a shared understanding of the past. Unlike history, collective memory can be based on something other than historical fact. And while history reproduces the past, collective memory more often represents it. This is because collective memory is malleable—its understanding of the past shifts not with the revelation of new historical facts, but rather with changing notions in the present. While historians and scholars look to ‘history’ to understand the past, for most of the public, collective memory defines their interpretation of the past.

What it feels like for a girl: Getting old in our image-conscious, gender-stereotyping media crazed world

On this month's cover of GQ magazine, a publication arguably for and by gay men, Jennifer Aniston, a sitcom celebrity, appears naked with a strategically placed necktie (because men wear neckties and you know, like naked chicks). In the article, she says some surely fascinating things about that dog movie she's in and continues to talk about her ex-husband Brad Pitt, and just embarrasses herself in general. However, Ms. Aniston's cover begs the question of why a 30something woman with a successful career ("successful" in media terms, not mine!) and solid stardom feel the need to strip down for a men's magazine?
Jennifer Aniston rose to fame on a stupid yet successful sitcom (Friends) and continued to find roles in mainstream movies (Along Came Polly and You, Me, and Dupree...wait, that was Kate Hudson. Same thing) due to her conventional attractiveness. Ms. Aniston really hit her stride when her more famous husband left her for a hotter woman with whom he proceeded to procreate and populate the earth with. It was the stuff that tabloid dreams are made of. Ms. Aniston then became the everywoman because every woman loves Friends, is getting older, and hates that humanitarian minx, Angelina, too.
Ms. Aniston is 39 and probably has been for the last five years. And thanks to cosmetic surgery, facial injections, a personal trainer, nutritionist, and stylist, she looks great. Some would argue the fact that Ms. Aniston is "Sexy at 40!" is reason enough to pose nude on the cover of a magazine. I argue that it's reason enough not to pose naked as some masturbatory fantasy. Brad Pitt is in his 40s and recently graced the cover of Rolling Stone with a mustache...and clothes. George Clooney is a sex-symbol in his 40s and sadly, has not been naked on the cover of anything.
Alas, the aforementioned are men. Jennifer Aniston is not. Sure, women can age but only if they do so wrinkle and fat-free manner. From her cover, Ms. Aniston shouts, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Look at me! I'm 40 and hot! Older women are hot too! Hey!" Ms. Aniston passed desperate when she started talking to the media about her ex-husband and his current partner. While Ms. Aniston's GQ cover could be understood as her representing the single and aging ladies. However, she is really just representing our obsession with women's looks. The real issue is the fact that women are only relevant in our culture when they are look good. It's okay that women get older, we just better not look it.