Sweet Cantarella • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

A friend of mine forwarded some "funny" political cartoons to me today, like this one:



Groundless and funny, right?  Ha ha? Yeah, we may not take them seriously now, but I just realized that this is how the GOP does it. This is how their smear campaigns begin.

They start off by spreading doubts and negative ideas but disguise it in things like comics so they look harmless, irreverent and fun, and will get spread around/seen by lots of people. But even if it's just "all in good fun" now, they have planted some negative ideas/feelings toward their target in many people's minds and--lo and behold--in the future, when the uglier campaigns start in earnest over groundless accusations, everyone will feel inclined to believe them for some reason, almost as like it's "gut instinct." Nope, not a gut instinct--the accusations will "sound right" to people because the seeds of those ideas, based on no evidence (since they were introduced in the form of mere jokes/comics) have been implanted in their minds from long ago (i.e. now).

It's like lawyers in a courtroom that say a really inflammatory thing that they know for sure will get objected to and stricken from the record--but they say it anyway because then the jury will have the idea in their minds, even if they're told to disregard it when coming to a verdict. Same concept. That's the danger of the "common wisdom"--if you know how to play the game right, it's quite possible to manipulate people without their even realizing that they're being manipulated.

Meh. Sorry for the long rant. I just hate it when the GOP does stuff like this to stay in power. But, come to think of it, I suppose there's no other way a "party for the few" can win a MAJORITY vote unless they play dirty tricks like these and confuse people. >.< Man, I hate politics...

Prop 8 Upheld

I don't have much to say. I figured it would happen, and these days, the conservatives are feeling more insecure than ever (what with the majority of America embracing a *gasp* gay American Idol contender), so rah for them. As wrong as I know this is, people are dumb, timid creatures who are slow at accepting change. Little by little, public opinion is swaying toward equal rights for gays, so I want to tell the LGBT community and their fervent straight supporters (like me) not to lose hope--legal gay marriage will come permanently to Cali someday soon. The tide is already turning--as many ppl on Twitter are noting, even Iowa (random?!) has legalized gay marriage, so Cali is a fool to fall too far behind.

Though, you know... the fears I was expressing last November about the horrific day when the gigantic Golden State turns red on the voting map are kind of resurfacing... When it happens, that huge earthquake will hit--I have a theory that a natural disaster of that magnitude only happens in places where enough bad karma builds up. And Californians, unlike southerners/midwesterners/etc, are sufficiently free of traditionally tight-knit, claustrophobic small town societies to be able to do the right thing/be tolerant to those who are different. The fact that they don't is simple mean-spiritedness. Thus, bad karma build-up. We're getting to that Big One level slowly but surely--that's for sure.

Yappari, it's time to move up to Washington.

Cy=Life Update

Speaking of which, that's just what I'm planning to do! <3 Well, at least temporarily--am now studying for the GREs so that I can apply for U of Washington's MFA program in Creative Writing come January. The 2 year program sounds perfect, the setting/campus is gorgeous and they have a really excellent TA program that waives all tuition and gives you a $12K/year stipend to live off of per year. In exchange, you head one undergrad Intro to Writing section in your 1st year and teach your own undergrad intro course in your second year. On top of not being a bad deal for having tuition, etc, waived, it's great teaching experience which will help if I decided to go the teaching route afterwards.

Now all I've gotta do is get in... ^^;;; Meaning, I have to start writing literary fiction as opposed to genre fiction (or my guilty pleasure, fan fiction :P).

So if you were wondering about those "new high-speed trains" measures some states voted on this past election, it has to do with this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/us/politics/17train.html

In short, America's going to try to start catching up with Europe and Japan in terms of using bullet trains to improve transportation, remove cars from the road and lessen traffic and pollution. Naturally, only Obama has the balls and long-term vision to start such a project. A shame that he has to do it now, when the US is so strapped for cash (imagine how quickly Bush could've built these trains in 2001, when he was taking over the country from Clinton, who had balanced our budget and reduced Reagan's ridiculous Star Wars Program debt).

Still, Obama is proving he is actually, SINCERELY trying to think of this country and change it for the better with this project--it will only do us good, but no president wants the responsibility of starting such a huge, expensive project. Well, it'll definitely create some much-needed domestic jobs (and, as Obama pointed out, these can definitely NOT be outsourced!). So in a way, this might have been the best time to start this project since the militants can't justify whining for more military spending at the moment. Heh.

Speaking of Obama's visionary work, anyone else thrilled that he's offering to open a dialogue with Cuba and the Middle East? So much of that hatred (especially from the latter) is based in misconceptions and fear of the unknown other, in my opinion, that this is the best possible thing Bam-Bam can do. We may not have the money to be able to send full aid/relief to every stricken part of the world, but if we can at least make people see that we aren't (or, not ALL of us are) out to suck the rest of the world dry and make ourselves fat and rich while they starve, that should help their militants take one step back from this desperate violence. As for Cuba, I get the feeling that a lot of our unyielding hostility toward them is just born of our national pride being offended over not being able to make this tiny, little country right off our borders bow down to our ways.

But now, after so many years, and Cuba still functioning all right (though I hear human rights are still not great--then again, what third-world country's human rights are great?? If we're just talking human rights, why didn't those past US presidents get upset over the way all those thousands of helpless little kidnapped girls are treated in the red light districts of Bombay and Bangkok?)--maybe it's time to step back and respect the fact that they are a separate nation and running their country the best way they can at the moment. Plus, since Castro survived the 300+ assassination attempts our CIA made on him, the man and his country deserve a break, don't they? (wait, did he die of that stroke last year? Never mind~) But I'm glad we're starting to get over our silly hurt prides and just do what's practical--live and let live. They're not bothering us, after all, and this is a nice chance for Cuban-Americans to get in touch with their long-lost relatives again. Good for them!

Hmm... sorry this ended up kind of a long, babbling rant... And here I just wanted to post how great it was that we'd soon have shinkansens around here! ^^;

So, prowling around youtube, I encountered something UNBELIEVABLE:

OBAMA AND HILLARY CLINTON IN ANIME

This anime Yatterman that's currently(?) airing has some fabulous snatches of American culture parodied in it--check these out:

First, a hilarious clip from a recent kids' anime of the 2008 American presidential race--ANIMATED: (Obama even says "Yes We Can!" LOl~~)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb8K1QHpTbg&feature=related
 
Even better, here are kid-Obama and kid-Hillary speaking Japanese--too cuuuute!!! XD (yes, kid-Obama has a crush on kid-Hillary--LOL!!!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrLCNx3hZXM&feature=related
 
And here are kid-Obama and kid-Hillary running against one another to be Student Council President. And guess what--Hillary's father is "Bill-san"--omg...!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIZ_5d6ylZM&feature=related
 
Best of all--here's one for all you 24 fans: animated President Obama and anime-style JACK BAUER, being as violent as usual::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUwRTvr44pg&feature=related
 
And just for fun, Obama and Hillary doing the "Caramelldansen!!!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdyofwpCSyI
 
Here's a less nicely animated one featuring everyone (including the GOPs) from the Election 2008 (even Bush! LoL!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMWIq0QF6T0&feature=related
 
Okay, enough fun with anime and US politics~ hope it gave you a good laugh!
 
Happy Wednesday, all! <3

P.S. Am madly in love with Dr. House. Any cure for this miasma?

Well, what do you know—after the heartache of California's homophobic passing of Prop 8 last week, Connecticut has gone and made gay marriages legal in their state!! :D

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/nyregion/13marriage.html?bl&ex=1226638800&en=f24a9509e53ce37f&ei=5087%0A

Which make Massachusetts and Connecticut the only two states in the nation to have legalized gay marriage. Could it be a coincidence that Harvard and Yale reside in those two states and exercise a fair amount of influence over them? :D And with this, I hope the rest of our backwards nation will realize that if two of the world's most exalted educational institutions are saying "this is the way to the future," they should stop fearing and hating it so much!

Actually, it seem any place where intelligent people gather en masse seem to say the same thing-- Google, Apple and other centers of progressive and industry-leading thinking all publically supported and donated money to the "No on 8" campaign... Well, it makes sense--you have to be pretty stupid and brutish to see something different and automatically hate it just because you don't understand it, after all~

Have a beautiful day, all~~

Now, here's something to really smile about: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/wireStory?id=6170750

I love the Japanese--it's so rare to find people who are so genuinely happy for others in the world like this. <3

The reaction overall worldwide has been very positive--and not just b/c it may mean better trade agreements or an end to war or some other heavy, political reason. I think everyone, deep down, wishes the US would become something to believe in again (cuz a country where the people choose their laws and leadership, where people of all race and gender and creed are welcomed and allowed to become citizens, really is a wonderful concept--check out the penultimate episode of Code Geass season 1 if you don't believe me :P) and Obama looks like a man who could create or re-create such a US.

Here's hoping, Bam-Bam! You've got the White House and a Democratic Congress to aid you--make this country and world a better place!! Ganbare!!!

OBAMA FTW!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

All I can say is--THANK GOODNESS. So, Bam-Bam, take a well-deserved rest, get the girls their puppy, and get ready to put that considerable brain power of yours to the task of fixing this crazy, hemorrhaging country! We have great hopes for you~!!

But farewell, equality for gay people--Prop 8 is poised to win with a 6% lead so far (49% accounted for). Despite the wonderful change in the country overall in favor of liberalism, California is showing a freakish tendency toward conservatism. I'm telling you, this state is becoming more and more bigoted by the day (most of it--there are still tiny pockets of youthful activism and intelligence...though it seems the Newport Beach mentality is turning many would-be open-minded students into Armani-clad, Lexus SUV-driving mini bigots...). Those of you with eyes left to see, move north--the karma of this place is turning sour enough for a really big disaster (read: the rumored 7.8 earthquake) to hit...

I shudder to imagine the day my once-proud state will be red on the electoral college vote count... but it's becoming a real possibility now... ;__;

Hey, all! For the books—here’s my Election Day voting experience/midday round-up!

 

( So it started off bright and early for me... )

 

 

So that’s my Election Day midday round up. Hopefully, there will be a celebratory post tonight to welcome President Obama and the defeat of Prop 8, but I’m not holding my breath on that second one (I will probably die if McCain wins, though—McCain himself is not so bad for a Republican, but that crazy, gun-toting, Bible-quoting barbarian of a running mate of his… @_@ If McCain wins, I’ll have to pray for his good health and presence of mind everyday, lest the presidency fall into Palin’s hands… @_@;;; ).

 

P.S. Did you all hear Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and Ben and Jerry’s are all giving away free food for Election Day? You can get stuff whether you voted or not~ Woo, it feels like a party today~

To everyone who has a heart (and doesn’t have an excessively nosy predisposition to pry into their neighbors’ business, which has nothing to do with them anyway! >.< j/k!),

As a single 25-year-old woman, I’ll tell you—it’s hard to find love. Especially true love, the kind that makes you care enough to stick through the hard times with someone when you’d be better off fending for yourself, makes you endure all their annoying little traits and makes you share your bed, your home, your heart, your most secret, prized recipe for kahlua chocolate cake with them…

So, having gone to my fair share of weddings last year, I know it’s a special and important moment to be able to stand up with your beloved in front of friends, family, state and (if you swing that way) God to make a solemn, difficult, extremely long-term and wonderful commitment and declare that you have found someone to care that much about and will call “family” to live and weather life with ever after.

To those very few, lucky, blessed friends of mine who have found such happiness, I say, “Congratulations—and good for you!” because finding love? That’s no easy task!

So tell me this—when someone has struggled through the exhausting and disheartening journey to find love and actually, against all odds, found it—what right does anyone have to stand in their way? It’s so hard to find someone to love in this world (who loves you back~), what right have we to tell them their feelings, their love, their desire to commit—is worthless or invalid, just because they don’t look like what we imagine a “couple” to be? Whatever a couple looks like—be they of two different races, two different genders, both the same race or both the same gender—it’s the same feelings of devotion and care and commitment that make them want to join their lives together officially. In this world where selfish-ness reigns and divorce rates are soaring, why should we refuse people who want to be together?

Go back fifty years; I’m sure a racially-mixed couple looked awful to good, old, salt-of-the-earth Americans back then, but what do you think of them now? If they’re Latino and White or Black and Asian, what does it matter? Did you find it hard to picture yourself in such a relationship when you were younger? What do you think of it now? What’s important in the end is that you/they love each other, isn’t it? Can’t you see the parallel with today’s situation as well? They love each other, so what does it matter what they look like? If we were going to limit marriage to couples everyone deemed picturesque, I’d be out of luck, wouldn’t I? :P

All kidding aside, allowing gay couples to marry is not going to effect you fiscally, spiritually, socially (not really, anyway—maybe there’d be more tolerance, but when is more harmony ever a bad thing?). Isn’t life hard enough as it is? I say, let them be happy, and if you want to privately think they’re going to hell, go right ahead. But let them at least have the same joys of vowing eternal love to the one they’ve chosen in front of friends and family, proudly, the way you do.

So why is a straight chick like me rooting for the gay guys and lesbians of the world? Because just like the white, straight, wealthy, Christian man who votes Democrat for my sake rather than his own, I don’t always have to vote just for my own benefit; I’d rather vote to help those who really need the help—that’s what laws are for; and because, I’d rather vote to do what’s right.

So please do the right thing too, come November 4^th. Vote Obama (just kidding! You don’t have to if you’re fiscally disinclined to, you lucky, rich jerks!). But please do vote yes on Love by voting NO on Prop 8! Because Love, scarce as it is in this world, should be honored and protected in any form, and tolerance makes the world better for everyone.

So again, Vote Yes on Love by Voting no on 8!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, guys—and have an awesome, love-filled day!

Love, <3

Cy : )

P.S. Sorry, I should mention this is a prop in California to end the legalization of gay marriage here--those of you who are out of state, I hope you'll support similar initiatives when they come to your state (and congrats to those in Vermont, Massachusetts and Hawaii who have already done the right thing!). Pray for California!!
 

P.P.S. Btw, I've never seen a "No on 8" poster anywhere around here because their campaign has no money. Please donate, if you can (I did!)--it's a worthy cause! (and tax deductible~ <3)

In the middle of his campaign for the U.S. Presidency, Obama has made a detour to deliver what turned out to be a very important and powerful speech to the people of Berlin, Germany (and really, to all the world--including us!). At first, I was surprised at first to hear he'd headed out there while McCain is busy on the campaign trail in the heartland, but the speech is actually a very important gesture and building block to his (hopefully) soon-to-be presidency; he, more than any president in recent history, is really *showing* that he understands we live in a global world and that the U.S. really does need to care more about other nations' fates *and* opinions in the future.

He talks, as you'd expect, about cooperation across the Atlantic in matters of ending terrorism, but what surprised me pleasantly is also very frankly about our mutual drifting away from each other and what a shame it is, in light of the hearty camaraderie that bound our two continents together after WWII (and Berlin in particular--remember the aid airlifts?). I definitely feel that someone needs to just cut through the fake, diplomatic handshakes and just say it like ti is--we've been deriding one another, it's a fact, but now we need to and can move beyond it to be allies again (especially with Bam-Bam in the White House!).

I really like that he also spoke about the need for everyone in the world to focus on saving the planet and willingly points out that his own country has failed so terribly in this respect while the Germans are some of the most serious and stringent in the world about following the Kyoto Protocol. Again, I'm lovin' the candor.

Another pleasant surprise topic he addressed seriously seriously was the need to remove all nuclear weapons in the future. It's a nice relief to hear that he's actually thinking about them, but to be honest, I can't imagine how that will be possible right now since the technology to safely destroy them doesn't exist. But at least, I like that he wants to focus in the short term on removing all the renegade nuclear dabblers who may accidentally detonate or leak radioactivity into their environment because they don't have the funds/technology to do this work safely.

But I'm talking too much--read for yourself what he says. It's an excellent speech and I really, REALLY hope that he'll win the presidency and will finally give us a president who knows what he's doing and will use this country's huge resources and idealism to actually do good int he world.

Hey guys,
 
If you were humoring ideas of voting for Obama, take a look at this: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/03/supreme-court-justice-bill-clinton/
 
Just imagine... Bill Clinton, sagaciously setting down precedents for law interpretation for all the ages of America to come... (and he's got at least another good 30 years or so to do it!) I'm not saying Obama couldn't appoint Bill to the Supreme Court too, but who really knows what his agenda will determine in the end. Come on, Hillary! You have to win now!!
 
All you Republicans out there, the Democratic candidates have never been so conservative; clear your prejudices and take a look at Hillary's platform, you may end up finding a brilliant lady worth supporting, regardless of her party affiliations. :)  

For the politically undecided, here's a nice quiz to see which candidate matches up with your stances on various platforms.

(Not to mention, all you writers, Huckabee, your most promising Republican candidate, crossed the Writers' Guild picket lines yesterday to go on Leno. What does that tell you about how much he values and believes in our art, eh?)

--Cy