Healthcare Horror Show

I think this is my new favorite video.

History Continued

It’s ironic that we thought we wouldn’t have time yesterday to see everything and then ended up having more time than we needed because today we almost ran out of time entirely to see everything in Washington D.C.  We road a tour trolley which had two routes, the green and the orange.  The green went up to the north side of the city, around the National Chapel and down Embassy Row.

The second picture is of the British Embassy.  We went down Embassy row so fast and there were so many on both sides of the street that I couldn’t get pictures of them all, no less remember which country’s embassy was in the pictures I’ve taken.  There are a few, though, that are pretty obvious, like the British one here.

We were on one of those trolleys were you can get off and then get back on the next one, so we got off at the National Cathedral and went up in the town to get a great view of D.C. from above.  We stayed on until we could switch from the green line to the orange line, then went to see the monuments and White House.

The White House was really cool, though smaller than it seems in the movies and pictures.  It was cool to think that President Obama was sitting in there, doing something important, like finalizing his choice for Supreme Court Justice (now revealed to be Sonia Sotomayor).

The monuments were also amazing and indescribable.  They make history come to life a bit more, I think, especially the Vietnam Wall.  Just as it was disconcerting to see the headstones at Arlington Cemetary, it was equally disturbing and sad to see all thsoe names of brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters, who died in this war.

I also really loved the Lincoln Memorial, with his second inaugural address and the Gettysburg address on the walls.  It was such a huge memorial, too, which is another thing that you don’t get quite as well in pictures.

I also loved the inscription over his statue: “In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.”  Seeing things like this always makes me wonder if the people they’re dedicated to ever thought that such a thing would be made for them.  I don’t know how they could have.

Tomorrow is the national zoo, which I’m looking forward to like crazy.  We’re going to get there right when it opens and stay as long as possible

Historical Overload

Today (and tomorrow as well) was all history, which is fitting as we’re approaching Washington D.C.

We got a late start because the front desk forgot our wake up call (that led to a bit of cursing in the morning) so we were worried about having enough time to see everything we wanted to see and not being rushed.  Really, we only had two major stops planned: Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, and Arlington National Cemetary, but then we had a hotel planned in D.C. (got a great deal through Priceline.  It was impossible to find anything below 100 dollars, even below 200, without it!) that we needed to get to at a reasonable hour.  We figured at BEST we would get there at 8:00pm.  Certainly not ideal, but we planned to deal with it.

We stopped at Mount Vernon around noon and it was really super neat.  I absolutely LOVE Washington, he was just such a perfect man to be the first president.  Who else would turn down the CROWN for goodness sakes, and then voluntarily RESIGN after only eight years when everyone else was asking him to stay longer?  Really an amazing guy who basically created the office of the presidency.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to see his house, where he lived and worked and the place he loved best.  It’s a gorgeous place; rolling Virginia hills, huge colonial house, and a view to die for.

When we first got there, the line to go inside the main house (the “Mansion”) was humongous, so we roamed the grounds, saw his carriage, his riding chair (hysterical, imo), and his grave, which I wish I could have gotten better pictures of.  We also saw sheep and a bull with the sharpest horns I’ve ever seen.  All these pictures will eventually go up at www.takingpictures.wordpress.com.

Later, when we went back around to the front of the mansion, we saw that the line was a lot shorter so we hopped on and got to go through and see the whole inside (no pictures were allowed, unfortunately).  The coolest parts for me were seeing the chair he sat in as president, the trunk he used to carry his stuff as a general in the Revolutionary War, and the bed that he slept and eventually died in.  The tour people who gave spiels at each little section were very good, too, though I wouldn’t want to repeat the same two minute speech over and over and over again all day long.

All in all, we spent about 3 hours there before we moved on.  We were really worried thinking that it would take us 2 hours to get to Arlington.  The map we had made it look really far away, so we were prepared to have to come back to it the next day.  But when we finally got our GPS programmed it told us it would take something like 10 minutes to get there!  It felt like we had driven through a dimensional rift somewhere and magically appeared right next to Arlington.  It was amazing.

Of course, we had plenty of time to see everything before it got dark.  We got on one of the tour buses because we were through with walking for the day and got to see the changing of the guards which was really awesome.  I’d seen it already when I went to D.C. and Virginia with my high school band, but it was no less cool the second time around.

Then, disaster struck!  My camera battery died.  I tried to switch it with my backup battery, but of course that one was pretty much dead, too.  I got only a few more pics before it died.  Luckily, the tour was pretty much over, so I only missed a few more photo opportunities before we left.  We got to our (really nice) hotel at a decent hour, ate at a super awesome chinese restaurant (I had yummy tofu ), and now I am going to go to bed.  Tomorrow we’ll explore Washington D.C. and my camera batteries will both be fully charged.

More Duke with a Side of Williamsburg

Seeing as how everything was closed on Sunday and no one was around, I decided that I needed to go back to Duke the next morning to talk with someone from admissions.  We were lucky enough to have chosen a hotel that had a shuttle to campus, so I hopped on that (even woke up early, VOLUNTARILY, a miracle in and of itself) and got to the Law School a little before 8:00am, when it opened.  I only had to wait a few minutes before someone opened the doors for me.

The thing that struck me from teh first about the building was how many windows it had.  I absolutely love buildings like this that just let in so much light.  They seem less…enclosed to me if that makes any sense.

Anyway, I found the admissions department, only one person was there and they were from financial aid and couldn’t answer all my questions, so I grabbed every piece of literature they had and sat to wait.  Eventually, a man came in, saw me, and promised to speak with me when he had finished getting his coffee and settling into his office.  I told him not to rush and turned down a few other offers from people who came in later to wait for him.

I had a bunch of questions which he was very nice and extremely helpful in answering.  We had a good talk and I got a lot of great advice before he sent me on my way with a map of college and told me to explore all I wanted (as if I needed encouragement ).  He also said he was looking forward to seeing my application, which made me happy, even though I’m sure he says that to everyone.

It wasn’t until later when I took a better look at the business card he gave me that I realized I had been speaking to the DIRECTOR of admissions, which was pretty dang cool.

I left the office and headed to find the Moot Courtroom that was marked on the map.  I read that first year students did this moot court class where they eventually did a competition at the end and I really wanted to see where that was held.  A really nice professor helped me out by pointing me in the right direction when I was looking lost and it was SUPER cool when I got to go in and stand at the podium and pretend I was giving an argument

I also got to look at some of the classrooms, which were all really bright and AWESOME.  I noticed they each had microphones at the students’ seats so that when you get put on the spot EVERYONE can hear your answer, too, which’ll be nerve wracking until I get used to it.  Of course, I had to go to the law library as well which was enclosed in the building itself and was super cool as well.  Needless to say, I am crossinge every finger I have hoping I get into this place.

I also stopped by the environmental college again (a short walk from the law school) and though all the counselors were at a meeting, I did get to talk to a SUPER nice assistant who gave me every piece of awesome information they had on the program I’m interested in.  I’m also ridiculously excited for THAT aspect as well

Eventually, though, we needed to head on to Williamsburg and we did so (I missed about 2 hours of the drive, though, because I completely spaced reading all my Duke material ).  We actually got started around the time we figured we would, but that meant we got to Williamsburg a little too late for all the really great re-enactment stuff.  I did get to hang out with one of the founding fathers, though

We got lots more pictures, though, which will eventually be posted at takingpictures.wordpress.com and it was really neat to walk around and see all the old buildings and the various people in costumes.  I was still hyped from Duke, but when we finally got to the hotel, walking around Williamsburg had zonked me and I hit the sack.

Duke U or Bust

So the internetz and I have been missing each other for the past few days of our trip, which is a bummer because I was hoping to be really good about updating this every day.  Sunday night the hotel’s server was down all day and all the next morning (they obviously need new server people) and then Monday night they only had wired internet in the room and my mom needed to use it to book our hotel in Washington DC.

The plan now is to break up the trip into days as I was planning, but start posting them one by one every night.  This’ll work out because then you won’t have to wade through a massive block of TEXT.

So, Sunday morning we left Charleston.  Originally we had planned to hit Charlotte and see my mom’s old boss who had moved to be the director of the Humane Society there, but he said he was planning a golf game and would be busy over the time that we’d be passing through the town.  That meant that we were able to head straight to Duke University.

The above picture is over the tower of the Duke chapel, which was incredibly impressive and the first thing we went to see.  There was a wedding going on that day, so we couldn’t go in then, but we took a bunch of pictures that I’ll put up later at takingpictures.wordpress.com.  When I entered Duke, it was my first choice school for grad/law school, and when I left, it was my ultimate first choice school.

The whole campus is huge, of course, but the amount of trees in between the buildings and the total green feel of the campus makes it seem a lot more intimate and less overwhelming that it had the potential to do.  One of my favorite places was the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, which we got to walk through a section.

When they say gardens, they mean HUGE gardens.  Gorgeous flowers, gorgeous trees, beautiful shaded walkways through trees and around ponds, and the best part is that dogs were welcome!  We saw two other people walking around with dogs while we were there (as well as two wedding parties again I guess if you’re gonna have one, that’s where to do it!).  So, if I get accepted, I can take Mikey in there on our walks.  It really was an impressive spot.

After that, we went to look at the two buildings that house the two majors I’d like to do next, the Nicholas School of the Environment (that’s probably not the full and correct name, but close enough) and the Law School.  The Environment building was pretty typical for a science building, but the lobby was impressive.  The Law School, though, was simply amazing.  I didn’t get to go in until Monday, though, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see my pictures and hear about my visit

The Longest Drive

So, today is the first day of our roadtrip to Pennsylvania and for those who may not know, we decided to rent a car in Orlando, drive up, then fly back out of Philly.  Our main stops are going to be Duke University (my first choice law/grad school), Williamsburg, Washington D.C, then up to my godparents’ house in Dallas, PA.  Today, though, was basically nothing but driving, trying to get as close to North Carolina as possible before we stopped.

So, we drove about 12 hours straight on the interstate.  We did take a short detour to Savannah, GA to drive down River Street (the historical part of Savannah), but it wasn’t exciting enough to tempt us to stop and get out, so we just took some pictures and drove through.  The old buildings were pretty neat, and the trolley and the steamboat (both reproductions…the trolleys had wheels rather than riding on rails) were both neat to look at.

The best part of this leg was this giant bridge that we went over when leaving Savannah.  We had been looking at it and my mom kept saying that she didn’t want to go on the bridge so I was teasing her and telling her that our GPS was taking us closer and that for sure we were going on it.  I didn’t really think it was serious until we rounded a corner and realized we were on this ramp that led up to the bridge.  Mom groaned and I laughed hysterically.

Oh, and my mom and I going slightly insane towards the end and playing made up games (like Spot the Church in rural South Carolina) and singing made up songs (Every town has roads and roads and we’ve been on them aaaaaaaaaall).

Now we’re in Charleston, South Carolina for those of you keeping track, and there’s a silly British comedy program on the TV.  That is my signal to head to bed.  I’ll probably post a few more pictures on takingpictures.wordpress.com.

Campaign for Vegetarian Options in School Lunches

Montel William’s daughter, Wyntergrace Williams, appears in a video put forward by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine advocating for healthier school lunches.  Most notably, this ad makes specific mention of adding vegetarian options, like meatless chili and veggie burgers to school lunches, not just for health reasons, but also for ethical reasons like objection to factory farming.

This is a campaign that is also advocated by Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone, to give vegetarian students options in their school-provided lunches.  While I understand that students do have the option to bring their own lunches, a lot of students, me included, can’t do so.  Also, vegetarian options would also solve the problem of school lunches lacking healthy options and provide an alternative to the crap meat that is sent to schools.

Why the Hell Do We CARE?!

OMG It’s NEWS!!  The President asked for mustard, no ketchup, on his cheeseburger, then had the GALL to say that if they had a spicy mustard like Dijon, he’d like to have that on his burger best.  Apparently, this is a big freaking DEAL going down here!  How dare the “mainstream media” not cover this atrocity?  If I had known the man liked mustard, I wouldn’t have voted for him!

more about “Obama Mustard Attack Becomes Full-Blo…“, posted with vodpod

Is this how low some of us have sunk that we harp on THIS as a legitimate concern about his presidency instead of, oh I don’t know, him having a gay Arabic linguist fired from the military on his watch.

But wait, that’s something Republicans agree with.  I suppose they’ll just have to keep talking about his condiment choices.

Sen. Arlen Specter has Defected

Republican Senator Arlen Specter has decided to change parties and run as a Democrat in 2010.  One more sign that the Republican party is dying.  The bad news is that this might cause Coleman to dig his heels in even harder in the ridiculous fight to prove he won the Minnesota election against Al Franken even though he didn’t get the majority of votes.

This could also have the happy result of breaking the Republican filibuster of the proposed Health Department nominee Kathleen Sebelius which was ongoing even AFTER the swine flu outbreak.  This, combined with the whole GOP cutting money for anti-viral stockpiles and outbreak preparedness from the stimulus thing (amazing what doesn’t look so much like “pork” in hindsight), it’s no wonder people are jumping ship.

Story from the New York Times:

Mr. Specter said he had concluded that his party had moved too far to the right, a fact demonstrated by the migration of 200,000 Pennsylvania Republicans to the Democratic Party.

“I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,” Mr. Specter said, acknowledging that his decision was certain to disappoint colleagues and supporters.

If Al Franken prevails in his ongoing court case in Minnesota and Mr. Specter begins caucusing with Democrats, Democrats would have 60 votes and the ability to deny Republicans the chance to stall legislation. Mr. Specter was one of only three Republicans to support President Obama’s economic recovery legislation…

President Obama was handed a note from an aide at 10:25 a.m. on Tuesday during his daily economic briefing. The note, according to a senior administration official, said: “Specter is announcing he is changing parties.”

Seven minutes later, Mr. Obama reached Mr. Specter by telephone. In a brief conversation, the president said: “You have my full support,” according to the official who heard the phone call. The president added that we are “thrilled to have you.”

Mr. Specter spoke with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. slightly before 11 a.m.

“They had a warm, personal conversation and the vice president welcomed his friend to the Democratic Party,” a senior administration official said of the discussion. “Over the many years they’ve known each other, Vice President Biden has never made a secret of the fact that he’s wanted his friend Senator Specter in the Democratic Party…”

Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, did not mince words about the senator, saying Mr. Specter “didn’t leave the G.O.P. based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record. Republicans look forward to beating Senator Specter in 2010, assuming the Democrats don’t do it first.”

But Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who also supported the Obama administration’s economic stimulus legislation, said Mr. Specter’s decision reflected the increasingly inhospitable climate in the Republican party for moderates.

“On the national level of the Republican Party, we haven’t certainly heard warm, encouraging words about how they view moderates, either you are with us or against us,” Ms. Snowe said. She said national Republican leaders were not grasping that “political diversity makes a party stronger and ultimately we are heading to having the smallest political tent in history for any political party the way things are unfolding.”

News Flash: Some Conservatives Don’t Get Satire

When “The Colbert Report” first came out, there were some news pieces that I read about how conservatives didn’t realize that Colbert was joking and didn’t actually believe the things that he said, but instead was creating a satire of the conservative talking heads on networks like Fox News.  Now, after 5 seasons, apparently conservatives still haven’t gotten the joke.  According to a study by Ohio University:

This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert’s political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert’s political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.

I don’t see how this is possible, really.  A quick look at the wikipedia entry will show quotes from Colbert that describe his character as “well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot.”  If that source isn’t reliable enough for you (and I don’t blame you if it isn’t) how about a backstage YouTube video of Colbert interacting with 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry before Kerry appeared on his show

In the video he admits that he’s in character, his character is an idiot and willfully ignorant and tells Kerry to “disabuse him of his ignorance.”  Then the White House Correspondence Dinner, where he makes a scathing satirical criticism of the Bush administration, specifically their fear of hard-hitting media journalists.  THEN there’s Stephen on the O’Reilly Factor where even Bill, who can be pretty damn dense sometimes, realizes that Colbert is mocking the hell out of him.

And yet people still think that Colbert is only pretending to joke, but really hates all things liberal.  But then again, could we really blame them?  Stephen is very VERY good at what he does.