more than 70% articles on obama flattering

if the whole situation last week with the senate voting against the president on gitmo had happened to bush and the republicans, the u.s. press would’ve been livid. but not so with barack obama.apparently it’s okay to lie as long as your a member of the democratic party. the british press seems to have the only journalists in the western world willing to thorough cross-exam barack obama.

american government ready to hand over hundres of millions if not billions to european companies

to build its high speed rail system. not that the u.s. actually has a company that knows anything about the technology behind high speed rail. i mean, look at amtrak still chugging along.

but wouldn’t it make more sense to tell these companies that in order to get the contract they have to establish offices in the u.s. and vocational schools that will specifically train people to be engineers. who does the government expect will ultimately maintain these trains? france? spain? canada?

consumption tax on the way in the u.s.?

the obama administration is considering the possibility of implementing a value added tax. this could be a 10% national tax on products that would be added to the state and city taxes on goods and services. so if a state has an 8% tax, this would raise the price of a purchase to 18%. thereby putting the nail in the coffin for retailers during this trying recession. you can find out more information here. and here.

the international monetary fund says: “VAT can be a regressive tax, especially when implemented at a single rate, as the IMF usually advises. This can worsen already-high inequality in developing countries, cut the tax base and cause a decrease in overall tax revenues. In addition, the ‘complex’ record keeping of VAT has been the source of problems: small businesses can be pushed into the informal sector, while governments may not have the administrative capacity to implement the VAT and its refund system.”

ufo over siberia

101 years ago an unexplained event that would make fox mulder and the lone gunmen (r.i.p.) take notice occured over siberia. there was a bright light and many trees were destroyed. a russian scientist now claims that a ufo crashed into a meteorite to save planet earth.

father has 21 different children

by eleven women. gotta wonder what’s going through his head.

organizing men in the u.s.

men in power is a new student group at the university of chicago. the article, in the chicago tribune could be a companion piece to the book ‘trouble with boys,’ detailing their problems in school. you can read about the book on amazon.com.

perhaps such a group might get feminists and other identity groups’ panties in a bunch. but there is a sort of crisis brewing in the u.s. and it’s all about men. they are beingin disproportionately hit by the recession. and education hasn’t been so nice to them. the majority of bachelor degrees in the u.s. go to women. and apparently (need to look the exact figure up) only 46% of undergraduates at u.s. universities are male.according to the tribune article, in the states, women get 135 bachelor degrees for every 100 males.

perhaps this is an ‘iron john moment,’ in the early 90s the book ‘iron job’ moved men to go into the wilderness and re-connect with their inner id. or something like that. but there are endless books like boys adrift that are being written at the moment concerning the woosification of men with some blaming public grammar school educators for not acknowleding the obvious. that testosterone works differently than estrogen. and just because sally can sit down nicely and do her homework doesn’t mean that johnny can. or something like that.

latina girl called loser student by high school math teacher wins national science foundation scholarship

well, she didn’t exactly say loser. but this just underscores how bad teachers are in california.

has tea party comment hurt anderson cooper's ratings

cnn’s anderson cooper (you know, the man with 2 last names) have seen his ratings drop since barack obama was sworn into office. but they have dropped dramatically since his tea party/bagging comment last april. you know the time when he basically made a lude comment about the protests on april 15 and outted himself in the process. because many americans, including ‘a blog about whatever’ took to their computers and googled the phrase ‘tea bagging’ ‘cuz they just didn’t know what the hell he was getting at.

upgrading fringe for season 2

isn’t it great that fringe has been picked up for a second season? and that leonard nimoy will now have a reoccuring role? but now what? is there anyway to get the show out of the CSI/miami vice loop. you know, where every episode is essentially the same.

the beauty of the x-files was not only its quirkiness was that every episode was a bit of a surprise. there was the alien mythology episodes that came and went. there were the horror inspired ones and the drug inspired ones. then there were the humorous ones. hell, even in the 6th season, we discovered that an episode could be written without mulder in it and still be quirky and good.

what is the solution for fringe? what would you tell j.j. abrams. plz give walter bishop more airtime. plz figure out what massive dynamics really is. give the blond chick less airtime and make her more rounded. hell, we even met scully’s brother and bits of her family over the years. don’t these people even have friends?

weak link in fringe let go?

has kirk acevedo, one of the weakest links in the j.j. abrams produced series ‘fringe,’ may be on the outs.

love ‘fringe’ because its the only remotely sci-fi/x-files-esque show on tv at the moment. ‘fringe’ has great potential.one problem with the first season is that in virtually every single episode someone ends up in a chair with a thing strapped to his head, a la dr. frankenstein. the show could do better than that and move further into the abstract nether. the blond chick gets too much air-time. joshua jackson’s character needs to be more developed. he’s quite flat at the moment. and the show should be given to walter bishop. he’s the only actor that makes the camera dance. the head of the agency could stand to be let go to. and aren’t you tired of hearing about massive dynamic? is it code for general dynamics?

but maybe the move to canada will free up some funds so the producers and writers can add an additional dimension to the show.