In My Orbit: The Long Weekend...
Digital Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Happy Friday, and Happy Memorial Day weekend! Lots swirling around the universe today, particularly in the political realm. My Washington Times Communities column outlines the Scandalpalooza currently plaguing the Obama administration:
"President Obama continues to deny accountability over the crises affecting three major arms of his administration: the State Department, the Treasury, and the Department of Justice. Either the President is an incompetent leader or a dishonest one."
Read the rest here: Obama's incredible shrinking presidency.
Locally, the Mayor election is over, and we will soon swear in Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti. Frankly, I'm relieved--I'm no fan of Garcetti, but the amount of union money poured into Wendy Greuel's campaign was sickening. If nothing else, the 22 percent of the Los Angeles electorate who bothered to vote (so abysmal) truly understood the stakes and voted accordingly. Bravo to you! To the rest, go live someplace else and take your apathy with you--we have a city that needs to be saved.
Another L.A. election that didn't cross my radar was for the LAUSD School Board. Apparently Monica Ratliff, a 5th-grade teacher in the school district won, even though she was outspent 42 to 1 by her opponent Antonio Sanchez.
Sanchez was heavily backed by SEIU, LACFL, Villar-itardo's Coalition for School Reform (What. A. Joke.), and even Nanny Bloomberg of New York to the tune of 2.2 million! The blogger concluded, "One political analyst described the result as proof the 'allure of the candidates' can negate the effects of big money."
Yes, it can! Let's get some good candidates who stand for something onto the local and national stage--we got lots of hacks with money of which to rid ourselves.
Okay, for many it's a Holiday weekend, so I'll get off the Poli-Junkie soapbox now, and put on my tech-geek hat. I read this great article on TechCrunch, "Why Does Hollywood Hate The Future?":
"Where is the It’s a Wonderful Life set in 2150? Are a few scenes from Back to the Future Part II really the best we got?
Again, I think the answer is that we already live in a technological utopia of sorts. No, the world isn’t perfect, but the recent advances in technology have given us so much. And people go to the movies to escape reality. It’s just too bad that science fiction films have essentially become horror movies."
I like his ending, and the rest is equally thought provoking. Give it a read.
I'll end with my favorite Friday song from The Cure, as well as my favorite John Ondrasik tune in honor of our soldiers. To those who died in service to our country, I honor you this weekend. Freedom isn't free.
Happy Friday!:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/wa2nLEhUcZ0]
Honor a fallen veteran, and give a kiss to the one's still leading the charge:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/GRz4FY0ZcwI]