Articles from Friday, October 05, 2007

Shattering the Political Trance of Inevitability: Obama Trusts Himself to Think in the Moment

Some political commentators are noticing Obama’s capacity to deeply engage in contemplative observation and introspection. This kind of thoughtfulness anchors political action in core decency and hope through reflection about the details of the underlying issues. This is what is needed to shatter The Trance, the current air of political inevitability.

Photographs of Barack Obama by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz are included.

[tags: Barack Obama, The Trance, politics, news, photographs, Annie Leibovitz]

Photo of the Day: Heavenly Stoner Toes

“Photo of the Day: Heavenly Stoner Toes.” What we have here is a photograph of some stoners’ absolutely beautiful, heavenly, divine, sexy toes. Someone needs to make a bronze cast of these gorgeous, luscious pinkies!!

Presented for you here in stunning high-resolution. Enjoy!!

[tags: Photo of the Day, Photograph of the Day, Heavenly Stoner Toes, toes, sexy, photograph, art]

Senator Larry Craig (NOT Gay-R) of “Brokeback Bathroom” Refuses to Leave Senate

When charged in an airport men’s room gay sex sting, Sen. Larry Craig said that he’d resign on Sept. 30. Then Craig said that he’d stay in office pending an appeal. The Minnesota judge rejected Craig’s appeal, but now Craig says that he’ll stay in the Senate anyway!!

This article includes a detailed description of the the events, photos and videos.

[tags: Senator Larry Craig, Craig refuses to resign, politics, sex, gay, photographs, videos]

Britney Spears Performs “Gimme More” with Godawful Stripper Pole Action

“Britney Spears Performs “Gimme More” with Godawful Stripper Pole Action.” Or one might say, godawful stripper pole action galore. Or godawful stripper pole action galore, and not really much more. Don’t believe me? Then please take a look for yourself!

The posting includes Britney stripper pole dancing photographs and the music video.

[tags: Britney Spears, music, Gimme More, stripper pole dancing, stripper, sexy, photographs, YouTube video]

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Technorati: Barack Obama, Obama, The Trance, breaking The Trance, thinking, thoughtful, thoughtfulnes, Hillary Clinton, political machines, Photo of the Day, Photograph of the Day, image, picture, photo, photograph, photography, photographer, Annie Leibovitz, Heavenly Stoner Toes, toes, Rome Italy, Senator Larry Craig, Craig, Craig refuses to leave the Senate, gay sex sting, scandal, legal legal issues, sex, gay sex, gay, Britney Spears, Britney Spears pole dancing, Britney Spears stripper pole dancing, dance, dancer, dancing, stripper, sexy, song, singer, art, celebrities, Los Angeles, Hollywood, culture, cultural, social, society, video, WordPress video, YouTube, music video, blog, blogger, blogging, photo-blog

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Britney Spears Performs “Gimme More” with Godawful Stripper Pole Action

Britney Spears: Sings Gimme More, while Playing with Her Stripper Pole

Anonymous Pole Dancer

Interactive Britney Pole Dance at London’s Madame Toussads

Britney Spears: Singing Gimme More, Playing with Her Stripper Pole

Technorati: Britney Spears, Gimme Moore, pole dance, pole dancing, Britney Spears pole dancing, stripper, stripper pole, stripper pole dance, stripper pole dancing, Britney stripper pole dancing, dance, dancer, dancing, stripper, sexy, Madame Toussads, London, celebrities, personalities, culture, cultural, social, society, Los Angeles, images, pictures, photographs, music, song, singer, video, music video, YouTube, blog, blogger, blogging
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My Articles for Sunday, September 30, 2007

Hillary’s Wonkery: And Then There’s “That Laugh”

The Clinton campaign’s way of dealing with complaints that Hillary looks too cunning is to toss in a bit of personality. This is worse: now she’s laughing like an alarm clock buzzer. “The Daily Show” pictured a voice inside her head saying, “Humorous remark detected, prepare for laughter display.”

Photographs and a video are included.

[tags: Hillary Clinton, politics, news, ceelebrities, photographs, video]

Paris Hilton’s Many Talents: Film Star, Recording Artist, Entrepreneur and Ex-Con

“Paris Hilton’s Many Talents: Film Star, Recording Artist, Entrepreneur and Ex-Con.” David Letterman grilled Paris Hilton mercilessly on his television show last week. Letterman’s “jail interrogation” made Paris squirm and squirm!! Poor thing. It’s very funny to watch!

Photograph and video are included.

[tags: Paris Hilton, David Letterman, television, celebreties, socialite, video, YouTube]

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Paris Hilton’s Many Talents: Film Star, Recording Artist, Entrepreneur and Ex-Con

But I Don’t Want to Talk About It…. 

Letterman Grills Hilton: Jail Interrogation Makes Paris Squirmy

Technorati: Paris Hilton with David Letterman, Paris Hilton on the David Letterman Show, Paris, Paris Hilton, David Letterman, television, CBS, Paris in jail, jail, culture, cultural, social, social issues, society, society, image, photo, photograph, video, YouTube, news, blog, blogger, blogging
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Inspiration and Hardship: Overcoming the Challenges of Adversity

DICK AND RICK HOYT: A FATHER-SON TEAM

“The message of Team Hoyt is that everybody should be included in everyday life.”

Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon, that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America. It’s a remarkable record of exertion, all the more so when you consider that Rick can’t walk or talk.

For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.

At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development. “It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born,” Dick told me. “When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away, he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now.”

The couple brought their son home determined to raise him as “normally” as possible. Within five years, Rick had two younger brothers, and the Hoyts were convinced Rick was just as intelligent as his siblings. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school authorities to agree: “Because he couldn’t talk they thought he wouldn’t be able to understand, but that wasn’t true.” The dedicated parents taught Rick the alphabet. “We always wanted Rick included in everything,” Dick said. “That’s why we wanted to get him into public school.”

A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear, empirical evidence of Rick’s comprehension skills. “They told him a joke,” said Dick. “Rick just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!” The engineers went on to build, using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 , an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick came to call it “my communicator.” A cursor would move across a screen filled with rows of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch with the side of his head.

When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first “spoken” words. They had expected perhaps “Hi, Mom” or “Hi, Dad.” But on the screen Rick wrote “Go Bruins.” The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season, and his family realized he had been following the hockey games along with everyone else. “So we learned then that Rick loved sports,” said Dick.

In 1975, Rick was finally admitted into a public school. Two years later, he told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers, “Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing.” Rick’s realization turned into a whole new set of horizons that opened up for him and his family, as “Team Hoyt” began to compete in more and more events. Rick reflected on the transformation process for me, using his now-familiar but ever-painstaking technique of picking out letters of the alphabet:

” What I mean when I say I feel like I am not handicapped when competing is that I am just like the other athletes, and I think most of the athletes feel the same way. In the beginning nobody would come up to me. However, after a few races some athletes came around and they began to talk to me. During the early days one runner, Pete Wisnewski had a bet with me at every race on who would beat who. The loser had to hang the winner’s number in his bedroom until the next race. Now many athletes will come up to me before the race or triathlon to wish me luck.” It is hard to imagine now the resistance which the Hoyts encountered early on, but attitudes did begin to change when they entered the Boston Marathon in 1981, and finished in the top quarter of the field. Dick recalls the earlier, less tolerant days with more sadness than anger:

“Nobody wanted Rick in a road race. Everybody looked at us, nobody talked to us, nobody wanted to have anything to do with us. But you can’t really blame them - people often are not educated, and they’d never seen anyone like us. As time went on, though, they could see he was a person — he has a great sense of humor, for instance. That made a big difference.”

After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon, and for this Dick had to learn to swim. “I sank like a stone at first” Dick recalled with a laugh “and I hadn’t been on a bike since I was six years old.”

With a newly-built bike (adapted to carry Rick in front) and a boat tied to Dick’s waist as he swam, the Hoyts came in second-to-last in the competition held on Father’s Day 1985. “We chuckle to think about that as my Father’s Day present from Rick, ” said Dick. They have been competing ever since, at ho