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Tens of thousands outraged over “Obamacare”

Brittany — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:48:32 +0000

Not just thousands, but tens of thousands of Americans marched up to the Capitol yesterday to voice their upset over Obama’s “outrageous” health care plan.

Some of the more colorful demonstration pieces showed the president as the Joker, just like the famous — or infamous depending on your political perspective — posters to hit telephone poles and random walls in California last month. Of course, they feature Obama with eyes blacked-out, face chalk white and a bludgeoned, bloody red smile spread across his cheeks. Below the Photoshop likeness came “SOCIALISM” and “FASCISM” on some signs.

Other signs read “One nation under plunder,” “Obamacare makes me sick,” “Go Green Recycle Congress” and “I’m Not Your ATM” — and let’s not forget voices that chanted things like, “Enough, enough” and “We the People,” “You lie, you lie!” and my personal favorite, “Pelosi has to go.”

Thousands protested Obamacare.

According to AOL News, many of the protesters got the push for this movement from the recent tea parties held to discuss similar dissatisfaction, just a more generalized one in how the entire country is being run… Into the ground in my opinion.

Complaints heard were nothing out of the ordinary.

How can we afford this when our country’s more than $11 trillion in debt?

What about the elderly? I heard coverage for them isn’t going to stretch past a certain age. Who’s right is it to put worth on a human life based on age?

Why would I want to put the most important aspect of my life — my health — in the hand’s of someone else? Especially the government’s?

Aren’t there more important items to spend our money on right now? Granted, our current health care system isn’t the greatest, but no one’s dying in the streets because they can’t get health care.

And what about future generations? How will they afford to pay the debt this plan will incur?

All legitimate questions, I believe.

Something positive this protest has accomplished, no matter what side of the political fence you sit, is demonstrate the fact that some Americans do care about what goes on in this country and what policies are being implemented or trying to be implemented.

For a while there I was beginning to believe no one would stand up to this sickeningly sweet idea of butterflies and unicorns, this dream world idea, and a country that can live happily with the government paying for everything for its people. Does that mean we don’t have to work anymore too?

It’s about time people started to stand up for freedom.

Though I could pull some positives out of this event, as it’s always refreshing for me to see the American people exercise their right to free speech, however, I also found some serious flaws.

Being one day after this most serious event, taking into consideration just how many people were there, and allow me to reiterate — tens of thousands — I found it interesting just what type of coverage this massive protest rally received from the liberal news media.

The St. Petersburg Times, one of the largest newspapers in the U.S., gave this event a single string of biased words on the front page, “Angry foes of Obama policies rally in D.C. See page 4.”

Flipping to page four, a long piece details not the rally itself, but stories from real people with health care horror stories, most of which on why they can’t afford health care and all the misery they’ve suffered as a result.

Any tidbit of information about one of the largest rallies on the nation’s Capitol discussed the “anger” demonstrated on Obama’s wonderful health care initiative.

Oh the disgusting bias.

I’ve been in college studying journalism for the past four years of my life. I don’t know if my school’s different than others, but I was taught that the main function of the press was to alert the public in an unbiased manner, the news, the truth, essentially, just as it happened. I don’t even know what to call this. It’s certainly not journalism though and it makes me sad.

Obama’s education speech gets A+ in my book

andrea — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:35:39 +0000

The other day I was stuck in traffic behind a huge truck covered in anti-Obama stickers. It had the one of him looking like Heath Ledger’s character from The Dark Knight, the Joker. There was another one claiming something about how Obama is going to ruin our country, and then, my personal favorite, one claiming that President Obama is actually a socialist.

This is always an interesting argument to me because I do not believe that Obama is trying to make America a socialist nation. I simply do not see the logic behind that idea. It’s one of those ideas that you just keep to yourself because you know that it’s… illogical.

This senseless thought has returned to the forefront thanks to President Obama’s televised speech on American education yesterday.

“Every single one of you has something that you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer,” Obama told students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia and to students around the country via CNN.

In this speech, Obama encouraged students to do well in school so that they can prepare for the future. He discussed their importance, hitting on the fact that they are the future of this nation.

Students from kindergarten to seniors in high school were encouraged (and some forced) to watched Obama’s urge for American students to get their priorities in order. I couldn’t help but laugh at some of it. It was like he tapped into what my mother told me years ago.

“At the end of the day, the circumstances of your life: what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home. None of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude at school…” Obama said. “There is no excuse for not trying.”

BAM!

Of course, people don’t like being told that they control their own destiny. It makes them even more mad when the President of the United States goes on national television and tells their children what they’ve never told them.

“[We need] every single one of you,” he said.

Every. Single. One.

According to USA Today, many schools received complaints about the President’s speech and urged their public schools not to show it. One such parent claimed that his speech to the children was “just wrong.” (This parent lives in Texas.)

What’s “just wrong” is the dropout rate among high-school students in America. What’s also wrong is the amount of graduates who don’t know how to do basic reading, writing and arithmetic.

The last president to address America’s youth was George H.W. Bush in 1991. Many things have changed since then and our depression bound country depends on future generations to follow.

It’s about time that a President showed some concern for America’s youth, and it’s about time that the youth of America knows that they’re being counted on.

I say we make the education speech annual; that is, unless we all go socialist in a few years.

Oxymoron: 60 Plus Association

andrea — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:00:01 +0000

The oxymoron of the week is a conservative nonpartisan organization.

Any organization that claims to have both of these things under its belt clearly doesn’t understand the meaning of conservative and nonpartisan.

I have decided to outline its meanings. I hope you’re listening 60 Plus Association. I’m talking to you.

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, nonpartisan means “free from party affiliation, bias or designation.” According to anyone who can count higher than their fingers and toes, a nonpartisan organization and a conservative organization is not the same thing.

The 60 Plus Association calls itself just that.

On the group’s Web site, 60 Plus brags that it’s the conservative counterpart of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). This self-promoted “nonpartisan” organization has made it its mission to end the federal estate tax and save Social Security for the young. The association’s latest attempt to do this is by a television ad showing their strict opposition to President Obama’s health care reform.

Thanks to a sweet little thing called the First Amendment, organizations (and people too) like 60 Plus Association are free to market their ideas…just as long as they’re not encouraging people to go against the government. That’s basically the only requirement. Obviously, nothing libelous is allowed; that’s common sense kind of stuff. Still, everyone is free to vocalize their ideas even if they’re wild.

Ah, the joys of the marketplace of ideas.

This brings us to back to the TV ad placed by 60 Plus. This minute-long commercial is, like the organization itself, full of misconceptions and contradictions.

According to Factcheck.org, the ad itself is false. One claim is that Congress will cut more than $500 billion in Medicare when in actuality it will be about $220 billion from the “projected growth of Medicare spending over the next 10 years.” The numbers and statements in this advertisement are exaggerated, yet presented as fact.

What is especially amusing about these exaggerated assertions is that the AARP disputed the claims directly in a “Myths v. Facts” rundown saying, “Fact: None of the health care reform proposals being considered by Congress would cut Medicare benefits or increase your out-of-pocket costs for Medicare services.”

Factcheck.org also claims to have contacted 60 Plus for confirmation concerning the validity of the claim that seniors will use their doctors. They never heard back.

The narrator says, “It’s a cruel joke.” I think he’s trying to say that the possible overhaul is a joke. What he meant to mean is that what they’re trying to get across is that advertisement is a cruel joke.

It just isn’t true.

Online gaming: Breaking or building social barriers?

Brittany — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:39:22 +0000

Most days, as soon as he gets home from work or finishes with his last class, Thomas Odmark, a business major and junior at the University of South Florida, hops into the seat of his leather, high-back computer chair and logs onto his favorite online game, World of Warcraft.

Odmark is but one of more than 10 million people worldwide who are subscribed to World of Warcraft, also known as the most popular of the hundreds of MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) out there now.

Coupled with their massive popularity and the fact that most of these games require extensive time commitments in order to complete levels and build characters, it’s easy to understand how many players become addicted to MMORPGs.

“You’d have to play at least four days a week and at least four hours at a time in order to make any decent progress in [World of Warcraft],” said Odmark, who has played the game for three years. “I try to play around 20 hours a week.”

This is something Odmark manages to do between going to school full time and holding a part-time job.

Leveling a character is the main object of most MMORPGs. Once the highest level is attained, a player works toward various achievement points, rankings and getting higher-leveled gear. Essentially, there is no end to these games, which is the draw for many players.

“New levels, bosses, gear, achievements…are always being added, and a new expansion pack is coming out this year,” said Odmark.

With all this time being devoted to playing games online, there’s not a great deal of time left to do much else.

“[Online gaming] is certainly changing our idea of socialization,” said USF sociology professor Christina Partin. “With less physical interaction, people can lose the important ability to communicate face-to-face. This presents a serious problem.”

The lack of physical interaction and its affect on sociability isn’t the only concern when considering the possible negative effects of online gaming.

Since 2002, at least three cases have hit the news that have suicide linked to online gaming. In one case, the popular MMORPG EverQuest is being sued in an effort to get warning labels put on the games.

Another cause for concern occurred in 2005 when a Korean couple left their 4-month-old daughter at home to play World of Warcraft at a nearby Internet café. In their absence, the baby died of suffocation.

“In these cases, the games acted only as mediums and therefore shouldn’t be held liable,” said Partin. “It’s sad, but it can be compared to most any other addiction. The people involved must take on personal responsibility and make a conscious effort to avoid the possible negative effects.”

Despite these harrowing examples, it is possible that online games, at least in a world so vehemently based on technology and online communication, can have a positive affect.

“Although physical social interaction is important and certainly is limited with these games and their restrictions, some people would never reach out to anyone otherwise. These games give those people a means to communicate and express themselves,” said Partin.

“When I [communicate through chats] on World of Warcraft, I get to talk with people I wouldn’t ever get to meet in person. I talk to people from Iceland, Australia and Canada all the time, and I really learn a lot from them,” said Odmark.

“My daughter has never had many friends. It wasn’t until she started playing [World of Warcraft] that I noticed her talk about others and begin to have a social life,” said Jay Thomas, father of a 16-year-old who has played the game for two years. “She really seems happy, and that’s all I want for her.”