FOLLOW THE LEADER

That's the title of an article by Anna Quindlen in Newsweek that keeps haunting me.

She says: "Obama supporters who abandoned the Democrats in Massachusetts showed that 41 percent of those who opposed the Health Care plan weren't sure exactly why. If elected officials are supposed to act based on the wisdom of ordinary people, they're going to need ordinary people to be wiser than that."

Quindlen lays out the reasons why Obama should keep going for the changes --the yes we can that fired up his campaign, and what he's attempted to do during his first year in the White House. She ends her article strongly with -- "A wise man said 'Telling the American people what we think they want to hear, instead of telling the American people what they need to hear just won't do.' That man was Barack Obama, and that attitude is one reason he got elected. He should stick to that position, and the American people should embrace it."

That's what I feel, and have said in quite a few posts. Because of who and what Obama is, we cleaved to him instinctively, trusted him, and chose him to lead us.

Stick with him! He's our Pied Piper. Follow him. The other stuff you're hearing is noise.

It's not a child-like belief. My experience, in going for something and getting it -- taught me to hold on tight to what I believe in. Even when the goal looks as if it won't work or it can't happen, hold on tight.

My reasons for supporting Obama have to do with why my support of Obama grew during the campaign, as well as what I've observed during this past year. Though the Health Care bill hasn't happened, and the Stimulus Package isn't working out the way he planned, Obama has not failed -- he's moving ahead, and changing his tactics.

Fretting, second-guessing the White House, fastening onto the aspects of Health Care and the Stimulus that are being attacked -- wondering "Gee, maybe the President's done the wrong thing -- maybe Obama should have done this or that," is making it harder for him to do the job the country needs him to do.

We chose him. We elected him. Now is the time to hold on to why we elected him, and support what he's doing, with the power he gave us with yes we can!

NATURE'S WONDERMENTS

The essence of winter ...




There's a small toll to pay.










Okay, it's tiresome.



but, fun.

WHY DOGS BITE PEOPLE

Pets love to be petted, and talked to, and their eyes talk back to us.




They're playmates but not girl
not guy friends.


This nice obedient bikini clad dog --
I think he knows he looks silly.




They're definitely amusing.



But gee, I'm not sure they like some of the games
some of us play with them.




Don't torture them.



They can't say "ouch" or gee whiz!




Or "I don't like sand!"







This pooch doesn't look happy. I think he wants to tell you "dressing up is for humans!"

She needs a doggie snack, not that
silly outfit.

Pets are for petting, not for getting
laughs.
Kiss 'em, miss 'em
if they run away, or don't want to play.
but love 'em, don't shove 'em
into clothes, that a pup knows
belong to you. Pup can't say "pooh!"

TWO POWERFUL GUYS

Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, and Douglas Elmendorf, head of the Congressional Budget Committee have big brains with lots of facts and Obama turns to them for advice.

Hmm ... Why them?

I've browsed around and here's what I've learned from the news magazines, networks, and various dot-coms.

Gates, born in Kansas 66 years ago, advised President Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush one and, Bush two.

(That impresses me -- it certainly says other presidents have trusted Gates.)

He's a Republican. (Hmm.) People say he has a photographic mind. Apparently, during Reagan's administration he was a Cold War hawk who saw the Soviet Union as an evil adversary... (Is that why Reagan called them that?) Also, Gates failed to recognize that Mikhail Gorbachev was a true reformer. And Gates said the Soviets would never leave Afghanistan, but they did; he said the Afghan President would never survive the Soviet's departure but the Afghan President stuck around for at least three more years.

(That's four mistakes, and there's more!)

Under Bush, Gates justified the missile-defense program, but under Obama Gates reversed his position -- he took charge of canceling it. And Gates never supported repealing the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, but he's agreed to carry out Obama's order to do just that.

(Whoa -- the Bush stuff bothers me.) Gates is the key adviser for the President on how and when to use military force. Before throwing his support behind General McChrystal's push for a troop surge late last year, Gates warned that the Soviets could not win with 110,000 troops in Afghanistan.

(♪ ♪ "Ac-cen- tu-ate the pos-i-tive ... E -lim-in- ate the neg-a-tive ... Don't mess with mister in between ♪ ♪..." This Gates guy sure does give a lot of negative advice.)

At least he has a sense of humor. Joking about egos in D.C., Gates said, "It's the only place in the world you can see a prominent person walking down lovers' lane holding his own hand."

Thinking positively, I'm figuring maybe his photographic mind is chock full of facts that Obama needs to fend off the Republican attacks.

Fran, my blog coach taught me how to embed video clips, so take a look at Gates -- he's stiffish -- I don't know all the ins and outs, but I have to admit, I like the way he deals with the mistakes he's made.





What about Douglas Elmendorf, the "money numbers guy?" At age 47, a soft-spoken academic (he taught at Harvard before joining the Congressional Budget Committee (CBO), in '93,) he coaches his daughter's soccer team and commutes to work on the subway.

(So he's a penny pincher.)

The latest statement from the CBO is Elmendorf's forecast that the federal deficit will reach $1.35 trillion this year — $4,400 for every American. Delivering the grim budgetary news is his job, but his numbers infuriate people -- some say he's exaggerating costs, others say he's underestimating them.

Here's Elmendorf being grilled, explaining a complicated issue that I don't altogether understand, but I like his fresh-faced, down-to earth, direct way of handling it.





Okay. Money numbers help Obama make his plans -- prepare him for the questions he's got to be able to answer. And Gates -- his long history and his experience help Obama.

These two advisers are not yes-men. They tell the President what he needs to know as he's making decisions for us, holding onto our American values and principles that he's committed to upholding for us.

So lay your numbers on him, Elmendorf! Give Obama your fatherly advice Gates, as much as you want!

We've got a man in the White House who's got a mind of his own.

LATEST NEW STUFF

● Bad/good news -- you'll be reading books on your iPad -- five publishers -- Macmillan, HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster and Hachette signed on with Apple.

● Bad/ sad news -- you'll be paying for reading the New York Times on line in 2011 -- visitors will get a certain number of viewings (not yet disclosed) free, each month before they're asked to pay a flat fee for access. It sounds complicated, indefinite -- but Arthur Sulzberger Jr., company chairman/publisher of the great newspaper that we count on to always be there, said, sort of gingerly, “We can’t get this halfway or three-quarters of the way right. We have to get this really, really right.”

● Mind boggling numbers -- Obama's $3.8 trillion budget, attacked by Republicans as a reckless recipe for fiscal disaster, though Bush's $3.1 trillion budget created the financial crisis that Obama needs the money to solve.

● IN vocabulary -- frenemy, staycation, waterboarding, apocalipstick, shawarma, neuroprotective. cardioprotective, locavore, vlogs, webisodes, prepone (opposite of postpone), and flash mob, in beta, sock puppet, green collar. Plus carry-overs from last year -- mini good news, teachable moment, shovel ready; toxic assets, too big to fail, linguistics, Czar, apps, transparency, tweet; sexting, stimulus; bromance, chillaxin.'

● Good/bad news on jobs -- unemployment down to 9.7 %, but many job hunters have stopped job-hunting, making the unemployment figures look better, when they're worse or more or less the same.

● Bad, big hero Mel Gibson is making a comeback as a bad-good-guy-violent-hero, but ... well, he's a bit over the hill, and sort of, kind of out of style/out of date.

● New Styrofoam -- it's mushroom fungus -- root-like fibers that form "mycelium" -- a non-toxic, fireproof, water resistant, insulation material, that traps more heat than fiberglass.

● Football -- it's been deemed "deadly" by medical experts-- the 90 million people who watched the Super Bowl in Miami don't realize that guys on the teams often end up brain damaged.

● Weird new female doings -- "Vagazzle" and Vag Rejuventation are among the six things the Huffington Post lists, that women do to "fix" their vaginas -- ranging from cheap, cosmetic deodorants to expensive surgical alterations (vaginal rejuvenation, $20,000.) Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, in her new "dating" book, devotes a whole chapter to the subject.

Jennifer Love Hewitt appeared on Lopez Tonight recently, to hawk her new dating book. One of her tips: glue shiny things on your "vajayjay" so it shines like a disco ball.

Whewy!

All I can say is "Happy new decade" -- lets save the NY Times and buy it every Sunday, learn the IN words, sigh over Mel Gibson, insulate our houses with mushrooms, hope for the best on the national budget, job-hunters, and brain damaged football players, and brace ourselves -- here's Jennifer with Lopez -- she gets to the revelations at 2: 40.

JIM CROW

The title caught my eye -- the article in a recent Newsweek was tucked in between other intriguing titles.

Jim Crow means to me what I've seen, what made me cringe throughout my years as a traveling dancer -- performing over a thousand one-night-stands.

Ellis Cose, Black author, columnist and contributing editor, in his article on the tragedy of America's jails, attacks the disparity in crack and cocaine sentencing that has disproportionally hit black men. Cose feels the subject deserves presidential attention.

Describing what Obama has said to the NAACP about African American children being five times more likely to end up in jail, and Obama's mild reaction to the arrest of that Harvard Professor for breaking into his own home, Cose states, "Precisely because of his race, this president must walk on eggshells when approaching a racially charged subject."

What I've seen setting up my show --"We don't "Mr." our niggers" -- and my southern in-laws' casual remarks about Niggers and Jews -- and grade school kids attacking me, shouting "Dirty Jew, you killed Christ!" -- prejudices ME intensely against good White Christians. But it's minor, nothing compared to what all Blacks know, what Obama knows.

I smell race prejudice from this past year with Obama as President. The odiferous evil stink of it, the spoken and unspoken ingrained thing -- it's less than what it was many years ago, but still there.

Jim Crow.

Can this generation kill it? I thought we could. Now, I'm afraid that the Black man in the White House will realize that his presence in the White House is making it harder for Blacks to be what they are.

I'm hoping Obama's understanding of life as a Black will fire him up to stay tall and strong, stay on for a second term in White House.

Despite the hardships, his presence there helps all the Blacks, and helps you and me be what we are.

INNER BODY ART

These 15 pictures arrived in an email from Fran, my blog coach. Her friend and veterinarian, sent them to her (they're making the rounds on email). They were captured using a scanning electron microscope.


Red blood cells --
they look like strawberry "Cherrios!"





Split end of a human hair





Neurons (Purkinje)
100 Billion of them -- they're
masters of coordination


------->Hair Cell of the Ear





Blood vessels emerging
from the optic nerve.





------->Tongue with a taste bud.






Tooth plaque -- a picture your Dentist
ought to show you.





Blood Clot -- white flower in the center is
a whole blood cell.









Normal Aveoli of the lung's inner surface.
and a picture of lung cancer cells >.






Villi of the small intestine
help absorption of food.




-------> Human Egg with Coronal Cells, sitting on a pin.







Sperm on surface of an egg





Human Embryo and Sperm 5 days after fertilization of egg ----------->.




Colored image of a 6 day old
human embryo implanting itself
onto the wall of the womb.




The colors, the vision -- Nature's art is breathtaking!