See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

In all the recent confusion about what makes a candidate "worthy" to be President of the United States, some questions have been raised....

Let me see if I have this straight.....

*If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic, different.'
*If you grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, yours is a quintessential American story.

*If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
*Name your kids Willow,Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

*Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
*Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

*If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

*If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second-highest-ranking executive and next in line behind a man in his eighth decade.

*If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

*If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a true Christian.

*If you teach responsible, age-appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

*If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

*If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner-city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.

* If your husband is nicknamed 'First Dude,' with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.


OK, much clearer now.

Call Me Leisure Suit Lefty...

I've recently been reading and responding to my Uber-Conservative friend's Facebook notes regarding election material (mainly consisting, and I apologize for the bluntness, Friend, of close-minded, rich white-man thoughts). I respect the fact that my friend's opinions differ from mine, albeit mostly when money is the prime topic, and I appreciate that he offers his insight to the world as an educated person, standing strong with his beliefs. I also appreciate that he makes my decision this fall that much easier. You see, I'm not sure I consider myself affiliated with any single party. In fact, I find the idea of our nation's political power mostly deposited into just two entities disturbing and offensive to my humanity. Yet, when I discuss politics with my friend, a white male brought up in a middle-class community, himself on the upper end of the spectrum, who attended decent schools and learned from many other "successful" white males, and who (I believe) finds equal measure of happiness in both nature as well as material goods, I cannot help but feel his views are limited merely to a mirrored effect of his rich, white male predecessors.

I am somewhat disappointed by his take on certain issues, especially when it comes to decisions that are good for the "people." My friend is a creative minded individual--the son of an architect, who I can still remember when bringing in a fully-functional hover craft he had built for some project in school--which makes me question whether he decided his views or if they were decided for him.

Obviously, we were torn from different cloths, but I still find it hard to believe that two people, raised in the same area, attending the same, mediocre schools, and subjected to the same media grow to have such opposed views. As many Republicans do, he refers to Liberals as "leftys," a seemingly neutral term turned offensive when preceded by "those" or "stupid" or "ignorant." As most children are, we are molded by our parents to, in essence, become our parents, political ideologies and all. It is this reasoning that explains my friend's political endeavors to me. I can only assume that a person as creative as him, who was always thinking outside the box in school, who was always the first to offer assistance to those who needed it, who is extremely pleasant to be around, hold conversations with, and who, for the life of me, I can't remember ever truly wronging any human being, must simply be abiding by the rituals of his parents, most likely his father, accepting the greedy, power-hungry, poor-suppressing, conservative ways of the right wings, hoarding wealth and defending it at all costs, even if it means loosing a little bit of humanity in the process.

So be it, I suppose, but I would have hoped that our school systems hadn't failed us that much, to not teach us to question the motives of others, and especially our own. I'm not saying the outcome would be different; in fact I believe some individuals would still find their choices to be much the same, but I just think that if even the creative-thinkers in this world are manipulated, brain-washed, and not challenged, what is left? A bunch of right-wing, anti-female, money-grubbers who allow for the free flow of big business at the cost of a 3-tiered class system? Doesn't sound like much to me.

And that is just what is happening--our wondrous class divides are quickly and quite literally becoming a melting pot, with the middle class fading into the lower class while the "ever-so-ethically-earning-every-cent" upper class gets, well, up-er. But of course, my friend, is in the upper levels of the balcony, looking down at those who scrabble in the dirt frantically trying to find jobs just to pay for their children's health care, not to mention the grandfathers and grandmothers pushing carts and taking your orders in fast food lines because our Social Security is down the drain...but go ahead and spend your millions of dollars on wolf hunting or whatever "economy-changing" plans our potential vice president has to offer. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

Friend, I think I'll take a humane realist over a candidate with dollar signs and oil leaking from his eyes any day. I'll put my vote towards a middle class, and hopefully, smaller gaps between humans, both literal and metaphorical. But keep on believing, keep on writing, and keep on arguing--otherwise where is the fun in politics? I mean, it's not called polite-ics.........right?

My Womb Is NOT Your Womb (and similar stories)

As I sit at work, delicately sipping my coffee I secretly mickey-ed with caramel syrup I found way back in a cabinet that I am not reminding anyone of, I am sifting through the Los Angeles Times online and found an interesting and empowering article on the amazing, woman-hating, money-hungry legend from the Alaskan landscape, Sarah Palin.

I implore you to delve into the words of feminist leader Gloria Steinem:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,7915118.story

I am trying to read more on each presidential candidate and his vice presidential counterpart, slowly, sluggishly gaining a greater perspective on what each "promises," reaches for, and hopes to gain from serving as the leader of our country.

It's tough for me to make any strong, opinion-oriented comments or take a political stance on many topics because I am not educated enough on them to do so. I'll be the first to admit it. But I will also be the first to admit that Sarah Palin really disgusts me. If you read this article, you'll hopefully understand why. I'm not an extreme feminist in the ways of some that put themselves on the line in a public setting (not that I'm opposed to the idea, I just don't have the resources or collective ideas yet), but I do stand by my opinions in a diginified manner and Sarah Palin goes against many ideals and standards I set for myself. How can you preach that teaching abstinence works when your daughter is pregnant. Is she really that blind?

Anyway, I'm ranting now, but check out the article and read it all the way through if possible.

I guess I should get back to work. Some of the late-comers are strolling in and I really do like to say hi to them. They are a friendly group for the most part. I like that.

Peace and loooove,
Katy

Oooo, P.S. My parents brought down my car yesterday. It is a '93 Mazda Miata, silver, convertible, and it is SUPER awesome and everything I wanted in a car, like, EVER. Props to my momma for finding it in a random lot. I'm REALLY playing grown-up now!

Don't Think About It So Much

Well, it's been about a week...a very long, physically and emotionally draining week...so I thought I would write a little about my first week in the "real world," whatever that means.

I began my job at Blink Digital Media, sitting for hours and hours and hours answering the rare calls that come through, running miscellaneous tasks for other office employees, and dominating almost routinely at Solitaire. I'm so cool.

The job itself is super simple except for the times I freak out over messing up little things (with no training, I don't feel entirely responsible) and I met a couple guys that make movies in their free time (the kinds where the actors keep their clothes on) so all in all, I think it's a pretty sweet gig.

It's right in Burbank, which is no good for us bus-riders, but pretty awesome nonetheless. The commute calls for long travels and longer days, but since I'm currently getting paid to upgrade my card-playing skills as well as my ability to choose great lobby music, I'm not complaining too much.

I'll write more when I'm not in a multi-thousand calorie pizza-induced coma. Whoops?

Oh, and I went to a Dodgers game yesterday. My friend got box seats from this guy he works for. It was an awesome game. I wish I went to more, especially if it means more super sexy tan lines from my tshirt. Mmmm...