Tea party movement.

Religion + patriotism is what makes a bulk of the Republican party. Add racism to the equation, and you get the tea party movement. WaPo has a piece on the movement, but this bit stands out :

Johnson [a tea party protester] expressed opposition to Obama. “It’s not just because he’s black,” he said. “I wish I could tell you that I loved this guy, that he was a great president, that I had faith in him. But I have none. Zero.”

The way this guy is oblivious to the racist tone in his comment is almost .. cute.

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A recent survey said that 57% of the tea-baggers viewed the Bush term favourably. Nuff said.

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Tea-bagger is a pejorative term for tea party protesters. Do not call a protester one unless you know how to react should he exercise his second amendment rights.

Lost over Lost ?

I am guessing many of the readers didn’t get what the big deal about Lost is.

Here’s an interesting bit of info : President Barack Obama was thinking of having his annual State of the Union address on Feb. 2, but moved the date so it wouldn’t coincide with the season premiere of Lost.

Go figure.

Manmohan Singh livid.

Read this line :

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is believed to be extremely upset — some say even livid — [over the IPL's treatment of Pakistan players].

Manmohan Singh livid ? Let’s see, in a list of least believable events, Manmohan Singh turning livid with anger is just above Obama wooing Republicans,  Rakhi Sawant attaining sainthood and Fox News running an hour of facts.

As the Chacha Chaudhari comic would say, When Manmohan Singh gets angry, the volcano on Jupiter goes ROTFL.

Healthcare goes further down.

American healthcare is one of the worst in the world – this is no secret. Still, it was depressing to read about another class of sufferers – Rape victims who are denied insurance.

Some women have contacted the Investigative Fund to say they were deemed ineligible for health insurance because they had a pre-existing condition as a result of a rape, such as post traumatic stress disorder or a sexually transmitted disease. Other patients and therapists wrote in with allegations that insurers are routinely denying long-term mental health care to women who have been sexually assaulted.

Talking on a broader term, the reason I never bothered to write about the healthcare debate is that I cannot take a stand yet. I wish a government wouldn’t enter the healthcare industry, but I don’t see any solution to this crisis. I’ve never had to see a medical professional during my 2+ years here, and I

If there are any readers who believe in libertarianism or government conservatism, I’d love to hear your solutions.

Bara din, Nobel in.

Someone took the Nobel thing seriously and investigated why Barack Obama might have been awarded the Nobel. The nominations closed on Feb. 1 and this is what Obama’s resume for the 12 days looks like :

• January 21: Obama met with the ambassador to Iraq, commander in Iraq, and regional commander to receive a complete briefing on the war.
• January 22: Obama ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
• January 22: Obama signed an executive order explicitly prohibiting the use of torture and ordering all U.S. forces to obey the Army Field Manual. He also ordered a review of the case of Ali Saleh al-Marri, a detainee held on a Naval brig in South Carolina.
• January 22: Obama met with numerous retired generals.
• January 23: Obama rescinded the Mexico City policy, which had prevented nongovernmental organizations from receiving government funding if they supplied family planning assistance or abortions abroad.
• January 23: Obama calls Prime Minister Harper of Canada, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, and Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations.
• January 26: Obama announced his appointing of Todd Stern to the new position of special envoy for climate change — recognizing the environment as a pressing foreign-policy concern.
• January 27: More phone calls. This time Obama speaks with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, and Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan.

Bara din, Nobel in. But assuming they were living in a hole after the nominations, the award makes much sense.

I just feel terribly sorry for Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and co. Imagine your worst enemy getting your girlfriend, having an affair with your wife, being your parents favourite, living in a bigger house, being your boss, being loved more than you by your kids, and on top of that, winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

And that’s still not even close to how the poor souls might be feeling !

Link via Salil B.

Really ?

For a long time, I ignored all tweets that cracked jokes about how Obama should get the Nobel Peace Prize.

Until I suspected something sneaky, and googled it.

Yep, it’s true.

The second time this week – May I very respectfully ask … WTF ?

Stand up for the non-crazy Americans !

Yes, I’m alive.

Now back to business.

A must watch video of Bill Maher giving it to the Republicans in his trademark style and challenging President Obama to stand up for the “70% Americans who aren’t crazy”.  There are just too many gems of sentences in there to quote, so kindly watch the whole damn thing.

I don’t think a fair debate on healthcare is ever going to be possible, although extremism and alarmist attitudes need to be nipped before theycause some serious damage. The problem is essentially now this – too many stupid people are falling prey to the Fox News anchors and conservative rumor mongers and too many smart people are either indifferent to the whole thing or content watching late night shows mocking the first set of people.

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Thanks to those who have been checking in and not finding updates (another reason why you should subscribe to the RSS feeds). Be kind enough to follow the tweets when posts run dry here. I have heard that god kills a kitten every time someone doesn’t follow me on Twitter.

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A lot of speculation has gone into the strange simultaneous silence from me and a certain politician. We are both going through a hard time and wouldn’t like to talk about it. Kindly respect our privacy.

Learn to reject.

Amit V. puts the SRK-questioned-tauba-tauba outcry in perspective :

There is a theory that all this is a publicity stunt for Shah Rukh’s forthcoming film, My Name is Khan, which is supposedly about racial profiling. I find it hard to believe that he can get US authorities to cooperate with him on a publicity stunt, so that’s a bit beyond the pale. But it is entirely possible that after the incident happened, he decided to milk it in the media. But that’s the game, and I wouldn’t blame him for that. I’d blame the media for making such a fuss about it.

I couldn’t agree more.

I am not a fan of SRK. Both he and I know that he acts badly. In the odd movie like Swades or Kabhi Haa Kabhi Naa, both in my all time favourites, he is exceptional, but just by his standards. But upfront, I’d like to decouple his acting or genre of movies from this incident.

If true that he milked the incident this time around, he is opportunistic but rational. Like everyone else. I just find it incredibly hard to believe that he needs publicity. He is so big a star that a channel interviewing him gets publicity, if at all possible. I did not find him angry in his reactions, and he has been trying to downplay the incident ever since it took on epic proportions. We must credit him for that. I’d be surprised if he mentions this incident in every promotion of My Name Is Khan.

I also agree when he says, “I don’t think that I need publicity”. Terribly pompous, narcissistic or arrogant, you decide. True, yes.

Everyone has taken their sides, mostly by self-selection, the criteria being whether you love SRK or hate him (there usually is no third option). Amidst all this, few have questioned the validity of this debate.

Because it’s not about SRK here.

As a viewer or reader of the news, I find myself helplessly pulled into such issues that I really don’t care about. As a country, we might be the only one where viewers need to learn to reject news. We don’t have leftist, centrist or rightist news channels, we have everyone delivering the same news. In the U.S., if you thought Obama’s comment that “the police officer acted stupidly in the HenryLouis-gate controversy” was justified, all you had to do was switch to MSNBC where a daily aarti of Obama is performed. Or sit glued to Fox News and struggle with your kid’s elementary math.

In India, you have no such choice. Till the next big news comes along, you have to be a part of it all. If you are lucky, you’ll end up ranting at your blog or in a debate with friends. If not, you’ll be outraged and find yourself pelting stones at some public property.

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Let me go ahead and say that I don’t give a damn if ex-President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was frisked either. I still consider him a great icon, but it should not mean that I express an outrage over the incident. That dude didn’t have a problem, WTF are you doing on the street ??

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If I have one piece of advice for Indians, don’t accept every news. Learn to reject.

Attacks on world leaders.

President Obama swats a fly during a television interview (seriously).

PETA sees red over issue, wishes President hadn’t swatted the fly, urges a more humane attitude.

Meanwhile, a mosquito breeding site was found behind Dr. Manmohan Singh’s official residence (again .. seriously).

Previous post on PETA here.

Quote of the day.

.. (for the first time, non-satirical) comes from Barack Obama as a part of his speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner 2009 :

Michael (Steele) for the last time, the Republican Party does not qualify for a bailout. Rush Limbaugh does not count as a troubled asset, I am sorry.

Dick Cheney was supposed to be here but he is very busy working on his memoirs, tentatively titled, “How to shoot friends and interroagte people”.

Watch Obama’s address part one and two.

Also on the must-watch list is Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner.