Oh, I Can't Believe It!

It is the Thanksgiving/Christmas season. Yay. Here are my top fives for this entry.

5) I know that I would stop talking about politics for a while. However, there has been some strong criticisms against President-Elect Obama from the Catholic church. Unlike several Protestant groups that attack his apparent Muslim faith (He is actually Christian. I also sense that the new N word of the 21st century is the M word, if you get my drift.), the Catholics have attacked him on his extreme liberal characteristics as a politician. The most concerned issue being abortion. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has recently released a statement to the president elect to ease off his pro-choice agenda, especially in terms of re-releasing federal funding to fund abortions and also the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) that will probably be re-introduced in Congress next year. Also, a cardinal has criticized Obama's hostility towards the unborn. He has also expressed his astonishment on how many Catholics voted for Obama during the general election ( 54% Obama; 45%McCain) despite the president-elect's pro-choice rhetoric. However, that is not the major concern. The leaders of the Catholic church have their right to release such statements and criticisms of our country's leaders. Remember our church has criticized President Bush for the Iraq War. What is the major concern is how individual Catholics have taken their own path to react against those who did vote for Obama.

Two Sundays ago, a Kenyan woman and her 10 year-old son was chased out of church in Fairfield, California (20 min from my place) during Mass by the priest because her SUV had pro-Obama slogans. The priest announced before the homily that the SUV with the Obama slogans would be towed in 10 min if it was not moved. Then the woman and her son got up and headed out of the door to move her car. Next the priest went out as well and just told the two to "Go, go." Now mind you that her car was parked in the loading zone of the church. However, two other cars were parked on that same loading zone as well, yet her car was targeted by the priest. Also, no priest would go out of his way to regulate parking laws in the middle of the Mass as long as it was not considered a threat to the safety of the parishioners (From the setup of the church parking lot, it was not.), and he certainly would not follow the woman and her child out of the church! To make things fair, this priest was not celebrating Mass during that time, but he did announce it during the middle of the celebration. The priest is now under investigation by the diocese of Sacramento for his actions. Just recently he has also assaulted a newspaper reporter that was trying to ask questions about the incident. The police are now investigating that incident.

Also, another priest in a Greenville, South Carolina church has announced to his parishioners that they need to go to confession if they voted for Obama or they should not receive Communion. Again, this was in response to Obama's pro-abortion stance. The diocese there has released the statement that the priest has no authority to deny Communion to anyone, except for certain situations, in which voting for a particular presidential candidate does not qualify as one of those certain situations. Also, his justification for releasing such a statement goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church in the sense that, "Christ gives us freedom to explore our own conscience and to make our own decisions while adhering to the law of God and the teachings of the faith. Therefore if a person has formed his or her conscience well, he or she should not be denied Communion, nor be told to go to confession before receiving Communion."

In other words there are those who believe, like the two examples above, that a vote for Obama is a total conflict of the faith and an endangerment to the soul because of his radical pro-choice rhetoric. However, there is a problem with that concept in my opinion. We don't have to agree with everything that a candidate supports. It's the exact lesson that we learned with those who voted for President Bush but don't support the Iraq War. We as Americans have that right to vote for those who will best lead the country OVERALL, but at the same time we can also criticize some of the policies that we don't agree with. Hence why there are so many moderate and independent voters in this country. Also, the entire system of our government, with the Congress and the Courts, prevents Obama from totally plowing through the law books. Therefore, the hope is that Congress, even with a democratic majority, does its best to ensure that controversial bills like FOCA does not even reach the desk to the soon to be president in the first place (There are conservative democrats in both houses.). To say otherwise would at best be a misunderstanding of the way the system works or at the very worst a total disregard of the democracy that has been in existence for over 200 years. As stated before, it is fine to vote for Obama as a Catholic if he or she does so in "good conscience." Therefore, you can be an Obama supporter AND still maintain and even fight for pro-life policies in the country. Besides the alternative candidate, John McCain is not necessarily that friendly to the average pro-life person by reminding everyone that he does support embryonic stem cell research. Well, I guess there's the third party candidate, but who would want to vote for a loser?

4) I had a conversation with Sherry this week and we were talking about hip-hop songs. I always wanted to say this, but the lyrics of today's hip-hop songs are RIDICULOUS! Take for example, "Can't Believe It" by T-Pain...what the hell? The line that kills me every time I listen that song is, "Put you in a mansion, somewhere in WisCANsin." I laugh because he just made up a word to rhyme with "mansion." Also, WisCONsin does not rhyme with mansion, obviously. Another song that kills me is "A Milli" by Lil' Wayne. It makes NO SENSE whatsoever! Read the lyrics. However, it is fun to sing along to, or at least attempt to sing along to. A good line in that song would probably be, "You pop 'em cause we pop 'em like Orville Redenbacher." GET IT?! Man, if all it takes to make good songs these days is to make up shit, then I'd be rich! On the other hand, the difference between a good rap artist and myself is that I can't make up shit as fast as they could.

Motherfucker I'm Ill, not sick!

3) I had another conversation with Charlene this week and said that California should be nicknamed "Shake & Bake USA" due to all the fires and earthquakes this state experiences (Not to be crass about the current fires plaguing SoCal these last few days). Then I mentioned that it was fun to make Shake & Bake, the alternate food item to fried chicken or fried pork chops, as a child. HOWEVER, she didn't know what I was talking about. Perhaps it was past her time? I don't know. On the other hand...

DOES ANYONE REMEMBER SHAKE & BAKE STILL?

Seriously, there's more to that phrase than just a line from Talladega Nights. Well, at least to me. It's a delicious mix to make baked fried chicken or even baked pork chops. The process of making it is also half the fun! However, thinking about it, you can easily use bread crumbs and a plastic bag to make the same item and probably with half the price.

2) It's November. Where did all the time go? Well, besides that, it is getting cold! What I also realized is that I haven't invested in any decent winter gear for the last four years. SoCal has really spoiled me with it's warm, sunny days, even during the winter. I don't even call it winter there but more of an extended fall. Otherwise, I still spend my 42 degree F nights in basketball shorts and a shirt.

However, there is only one good news about a broken economy, everything is either cheap or on sale, especially sweaters! Well, it's only good if you have the money to take advantage of these bargain prices in the first place.

1) Speaking of which, I can't wait to go back to SoCal, even if it is only for a weekend.

Miss you. Seriously.

That is all.

Derrick's Extremely Detailed Thoughts of the 2008 Election (Hopefully the last detailed one for a long time!)

No top fives for this entry, just the ONE!

1)

The election is over. FINALLY! However, being a Democrat since the year I started voting, this is definitely something to be proud of. The president-elect is a Democrat, and the Capital is now run by Democrats. However, despite the awesome win, it will be politics as normal. There will be issues raised, arguments made, conflicts to be eased, etc. On the other hand, despite the such normalcy, the difference between a good government and a bad one is whether they can progress and achieve something good for country despite all these "realities" to consider!

That is why I voted for Barack Obama for this year (obviously!). While it is true that in 2000, George Bush promised the exact same thing that Obama preaches in terms of unifying the country and easing the partisanship, I believe that Obama is smart enough to actually deliver what he has been saying in the campaign trail. While it is true that the Democratic Party now runs the game just as the Republicans have for at least six of the eight years of the Bush administration, that does not mean that they can run amok dictating liberal policies and forcing taxes to rise up to the roof. If they are smart, which I hope they are, they would consider that they could easily lose this power in the midterm elections of 2010 (Yes, another election!), and that they need to meet in the middle if they want to stay in power for a little longer than two years. Let's hope that dejavu does not occur in the opposite direction.

While the Dems are now calling the shots, I have to give credit to John McCain. His concession speech was just as good as Obama's. I believe this truly reflects the character of who McCain is as a good politician. If he actually stuck to his maverick character instead of complying to the Republican policies that have existed for these last eight years, I though he would be a even better opponent against Obama during the election season. Despite the many mistakes that have occurred on his side of the campaign, the McCain-Palin ticket was otherwise a very formidable opponent (An opponent I didn't want to win, but a good one nonetheless.). His pick for Sarah Palin as his vice president was a good choice as well despite what everyone else thinks. While there are criticisms that she is just plain...stupid, we need to remember that the majority of the nation is not as intelligent as she is. However, they are still decent, hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens and are still a power force in this country. In other words...DON'T underestimate the character of a person. She was able to organize and bolster her party numbers better than any other choice that McCain could have considered (like Romney or even Guliani). That, my friends, is power.

For now President-Elect Obama, this was indeed a very historical election. I never would have figured that the election of this country's first African American president would have occurred this early in my life. At this point though, ANYTHING is possible. Also, I think it marks the beginning of the end of the argument that "I can't do this or that because I'm black." The playing field is truly starting to even up. I do agree with Colin Powell that I didn't vote for Obama becasue he was black, I voted for him because I agree with his policies and he happens to be black. His campaign also started a new trend in how to bolster support for his policies...technology. It was definitely ingenious that he has used YouTube, Facebook, and text messaging to attract many voters, especially younger voters. He is definitely a president that really reflects the new power base for future elections to come...you and me!

Also, the propositions for the state of California were pretty interesting as well. I just wanted to say...

WE'RE GETTING A NEW TRAIN!

Well, there were definitely more interesting propositions than just 1A. Prop 4, a.k.a. Sarah's Law, has failed AGAIN. This is the third time that this proposition has come up on the California ballot. This is also the third time that I have voted yes for this proposition. At this point, it is DEFINITELY clear that the state does not agree with what this proposition proposes (Not by a clear majority, but a majority nonetheless.). How many more times will this proposition appear on the ballot? Also, I don't think it will get any easier to pass considering that the number of voters that were born after Roe v. Wade (1973) is getting larger and larger. Even the abortion-limiting propositions in Colorado and South Dakota have failed. Abortions unfortunately are now a normal facet of life. For the Pro-Life person, there definitely needs to be a re-assessment as to how to actually reduce the number of abortions down instead of just ranting on how evil and wrong the procedure is. Everyone knows that it's wrong. No one wants to have these abortions. However, someone really needs to make the American people think about abortions in a different way other than just saying that it's a life and displaying images of mangled fetuses from late-term abortions. I think they will definitely hit a societal jackpot if they can promote a pro-life policy that people can agree on other than just pushing to limit existing abortion laws or even outright making abortions illegal in this country. The current approach is definitely not working, and it needs to be fixed.

Another interesting one was proposition 8. Gay marriages are now illegal in this state under the California constitution. Yes, there have been protests, and there are now three legal cases attempting to reverse this proposition, but the state has spoken. One reason for this is ironically the huge voter turnout for Obama. A good chunk of Obama supporter are African American and Latino, and they are not as supportive or even kind to the progression of gay rights. Florida and Arizona have also rejected the right for gays to marry. For me, while I did vote no on proposition 8 and I am against the persecution and the discrimination against gays, I am not necessarily going to be disappointed in the passing of prop 8, nor am I going to be a hard fighter for gay rights. While I can care less if gays do get married and I don't buy in the idea that homosexuality needs to be wiped off the face of the earth, I'm a Catholic that still believes in a traditional family and the values that this brings, especially to my children. Therefore, I find no need or rush to promote gay rights. Someone else will fight as hard and as passionate for gay rights, but it's not going to be me.

There, that's it, no more about this election! In summary and in conclusion, all I will say is that in the word of Barack Obama "Change has come to America" and it is time for us and the rest of America to...

Move forward and move on!

That is all.

Change Can Happen

Enough said.

That is all.