The State of our Union...

I know this might sound shocking to some, but I actually sat through the entire State of the Union address last night. Yes, it's true. I listened to a whole 60 minutes of crap interesting remarks from the President of the United States. I can't remember the entire thing because truthfully, I was too busy laughing at members of Congress with my roommate (has anyone else ever noticed how much John Kerry resembles Guy Smiley?). But I digress. The speech (or at least what I got out of it) went something like this:

Our nation is great but we are failing. All these other amazing countries (China and South Korea were each mentioned more than once) are passing us up and we need to work harder. But never fear! The President has a plan! He wants all our youth to become teachers because we need better teachers! I don't know what his exact plan is to sustain (aka: pay) all these new teachers or where all of them are even going to find jobs, but it probably doesn't matter because they will all be working to help our children!

He also has a plan to "invest" a bunch of money in a bunch of different places to help our country succeed. And we, the taxpayers, don't have to worry about it because it will all be "privately funded". He didn't mention who would be privately funding all of this, but my guess is one of these other amazing countries that he kept referring to. That is such a relief...

Oh, and he also signed a bunch of trade agreements with a bunch of these other countries to help provide more jobs for a few hundred thousand Americans. The reason? America needs more jobs. Oh, but he doesn't want to send illegal immigrants back home because they'll only compete against us. Instead, we should educate them (paid for by American taxpayers) and then find them jobs here in America where they can work for us! That's a great plan. Let's just not think about how that will still keep actual Americans from finding work in their own country.

Let's see...what else. Oh yes, he talked more about "our new healthcare law". Yes, it's that same law I wrote about back when it was passed. I still hate it. But the president really really wants both sides to come together on this and to make it better so that everyone will be happy with it. Um, couldn't that have happened a year ago before the democrats (and the president himself) pushed it through before anyone else had a say?

Anyway, I suppose he also said a few good things, but to me the speech left me with a feeling of dread rather than pride. President Obama is a speech. He's all talk. He made big promises when he ran for office and hasn't followed through on any of them. And now the "plans" he currently has for this country don't sound sincere. HE doesn't sound sincere. He left me feeling like I live in a crappy country rather than the greatest country ever and to me, that's a problem.

What did I get out of this speech? We need a new President. One who actually believes in America and doesn't just say those things we want to hear. He wants me to rise to the occasion and work my butt off for America? Then he needs to do the same thing! He needs to stop telling me that China is better than we are. He needs to stop telling me that I need to work harder for this country and then turn around and take my hard earned money to pay for the education of illegal immigrants who will then take my job away from me. Being able to inspire an entire country to work harder and achieve success requires a leader who is not only inspiring, but one who is willing to do the same thing. And right now, we don't have that.

Finer Things Club: China

Yesterday we had our 2nd meeting of the Finer Things Club. In honor of the Beijing Olympics as well as in honor of our co-worker (and founding member) whose last day of work is today, we decided to experience the finer things of China. It was awesome!

We had some delicious Chinese cuisine (rice, orange chicken, spring rolls and fortune cookies*) and enjoyed the props that Amy and I brought.



Here I am trying on the teeny-tiny Chinese outfit that obviously didn't fit me:

Because I wanted to know what it was really supposed to look like, I had Amy try on the teeny-tiny chinese outfit. The really sad thing is that she wore this outfit when she was 15 and it still fits her!



*Our delicious chinese cuisine wasn't quite authentic. They don't eat orange chicken in China, though they do eat lemon chicken in abundance. Fortune cookies are also a western creation and you won't find them in China. All things learned at our meeting.

16 and Over...

Since I've been watching the Olympics the last few days, I have become overly intrigued with the controversy surrounding the Chinese women gymnasts. The rule in gymnastics (and apparently this is a fairly new rule) is that gymnasts must be 16 years of age or older. The problem everyone in the world (other than China) seem to be having is that the Chinese women do not look sixteen. Chinese officials insist their gymnasts are 16. The FIG says their passports state they are 16 and passports are considered official documents. The IOC doesn't seems to think there is a problem either.*

I have been reading some news articles about this for a couple days now, and I have found it very interesting that the "experts" who have been interviewed have all basically come to the same three conclusions as to why they don't believe the Chinese "women" are 16:

1 - By the time a girl reaches age 16, her body has already started changing. They develop hips, gain weight, grow breasts, etc. None of those growth changes seem to have taken place in any of the girls on the Chinese team (growing breasts may not be a valid argument because some girls don't grow them. Trust me, I know).

2 - One of the girls is 4'6" tall and weighs only 68 pounds. If that is a 16 year old girl, she should be a very sick one. (My 7 year old nephew is 4'2" tall and probably weighs 60 pounds).

3 - Younger girls can spin a lot faster because they don't have hips to slow them down. Because of this, younger girls perform on the balance beam and uneven bars the best. Funny how the Chinese women happen to be the strongest in those two events!

I don't know. I look at these girls and think there is absolutely no way they could be sixteen. But I also know that the Chinese are generally a smaller build and so it's very possible that they just look younger than they are. All I do know is that this needs to be investigated because if these girls really aren't 16 and they get away with cheating now, then this will always be a problem.

*Can someone please tell me why Chinese athletes even need passports since the Olympics are in their own country? And the other thing I don't understand is how do they put their birthdate on the passport without a valid birth certificate. And if they used birth certificates to apply for passports, then why can't they just whip those out and prove their real age? Does China issue birth certificates?