I'll be lightning

Alright, so now that I've been embarrassed by Peyton who, though inspired by me (among others) to create a blog, now updates about 20x as often as I do.

I don't even remember what my last post was about. So let me do a quick update about the things I have going on/am currently interested in:

I'm a research assistant working on analyzing immigrant youth trainings in FL and CO.  I'm also going to Boston soon to do some other RA work for my old Wellesley prof.  Dreamactivist.org = awesome.

I bought her book (now available in paperback, unfortunately not at B&N) which is about the process by which people become motivated and involved in the politics.  I may even be a super dork and ask her to sign it.

Supreme Court ruled that apparently selling videos of dog fights and animal brutality and such is completely protected under the freedom of speech (US v. Stevens, look it up).  Scalia says, what about the people who like dogfighting? A NYTimes op-ed says, it's true, we may hate racists but we can't stop Nazis from marching or the KKK from spewing racist remarks.  I say, true, but we don't allow them to sell video tapes of the Holocaust or lynching.  Because that means they committed a crime in order to make the video, am I right? Mkay.  And for money? Ugh.  Sick.

Apple, Inc. cancelled membership in the US Chamber of Commerce over their position in environmental policy.  Whether you love them or hate them, Apple took a positive stand for the environment, and that makes me happy.  Even if they do plan obsolescence.  Which is bad for the environment.  Their Forbes number was pretty low, too, on the list of "green" businesses.  Donahue says the US Chamber supports climate action, but not the Markey-Waxman version.  Which is really stupid, because cap-and-trade favors large, multinational businesses who can afford to buy more permits.  Duh, did they even read the bill?

In other news, I hate words like "green" and "organic" and "sustainable."  So dumb, and no one even really knows what they mean, anyway. 

Sen. Boxer (man, I wish I lived in a cool state where my senators DID something) is telling the EPA to do something about the water issue in public schools.  Good for her.

This health care stuff has got to go.  Two-thirds of Americans support a public option and yet it's been voted down every time in committee.  Who do these people in Congress think they work for?  Tough call, since we voted them in but the pharmaceuticals pay for it.

Also, what exactly is the problem with an individual mandate?? We tell insurance companies they have to cover us, but then don't mandate that people buy it?  What then, would stop me, a healthy 22-year old, from going about my life without health insurance-- using the emergency room if I need to-- and waiting until I get cancer to buy insurance?  That would make everyone's premiums go up.  How do people not get that?  Sometimes I think this country is doomed to fail because of bad logic.

Alright, that's all for now.  Yeah, I know, boring.  But hey, maybe you learned something.  And if you read the comments on other blog posts you can learn something about me.  Other than that I'm a political junkie.

Oh, and Amazon dropped the price of their Kindle.  Which makes me more financially able to swing such a purchase, and yet I still have mixed feelings about my role in the death of the printed word.  Hmm.

OH!  I saw Whip It and now I'm obsessed with being a roller derby girl (even though I'm missing it in the QC on Oct. 21st!).  What should my name be?  Help a girl out!!! (I used three exclamation points, so you know I'm serious.)

Related articles:

• Supreme Court To Hear Animal Sex Fetish Case; "Crush Videos," Dogfighting Footage May Be Treated Like Child Porn (huffingtonpost.com)
• Green Inc.: Chamber of Commerce Chief Is Defiant (greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com)