Obama's Special Olympics Gaffe, fantasy flying cars and paperweights.

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I heard on the news that President Obama was on the phone apologizing for his Special Olympics bowling gaffe on Jay Leno the other night even before the show aired. Well, at least he admits when he messed up. Bush never could say he screwed up, though he did it regularly.

I thought the best news clip today was the answer to President Obama from the best bowler from the Special Olympics. He said that he’d love to bowl a game with President Obama. Adding that while it would be great, he warned the president that he’d better get in some practice before hand. A great response.



Saw a clip on an car-slash-airplane that has collapsible wings so it can go in a garage. I’m sure that this is a novelty because I for one hope we never have flying cars!!! It’s bad enough that you have to drive super defensively every day on the road looking out for idiots that don’t blink, run lights, speed, and cut you off. Being responsible for watching to your right, left, front, back and the road itself almost simultaneously is enough of a juggling act for a driver no matter how good they are. Who the hell wants to have to worry about someone crashing into you from above? Not me that’s for sure. Don’t want people running out of gas in the air or flying into things like wires, birds, other cars and tumbling out of the sky down onto me from above. No, no, no! Nor do I want them to take short cuts over my house. Bad enough we have road rage, don’t even want to think about air rage.


It’s cute as far as novelties go and probably satisfies a flying fantasy (ooh, ahh), but it obviously wouldn’t work on any mass scale. The estimated ticket price of $194,000 would be beyond the reach of most folk. This begs the question: do we really want the rich flying around above us? I surely don’t. Would it be too much to ask that we invest our time and money to work on things that would realistically help us right now, like solar, recyclable battery, wind and water power! Though these things may present a problem for car design we can figure it out if we really wanted to. Now that would actually help free us from our obscene oil dependency while being relatively cheap and either low or pollution free.

Flying cars, seriously? We just don’t really need them. Move on. Please.

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On a personal note I’m shortly going to visit my eldest son in Washington DC and then swinging over to Virginia to visit a good friend I haven’t seen in person in around 15 years. So I spent today finishing one of the gifts I’m bringing down with me. I made sunshine paperweights using 3-4 inch diameter beach stones picked up during my regular walks along the shoreline. I used my acrylic paint and triple thick finishing spray. Came out reasonable well. I’m really hoping they’ll like them. (I’ve also make door stops from interesting larger rocks).


Off to bed early. I’m tired, and longing for some of that elusive sleep thing I get so little of…

G’night,
Laura
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President Obama on Jay Leno mostly good but for one gaffe.

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I have to give President Obama credit. He has been one of the most visible (and talkative) presidents in my memory. He tried to explain the AIG and banking problem, why it happened and what we might be able to do. It does help, we're so used to the government being secretive, manipulative and treating us like we're dumb children.


Leno asked some good questions like is it fair to target one group with high taxes and does that mean other groups can be taxed for a "good" reason? I was wondering about this myself. It seemed he assured us that no that wouldn't happen, this was a special case but at the same time he didn't exactly seem behind that 90% tax. Hmm.

Obama backed Timothy Geitner once again stating he has faith in him and pointed out again that he takes responsibility for being the president and for his cabinet. Refreshing, it's been a while (taking responsibility that is). Obama stated that the pattern in Washington is that everybody's always trying to find someone to else to blame for things and he wants to end that.

They talked about electric cars and wind power which I hope bodes well for getting into the doing rather than talking stage. Solar too.

Said Air Force One is cool... yup, already knew that from Harrison Ford.

The only gaffe seemed to be that when Leno asked him if he would be taking out the bowling lanes and Obama said he'd been practicing: "I bowled a 129." He said it was a bit special olympics but he was making progress. Though many reporters or talk show hosts have said things like this, because it was the President people will be fussing about it tomorrow I imagine. Obviously he didn't mean to disparage anyone that takes part in the Special Olympics but he should have been a little less free with his candor, though we all have said things that don't sound right but we don't have the whole country picking at everything we say. (Thank God right?) Might be he's been spending too much time around Vice President Biden. Gotta watch those gaffes they might be contagious.

Obama stated that he'd be getting "roll on hoops" for the tennis courts so there would most definitely be basketball going on.


Then came the important question: When's the dog coming? Very soon, it's coming very soon and then quipped:
"They say if you want a friend in Washington- get a dog."

Ah, how true, how true.

I thought by now I might be tired of seeing Obama talking everywhere or that it would get repetitive if he talked too often, but so far it's been okay. At least he talks to us, otherwise we'd only have the constant barrage 24-7 of pundits and Lord knows they do get repetitive and predictable. lol.

G'night,

Laura
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