A Box of Chocolates

One can expect hostility in New York or in other cities but not in the Philadelphia, dubbed as a happy state.

It could have been just one of those normal, blameless days at the subway for Dewayne Taylor. But it turned out to be a day of horror at the train when a man took a hammer out of a bag and began to attack him while he was sleeping. The beating went on for five minutes and the suspect (the term not really appropriate as the tape showed the whole incident) was able to take Taylor out of the train and continued the merciless beating in the platform.

And the worst and saddest thing about this horrific incident was that NO ONE got up and helped the poor guy or stopped the assailant who turned out to be a mental hospital outpatient. Clearly, politics is not the only sign that this country is divided, but this senseless beating on a normal day at the train.

Maybe in an attempt to make good news for himself, Obama released a new video bashing about his opponents’ claims to accomplishment.

Obama claimed that McCain and Palin lied about their records, specifically being “mavericks” who’d stand up for hardpressed voters.   Got to say that he has a point to say that. The governor of Alaska has repeatedly said that she is not the avid fan od the infamous ” Bridge to Nowhere, which her running mate claims is a shining example of federal senseless spending.  When in fact, Palin was an eager supported and stuck through until was fully built.  The “Bridge to Nowhere” is a bridge in Ketchikan, Alaska, which would connect the town of Ketchikan (population 8,900) with its airport on the Island of Gravina (population 50) at a cost to federal taxpayers of a staggering $320 million.

I daresay Obama has the basis for this video.

After Sarah Palin was presented as John McCain’s running mate, her teen daughter was put into the spotlight. Her pregnancy sent shockwaves to the conservatives. Then her baby daddy, Levi Johnston, was hunted and was immediately shown on People.com.

The Palin family took a blow from the lefty bloggers who criticized the pregnancy as being an antithesis of what Palin advocates for. There was this rumor that the Palin’s newborn baby, as being a baby of one of her children. When this was getting big, they announced that they actually have a pregnant daughter, someone who is about to give birth.

It’s sad that the kids have to be put in a bad spotlight. This issue on the pregnancy should be left alone and not be talked about in a political context. Hopefully, after the Republican National Convention, we can move on and see the candidates’ specific plans, not their dirty linen.

Found this video on theonion.com and found this to be really humorous and a depart from the seriousness and sometimes naivity of the political arena.  As Theonion is known for presenting news with sarcastic interpretations,  this video just seems to be timely and maybe bring a new shade into the political scene even just for a couple of days.

Here is a video of a seemingly homeless person who has declared his desire to be an independent presidential candidate. He was compared to John McCain, take not, not with Barack Obama. One can only deeply wonder why. Ok, you want my answer? Maybe because McCain has been tagged by most people of losing his mental faculties due to his statements on Iraq being a peaceful and stable country.

Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain

This man’s identity is yet to be known but rest assured he will be in the news sometime next week. You’ve got to watch this, such wit and sarcasm.

The DNC was star-studded and was emotionally-heavy.  Bill Clinton was teary eyed during Hillary’s speech.  Jennifer Garner, Spike Lee, were among the celebrities that were shot by the cameras amidst the thousands of Democrats who attended the convention in Denver.  But just can’t help not to notice that Lady O’s absence.

She was considered as one of the main promoters of Obama during his campaign for the nomination,even showed up in a number of his rallies.  No one can doubt that her influence was one of the reasons why Obama was able to secure the nomination.

And so one can only wonder why wasn’t she snapped during the 4-day convention.  Rumors even spread that she even rented a house in Denver just for the conventions and yet not even a glimpse of her was seen.  Maybe she deliberately avoided the limelight so as not to draw attention to herself, after all, it was Obama’s moment.  She has done her part as a supporter and she contributed a lot, no question about that.  Again, just wondering if where was she during that historic moment.

With the democratic conventions almost culminating and the republican convention in a few days, hopefully, the tensions should get a notch down.  The nominees will be official and so they can concentrate on the issues again.  We have been bombarded with bickerings over the past few weeks and they have diverted from the issues that concern our daily living.  These issues include health care, safety, mortgage and gas prices.

The conventions are full of speeches but at the end of the day, all that matters is that we all solidify our stands and come to terms that this election is not really all about who is better but what will be the changes because we are in dire need of them.

The conventions for both the dems and the republicans are just days away.  The democratic convention will be held from August 25-28 at Denver, Colorado while the republicans’ convention will be from September 1-4 at St. Paul Minnesota.  Obam and McCain will be officially declared as the nominees for the presidential seat on November.

It is also expected that they will also introduce their picks for Vice-President.  The news circulating on who will be chosen is so confusing as they look like they have a new option every other day.  The most pressing national concerns have been shoved in the corner and all they talk about is the prospective VP or incapable the other candidate is.  These attitudes clearly shows a bit of how they will behave if they get to seat at the Oval office as head of state.

They better behave at their respective conventions as these events will be a sort of their pre-State of the Union address.

It’s not everyday that the elections are going to be held, but what one can see everyday is the endless political bickerings.  But this throwing of bad publicity is getting worse and nonsense.  I, for one, am fed up watching the news as I will only see the latest polls, surveys,and speeches.  Commentaries by the candidates’ supporters  seem irrelevant to me anymore.

Digging deep into the issues seems to have resorted to personal life revelations.  Ok, their personal lives do reflect in some ways how they will tackle the issues but then, do we really need to know how much allowance their kids get? Come on.  Enough.  It’s not about the country’s issues anymore, it’s about gaining attention.

Life is a stage, we have to break a leg, but we don’t have to lose a limb.

As the election nears,  so as the negative bickering arises between the presidential wannabees, so as the skeletons in the closet are also being thrown out.

The book entitled, The Case Against Barack Obama, is a bio of the Democratic nominee written by David Freddos.  In the book, he recounts how the lawmaker from Chicago turned as the first potential African-American president failed to take on the Chicago machine, listened to the more radical advisors, and supporting doctrinaire liberal causes from teachers union to abortion rights.

The author did not compared Obama to Spears and Hilton,good thing.  I bet this book will stir controversy as it may reveal certain information that may or not be true about Obama.  But then again, it’s really hard to know what to believe anymore.

There are numerous kinds of food all over the world. Most of these may be influenced by the culture of a certain country. In this light, it is quite obvious that there are foods in some countries that may just not be acceptable for people in other countries because of the difference in cultures. The list below shows a few of the grossest foods actually served and eaten by people in different countries:

1. Cow Testicles
In some parts in the States, there are some restaurants that serve Calf Fries served with marinara sauce. It may sound like just any other ordinary food. When one sees it, it even looks like fried breaded mushrooms. But this is just another name for fried cow testicles! According to people who have already tasted this, it was not really so bad but had a slight taste of sweat. It was soft and kind of spongy.

2. Monkey’s Brain
In China and in a few other countries, restaurants actually serve monkey’s brain as food! There are even some that would have a hole in the center of the table where the live monkey is placed and is paralyzed. The body of the monkey will be under the table, while the head is the one that protrudes on top of the center of the table. And when the top of its skull is cut with a knife, it will then serve as a bowl where the people dining will be getting the monkey brain from.

3. Squid Ink Ice Cream
Everybody would surely know that there are tons of different flavors of ice cream. But in Japan, there is such thing as Squid Ink ice cream! As the name connotes, this ice cream flavor is made out of squid ink. So naturally, the color of this ice cream would be the same color of a squid ink, which is black.

4. Baby Mouse Wine
In China, and some parts of Korea, they have wine that is infused with baby mice! This is prepared by placing about two to three day old mice into a bottle of rice wine and leaving it there to stew for at least a year. Some people use this as an alternative medicine.

5. Centipede Whisky
Just like the Baby Mouse Wine in China, the Vietnamese have the Centipede Whisky. Both are similar in the sense that there are living creatures actually submerged into the alcoholic beverage. But in this case, a centipede is used.

Everyone is already familiar by now that there are just people who eat the weirdest of things, which people who were raised in different cultures would find really gross. But there are still a few who, instead of calling it gross, would see it as exotic food, and would love them! So, it would probably be safe to say that whether the food is gross or not, as long as it is really edible, then it is still food.  And there are more grosser things than these dishes, such as politics, in these lifetime. Heck, some people would even eat insects and have found ways of incorporating them in recipes (an example of calling this smoothly, is the Mealworm Chocolate Chip Cookies)!