Hey...this is my blog...I really don't know what to put in this intro box...

So I haven't been posting much about my life since the funeral, but there's been a lot happening.

I went on a field trip ("Law Day") to downtown Detroit to see how court trials work.  I got to see Marvin Barnett, one hell of a lawyer (entertaining too), in court.  We were trying hard not to laugh;  he cracked a lot of jokes and was a very electric speaker.

I met a bunch of successful lawyers and judges after, all graduated from my school (go figure).  The most outstanding judge I met was Federal Judge Sean Cox (nice guy).  The lawyers and judges all gave us some advice: invent yourself to be yourself (we're only a group of 17-18 year-olds).

As of today my high school life is practically done (seniors get out early).  We had a senior barbecue. We ate steak (my friends got some crappy ones though...) and burgers, listened to a band play (my friends, not pros...still good though).  I also smoked my first cigar (not as deadly as cigarettes, so w/e), not bad.  Now, I'm not gonna start smoking them regularly, but if offered a cigar (not cigarettes), I would take it.

Ummm...senior graduation is later this month after my 3 AP's (I don't need to take 3 of my finals! I'm so happy! ).  Then I'll have the senior all-nighter (all night party at the school).

 And then...yeah college will be just around the corner.  It's surreal; the year just seemed to have gone by so quickly.

So I was watching the most centered news source on television, and I saw this and I said, "well, fuck."  (It starts more towards the middle of the first video, but it's nice to know what a "message force multiplier" is.)





So you know, Rob Riggle was in the US Marine Corps. Reserve and has served in Afghanistan.

Ok, so some people will accuse me of being a liberal-lefty-commie-pinko-immoral-nut bag for posting this, but so you know, Moore wrote something a little closer to the center this time (shock! awe!).  I implore you to read this. 

Why? Maybe an explanation of this photo:

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My Vote's for Obama (if I could vote) ...by Michael Moore

April 21st, 2008

Friends,

I don't get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn't get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.

So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast my vote -- and yours -- on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?

I haven't spoken publicly 'til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don't give a rat's ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there's a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word "Democratic" next to the candidate's name.

Seriously, I know so many people who don't care if the name under the Big "D" is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.

Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I've watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name "Farrakhan" out of nowhere, well that's when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the "F" word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama's pastor does -- AND the "church bulletin" once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!

This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!

Yes, Senator Clinton, that's how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can't win unless you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry "Uncle (Tom)" and give it all to you.

But that can't happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.

How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White House. That day will come -- but it won't be you. We'll have to wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).

There are those who say Obama isn't ready, or he's voted wrong on this or that. But that's looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what's going on is bigger than him at this point, and that's a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.

I know some of you will say, 'Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?' That's a damn good question. In November of '06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?

I'll tell you why. Because I can't stand one more friggin' minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I'm almost at the point where I don't care if the Democrats don't have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain't "Bush" and the word "Republican" is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that's good enough for me.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That's why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters -- that big "D" on the ballot.

Don't get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.

It's foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country.[Hey! That's sounds familiar!] Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that'll represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal voice.

Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout at the TV, "Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for 'spiritual counseling?' THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!"

But no, Obama won't throw that at her. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be decent. She's been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.

That's why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That's why he'll take us down a more decent path. That's why I would vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.

But the question I keep hearing is... 'can he win? Can he win in November?' In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it's possible to hear the words "President McCain" on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She's counting on it.

Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only "three fifths" human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.

Yours,

Michael Moore

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Can someone tell me why this picture hasn't made headlines on the news?  Or at least Fox?

Did you know that George Washington was a "firm believer" in managed news?

He did believe that the public had the right to be informed, but some matters should be kept secret a and that news that might damage the image of the US shouldn't be released.

I  went on Wednesday to a funeral. It's the first one I've been to.

I wore my blazer for the first time that day.  I was planning on wearing it for a school open-house, but I dislocated my knee-cap two days before, so that didn't pan out.

The reason I went was the reason a majority of my senior class went: the mother of one of our classmates (we call him Beast sometimes) died.  She died on March 27, 2008, a few days after her birthday on Easter.

Our school talks a lot about how much brotherhood the school has. We all thought it was just a joke when we started going here, but there we were, overfilling the pews. 

There were only 6 guys out of the two hundred and thirty-something that didn't go.  Those of us didn't know Beast's mom or Beast himself went anyway to show him that he wasn't alone and that his class supported him.

We got to leave from school a bit after 10, and we were supposed to come back before 1:45, just in time for one more class.  Many of the guys were planning on skipping because it was pointless. 

Even I, Mr. Follow the rules, was considering skipping, but I couldn't decide, so I borrowed a coin, a Sacajawea coin, with the mother and the baby pictured on it, before the ceremony started.  I was gonna flip it after: Heads, I go back to school; tails, skip.

It was a Catholic funeral, so there was the whole mass bit.  There were 3 priests there, one was from our school.  The other two used to serve at the church; one had this really deep monotone voice.  He sounded like some robotronic martian.  I was fighting back a smirk and trying not to laugh when I first heard him talk;  I was so glad that he wasn't the main speaker.

When we went up for communion, I let the priest know that I wasn't Catholic, so he gave me a blessing instead:"May we all be united one day in the kingdom of Tracy [Beast's mother]."

It wasn't very emotional until the end.  Beast's family came up one by one to say a few words.  There wasn't that much crying until that point, I guess it's because it just hit them that they were finally saying good-bye.  I found myself fighting back a few tears as well.

When it was Beast's turn to speak, he started off by saying,"I promised myself that if my mom could fight off cancer for two years, that I could fight off tears for two minutes."  That broke a lot of the tension in the church.  He did pretty well for most of it, but you could tell there was a lot of emotion in his voice, and he paused sometimes to recompose himself.  I'm not used to seeing a classmate cry; it was...weird.

After everyone said their good-byes to Beast's mother, we went outside to release three doves.  I watched them fly off.  The third one flew off a bit late, but caught up with the other two pretty quickly.

The seniors then started talking amongst themselves on where they were going for lunch, and whether or not they were going back to school. 

I realized at that point that I would have nothing to do for an hour if I did.  My mom would probably yell at me if I did, and that's never a good thing.  So I just returned Sacajawea -- I didn't even flip the coin.  I was going back to school, along with half the class.

For the rest of the day we asked, "why did I come back?"