Clearly Claire: Because I Can

If you have ever been locked in a political debate with me, you know that I don't go down without a fight. I pull out all the punches, I use secret moves, and I make sure I get every fact just right in order to crush not only your argument, but your spirit to argue. I like to leave my opponent crying on the floor begging me to stop. Yet the way a man protested and showed his opposition to Obama's heath care plan shocked even me.

I thought I had seen it all. Hitler mustaches apparently weren't enough for the brutal crowd protesting Obama's supposedly socialist plan. Being compared to the worst man in the 20th century if not of all time is harsh but that is old news. Protesters already used that tactic with Bush and even though it was disturbing, I had already seen it. So what protest am I talking about. Well...

I am not talking about the senator who, in the middle of Obama's speech about his new heath care reform, shouted "You lie!" when Obama spoke that his new plan would not cover illegal aliens. This loud-mouthed, somewhat rude protest has been blasted throughout not only respectable news organizations, but was also shown on "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report".

No, that was not the thing that really bothered me this month. It would have bothered me extremely if it had not been for another event that took place at a rally held by Obama to explain his health care plan to the people. It seemed to be a regular town meeting with people shouting that Obama was going to kill their grandmothers but as it went on, it seemed to get a little more worrisome.

A man had decided to bring an AR-15 to this rally. That is an automatic weapon. What has our country come to when we, as citizens, are using guns as a type of intimidation to our president. The reason he brought the gun...because he can! That was his answer.

Whatever happened to signs and banner and shirts. I really am afraid if the only way to get attention towards your cause is to bring a loaded AR-15 to a rally full of people. How is this an okay way to act around not only a present but a group of people. If you want to hit below the belt...FINE! If you want to block an entire street...FINE! If you want to peacefully yell and cheer and disrupt the quiet...FINE! But I am not okay with bringing a loaded automatic weapon strapped to your back to a crowded area of people where a president is speaking.

Do we have no sense at all?

life sucks when.....

...we all have times when we think are life sucks or wish it were better. we all times when we think life cant get any worse and well i have been there.
...right before summer break my leg started to hurt and i thought i had pulled a muscle during one of my work outs or during a golf practice. i even went to the doctor to go get it checked. both the doctor and the x-rays stated nothing abnormal.
...my doctor thought i had pulled a muscle and with a week or two i would be all better. and this is when i thought my life sucked.
...i couldn't walk or practice golf. this summer was the summer i was going to train hard and make my way to first on the golf team. but i had no luck and things got worse.
...things got so bad i had to start taking pain medications and soon after i had to see a doctor again. this doctor said he would say my nerve along my spin was inflamed. so then we started heat packs which would only help for about 5 minutes.
...then my parents talked about going home weeks in advanced to see what was really wrong but i didn't want to ruin every ones summer so i told them i could hang in there. after one week it was decided that we were going home that this needed to be taken care of before school stared.
...the 21 hour car ride home was just painful. i couldn't put myself in any position to stop the pain and the pain medicine wasn't helping. i had officially hit rock bottom i thought to myself.
...when we got home we went to see our family doctor he was shocked to know it had gotten worse. especially seeing all the pain i was in. so he scheduled more test. but the tests should up clean. well i couldn't do the MR, i couldn't keep my leg straight for that but they thought it was clean.
...the next thing is a saw a doctor the next day but he only noticed something near my stomach but didn't know what it was. so finally my doctor set up an appointment at Stanford's children hospital. yes i am still a child:).
...they set up the same test my doctor had so that they could have them and they had to put me under anaesthetics to get the MRI done.
...the next day the results show i had cancer....now i know my life sucks when i have cancer.

CARINA 360°: Obama, the healthcare guru

Boy oh boy, Obama has been a busy bee this week. First he told all the youngsters in school to be good [see blog below!] But today, the topic was on health care.

From what I’ve heard, I’m telling everyone to relax! Play it cool now. Jump in front of a bus if you want, YOUR GOING TO HAVE THE BEST HEALTH CARE EVER! Because this time, the insurance company's will pay for your broken leg.

Taking effect in four years, and costing 900 billion over 10 years. Obama's plan (he coins it as his) makes it illegal for health insurance company's to deny you for a preexisting conditions. And makes it affordable to those without health insurance. I think it'll bring peace of mind to those drowning in medical bills. Medicare?, he's got that covered! He said he will protect it. He'll also make my future mammograms cheaper. How 'bout that.

Sounds to good to be true? Well, it sort of is.
Not everyone will be covered. Illegal immigrants are left out.

*Sighs.

The plan will provide only to the people who are here legally, but not citizens. ¿Comprende?

Sad I think, I mean, they are hard workers, they are human. They don't risk their lives and leave their families behind for fun. The least we can do is make sure they are healthy. Am I right?

No wonder he was booed. coughJoeWilsoncough.

But regardless, he did good. He reached out to the republicans, independents, even his own party. He was, certainty, bipartisan, a hard goal reached tonight I think.

RANDOMora: Schoolhouse of the White House?? Obama gives an opening school year speech

"I'm just a bill" is a song written by awesome rock stars, in an awesome CD educating awesome young minds about their government and what it takes to create laws for all Americans to abide by...awesomely that is. It's catchy lyrics, "Well, it's a long, long journey/To the capital city.../But I know I'll be a law someday/At least I hope and pray that I will,/But today I am still just a bill," and the unforgettable cartoon narrative of a curious lad are symphonies to a child's soul, but do they know exactly they are saying? Should they? Well then, what would be the point? Surely not to just sell CD's, although how many kids would really want a copy of the "Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks" in their iPods?

President Obama's speech this morning was nothing government related but just another song to added to the awesome play list. It questioned no health care plan or pointed a finger saying "I want YOU, dot, dot, dot," except to say "Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future." But why the controversy? Well, it's not just the people who dislike President Obama, though I'd say would be majority, but countless Americas worried about what he planned to speak about because of his inevitable conflicts conferences on America's political stance. I say it was only fair people had a feeling in their gut as it's only natural to any president wanting to speak to America's children. Yes, it's a sign of mistrust, but it's tough trusting a government with a bad wrap. Like your grandpaps have said before (if any have), "Never trust the government." In other words don't take what you hear and see as merry as it appears, you never know what the government could be hiding...hence torturing.

The speech was rather blanch like you'd expect from an auditorium assembly where the principal goes over a power point describing the years goals. Not the meaning, it was good stuff, like in an assembly, don't play too many video games, take school seriously, "What can you do for your country" bit. Now that that's over, can we please rant over something more seriously life consuming? We break out in the slightest breath, worried our world is coming to an end. Though, caution we must take, let's not let terror rule our imaginations. There is another famous quote, "The only fear is fear itself." I swear I have used this phrase to close off many arguments before, but here, it suits best.

ReaLiz: Breaking stereotypes

Any other morning would have started with the sound of Mr. Sherman talking about the wonderful, but confusing human anatomy. Instead I started off with my own anatomy feeling off balance. My stomach was in a whirl, it didn't feel like I had butterflies in my stomach, but more like giant and fluttering birds. Last Wednesday, Sept. 2, I marked my first Students In Prevention presentation. A presentation that took a summer of preparation.

Students in Prevention (SIP), is a peer to peer drug education and prevention program, where two high school juniors from each high school is chosen to dedicate 6 weeks of their summer to learning and teaching about the many dangers of drug use. The program is exclusive to San Joaquin County, and I was fortunate enough to receive the chance to be one of those peer educators. As a program we usually present to elementary schools, but my partner Nou and I had our first presentation at our very own Stagg High School.

Before the highly anticipated presentation began in Mr. Hiddle's drivers ed and health class, we were warned that this would be our toughest presentation, that high school students really didn't care to learn about the true dangers of drug use, but that most importantly high school students are too busy using drugs to even care what their very own peers had to say. I am proud to say that my partner and I showed all these stereotypes to be false.

So as one of the six presentations began first period, faces of complete boredom looked back at my absolute nervous self. We started our presentation with a pre-questionnaire, which asked students to answer true and false questions, as well as asking questions that require their very own opinion. Going over these questions was possibly one of the most interesting parts of the whole presentations. One of the first questions asks if a shot of hard liquor, a glass of wine, and a glass of beer all have the same amount of alcohol. When we asked the students to share what answers they chose, most of them said it was false. It was surprising for them to learn that this statement is actually true. Their jaws dropped with refusal when my partner and I told them that a shot of hard liquor had the same amount of alcohol as does a mug of beer, this being because even though there is more fluid in a mug of beer, that just means that there are more ingredients.

As the presentation moved on to topics of the addiction process, a four-phase process that a person goes through when becoming dependent on a substance, and family roles, roles within a family that are adopted as a result of an addiction, the faces of the students lit up. They laughed along as we had students come up and apply props to the character they were adopting.

By the end of the day, my throat was in desperate need of about a gallon of water and my feet felt as though I had walked for about three days straight. I must say that after this day, I realized why teachers are always so tired. But most importantly I realized that students do actually want to learn about the effects of drugs. There are people who think that all high school students want to do is ignore those who are trying to teach them. Sadly this is a stereotype that follows until we hit our later adulthood. In my English class, we brought up the fact that with every generation, people will always look down on the teenagers and say that they are wilder and less caring than the ones of generations past. I am sorry to inform many adults that teenagers do actually care about some things, it may not be all the time, but we do care once in a while.

-Lissette...one of those teenagers who actually cares

Here is a video about our summer SIP training: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tju2meklq1k we sent it to the Ellen show.

Anatomy Lesson of the day

THE ANATOMY OF A MATH TEACHER:13 27 10 50


they're made up of...

-13% droopy eyes

-27% frustration with tennagers

-10% nerdness

AND FINALLY......

50% of a math teacher is the pythagorean theorem


100% unnappreciated.

Clearly Claire: Love Becomes Obsession

I have always loved reading. It is something I do a lot. I am the annoying person in the back of the theatre during Harry Potter that is yelling "That wasn't in the book" and "Did they even flip through the pages before they made this movie?" But it seems that lately, I have been more drawn to my television.

See, the beauty of television is that it is like a moving picture book that also talks to you. But when does this switch from just a love of television, to an obsession. If any of the following applies, you may be a TV addict...

• You have a favorite show for every day of the week
• You talk about your favorite shows as if the people in them are you friends
• You hear yourself saying things like "I am totally boycotting a station because they cancelled my favorite show"
• You begin to quote lines from the show
• You start reading books, watching movies, and playing games that the characters do on TV

The sad thing for me is that all of these apply to me. I have to get home everyday by a certain time because I am gonna miss my favorite show. I used to talk about the Gilmore Girls as if they lived in my town. I boycotted ABC after they cancelled "Pushing Daisies". I love to quote things I hear on shows. One of my favorite bands is "The Shins" which I discovered on my favorite show.

I guess after a stressful day at school, it is easier to tune out in front of the television that it is to think about that essay due for English or that experiment due for Chemistry. But the good news is, is that I have accepted the fact that I have a problem and that is the first step.

If only there was a Television Lovers Anonymous.