B. Obama Walks the Walk - Helping Americans Impacted by Gustav

This article summarizes one of the main reasons I back Barack Obama. In fact, I'm one of the people he mentions as being on his e-mail and SMS contact lists. I believe in community service and helping out others in need and apparently so does he. We don't have to wait for him to finish being president to see him interacting with people who make less than $500k per year.

To see him doing this stuff before he can score political points shows that this is the real him. Not a put on. The fact that he's called on to do these events shows how much people respect him and think he can help. Here's a link to the blog post on the BarckObama.com site, asking for help, "Hurricane Gustav: How You Can Help".

clipped from www.dailykos.com Barack Obama, not only talking the talk, but WALKING THE WALK- UPDATE: McCain jokes about Katrina Sen. Obama gathered the pool outside after services at St. Luke's Lutheran Church. He told us that his camapaign plans to mobilize its huge e-mail list of supporters to volunteer or send money once the impact of Gustav becomes apparent and authorities know better what kind of help is needed. He said his campaign is coordinating with local authorities. "We can activate an e-mail list of a couple million people who want to give back," he said. "I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there if it becomes necessary." He even rolled up his sleeves and went to work in the part of Illinois that bordered Iowa to fill sandbags: And he did the same thing with Hurricane Katrina BEFORE he was a candidate for President. the following is from a diary I've written before about Katrina: Senator Obama visited New Orleans FIVE times since the Hurricane hit in 2005. McCain visited twice.

Watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics Online This Year

Beijing 2008 Olympic Emblem

I've been addicted to the Olympics since I was a single digit age, way back when in the 1970s. This will be the first year I'll be watching mainly online. You can e-mail me if you want the whole, sad story.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Mascots: Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow. When you put their names together -- Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni -- they say "Welcome to Beijing."

Last night, I kicked off the Olympics in style by watching a gigantic screen outside in downtown San Jose.

The Saint James Park screening was a promotion by the local NBC11 station to have the ritualistic Opening Ceremony be a community event. The cool things were the pre-show entertainment of a local kids dance group,

seeing the show on such a big screen compared to my TV, seeing people react in ways you don't expect like standing and saluting during the Chinese national anthem,

hearing people clap and cheer for their home smaller countries during the parade of nations and just sharing the experience with other people who are totally into the Olympics too. Although we are all San Francisco Bay Area people, we all have different perspectives. Definitely recommend watching the Opening Ceremonies with a group of "strangers" at least once, it's touching.

The bad side was that it was hella cold (I had a hat, gloves and parka but could have done better than wearing sandals), the toilets were port-a-potties and they were on the other side of the park from the screen, the screen was so bright it practically burned your eyeballs when scenes had a lot of white and you couldn't mute the zillion commercials.

Unfortunately, the event permit only went to 11 pm so they shut it down during the parade of nations. We missed seeing the host nation, China enter.

I had to watch the cauldron/torch lighting online this morning. Watching Li Ning do his thing was still amazing, but I wouldn't have minded watching on the huge screen.

Li Ning, gymnast and businessman

Speaking of amazing, 3 my favorite parts of the opening ceremonies were:

• Tai Chi masters and their perfectly concentric circles. The dynamic fluidity, balance and harmony was awesome.
  

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Tagou Martial Arts School, Donald Chan, Reuters

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Tagou Martial Arts School, Getty Images

The dancer calligraphy (of course). Full body brush calligraphy and painting was poetry in motion.

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Calligraphy Dancers, Getty Images

The women dancers in different colors. All those small but majestic movements were so elegant and beautiful at the same time.

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Women Dancers, Getty Images

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Women Dancers, Getty Images

Beijing 2008 Olympics - Women Dancers, Getty Images

The male drummers at the beginning were frightening, threatening and thrilling at the same time.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Percussionists

Find More Olympics Photos at NBC Olympics.com!

Olympic Medal winners at NBC Olympics.com!

As the commercial says, Go World!

Skimmington Ride

Saw skimmington ride demonstrated in the The Mayor of Casterbridge, a 1978 TV mini-series by the effigies of a couple characters. Being ridden out on the rails was obviously very painful. Yet another horrible little, incredibly cruel and painful tool by the English and their cousins in early America to try to get people to act right.

Since it was a community way to express moral outrage at the actions of wife-beaters, it couldn't be all bad. Although to be tarred and feathered as well as ridden out on a rail is too much for almost any offense.