MyTake on the 2012 Budget

In roughly an hour from now (it's 9:15 AM on Monday, Feb 14), President Obama will be announcing his proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year.

Currently, the US Deficit (how far we are below a balanced budget) is approximately $1.3 Trillion Dollars, and the national debt is(how much we owe other countries) is over $14 Trillion. Do the math, and America's deficit and debt amount to $4,000 and $45,000 per US Citizen, respectively.

Each year, it is the duty of the President to propose a budget to Congress that will work to lower both the deficit and the debt by reducing spending and waste where possible.

The budget that President Obama is about to propose to the nation will include cuts of $3.73 Trillion over the next ten years and includes a plan to cut wasteful spending in the government. That's the good news, and, unfortunately, that is ALL of the good news.

The President's $3.73 Trillion Dollar cuts fall over $250 Billion short of the $4 Trillion his administration recommended late last year. The budget will likely call for a five year spending freeze on "Non-Security Discretionary Spending" within the Government [$400 Billion], cuts to education (through eliminating funding for summer school programs and allowing interest on graduate school loans to begin accruing while the students are in college), and, perhaps most disturbing of all, the government plans to cut $2.5 Billion from a program that helps low income families to heat their homes and cut $300 million, nearly half the funding from Community Block Grants, a large and substantial portion of public funding for non-profit organizations throughout the United States.

In an interview with Candy Crowley on CNN's State of the Union, White House Budget Director, Jacob Lew, said that it would be "impossible for these budget cuts to be painless". Certainly, there is merit in that argument. With any cuts in spending, someone will inevitably lose out. However, being unable to make these decisions painlessly does not mean that cannot be made intelligently.

The largest institutions in the American Government, by far, are the US Defense Department and Entitlement Programs (Social Security, Medicare, Etc). The amount of excessive and wasteful spending within these programs is staggering, however it is political suicide to attempt to cut spending in these monstrous programs, even when it is done responsibly. Unfortunately, this nation is in an economic crisis, and one that does not require sheepishness in order to save political face, but rather one that requires fortitude in order to do what is right for the country. Cutting funding, which amounts to a proverbial drop in the bucket, from non-profit and community service programs, as well as making cuts which limit the abilities for grade-school students to reach their full potential and inhibits other students from being able to achieve higher education (all of which are hypocritical actions when considering the policy initiatives laid out in the President's State of the Union Address a few weeks ago) are simply NOT the answer.

In 2008, I voted for change. For a change from the same Washington insider deals and trading, for a change from politics as usual, for a change from the continued lack of ability to stand up to the powers that be and to fight for the American people, not simply for their vote. It was a change that I once believed in... a belief that I fear may prove futile.

2012 will certainly be an interesting year...

myTop Chef

It's Wednesday night at 11pm.

Stress is high, morale is low, school is overwhelming.

Sleep seems like a gift that has been wrapped tightly and marked: DO NOT OPEN 'TIL CHRISTMAS.

It is elusive, yet prized and sought after.

Morning will come soon, the sun and I will greet the day together if I do not buckle down and work.
I can do this, I have to do it, NO DISTRACTIONS.

It is no use, my self-motivating techniques are to no avail.

I try to convince myself to skip this week, that a simple television program cannot take precedence over my academic studies, that personally stymieing my own productivity is ill-advised.

The efforts, too, are future.

You see, a war is being waged. A battle between good and whatever is a step above evil.

A battle of wit, of tenacity, of knives, of chefs. A battle of the amuse bouche.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the unending battle between Carla and Fabio.

Top Chef Season 5 brought out the best, and the worst in us.

Every dish was a new triumph and every bite brought a sense of victory or defeat.

Each week, it became a contest between the two house favorites, with the occasional outlier routing for Stephan, and the occasional poser vying for Hosea.

Lines have been drawn, alliances have been made. Efforts to forge a truce were attempted, but even the name could not be agreed upon, and arguments between Carbio or Fabla continued without ceasing.

For weeks and weeks, this ugly battle was fought, pitting brother against sister, Fitzgerald against Morris. The blow of betrayal softened only by the unified singing of the Glad commercial jingle, vehemently attempting not to confuse "Economical" for Thrifty.

The clear and evident bias toward Puerto Rican heritage made itself known on Team Fabio, while, at least on Team Carla, race was put aside for the love of all those deemed insane, unstable, or "Cray Cray".

Each week, new challenges were conquered as passions grew stronger and battle lines became more defined.

In the end, it was Carla who won the battle, though the war went to an undeserving victor.

It was thought, for a time, that peace could come to the group and that Wednesday nights could be made whole once more.
However, this was not to be.

Each year brought new competition, from fights between Michael and Kevin, or Yigit and some other unimportant person.

However, nothing could come close to the battle that waged before, and it was thought that no such rivalry would ever be seen again.... until now.

Wednesday, December 1st at 11pm, the knives are drawn once again.
Quick-fires become a means for bragging rights, and elimination challenges becomes a drawn-out-nausea-enducing-torment.

With the middle house (and an apartment in Astoria, Queens, NY) as our battleground, and words (coupled with ice cream) as our weapons, it is sure to be a blood bath.

In just hours, 318 Prince Drew Road becomes like the DMZ separating the Koreas... tensions are high, and war is inevitable.

The choice in this conflict is clear. "Hootie! Hootie Who?!" Need I say more?
Bring it Team Fa(il)bio. You're going down!

Welcome to Top Chef All-Stars.

Victory never tasted so good.

MyCNU... this isn't it.

It seems as though this campus has lost some common sense. Yes, the Log has every right to print the Sex Advice article, but we all have to ask ourselves... should it?

Is THIS the image we want to portray? Is THIS what CNU is about? Sexual euphamisms and provocative rhetoric? We are better than this. We are a school that rises above the fray. I have heard the argument "Well (fill in the blank university) has one, so why shouldn't we?" Because we AREN'T (fill in the blank university). We are Chistopher Newport University! A school with morals and decency. A school filled with tomorrow's leaders, not tomorrow's whores.

How are we to explain ourselves to the prospective students (much less their parents), who pick up an issue on their first tour of campus. How are we to explain it to the visiting dignitary or person of influence when they come to visit one of the best up and coming liberal arts schools in the nation, and one of the top schools in the state? We can't, and we shouldn't. There should never be a need for us to explain our actions away, because logic would dictate that the "adults" who wrote and approved this mess should be able to have enough foresight to see, and attempt to avoid, the negative ramifications that posting this article might entail.

I don't want to confuse the issue and have some assume that I am arguing against the students of this university having such discussions about sex and personal relationships. I am not arguing for this at all, in fact these topics are often healthy to talk and debate about. However, it certainly isn't a topic that should be splattered throughout a campus newspaper when it's far better suited for the next issue of Cosmo or Playboy.

Freedom of speech is not the issue here. Honesty is not the issue here. Self control is the issue here. Respect for this school, what it stands for, and all those who attend it IS the issue here. Unfortunately, until that is realized, we are all left waiting for the day that the common sense returns.

myTake Building a Mosque at Ground Zero

In Tribeca, a few blocks from the site of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, there is an abandoned, run down, five story building. It's gray facade speckled with dirt. Above the entrance and boarded up windows, the words "Burlington Coat Factory" are legible, outlined in grime that had collected around the edges of the solid block letters that have long since been removed. This less than spectacular site has, though a series of most unfortunate and truly disheartening events, become one of the most controversial places in America. Why? Because a local Islamic group based in Manhattan has bought the property, and plans to demolish it, replacing the old department store with a 13 story mosque and community center.

A mosque two blocks from ground zero. For most Americans, it is a notion that evokes one of two emotions... anger or apathy.

In recent weeks, this story has evolved from a local issue, into a national headline. Many Americans are passionately against this mosque being built, believing that it is insensitive, a disgrace to those who died in the 9-11 attacks. Others, both inside and outside of the Muslim community, support the building of the mosque, as a testament to the growth in tolerance and acceptance within America following the initial attacks. I will give you a few moments to gather your own opinion before I render mine.

**

The feelings held by both parties are valid, and to say otherwise would, itself, be insensitive, however, the real problems arise when we mix politics into the equation.

An issue that should have remained a local one has now found its way onto the national stage, and has begun pitting American against American... stirring up feelings of hate and contempt, and prompting an irrational response.

The fear and anger from 9/11/01 still resonates within each American. On that day, we lost control... we had no say over the direction of our country... over what happened in Arlington, VA, Shanksville, PA, and, most of all, in Lower Manhattan, but now we do, and so we seek to use this opportunity to enact some control over the fate of an area that each of us recognizes as sacred. Having control over this area is good, but it is how we choose to wield that control that can, and has, gotten us into trouble.

In the 1940s, following Pearl Harbor, our fears and desire for control caused us to take irrational steps to secure our safety... enter Japanese Internment Camps... forcing innocent Americans to leave their homes and live in tents in the California dessert.

Later, in the 1960s, McCarthyism spread like wildfire throughout the nation, as the height of the red scare had us looking over our shoulders at our coworkers, our neighbors, our friends, practically sniffing our communists like hounds on a fox hunt.

More recently, we have freedom fries... America's personal "up your's" to France for refusing to follow in our footsteps as we invaded the nation of Iraq. This past year, due to misinformation, we saw a faction rise that chastised anyone and everyone in support of healthcare reform as being "pro-death panel", just itching to pull the plug on grandma... and while this small group did not hold the views of any mainstream Americans, it's voice overpowered those speaking with legitimate concerns, and its off kilter message spread rapidly.

In these moments, we, as a nation, tend to get swept up into these small groups, these factions of extremism, without taking the time to think, to breathe, and to understand the full scope of things. It is not until years later that we experience an epiphany, like the first fleeting moments of lucidity following a drunken haze, during which we realize that we were not only wrong, but that we were, to be blunt, beside ourselves with ignorance.

We have come to a disturbing precipice in our nation's history. We have reached the point where we push the constitution aside in order to propel our own desires and agendas.

What must we think of our future when politicians like Sarah Palin, Eric Cantor, and Harry Reid proclaim that they are in favor of religious freedom, in favor of the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, but not now, not this time, with this there is an exception.

Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the house and likely 2012 presidential candidate, not only likened those in the Islamic community working to build the mosque to Nazis, but also recently posted on his blog "there should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York, so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia." When has it become acceptable to (a) liken any American citizen to a Nazi and (b) put this great nation on the same level as the despotism we find in Saudi Arabia. Are we not better than that?As one reporter put it:

The entire point of America is that you can build a mosque near ground zero.

We are a nation of freedom. Completely, entirely, unabashedly. We do not turn people back because of their race, or their gender, or their age, or their disability... so why should we hinder the rights of 800,000 muslims who call New York City home, simply because we are uncomfortable? Why should we allow hateful ads to stream across websites proclaiming of the muslim community:

"And so, to celebrate the deaths of 3,000 Americans, they want to build a 13 story mosque right near ground zero."

Is this what we have resorted to? Is this the path we have chosen to take? Not simply belittling, but demonizing an entire group of people simply to have our own way?

As American's, we do not have the option of limiting free speech and religious freedom that is within the parameters of the constitution. As was proclaimed by the fill in host of the Rachel Maddow show, whose name escapes me, "I don't necessarily like Justin Bieber's music, but does that mean the government has a right to throw him in jail? No..."

Issues that conflict us, that concern us, that upset us have every right to be debated... however, a fine line must be drawn between debating about one's rights, and limiting one's rights. To say, as so many politicians have on this subject:

"Clearly they have the right to build it, but this is an emotional issue and should be looked at differently," is a complete and total abandonment of what makes this country great.

I am not saying you have to agree with, support, or even respect the location of the mosque, in fact I completely and utterly understand if you don't, but, this is America, and you DO have to recognize it.

Rights in this country are subjective, and the First Amendment to the Constitution that we founded this great nation on does not mince words. We The People (from the preamble, I know). WE hold these rights close to our heart, both respecting and admonishing the beauty and the opportunity held within each of those words.

At times, we must put aside what FEELS right, in order to do what IS right. We must look beyond our sorrow, and try to see that this beautiful, new 13 story building will look over Tribeca, not as an affront to the world changing event that took place 9 years ago, but as a symbol that we, as a people, overcame our adversities, and set aside our differences, to celebrate the fact that we are one nation, strong and united. A nation that, when forced to come together to overcome any odds, will neither waver, nor falter, nor fail. America truly is, and shall forever remain, a nation of peace, justice and equality for ALL people.

MyVacation (3)

So, here we are. I am sitting in the back of a Ford Expedition rolling down highway 28 through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The air is clean, dry, and cool. There is not a cloud in the sky as the breeze whips the smell of pine and honeysuckle through the air. It's exactly what I envisioned. Red barns and white picket fences, small general stores and unspoiled wilderness. It's beautiful, it's perfect. I haven't even exited the carm and I already feel refreshed. I sign just wizzed by that read "scenic view", which just seems so redundant, since, well, compared to the sprawling suburbs of Washington DC, everything is scenic. i cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to live up here... to wake up every morning and see nothing but mountains and woods and lakes. Soon, we will be in Wolfeboro, our destination, where we will stay on the shores of Lake Winnepesaukee which, at least according to my dad, it crystal clear... I have never seen a crystal clear lake in my life, and I cannot wait. This is a vacation of firsts... the first trip to Connecticut (where we had an awesome dinner with my friend Julia Varona in Danbury), first trip to Massachusettes, Maine, and Rhode Island (Lunch in Kennebunkport and college visit in Boston on Thursday), and, of course, first trip to New Hampshire which, already, has provided me with the first time the air has smelled consistently like flowers... amazing.

As we drive on and catch a view the lake for the first time, I look forward into the rear view mirror and see my Dad's eyes squint into an obvious smile. Welcome to New Hampshire, the land of sweet smelling air (I still can't get over it), old rustic houses, white picket fences, eternal sunshine and 80 degree weather, quaint hosptals (i.e. Huggins hospital), and an open, free feeling in a small town. A place devoid of cookie cutter developments and strip malls, where walking and golf carts overpower cars, where rush hour happens at 1:30pm, where seeing another car from Virginia is an exciting event, where a Verizon store sticks out like a sore thumb, where American flags line buildings instead of Confederate flags, and where they fly in pride rather than protest, where the view will take your breath away, and where the water TRULY IS crystal clear. Welcome to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. I might not leave.

MyVoice

THIS IS MY VOICE

_Shane Koyczan

Click to View Video

This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.
and it’s a fine line when you’re trying to define the finer points of politics.
politics being a latin word. “poli” meaning many. “tics” meaning blood sucking butt lumps.
but too many live in countries where it’s bullets instead of ballots.
where gavels fall like mallets when held in the hands of those whose judgments can be bought as easily as children can be taught to covet.
and the only ones willing to speak up are forced to live so far beneath the radar that the underground is considered above it.
this is for the Ho Ci Min’s and the Michael Collins. for marquis de sades and the muted gods.
This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.

And this time it’s for the sons and daughters who watch their mothers and fathers drown in shallow waters while panning for the “American dream” in the polluted creek called the mainstream.
This is for the homeless people sleeping on steam vents, making makeshift tents out of cardboard and old trash,
trying to catch 40 winks in between the crash of car wrecks. risking their necks by surviving another day so that they can starve. so that famine can carve their body into a corpse before their heart stops beating. so that men in a boardroom meeting can make it harder for them to get welfare, health care, it’s no wonder some of them pawn off their own wheelchair. and every time I walk ‘em by, I can’t help but feel at fault, that maybe I didn’t search myself hard enough for the control alt “s” so that i could save the world. Or at least this little girl curled up into a ball. I’ve spent most of my life throwing compassion back like a fish that’s too small. Gotta cash in my reality checks. drop her some spare fantasies. cause I’ve got three separate degrees from different universities, but the most valuable thing i ever learned was to believe people when they say “Please.” This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.

You ever been real, been reemed out, picked on, put down, ever been rowdy at the sound when your own heart breaks, not to take the time, to take the time. listen.
ever been seen and not heard, you ever blurred the lines for those who tried to find some way to define what you are, as if you were far from them, at least at the heart of them its more than a part of them.
you ever been told you’re too young or too old, and there’s always that line when you’re willing to walk by, and you gotta receive and then beat the deadlines. so don’t try to define us cause this time we’ re fine. We’re pissed and we’re loud and now you know why.

Don’t tell me there are no heroes. This is for them, the women and the men.
For Helen Keller who against all odds found a voice. For the choice Veronica Guerin made. For Martin Luther King who stayed just long enough to share a dream with us. This is for that day on the bus for sister Rosa Parks. This for the Joan of Arcs who believed even in the face of sparks becoming flame. The political game that Louis Riel refused to play. This is for the day the Dalai Lama finally goes home. For Dr. Jeffrey Wigand who alone stared down big tobacco. For Nelson Mandela who continues to go the extra mile. This is for the trial that finally found a man guilty of shooting Medger Wiley Evers dead.
This is for everything Malcolm X said. Remembered by athletes who left the Olympics double-fisted.
For Arthur Miller, blacklisted for calling a witch hunt what it was. For Galileo locked up because he said the earth was round. For the Two Live crew who found the sound that got them banned in the USA. And imagine if we could still hear John Lennon play. This is for the someone who stood up today and said, “No!”.
For Edward R. Murrow who shut down McCarthy. For Salmon Rushdie, Mahatma Ghandi,.
You, me, this city, this country.
We will always have a choice.
When you stand up to be counted.
Tell the world, “This is my voice, There are many like it, but this one is mine”.

MyBeat

Dance.

I am no dancer.

Well, no GOOD dancer.

But, dammit, I love it. Both watching it, and doing it.

To move, to feel, to create art with your very body and soul is amazing.

People seem to put dance down, to spat upon the genre itself, with almost instantaneous neglect. Why?

Dance is not some jumbled mess performed with frivolity... it is breath, beat, being, belief.

It is taking the welling up of anger, excitement, sadness, joy, and allowing it to manifest itself in movement. It is the absence of inhibition and the epitome of freedom.

Dance makes you feel, makes you live, makes you love, makes you laugh.

You take the pounding of your pulse, the acceleration of your adrenaline, the looseness of your limbs, the explosion of your emotions, the beauty of the beat, and go with it, run with it, fly with it.

Dance is art.

It is the definition of what makes us human... or at least what used to.

The enjoyment of life, the complete and utter liberation of simply breathing and being is what dance sets out to encompass.

So... enjoy it. Move, be free, be HAPPY. Find your beat, and dance your heart out.

I don't know what inspired me to post this. Perhaps it was the beauty of routines like those of choreographers Travis Wall or Mia Michaels or Stacey Tookey who take concepts of family tragedy, addiction, and fear (respectively), and turn them into a living, breathing spectacle.

Whatever the reason, I encourage you to dance... just to move, to live a little. I'm not telling you to get down to the music in the elevator (well, maybe I am), and I am CERTAINLY not saying you have to be good, but just do it, enjoy it, enjoy life. There is a reason why music makes us want to move, and why that movement can move us to tears.

So... dance...

You'll live longer.

"Dancing is the loftiest. the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no more translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself."