Our little talker

Just so my recent rant isn't at the top of my blog, I figured I'd post a video of our little talker. She's been talking a *lot* recently -- to us, to her hands, to the side of her crib, to her toys (starts off as happy babbling, but then turns serious, and eventually she's threatening them). Love it!

As long as you're not Muslim...

In response to the ridiculous email that's going around:

In Obama's own words …

This guy wants to be our President and control our government. Pay close attention to the last comment!!

Below are a few lines from Obama's books … his own words:

From 'Dreams of My Father': 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.'

From 'Dreams of My Father': 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosityagainst my mothers race.'

From 'Dreams of My Father': 'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself,maybe. And white.'

From 'Dreams of My Father': ; 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'

From 'Dreams of My Father': 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.'

From his book 'Audacity of Hope': 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'

Barack Obama is not a Muslim. (And who cares if he is? If they’re such a horrible religion, why do they believe in the Old Testament? And why then do they believe that Jesus was a prophet?) He has stated many many times that he is Christian – United Church of Christ, to be specific. What more does he need to do for you people to prove himself? Does he need to nail himself to a cross in order to prove he’s really a Christian? Sometimes it seems that people will accept nothing less.

Or is it that people are so upset that this man has an Arabic last name? (And he’s a black man on top of that!) His name sounds Arabic, so he *must* be a radical Muslim. That’s like saying that all Mexicans must be illegals, so we have to start practicing racial profiling in order to get them out of the country. … Oh wait. We do that. … Ok, so it’s like if we said all Japanese people were out to get us so we have to lock them up because they bombed Pearl Harbor. … Oh wait. We did that too.

Oh America. Home of the free and the brave. Land of opportunity. … Well, as long as you’re not Muslim. … And your name doesn’t sound Arabic.

Here’s the explanation of what Obama really said: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/ownwords.asp)

This statement is a rewording of a passage from page 261 of The Audacity of Hope, in which Barack Obama spoke of the importance of not allowing inflamed public opinion to result in innocent members of immigrant groups beingstripped of their rights, denighed their due as American citizens, or placed into confinement, as was done with Japanese-Americans during World War II. The original contains no specific mention of “Muslims”:

In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

If you’re going to pass along damning “evidence” based on what he supposedly said, make sure you’re looking at his actual words. Don’t blindly believe what every right-wing fanatic tells you.

I am very excited about voting for him in the November elections. I’ve bought into Obama’s message of hope. I’m hoping that soon I’ll be proud again to say I’m American.