So I have been a member of Netflix since 06/08 on the three DVD plan. That is $18.44 per month. I have rented a total of 31 movies in this time. So that is approximately $9 per movie rental. I know this is ridiculous. My brother told me four months ago when I received the three DVDs that are in the back seat of my car right now waiting to drop off in the mailbox, that I have stupid movies in my queue. He told me that if I put fun movies in my queue I would be more apt to watch them faster than I do with the serious French or German movies that I have put on there in the past. Granted, I love French movies… I think I will always love French movies, but I do have to be in a certain mood in order to watch one. So I told him I would put something fun like “Iron Man” in my queue… Well I never did. I never watched the movies either until last week and I watched “Doubt” and it made me sad, still haven’t opened the other two movies.

So in a conversation last night I had with my brother the fact that I still have the same three movies I had four months ago came up. He decided to take my Netflix account hostage. So I have just emailed him my login and password and he is going to delete my queue and put movies on there that he promises I will watch as soon as they come in. I logged in to my account last night just to see what was in my queue. I ended up watching a movie from Netflix online, confirming that yes, my brother needs to pick out movies for me. It was called “Let the Right One In”, it was a Swedish movie about a vampire. I didn’t even know that was what it was about until this little girl, who looked eerily like me as a child, attacked a grown man and drank his blood. Anyways, it was decent, but I am looking forward to FUN movies.

So bring it on Bevan! I’m super excited about this.

I just read this on a blog I follow and it was a fascinating read. Check it out. Very interesting.

From a paper called “Can the West Save Africa?” [PDF] by William Easterly, comparing findings about Africa’s technological troubles from one Lord Hailey in 1938 with a 2005 U.N. Millennium Project report:

I’m sorry to get political here, but I have to.

I’m a libertarian. I am a fiscal conservative and I believe that morals have no place in making laws.

Now with my background out in the open. I want to say that President Obama is a good man. He is a man that I respect because of his fervor and strength, his hard work and determination. He is an intellectual man who has not let societal norms stop him. Politically I tend to disagree with him often, but I have found I tend to disagree with a lot of politicians. One thing that my parents taught us as children was that no matter what you believe we were taught to respect what other people believe, even if it is the antithesis of our own beliefs. I am finding it very hard right now to have much respect for this ignorant rambling about the brainwashing, Nazi Youth references to the Sept. 8th school speech by the President. I am utterly surprised, that’s my own fault, that people are throwing such a huge fit about this.

President Obama, he is our President, that’s right the President of the United States of America, the leader of the Free World. And you are teaching your children that they do not have to show respect to their leaders if they don’t agree with them. That is pretty amazing to me that such a blatant disregard for position is happening. I just want to say that I find it offensive to hear all of the ignorant rantings of the uneducated right wing saying they’ll keep their children out of school in order to save them from the brainwashing that “that man” is trying to do. There definitely is a place for debate and speaking your mind, but to teach your children that it is okay to show disrespect for someone in authority that you do not agree with, is a disgrace. It is teaching your children intolerance, and that is a sad sad thing.

The main point of this is that president Obama most certainly will not address any health care or partisan issues while he talks to the children on September 8th, because he is not stupid. Below is part of the press release from the White House Press Office.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As children across America go back to school, President Obama will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of taking responsibility for their success in school on Tuesday, September 8th at 12:00 PM EDT at Wakefield High School in Arlington. In advance of this address, the Department of Education is providing resources developed by and for teachers to help engage students and stimulate discussion about persisting and succeeding in school.  The speech will be broadcast live on www.WhiteHouse.gov and C-SPAN. The speech is open to pre-credentialed media. The deadline to request credentials is 6:00PM EDT tomorrow, Thursday, September 3rd.

If I was a parent, I would be proud to let this man who is a very successful man, encourage my children in school, and remind them that their success is in their own hands. How wonderful for President Obama to do this. Don’t you think the school kids of America need to hear this? Don’t you think that this generation of kids needs that inspiration? I do. I also don’t think that the same people who are fighting this, would fight President Bush or President Clinton doing this… So why President Obama? I think I would not be surprised if I got the honest answer to that question from the very vocal parents.

As a kid, I would have been so excited to think that the President of the United States wanted to talk to me, to tell me how important it is for me work hard in school. It would have made me feel like I could do anything in the world. I would have felt so very special.

I hope that the right side of the political spectrum will pull their heads out their asses soon… It doesn’t seem like that will happen in the near future. If only they could see how they are digging their own graves, mine too.

I want to leave you with this inspiration. You know I can’t stay serious long.