More Good News

(probably not worth reading the first paragraph)

I'm still trying to get used to not cringing when I hear about a new law being signed by the president. Seriously, I was a kid/teen through Clinton. The only reason I paid attention at all was because of a friends mom who I used to love to argue with. To be honest now I can't even remember which side she was on and which side I was on. She may have been the pro-Clinton one, I was (am) just a pain in the ass. So then I turned 18 and there was an election coming up. I shouldn't admit this but this RATM video had more influence on me than it probably should have. I remember driving home from college along with a friend who had already voted by absentee. I obviously couldn't vote for bush, but Gore just didn't impress me so I voted for Nader. The point of this, which could have been summed up in like two sentences, is that the entire time that I've paid attention to politics was under Bush, until recently of course. So yeah I've been well trained to expect the worst from my government.

So it's still a system shock to hear that the president is going to encourage scientific research. Specifically stem cell research. I don't think I really need to explain why this is freaking awesome. Using science to cure diseases has a pretty good track record, at least when you compare it to medical care prior to modern medicine. So while many are pissed at Obama because he doesn't have a magic wand to cure the economy he's doing what he can and to my utmost joy he isn't ignoring the other problems of the country. Speaking of which I see that in a move that not only makes me happy but is fairly shocking Obama is not trying to implement merit pay for teachers. Something the teachers union has been fighting for years. Why a concept paying people based on how good they are at their job. I haven't looked into this too deep but Obama clearly thinks that real education reform is critical, and I couldn't agree more. In another move that makes me smile Obama has also said they are going to "not rely on" the 1,200 signing statements that bush made. So they are going to follow the laws that congress wrote, not the ones bush wrote, sort of like how the constitution says its supposed to be. Fuckin' socialist.