Further excerpts from "The American President"

(The following dialogues were based on a discussion among the President's Joint Chief of Staffs in respect of an appropriate reprisal to Libya for an unprovocated attack they launched on the US troops)

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A. J. MacInerney:
Sir, it's immediate, it's decisive, it's low-risk, and it's a proportional response.

President Andrew Shepherd:
Someday someone's going to have to explain to me the virtue of a proportional response.

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President Andrew Shepherd:
What I did tonight was not about political gain.

Leon Kodak:
Yes sir. But it can be, sir. What you did tonight was very presidential.

President Andrew Shepherd:
Leon, somewhere in Libya right now, a janitor's working the night shift at Libyan Intelligence headquarters. He's going about doing his job... because he has no idea, in about an hour he's going to die in a massive explosion. He's just going about his job, because he has no idea that about an hour ago I gave an order to have him killed. You've just seen me do the least presidential thing I do.

President Andrew Shepherd's Press Briefing Speech

(By President Andrew Shepherd (casted by Michael Douglas) in his capacity as the President of the United States of America in the movie “The American President”)

For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this country was to a certain extent about character. And although I'm not willing to engage in his attacks on me, I've been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation, being president of this country is entirely about character.

For the recond, yes, I am a card carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is 'Why aren't you, Bob?' Now this is an organization who's sole purpose is to defend the bill of rights, so it naturally begs the question, why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for president choose to reject upholding the constitution? Now if you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter that I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago.

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say 'You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man who's words make your blood boil, and who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.' You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of it's citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.

I've known Bob Rumson for years. And I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Bob's problem is that he can't sell it.

We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only : Making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character and you wave an old photo of the president's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism. You tell them she's to blame for their lot in life. And you go on television and you call her a whore.

Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interest of public school teachers, and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, because Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.

I've loved two women in my life. I lost one to cancer. And I lost the other because I was so busy keeping my job, I forgot to do my job. Well that ends right now.

Tomorrow morning, the White House is sending a bill to Congress for it's consideration. It's White House Resolution 455, an energy bill requiring a twenty percent reduction of the emission of fossil fuels over the next ten years. It is by far the most aggressive stride ever taken in the fight to reverse the effects of global warming. The other piece of legislation is the crime bill. As of today, it no longer exists. I'm throwing it out. I'm throwing it out and writing a law that makes sense. You cannot address crime prevention with out getting rid of assault weapons and hand guns. I consider them a threat to national security, and I will go door to door if I have to, but I'm gonna convince Americans I'm right, and I'm gonna get the guns.

We've got serious problems, and we need serious people. And if you want to talk about character, Bob, you'd better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American Values, fine. Tell me where and when, and I'll show up.

This a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.

My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I am the president.

N.B. This is one of the most inspiring speeches I have heard crafted from a movie script.

The right to label women

(By Wendy Cheng a.k.a. Xiaxue, the blog mistress, “Why are you worshipping the ground I blog on” at http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/)

"Slut", by definition, means the woman will fuck everybody right? So unless you manage to get her to fuck you, you have no rights to say she is a slut, loser!

N.B. This is a direct link to the article from which the quotation was extracted:
http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2005/06/chloe-cheng.html

The Sleeping Prayer

As I lay myself to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

網上歌 - 他約我去迪士尼

原曲歌手: kellyjackie @ Royals
原曲作者: kellyjackie @ Royals
原曲作詞: 海藍 @ Royals ／ 庭 @ Royals
原曲編曲: 林柿 @ Royals


兜過幾個圈　看木馬旋轉　美夢似是遙遠　仍埋藏著繾綣
快樂旅途中　有沒有熱戀　看著這入場券　如同尋獲溫暖

笑問你　你話連夜候票再多的困倦　也不怨　似在平靜地說出　絲絲的愛戀

畢生也願記起　香港迪士尼　煙火璀璨夜晚定會很美
坐咖啡杯　溫馨記憶　旋轉中細味　天邊星宿也沒法比

今天心碎或痛悲　只需要記住陪伴在你身邊有米妮
始終可以幸福地　沉迷在美夢裡希冀

要是你　決定明日伴我去闖天與地　會很美　故事延續下世紀　一生都記起

不必理是與非　不需要顧忌　穿梭堡壘內陪伴我嬉戲
米老鼠　比精品店的美　輕輕靠近　都可使我快樂跳起

當　身邊掛著相機　假使到最後還未望到不准你別離
可知心裡正準備　無緣合照亦抱緊你

公主與白雪都　不需要羨慕　因可跟你在長夜裡擁抱
見阿拉丁　本想說聲坐飛氈　卻又不可媲美你待我好

星空不算是太高　假使有你在旁陪伴我一起每段路
可將一切記心內　明日共你愉快傾訴

N.B. As i understand it, the above song is available for free distribution over the internet, which is in fact the song's initial place of release. The song can be found and downloaded at the following website:
http://www.hkedcity.net/sch_files/a/tpp/tpp-a3570/public_html/dis.mp3

Random Question: When you spilled the milk, did it look like the moon?

When milk is spilled onto the floor, to put it in a very clique manner, it is only natural for us to cry over the spilled milk.

All advanced species on earth, including human beings, have strong propensity towards the display of emotion, and we often use the outpouring of emotion, whether in happiness or in sadness, as a means to maintain equilibrium over our general well-being. In other words, it is only natural for us to remain upset over a loss in the past, even if there is absolutely nothing we can do to restore the situation completely to the state before the offending event that caused the loss. This is so that we can purge the unhappiness that is generated as a result of the offending event from our body so as to maintain the steady state in our body.

As in the case of the spilled milk, it is obvious that when the milk has been spilled, it is already wasted and therefore cannot be used in the normal hygienic sense. Nevertheless, the process of crying cleanses our body of the negative emotions generated so that our body can begin to heal in an effort to restore equilibrium once again. Perhaps then, we can once again see the cat playing his fiddle on the kitchen counter while the cow jumps over the moon formed from the spilled milk. The little dog then shall laugh heartily to see such fun, and perhaps even the dish will ran away with the spoon.

N.B. the imagery as described in the last sentence is taken from a nursery rhyme named “Hey Diddle Diddle”. The original version goes something like this:
"Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The little dog laughed to see such fun,
And the dish ran away with the spoon"
The purpose of introducing such a ludricious imagery in the midst of trying to come to terms with the sense of loss over the spilled milk is to encourage ourselves to try using humour as tool to resolve internal conflicts. It works surprisingly well when we are able to see the world from the funnier perspective.

Random Question: When you open your eyes underwater, do you ever worry that you'll drown?

Whenever I have the chance of opening my eyes underwater without the benefits of wearing some form of eyewear, say goggles or diving masks, the first question that inadvertably materialise inside my head is, more often than not, “what am I going to do to prevent myself from being drowned” rather than that “will I drown”, which incidentally is a thought that I do not really relish much.

Fortunately, each human being has self preservation instincts which are genetically programmed into the body at birth. These instincts serve to protect the human body automatically without conscious effort and intervention in times of peril. In cases where a human body, particularly the face, is unwittingly subjected to a medium foreign to the natural environment, say a large body of water, the mammalian diving reflex kicks in.

As the name suggests, the mammalian diving reflex is is found in all mammals, but especially in marine mammals like whales and seals. In the case of the human being, this reflex puts the human body into a sort of energy saving mode whose aim is to maximize the time that the human body can be spent under water. For marine mammals, this diving reflex is obviously rather important since they live the greater part of their lives in frigid water itself, especially the whales. For mammels like human beings, the reflex is presumably triggered so that the person could indulge in swimming extensive distances for the purpose of exercise, or perhaps to do something useful in an effort to prevent himself from drowning after suffering shock from his inability to climatise fast enough with the foreign environment he is in because he just has to open his eyes under water.

The mammalian diving reflex is generally larger in cold water than in warm water, and includes three factors:
1. Bradycardia, a reduction in the heart rate of up to 50% in human beings;
2. Peripheral vasoconstriction, the restriction of the blood flow to the extremities to increase the blood and oxygen supply to the vital organs, especially the brain;
3. Blood shift, the shifting of blood to the thoracic cavity, which refers to the chest between the diaphragm and the neck to avoid the collapsing of the lungs under higher pressure during deeper dives.

In addition to the above, the same reflex also prevents an unconscious person from actually breathing underwater. As a result of the above, both a conscious and an unconscious person can survive longer without oxygen under water than in a comparable situation on dry land. In this case, the consious person will then have some time to ponder over the question “what am I going to do to prevent myself from being drowned”. As for the unconscious person, he will just have to find some way to wake up himself, otherwise, he should be pondering over the question “will I drown”.