In Dallas, a Hip-Hop Plea: Pull Your Pants Up

Saggin' — young men wearing their pants with the waistband closer to their knees than their hips — has been around for years. But a growing number of adults are deciding they've had enough. In Dallas, an interesting mix of politicians, hip-hop artists and white businessmen are announcing a citywide campaign with a simple message: Pull Your Pants Up.
Deputy Mayor Dwaine Caraway's work life usually involves economic development, crime, housing-code enforcement and stray dogs. But the drumbeat of anger from South Dallas, the predominately black part of town, got so loud that Caraway decided to take a little detour into law enforcement work — fashion police.

Two weeks ago, Caraway called a news conference and proposed a new saggin' ordinance. Unfortunately for Caraway, lawyers then called with some potentially bad constitutional news. So Caraway backed off a bit on the legal front, but he didn't give up.
"The No. 1 mission is very simple: pulling up your pants. That's all we want," Caraway says. "We don't want to throw folks in jail because they wear their pants low. So we're going to make it man's law and not city law."
And here is where fate stepped in to rescue the deputy mayor's crusade. In his barbershop in South Dallas, a rapper named Dewayne Brown saw Caraway on TV. Brown is called Dooney, and Dooney was suddenly very excited because he had been thinking about writing a new song. He already had a title: "Pull Your Pants Up." Clear Channel has agreed to donate billboard space around town and Dooney designed a billboard showing him with his arms crossed, standing in front of downtown Dallas

Dallas is not the first city to confront saggin'. Shreveport, La., Atlanta and Stratford, Conn., have discussed passing laws. But Dallas is taking a different approach, trying for the hearts and minds of its young people.

Dan in real life

Widowed dad with three young daughters, Dan Burns (Steve Carell) is an advice columnist still mourning for his wife after four years. Beside his job and his children, Dan doesn't really have a life. While on his annual family vacation at his parents' house, Dan meets the woman of his dreams. Marie (Juliette Binoche) is everything he could dream of: beautiful, kind, smart, with a great sense of humor. That is until he finds out Marie is his brother's girlfriend, and she was on her way to join the family for the weekend when Dan and she met at the bookstore. Dan tries to force himself to forget about Marie, but everywhere he turns, there she is, and his brother Mitch keeps reminding Dan how lucky he is and what a fabulous catch Marie is. Driven by jealousy and self-pity, Dan acts out his frustration like a teenager boy.

Dan in Real Life gives Steve Carell a chance to showcase his dramatic skills. There are of course funny moments, but it is the emotionally charged scenes that set Steve Carell apart. He has a way to really touch your heart.

Listening Mid-term assignment

The 2008 presidential Election is just beginning. It looks like the 2008 presidential election will be one of the most exciting republicans vs democratic races in history. Will there be a first woman president? First African-American president? There are many quality candidates for 2008 election; Rudy Giuliani, Ron Paul for the Republicans, and Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, Bill Richardson and John Edwards for the Democrats. There are many political issues up for debates. The following is about 6 candidates' policies and my response, after I watching 6 videos of each candidates.

Hillary Clinton's video is an amazing and very informative. It is wonderful to see the support that former president Clinton is giving to Hillary. Bill Clinton is still one of the greatest public speakers. His speech very appeal to me. It tells us not only what she plans to do for the U.S., but also all that she has done for others, especially chidren and her career. I didn't know that Hillary had done so many cool things before she were in the White House. She has worked harder and longer to improve health care and public service than other candidates. As a lawyer, advocate, First Lady and senator, helping poor children has been at the center of Hillary's public life. Hillary's historic speech at the International Women's Conference in Beijing in 1995 that " There's no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as seperate from human's rights" still echoes to many people. Also, as a senator, she has been working on American's problems; health care systems, chidren' health, creating jods, Iraq War, climate changes and better health for veterans. If she win the presidency, she will follow through on her promises and carries out her policies very competently. Because she already knows ins and outs of the legal and political systems.

Barak Obama is the United States Senator from Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party. He is the fifth African America Senator in the U.S. history and the only African American currently serving in the U.S. senate. Obama worked as a community organizer, university lecturer, and lawyer. He has been working on welfare reform, health care for uninsured chilren, death penalty reform, tax relief for low-income workers, alternative energy and higher fuel efficiency standards, and a law to open up the budget process to greater public scrutiny. But more than anything else, his outstanding speech which is about national unity is so enthusiastic and impressive to me. " The pundits like to slice-and dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republican, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach little league in the Blue states and yes, we got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pleging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."

As a Republican, Rudy Guiliani supports the Iraq war, and insists on reducing crime and taxes dramatically in the U.S. There is nothing special or attractive thing in his video. It's too short and common. He emphasizes that he has long experiences and a record of producing in getting results. But his speech hasn't persuasive power.

Bill Richardson has nominated 4 times for Novel peace prize. In this video, he emphasizes and shows that he has more international experience than just about anyone else in the 2008 field. He is also one of the best Governors in the U.S. He focuses on cutting taxes and creating jobs.

Despite Ron paul is a republican, he voted against Iraq War, and opposed government taxes. Besides, he never voted for raise taxes and supports federal restriction on gun ownership. Frankly speaking, I hate his video, because the background music make me irritable. It's a terrible video. I think the one who made this video must be an anti to him.

John Edwards wants to emphasize on building one America more than anything else. He says that every person has to have the same opportunities. And he talks a lot about his economic policies; cut taxes on low-income workers, create 1 million steppingstone jobs, enforce labor laws, college for everyone, guarantee affordable health care coverage to every family. Through his video, I could understand his policies. He represents it clearly.

Italian Job

John and "planner" Charlie plan and execute gold robbery from a heavily guarded palazzo in Venice, Italy, with computer genius, wheelman, explosives expert, veteran safecracker and inside man Steve. Their plan was flawless... the job was executed perfectly... the escape was clean.
But after their job, Steve want to seize the gold, so kill the team members and leave with the gold. They survive, however, and they plan revenge.
After Stella (Charlize Theron),John's daughter, agrees to join the team to revenge her father's death, the heist for revenge begins. The team travels to L.A. scopes out Steve's house, and begins planning their heist. Meanwhile, Steve attempts to sell his gold through a money launderer, but ends up killing him when the launderer begins asking questions about the source of the gold. Unfortunately, the money launderer had connections to the local mob, which seeks vengeance for his death. The mob leader believes Charlie is involved with the murder, which poses several problems for Charlie and his crew.
The team's initial plan to steal the gold fails. Their plan was to use Stella to distract Steve while the rest of the team breaks into Steve's house, loads his safe in a Mini Cooper, and use hacked traffic lights to make their escape. Unfortunately, there happens to be a party at the house next door, and Charlie is forced to call off the plan because of the number of witnesses. Meanwhile, Steve eventually figures out Stella's real identity. Charlie confronts Steve and promises that he will take back the stolen gold. And aware that Charlie and his team are still alive, Steve hastily makes preparations to move the gold.

At first, I didnt know what to expect, but afterwards, I'm certain that I would love to watch it again and again. Awesome and amazing racing scenes with Mini Coopers. Great action, romance, comedy, and everything else one might expect in a great movie. Overall, one of the best action films!

Drug Makers Pull Kids' Cold Medicines

The Consumer Healthcare Products Association announced that manufacturers were voluntarily ending sales of over-the-counter oral cough and cold products aimed at infants. FDA praised the drugmakers' withdrawals as important for protecting babies.
According to FDA, very young children shouldn't take some of these commonly used medicines, and it also will ask if there's evidence that these drugs work in children up to age 12.
Health groups say that while low doses of cold medicine don't usually endanger an individual child, the bigger risk is unintentional overdose. For example, the same decongestants, cough suppressants and antihistamines are in multiple products, so using more than one to address different symptoms — or having multiple caregivers administer doses — can quickly add up. Also, children's medicines are supposed to be measured with the dropper or measuring cap that comes with each product, not an inaccurate kitchen teaspoon.

I read the news about three children die from unintentional overdose of cold and cough medicines in each year, and an accidental misdosings led to more than 100,000 calls to U.S. Poison Centers. It's easy to get confused about how much medicine a child has taken. Sometimes the parent and the grandparent are both giving doses, or the mom and dad. And sometimes parents give two combination products. And if the medicine didn't working what the family wants, instead of giving as directed every six hours, they give every four hours or every two hours. So, that is desirable decision that several leading drug makers will stop selling some popular brands of children's cold medicine.

Interview

I interviewed with 5 UT students about the 2008 presidential election. They are 18 to 26 years old and major in law, education, accounting and biology. All of them want to vote and they are looking for a next president who can deal with difficult problems that Americans are confronted with; such as Iraq war, foreign policies and education. All of interviewees are fairly concerned about Iraq war. This is an indisputable fact that the policy about Iraq is the most hot issue in this election. But there is an irony. 3 of them are going to vote based on their family's beliefs. They said that they have no interest in candidate's policies, because it's just only their campaign pledge. They pointed out that candidates's polocies are mostly same. They don't expect that next president could perfectly carry out his/her campaign pledge. But they have some interests about Hillary and Obama, and unfortunately, they don't care about other candidates. Jonathan, 26, law school student, supports Hillary because he believes that she has considerable power in politics, and she has not only a popular support, but also a leadership. Alex, 19, who major in education, supports Obama. Because she thinks that it's time to change something for the U.S.A. She believes Obama can do something diffrent.

Before I get started this interview, I expected that most of the American students are very concerned about 2008 elections. But contrary to my expectations, they're not interested in politics. More than anything else, I was surprised at the answers that 3 of them are going to vote based on their family's beliefs. they are 18 to 26 years old, and smart students. I wonder what made them indiffrent about politics?

True Lies

The secret agent Harry, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has been happily married with his wife Helen, Jamie Lee Curtis, for many years living in Washington D.C. and having a teenager daughter Dana. Helen does not suspect that harry has a double life, and she believes he is a computer salesman.But Harry trails Aziz who is a terrorists' leader. Aziz and his men are smuggling nuclear weapons into the USA in pieces of Persian Art, and Aziz plans to hold the country hostage in the name of the Crimson Jihad.He kidnapped Harry and Helen and take them to Florida, where they're preparing to detonate their nuclear bomb. Harry escapes and rescues Helen, but he discovers that Aziz has gone to Miami and kidnapped Dana. So Harry goes to Miami.....

This movie is directed by James Cameron in 1994. this is an old movie, but still soooo~ cool. More than anything else, Jamie Lee Curtis's acting is amazing. there is no doubt that she is one of the great actress.