Nicholas Young Mahdavi

Holy Smokes! Check out some pictures of my ultra cute nephew, Nicholas!

Oh me oh my...

This is pretty brilliant...

Speaking of presidents and turkeys

This is a very neat article.

Even after 4, 5 years in the US...

OK, I hope I don't offend anyone, but really, the whole time, I was kinda-like: "Thankswhat? Thankswho?". And now, working for an American organization in France, I have to organize Thanksgiving. For 70 people.

Currently making invitations. For 70 people.

This is what I found, googling the word turkey.


Aren't they cute?

(For full article click here)

Sorry Everbody Dot Com

This is cool! I'm about to submit my photo!

Bush campaigns against Jesus...

This is funny and oh so true.

Go here!

Aurora Borealis!

So Alison and I just witnessed a case of Aurora Borealis! We just took James for a walk and noticed there was a beautiful greyish-green light lofting above us. At first we thought it was clouds, but we noticed it was streaky and covered most of the sky. We went closer to the Lake, where there's less light, and we saw it start to shimmer, and move. We eventually even saw the moving wave-like pattern that's commonly associated with Aurora Borealis. It was unbelievably beautiful!

this election isnt over yet

ok, so its just a few weeks away until thanksgiving and i hope all of you have started to prepare your arguments and counter accusations for this years thanksgiving debate. which starts off with the dogs getting all crazy because there are lots of people in the house and food at the table. so naturally that means at least everyone yells at sarah and zeke twice and follows that up with "your such a good girl holly." but back to the debate, which usually starts around alison's second glass of two buck chuck, when she remembers that her and i do not agree on several political and now the medias new word of the week "moral" issues. (isnt ones personal belief of what they consider to be right and wrong identified by the world morals, while the word ethics is more of a universal or larger groups feelings of what is believed to be right and wrong? just a thought but also another discussion point.) and the main argument of whether the draft will be reinstated, which will be argued about until one of us either yells at the other and leaves the table, (which is not to be confused with myself getting up to get another bottle of wine) or most like dad will spill something diverting all of our attention. finally, the evening will be finished with a variety of chocloates, ice cream or cake. enjoy and have a safe and happy shopping day! :)

Exactly

From Eric Zorn, Columnist for the Chicago Tribune
MY ISSUE WITH "MORAL ISSUES"

So, the big story of the election is how public concern over "moral issues" gave George Bush the decisive edge over John Kerry.

In most of the coverage, however, we never hear articulated exactly what these "moral issues" are, what distinguishes them from plain old issues and why it's taken as a given that conservatives are more "moral" than liberals and progressives.

The term seems to encompass opposition to gay marriage – rejected by a majority of voters in 11 out of 11 referendums – and so-called "partial-birth" abortion, along with support for an increased role for religion in the public sphere.

It doesn't so much disturb me that I may be hold a minority viewpoint on all three of these questions, but that pollsters and pundits so readily employ terminology that assumes the idea that the above are the more "moral" positions.

To use the word "moral" so narrowly yet so casually is to yield vast territory in the culture wars before the first rhetorical shot is fired.

I won't do it.

• I refuse to concede the idea that the person who wants to amend the Constitution to prevent a loving, consenting same-sex couple from creating a legally recognized bond containing all the rights and responsibilities of marriage has higher "moral values" than the person who doesn't.
• I refuse to concede that the person who believes it's his right to interpose his beliefs about right and wrong into the often painful and very difficult decisions made by pregnant women and their doctors has higher "moral values" than the person who doesn't.
• I refuse to concede that the person who wants the government to endorse one particular belief about the supernatural over another has higher "moral values" than the person who thinks it's none of government's business to take sides on matters of faith.

There's more.

• I refuse to concede that a person has higher "moral values" if he believes in God.
• I refuse to concede that a person has higher "moral values" because he strives to restrict free expression of political and artistic ideas that may offend others.
• I refuse to concede that a person has higher "moral values" because he subscribes to the errant notion that "abstinence-only" is the best way to teach teenagers about sex.
• I refuse to concede that a person has higher "moral values" because he believes in diverting public education money into voucher programs that would end up using tax dollars to fund parochial schools.
• I refuse to concede that a person has higher "moral values" because he favors capital punishment and opposes medical marijuana and fetal stem-cell research.

In short, I refuse to concede that true "moral values" are inherent in the entire grab-bag of conservative causes, notions, paranoias and fantasies to which we have attached both that label and the equally abused and co-opted term "family values."

Morality – right and wrong – is bigger than that.

U.S. Sen.-elect Barack Obama made that point in his second debate with challenger Alan Keyes, who made incessant, hectoring attempts to claim the moral high ground:

Well, I think there's something immoral about somebody who's lost their job after 20 years, has no health care, are seeing their pension threatened.

I think there's something immoral about young people who've got the grades and the drive to go to college, but just don't have the money.

It's at this level that Democrats/liberals/progressives need to start trying to bridge the "moral values" gap into which John Kerry evidently fell Tuesday.

Yes, morality is important.

But it's obscene to apply the term to something as ultimately harmless as the legal status conferred upon a gay couple and not apply it to, oh, say, the idea of waging a pre-emptive war based on an ill-supported conjecture or giving huge tax breaks to the richest Americans while cutting funding for education and after-school programs.

The left should eagerly embrace the term "moral values" and join the debate.

• War is a moral issue.
• Tax policy is a moral issue.
• Workers' rights is a moral issue.
• The environment is a moral issue.
• The preservation of civil liberties is a moral issue.

Until we make that case, we'll continue to lose national elections.

Just in case...

Dear friends: just know that if you do chose to become a political exile in Paris, it is expected that you will spend the next four years in cafés, writing a book about it.

The problem is, it's more difficult to fight the madness from the other side of the Atlantic.

***************
Guys, I'm really sorry. You and your country deserve better.

What's that, Paul?

You'll have to type in CAPS next time. We couldn't hear you over all the terrorists exploding things and abortion doctors flushing fetal stem cells down the toilet in New York.

Aw, Jen!

Jen? Is that you? It's hard to see you over the see of homophobes between our two fine, barley democratic states. Cheer up, it's not so bad. Whatever Bush does, we'll be able to live our lives. There's a reason we go through this every 4 years. Maybe we'll be up three percent next time.

I really miss you all today.