JD Salinger, 91. Rest in peace.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

But I mean, ah, I watch the fight you know. And you know, Pacquiao have difficulty boxing Cotto, butCotto find it, I mean, he think, you know, he think it’s harder to fight Manny. Manny lose in the first round, you know, I mean, ahh, it was hard to, uhm, I mean, measure Cotto, you know. But I mean, in the next, ahm, rounds, you know, it easy for Manny already.

Manny say that Cotto was a hard, I mean, ahhhhh, you know, fighter. His ears become big and he have, you know, wounds on his, ah, face. Yeah. He’s very humble when he got, you know, interviewed. I mean, uhhhhhhh, he don’t boast with Mario Lopez, you know.

So even though I, ahhh, you know, don’t like Pacquiao boastful outside the ring, I mean, uhhh, congratulation to his record-breaking win. His make all Filipino people around the world proud and also to all boxing fans around world.

Oh yeah—Wapakman, don’t mess it!

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

But I am not too young to know how much I owe to Tita Cory. She was the woman who toppled an oppressive dictatorship, who stood for freedom when no one else dared do the same. She was the woman whose role proved pivotal in restoring democracy to a troubled people. She was the woman without whom I would possibly not be enjoying the liberties and freedom I enjoy today.

For her admirable leadership in a time of crisis and conflict, for her courage to stand for freedom and liberty no matter what the cost, for her role as a beacon of hope to the Filipino people and to the world (not only in 1986, but even today), we are eternally indebted to Mrs. Aquino.

On this occasion, I join my countrymen—no, the entire world—in celebrating the life of Corazon Aquino. She may have left us, but her legacy remains and will always remain alive and well. On this sad occasion, I join the entire world in mourning a profound, deep loss of a beacon and icon.

Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. Gone in the flesh, alive and well in the spirit. May her legacy—what a great legacy it is!—live on forever.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

This inauguration began with the four-whistle train ride from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., akin to the one Abraham Lincoln took centuries prior. In addition, Obama was also sworn in with his hand on the same Bible Abraham Lincoln used during his inauguration—a presidency peppered with history, indeed.

But Obama’s inauguration and tenure is historic in other terms as well. The United States is in what some are calling Great Depression 2.0—jobs are being shipped overseas and families are losing their savings at an alarming rate. There are conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world that America just can’t seem to end. The country’s image in the world has been tarnished by eight years of failed government. Washington politics are broken, corrupt and have gone against the very essence of democracy, that is a government from, for and by the people.

It bears repeating: this is a historic presidency at a historic moment in time.

So after the pomposity is over and everyone has settled down, in the end, Barack Obama needs to roll up his sleeves and get to work. The pressure is definitely on. He will have to begin the difficult task ahead of him as the world watches from behind his shoulder with cautious optimism. He will have to mend broken relationships and forge new ones. He will have to fulfill the promises of hope and change that carried him all the way to the highest political position in the world. He will have to prove that his profundity is not only superficial, not only present in his rousing speeches but in his actions as well. He will have to bring the government back to where it belongs—the people.

It seems like so much for one person, but President Obama realized the burdens of the office even before he announced his candidacy. This is what he signed up for. There’s no excuse. He’s got to step up to the plate (as do we).

This author congratulates President Obama on his historic inauguration and wishes him well on the road ahead. I hope he doesn’t disappoint as his immediate predecessor did. I hope he fulfills the promises he made to America (and essentially to the world).  God bless him. God bless the country and the Free World he now leads.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

That is, in my opinion, perhaps the biggest dilemma voters face. Should they entrust the future of the world’s single largest superpower to a man who knows how to manage a country but in a wrong way, or to a young chap who promises radical change despite his short curriculum vitae?

What Obama says he can do

Barack, in his blueprint for change, promises reform in Washington. He promises to return the government to the American people, where it belongs. He promises that his administration will not be run by corporate lobbyists, and that the people’s voice won’t be drowned. Obama speaks of a more transparent government, so that taxpayers will know how their money is being spent.

The problem is, can Barack deliver these promises? Can he really lead an administration completely devoid of corporate participation? Can he really make the government transparent enough to earn the full trust of the people? At 47, Obama would be a very young—and relatively inexperienced—president. This is where most people get hesitant to put his name on their ballots. Can Barack really lead a world superpower with a resume that, as some people say, can be written on the back of his driver’s license, much less bring about the changes he promises?

What McCain says he will do

John McCain is an entirely different story. He’s 71 years old, at the other end of the chronological spectrum from where Obama is standing. First elected as a congressman for Arizona in 1982—more than a quarter of a century ago!—there is little doubt that he knows the inner workings of a government and, theoretically, would be a more-than-qualified president.

The problem people see with him is his policies. (Read this article from Blanca DeBree.) McCain infamously said a while back that he’d be perfectly fine for the troops to remain in Iraq for a hundred years. That means literally trillions of dollars more in taxpayers’ money better spent in healthcare and education, and thousands more lives better spent alive. He opposes tax cuts for farmers but is all for tax cuts for multi-billion dollar corporations.

McCain has participated in the Vietnam War, narrowly escaping death; he has served as congressman and senator, and would theoretically govern well. In terms of ability to govern, I have little doubt that John McCain is able. With regard to his policies, however, I have a lot to say. America’s been in Iraq for five years—five years too long, in my opinion. Many have voiced their fear that four years of John McCain would be like four years of George Bush, and that for the country to change, it needs a Democrat in the Oval Office.

That Democrat is the neophyte Barack Obama. The Republican: John McCain. It is a difficult choice to make. As for me, I would go with Obama. Why? Barack has been in the Senate, after all, and that has to count for something. He is an advocate of things the whole world wants to see, whereas McCain seems to want to satisfy only the wants of bigwig corporations. I’d rather a fairly good chance of radical and positive change than the certainty of failure and mismanagement.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

How about raise the white flag and face the music? Is that a good suggestion? CNN, among other news organizations, has predicted that Obama has acquired the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination. He now has more than 2,130 delegates on his side, well more than the 2,118 needed to nominate.

Yet, Hillary still refuses to concede. At least, not on her own. She urged her supporters to go to her website and tell her what she should do next.

I’m not old enough to vote; heck, I’m not even American, but I’ve been following the campaign and while Hillary put up one heck of a fight, the worse has come to her campaign.

Meanwhile, tonight is a historic night—the Democratic party, for the first time, has nominated an African American for the presidency. Although I believe that race matters little, if at all, in governing a world superpower. But the social repercussions of this moment in history cannot be neglected, and if anything, let’s ponder for a moment and understand that race cannot be a barrier to anything.

Barack Obama is talking in St. Paul, Minnesota right now and he’s attacking McCain. He’d earlier said that he was proud to declare that he was the Democratic nominee for the presidency, and he’s focusing his efforts on bringing people over from Grandpa Johnny. Meanwhile, Hillary’s still stuck in the past. She’s still immersed in a world where the White House was in her reach.

That time has passed. Get over it. With all due respect to Senator Clinton, she’d be better off as Vice-President to Obama. What she’s doing is not good for the party, and it’s eating up Barack’s time and effort. Time to wave the white flag.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

the Telegraph is reporting that Britain’s Home Office is working on database designed to store the details of every phone call, email, and web page accessed by British citizens in the previous year. The idea is to have various telecom providers hand over their records, which will all go into the database and then accessible by police upon receipt of a court order. Of course, there’s no reason why police couldn’t simply ask the ISPs for the appropriate data when they get that court order, since records are required to be kept for a year, but sometimes it’s important for a government to build a massive scary database of personal information with endless potential for abuse by embittered low-level bureaucrats, you know?

Invasion of privacy much? Unjust eavesdropping much? Potential for abuse much? This is too stupid to call. Let’s hear it in the comments section.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

In fairness to Gore, I support his whole global warming campaign, but he’d better hit the gym more often lest he be labeled a hypocrite. The rest of the story after the break.

British researchers have apparently learned that obesity contributes to global warming. Says the news article, fat people “require more fuel to transport them and the food they eat”

“This adds to food shortages and higher energy prices, the school’s researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in the journal Lancet yesterday.”

In a phone interview, Edwards said that we are all becoming fatter and that it is a global responsibility, and that obesity is a “key part of the big picture.” Like, wtf.

The researchers’ model labeled a stunning 40% of the world’s population as being obese with a Body Mass Index close to 30.

The study found out that obese people need 1,680 calories everyday to sustain normal energy. Add another 1,280 to that for daily activities, and you’ve got 18% more than what a person with a stable BMI needs.

This author Googled around, looking to find out what Al Gore’s BMI is, but found no statistics. His height and weight are also nowhere to be found. His flabs were unavailable for comment.

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.