In case you were unaware what stem cell research is, I will give a short explanation based on my knowledge of it. I would recommend that those reading this should look up more info about it. Stem Cells are blank cells that can become any type of cell from muscle to nerve cells. There is controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells, but embryonic cells are not the only way to pull stem cells, however they are the most usable. Adult stem cells can come from Umbilical Cords, Placentas and Amniotic Fluid. They can also be pulled from adults including the patient for which it is being used on from their bone marrow, liver, epidermis, retina, skeletal muscle, intestine, brain, dental pulp, even fat from liposuction and others. They can also be available from people who have passed away up to 20 hours after. Some say it is unethical to kill a embryo and I agree, however, how many people who have already been born have to die because we are unwilling to make a couple of sacrifices.

Last year, it is estimated that 750,000 Americans traveled outside of the country to receive medical treatment. I thought America had the best hospitals in the world and I was right, however the lack of stem cell research makes it impossible for Americans to get the care that they deserve. Now that Obama reversed the ban, I hope that more people will see all that stem cell research can accomplish once it is made available. I am not going to sit here and try to be non-objective about this subject. I fully support stem cell research because I have been affected by illnesses of both my parents.

My father was diagnosed with a malignant (cancerous) brain tumor in March 1997. I was only 13 years old at that point. He fought cancer on and off for 11 years. Five brain tumors and colon cancer became too much for him and he passed away on July 6, 2008. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008 there was just under 1.5 million new cases and just over 550,000 deaths from cancer. Isn’t that enough of an impact for stem cell research to be an important policy for the country. Over 1/2 million people died from cancer who could have had a chance if we funded stem cell research. Cancer must have touched almost every American at some point in their life.

For me, it isn’t just about cancer. My mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1990 when I was 6 years old and has been living with it since. It has greatly impacted my life and the lives of everyone who knows us. The National MS Society believes that with proper research using stem cells, there is great hope that they will be able to find a cure for MS. I blogged about Accelerated Cure which is a Non-Profit Organization that is dedicated to finding a cure for the disease. In less than a month I will be participating in the MS Walk to help raise money for a cure.

Can this executive order be the beginning of the end for diseases that affect millions of Americans around the country. Besides cancer and MS, stem cell research can make way for other illnesses like spinal cord injuries, brain damage, heart damage, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and many others. Can we finally focus on our futures rid the world of these illnesses? If we can, we will be on our way to be the most respected country in the world for medical treatment.

In April 2008, Serzh Sargsyan took office as the newly elected President of Armenia. In September 2008, Abdullah Gül (President of Turkey) created a serious debate in Turkey because he visited the new President of Armenia during a World Cup qualifying match between the two countries. He was the first Turkish leader to visit bordering Armenia and hoped that it could be the beginning diplomatic normalization. The Turkish border has been closed from Armenia since 1993 and now with the ever changing world, we might see that border open soon.

In October 2007, George Bush (current US President) vetoed the bill that would have recognized the Armenian genocide in the United States because he wanted the Turkish airspace for the Iraq war. Now that Barack Obama is our 44th President, he has openly stated that he will be the President that will recognize the Armenian Genocide.

I believe that many Turkish intellectuals are now realizing that if the US recognizes it on the federal level, there is nothing stopping other countries from following. The Turkish people would deny it as long as the US doesn’t recognize the genocide, but since everything in the world will be changing, they will have to adapt.

Finally, the 1.5 million Armenian-Americans can receive recognition for their family member who were murdered by the Ottoman “Young” Turks in 1915. In my family tree, there are 17 family members who were killed by the Turks in 1915 and only 5 of the survived which included both my great-grandparents.

Tommy Davidson, from “In Living Color”, was the host for the night. He not only made the crowd including Kristin and I laugh, but he made himself laugh a couple of times. He kept interrupting the stage manager when he was trying to countdown to taping and each time it was even funnier.

Iliza Shlesinger was one of the comedians that performed last night and she was awesome. In case you were wondering, she was the “Last Comic Standing” winner of season 6. She has two major qualities, she’s extremely hot and VERY funny.

The live taping of the show was really interesting. In one night, they taped three shows and made it seem like they were actually three different nights. Tommy Davidson was wearing different shirts and they closed out every third comic with saying goodnight and then they introduced him again two minutes later. There is one section of the show where they play something that is pre-recorded and they asked us not to clap after Tommy introduced it.

Overall the night was great and we had a lot of fun. Watch for season 2 of “NESN’s Comedy All Stars” which airs I believe Friday nights after Red Sox games (next season obviously).

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as ‘Bankruptcy Planning).

Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about:

• Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
• Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
• Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 stores nationwide
• Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
• Cache will close all stores
• Talbots closing down specialty stores
• J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
• Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
• GAP closing 85 stores
• Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
• Wickes Furniture closing down
• Levitz closing down remaining stores
• Bombay closing remaining stores
• Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
• Whitehall closing all stores
• Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
• Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
• Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
• Macys to close 9 stores after January
• Linens and Things closing all stores
• Movie Galley Closing all stores
• Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
• Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
• JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
• Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
• Wilson Leather closing down all stores
• Sharper Image closing down all stores
• K B Toys closing 356 stores
• Loews to close down some stores
• Dillard’s to close some stores

“It’s like having a really bad dinner and then having the best dessert ever.” – Eric

“All employees who have accessed the account — whether authorized or not — have been put on immediate leave, with pay,” McAdam said. “Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action.”

I wonder if they actually got any information that Verizon is not disclosing.

Enjoy!

In December 1994, he achieved the unique distinction of having the #1 movie (Jurassic Park), the #1 TV show (ER), and the #1 book (Disclosure).

Below: live blogging Obama’s speech
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Obama finally proved that it doesn’t matter who you are, what you believe, the United States of America proved that you can do anything you put your mind to. Anything by anyone. Change is finally here for this country and that change is Barack Obama.

Obama congratulated John McCain and Sarah Palin on a great campaign and he thanked McCain for his service. He talked about his family, his wife, kids and his recently late grandmother who raised him. He made sure that his campaign staff got their time in the spotlight.

The road to a better America will take a while to fix, but it can be done. He calls on all Americans to work together and make the country better. He tried to figure out a way to get to those who didn’t vote for him and unite as one country.

His speech was amazing and I truly believe that he will be an excellent President and find a way to make other countries see a different America and a different time in our life.

UPDATE:

Thank you John McCain for serving our country, but the American people believe that Barack Obama will be a better president with the economy the way it is.

Welcome to a new view on the United States!

I am not saying it is official yet, but it will make me very happy to address Barack Obama as President Obama.

I know there are people out there who should understand that election day is November 4th, but why do people have to stoop to that level where they are screwing up the election data. They are not convincing them to vote for McCain, they are telling them not to vote on election day. It is not right and I don’t think they should be doing it. I am not saying that because it is going against my candidate, I would feel the same exact way if Obama was making calls telling Republicans not to vote on November 4th. This system was put into place so that the people would decide. If somehow, a campaign, got other voters not go on November 4th, it would defeat the point of letting the people decide. Sabotaging a Presidential campaign is wrong and those who are making those calls, should be ashamed of their actions.

ELECTION DAY IS TODAY….NOVEMBER 4th FOR ALL AMERICANS

Dixville Notch, NH has voted republican since 1972 and have dominated in those elections. However, this country truly wants change because they shocked the country by making the first vote to Barack Obama as 15-6. I think this will be a theme in this election, but I don’t want to get too excited until John McCain concedes to Barack Obama.

I am going to try to blog a bunch of articles today depending on how much I get to watch CNN. I will have a lot to say, I just hope I can keep up.

VOTE OBAMA!!!!

It started out with Joe Biden in Pennsylvania with Rep John Murtha where they are saying crazy things to ruin Obama’s chances at the polling stations. He talked about selling Hawaii to Saudi Arabia and selling Alaska to Russia. I don’t think we should sell all of Alaska, just Sarah Palin. Biden continued to say that if Obama is elected there will be a crisis. Also, they might burn down Washington DC and that Jesus is going to come back if Obama wins in November.

Jon Hamm from Mad Men was the host and he was trying to plug his show by saying there will be a celebrity dance contest, they makeover a home and the cast of CSI will be there. He mentioned that John Mcain and Barack Obama will be on the show smoking real weed. Sarah Palin is there too.
—
Coldplay’s second song “Yellow” ended a lot differently than I remember when the song first came out. At the end, the lead singer Chris Martin screamed “Barack Obama” making it known where their allegiance resides.

For example:

• There is a poster of the movie “Maverick” and someone from the Dallas Mavericks
• Inside the door on the left, there are burning books
• On the wall there are blank frames and if you click on them, she says: “Learning’s hard”, “Didn’t graduate”, “BS here I come”
• If you click on the curtain directly behind Palin, she says “Where did Russia go?”
• There is a 6 pack of beer on the seat that she calls “Joe 6 pack” and the light bulb she calls “Joe Light bulb”

I would highly recommend checking this site out for fun

McCain spends most of his time making comments about Obama that are not true, just to get a “laugh” out of the crowd that isn’t allowed to make noises. I will state that Obama made a comment during the debate about McCain that is false. Obama claimed that 100% of McCain’s ads were negative. CNN’s fact check shows that the statement is incomplete. However, that still doesn’t change my stance and a good percentage of the voters of this country who feel that Obama is the right choice for President.

McCain has lost many battleground states that should have been committed to McCain by now. Take Virginia for example, Since 1964 they have voted Republican and last election, George Bush took a 9 point lead in the state. Currently Obama has a 10 point lead in Virginia over McCain. What does that say about McCain if he can’t even nail down a VERY Republican state. Only time will tell who will win, but that time is in three weeks.

Tonight’s show started out with the the second Presidential debate. SNL poked fun at Barack Obama and most of all John McCain. They joked about both candidates time limits during the debate, John McCain talking about “my friends”, “his memory (age)” and his bipartisanship talks. The John McCain started walking in front of Obama will he was speaking to try and get all the attention. They have Obama explaining that he was best friends with William Ayers. There was a special guest appearance with Bill Murray. Bill talked about the Cubs loss and he wanted to know what each candidate would do to stop the cubs from losing. The candidates responded by saying that the Cubs fans should start rooting for another team that would have a better chance. Finally they wanted to save time so they had the enough for two questions, so they asked the questions simultaneously. The candidates responded simultaneously as well. It was a very funny skit, if you watched the debates.

Next, Weekend Update had an awesome special. Amy Poehler talked about how Sarah Palin attempted to read a quote on a Starbucks cup. Amy added that Palin summed up her views on energy by claiming, America Runs on Dunkin’…which refers to the slogan of Dunkin’ Donuts. Amy and Seth did a segment that I love called “Really with Seth and Amy”. They analyzed AIG’s company retreat 6 days after getting the bailout. A $400,000 retreat caused serious heat with the country. They even started a new segment called, “Oh My God, Are You Serious” where they just say “Oh My God, Are You Serious” before or after a statement.

I can’t wait until next week’s show.

I know some will not agree, but in Barack Obama/Joe Biden is “The Change We Need”.

John McCain kept bringing up the “care for veterans” and “war in Iraq“, but not really about anything else. I see nothing wrong with the giving the proper care for veterans, who deserve it, but I have a problem with spending $10 billion per month in Iraq while they have an $80 billion surplus. John McCain is good at one thing and that is to take the middle part of the country and dangle a shiny object in front of them and start telling them a bunch of lies about Barack Obama and hope they listen. I am not a political analyst, but I care about the country and the current path that it is taking. If I don’t know what something is, I research it. Whether the research is done online, in a book, on the tv or even respectively discuss it among friends. One of my friends posted something similar on twitter. If you don’t care enough to pay attention and/or don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain.

Obama said he is not going to raise, even lower, the taxes for 95% of the working families. If you make less than $250,000/year, you will not see anymore taxes, everyone over that will see a raise. If you make $250,000/year, you can afford more than a family of 6 who might not have their home anymore because the parents got laid off due to the economy. The single parent who works two/three jobs so that their children can have a decent chance at accomplishing something wonderful in their life. John McCain is against this, because he is part of that since he is worth around $25 million himself. Obama wants to close all of the loopholes in the business tax and give that money to people who need it. This country is being run by the rich and portrayed as the rich, however, working families are struggling to pay the mortgage and the medical bills. It isn’t right for some families to choose between paying for the house, eating properly or send their children to get an education. I am not talking about the people who screwed up their lives because of drugs, gambling or alcohol. I am talking about the families who work to try and get by and then get laid off because the company can’t afford them anymore due to the economic crisis.

Barack Obama brought up education for children, universal health care and independence from foreign oil. He explained that each of those are going to be on his top priority list because that is the change America needs. If we want to be seen as the most educated country in the world, then we need to help students have a chance to go to college who couldn’t because of money. Get Federal Aid to those who need it and not those who “earn” it. If someone works hard and get good grades, they deserve scholarships and some grants, however, if kids are cheating through high school because they didn’t get a good education as a child, it leaves out the people who want to go to college and get more of an education. Universal health care will help Americans who are out of work or do not have work paid health insurance to be able to get basic care. Our dependence on foreign oil needs to be dealt with and Obama has a plan for that within 10 years while McCain is talking about 2030 for his nuclear power. Yes, offshore drilling would have a little benefit, but you can’t replace new/renewable energy options with drilling. Obama has a better plan to lead this country than John McCain and I believe that Obama will come out on top.

An instant poll taken right after the debate giving Obama an edge on the current results. Since this debate was mainly about the economy, the poll showed that 68% of random undecided votes said that Obama would handle the economy better than McCain at 41%. Also for their opinion about Barack Obama after the debate, 46% said better, 46% said no change and 7% said worse. That’s a 39% increase than what he had before, and John McCain wanted to cancel the debate. I knew Obama would win if the debate happened.

This map displays the current predictions as of time of post.

The map below shows what would happen if New Hampshire and Florida vote with Barack Obama, he would win the election. However, I am not getting these facts out of thin air. In a story posted in mid-July, Florida’s Democratic registrations shot up 106,000 in a 5 month span compared to the Republican’s registration at 16,000. More people are agreeing with Obama than with John McCain. Florida is 27 votes which would leave Obama four votes shy of the presidency. Any other state would also guarantee the election, but the easiest might be New Hampshire. Even though it is a “southern” thinking state, in 2004, NH voted democrat and gave all their votes to John Kerry. There is a possibility that NH could turn to Obama and this election would be “over”.

From CNN.com

Until the next debate remember, know what’s going on in the country to make “educated” decisions about your opinions.

Just like most of the people in this country, I want to hear what the next President of the United States is going to do about the depression like economic conditions. Obama wants to explain himself, why can’t you John? Why can’t you tell us what your plan is going to entail? Is it because you realize that Obama has a plan that will help our economy and you don’t want to admit it?

I was watching WBZ News Boston and they went to a “Main Street” in Milford, MA and talked to small business owners in a small town to see how the economy is affecting them. An “expensive” hairstylist said that since “getting your hair done” is a luxury, it has been cut out of most people’s budgets so they can pay for gas, heating and mortgage payments. If she has no business, she doesn’t make money and that money isn’t being put back into circulation to help the economy. See the chart below.

I’m not sure what McCain’s reason is for postponing the debate, but it certainly can’t be due to the economy. Obama wants to continue the debate on Friday and he also is flying down to Washington DC tomorrow to meet with George Bush and John McCain about the crisis and how to deal with it. I really hope John McCain decides to go to the debate, because I want to see how he answers unscripted questions from a very tough panel.

I think Mr. Richard Belding (Dennis Haskins), their principal in SBTB, should make a cameo in the show who needs their help. That would be the amazing…anyone else agree? I met Dennis Haskins twice at the NACA conference which was awesome.

To feature it’s “Strong Enough To Stand On” product, in 1965 Shwayder Bros, Inc changed it’s name too?

The way it was worded made me think of Brawny paper towels, but unfortunately it was wrong. The correct answer was “Samsonite”. I thought, “Samsonite, I was way off”. The reference was to the movie Dumb and Dumber.

I had fun watching because it is a very selfless act and you want her to win so that the schools will get better funding. Congratulations to Kathy Cox and the Georgia schools system.

Sarah Palin is the current Governor of Alaska who is in her first term. She is a Republican pro-life gun Lover. She may help John McCain to come close to the White House, but this country needs change and John McCain isn’t going to change at all. He is hoping to “change” the politics that put the people of this country second, however, he voted with George Bush 90-95% of the time.

McCain is hoping to get the women vote, however, not many women will agree with someone who thinks that guns are more valuable than having our troops come home on a realistic and set timetable. If she agrees with John McCain, than she is for the war in Iraq and for making the rich richer. As a mother of five, she sure doesn’t seem to care about their future to let John McCain continue to run this country like it has been over the last 8 years.

John McCain may be a veteran of this country and for his sacrifice we should thank him, but he will not help the families who are struggling to pay the bills in an economy that has decreased drastically over the last 8 years. With Bill Clinton and the Democrats, we had 22 million new jobs and a surplus. Under the direction of George Bush and his equally incompetent Republicans, we only have 5 million new jobs and an economy that would make some countries laugh. While we are spending billions of dollars a month on the war, Iraq has a 80 Billion dollar surplus. Why should we let a country that doesn’t want us there make money while Americans are losing jobs, homes and family members because of our national debt.

By the way McCain, you turn down offering the position to the candidates that everyone knows (Romney) and offer it to someone who no one knows and don’t have any experience. Good job stating that Barack Obama, who has been in the Illinois Senate since 1997 and the US senate since 2005, isn’t ready to be Commander In Chief, but suddenly Palin who has been Governor for not even 2 years does have enough experience to be your running mate. I know that one of them is running for President and the other for Vice President, but if McCain wins, we might see a woman President because McCain is currently 72 years old. I have heard others state that he could “go” during his term and then the VP would take over. Palin isn’t ready for that responsibility and pressure. Alaska politics isn’t that intense and a change to the White House might be too much. Obama might be able to overpower McCain, but Biden can definitely stand up to Palin in the debates over the next two months. She doesn’t have any experience in Foreign Affairs and she didn’t seem confident when she spoke at McCain’s VP announcement.

Here is John McCain announcing Sarah Palin as his running mate.