Behind the Scenes Tidbits from US Presidential Campaign

Last updated on: November 6, 2008 at 10:49 pm By Desh Kapoor

Some behind the scenes stuff that had not come out during the long Presidential campaign between Obama and McCain. -- Sarah Palin didn't know which countries were in NAFTA, and she "didn't understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country just in itself." -- Sarah Palin refused preparation help for her interview with Katie Couric and then blamed her staff, specifically Nicole Wallace, when the interview was panned as a disaster. After the Couric interview, Fox News reported, Palin turned nasty with her staff and began to accuse them of mishandling her. Palin would view press clippings of herself in the morning and throw "tantrums" over the negative coverage. There were times when she would be so nasty and angry that her staff was reduced to tears. -- McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request. -- The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and very disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that the crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle Obama said to a top campaign aide. -- On the Sunday night before the last debate, McCain's core group of advisers--Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, adman Fred Davis, strategist Greg Strimple, pollster Bill McInturff and strategy director Sarah Simmons -- met to decide whether or not to tell McCain that the race was effectively over, that he no longer had a chance to win. The consensus in the room was no, not yet, not while he still had "a pulse." -- The Obama campaign's "New Media" experts created a computer program that would allow a "flusher"--the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day--to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station. Read more

Effective Time Travelling Techniques

Last updated on: November 6, 2008 at 5:59 pm By Rev. Dr. Todd Littleton

In order to enjoy World History and at the same time appreciating all our technological blessings my students and I have been mentally travelling to the thirteenth century A.D. for the last twenty five past years. Before doing this we did some research about which century had marked an important milestone with many breakthroughs, looking at History from an impartial viewpoint? By sharing our experiences we were able to discover a lot of wonderful things never explained in books. It is really amazing and a very productive endeavor. Read more

Salman's new movie – Veer

Last updated on: November 6, 2008 at 12:53 pm By Desh Kapoor

Salman Khan's new Movie "Veer" is about an Indian warrior fighting the British Raj. Set around 1800, the film will be similar to multiple Oscar winner Gladiator, and feature Salman in state of the art fight scenes. Apart from having Indian actors, the film will also feature numerous Western faces, including the daughter of top Hollywood actor Jean Claude Van Damme - Bianca Van Damme. Salman has charged Rs. 25 crores for the movie. Priyanka Chopra may play the lead. Here are some pictures from the movie. Looks like Salman has really worked on himself!! Read more

McCain's Concession Speech

Last updated on: November 5, 2008 at 8:00 pm By Desh Kapoor

This is McCain's speech that he gave last night after he realized that Barack Obama had won. I think it is by far one of the best concession speech's I have heard.. and certainly the best speech that I have heard from McCain. Pity that it was his last on this campaign! In this speech, one saw the real McCain.. one who is valiant and brave... and above all who knew grace in defeat. Read more

Our Intentional thinking has great importance

Last updated on: November 5, 2008 at 6:11 pm By Rev. Dr. Todd Littleton

Considering that learning is a never ending action it would be an excellent idea to try to make it interesting. According to experts on this field our first hand learning experience drives us to meaningful learning and usually significant learning means effective learning. For decades the German people and the Japanese people when facing any new knowledge they start from zero even though the posses some knowledge about a theme. They’ve been doing this in order to absorb much more of this new or an improvement of this knowledge. The Chinese are also known from emptying their cups before receiving new approaches, new ways, and new instruction. We on the other hand don’t accept our ignorance and always show that we do know something about any subject, so our learning becomes a tedious and difficult task instead of something highly enjoyable. Our minds get full of not reliable information resulting in obtaining bad results plus a waste of our time and more importantly our wasted talents. Really it is a simple matter of changing our learning habits, so our lives can become much more creative and thus enjoyable. Read more

Obama is the US President

Last updated on: November 5, 2008 at 5:06 am By Desh Kapoor

It took long years and fights of values and unfailing spirit, but today the United States of America finally caught up with its Humanity. Aspirations are wishes that cannot be seen or even contemplated. Commitments are promises that one makes with ones spirit. Meeting one's commitments are important for freedom of the spirit that defines the basic character. It is never easy. It takes duelling with one's own prejudices and mind. It would be easy if the seed of nightmares were in another. But what if, we discover, that the fire of destruction of my spirit actually is born out of me? Even at this stage it wasn't easy. A respected and war hero fell as low as he could possibly have gone to stop this liberation of a nation's and, indeed a civilization's spirit. The sordid saga that had its beginnings in the flesh trade from Africa and of the poor, finally celebrated its second major milestone of liberation today. It took two great men - Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama to help everyone accomplish these victories. It also showed how far the values need to go to meet even the minimum standards that South Africa demonstrated in its acceptance of a black statesman as their leader. The likes of whom were canon-fodder was now General and ungrudgingly so. Not many people may agree with the policies or one's values, but there is a Grace that is cherished when it is demonstrated at times of epochal turns. For all his previous sins, Botha and others showed that grace. That is where, Obama's opponents lost out. When the world will look back at these last few months, as I am convinced it will.. again and again... it will find a bitter and venomous performance unfolding from even the most respected of this land, where a victorious General had given up his claim on an autocratic rule to open the door for a democracy and another great man fought against his grain to establish a rule based on his conviction that man cannot enslave man. Read more

Barack Obama is the next US President – CNN

Last updated on: November 5, 2008 at 5:04 am By Desh Kapoor

CNN Pronounces Barack Obama as the next President of the United States!! They broke this projection JUST NOW. He now has enough electoral votes to be the next US President. He just won Virginia - a state that has not gone Republican for last 40 years since LBJ. Congrats! Read more

Our perceptions and our observations

Last updated on: November 4, 2008 at 11:02 pm By Rev. Dr. Todd Littleton

Our perceptions don't need going thru a special training because they just are. On the other hand our daily observations can be greatly improved with a simple, but at the same time very effective training. I invite you to consider the following: To the layman the bright colors call our attention. To the artists, photographers, interior decorators and architects all the color spectrum is is taken into account. Please allow me to enhance thr importance of detecting first and then appreciating the importance of black color. We can spend as little as fifteen minutes to realize how we haven't been able to be aware of this color.If we take a short stroll invoking this color by asking politely our brain to scan every black object in just five minutes spent doing this, we will convince ourselves that we have been black color blind for quite some time. Our objective minds deals with our perceptions. It also has to do with computing our black and white world as every time we look at black and white pictures or when we watch a black and white movie. Our subjective minds are responsible for computing information about everything we read, study or ponder about, but it also deals wonderfully with our colorful world. Our real world has a lot of colors, so our awareness about these glorious colors belongs to this mind. Read more

Blending Harmoniously our Three levels of learning

Last updated on: November 4, 2008 at 1:45 am By Rev. Dr. Todd Littleton

It's time for me to share the effective technique carried out through thru years about possessing a very useful learning tool. The harmonious total integration of our three levels of learning. Our first level is learning at our memory level. Developing a good memory will be our first step. Nowadays there are many books and systems to master memory. At hand is the difference that exists in reading, studying and thinking. Usually when we read a fiction book the writer does our homework by explaining everything to us. The effort ask from us is just to continue reading. Another thing is when we read textbooks. First we must read for example a chapter at least three times in order to take our next step that would be to remember the main facts. When we translate these facts to our understanding we are a step higher that is using our comprehension level. Here the aid of our imagination is needed to have a reliable framework of knowledge. We are now more than ready to go one step higher as we reach our thinking level. At this level all our mental processes play an important role. Read more

The Breeze IS in Lahore

Last updated on: November 3, 2008 at 5:56 pm By Desh Kapoor

One day - quite unexpectedly, a refreshing and cool breeze from the city of cities - Lahore (or so I thought) came our way thousands of miles away from the sub-continent. Through the thick and thin of the sub-continent's politics, bomb blasts, accusations, rhetoric and anger, somehow our collaboration, respect and friendship keeps growing. I am certainly not the best practitioner of the art (as much as Rubab is), but the world does need people who can accept each other's prejudices - even expressed with passion and conviction - and yet accept that it is their right! THAT is not easy. The prejudices have a strange way of creating rifts and hatred. Often our minds become slaves of our prejudices and we lose reason even when we can see its utmost and critical importance. When I first wrote that post when Rubab had visited us, she had argued that she was from Gujranwala and not Lahore. Being a pseudo-Lahoriya (both my parents came from Lahore - although I wouldn't be able to point its location on the map properly!), I couldn't find the difference! Gujaranwala is about 150 km from Lahore. After all, I have heard even those from Faridabad say they are from Delhi and there was a time when Gurgaon was a separate city but its all one big Delhi (or National Capital Region - NCR - now). So, I had smilingly remarked - same difference. Read more