Lots to do!
I plan on sending Michelle a pair of American flag earrings, from Main Element in Calistoga. That would be cool, to see her wearing them.
Anyway,
my plan for Iraq is to build lots of health clubs, and boxing clubs, for Iraqis to get healthy in, and channel their aggressions through, so they can box each other instead of shooting each other up. This applies anywhere, I think. I know, it's simplistic, but that and martial arts like Aikido (the way of peace) might really make a better world. There should be a whole array of solutions like this. Whatever works, you know? Use the ideas of the internet, from the whole world.
He should make a more public deal, in my opinion, of having been a smoker and having quit, and how he works out and plays basketball. So much of America and the world is overweight or in need of lifestyle change, that should be modelled on the President's Council for Fitness. Happiness? Cure to misery? Action, Exercise.....ENDORPHINS!
I think the world wants to know more about the real Obama, like - can he dunk? or, what kind of dog did the kids get and what is it's name? What music is on his playlist, and what are some of his favorite movies? I'm happy I'm on his email list, and can be a part, in whatever way, of his administration. I have a recommendation: he should talk to Bill Gates and get the white house outfitted with all the cool bleep that Bill has in his model home. Not too crazy, though. Sober and practical, with less emphasis on the infinite entertainment America is so obsessed with distracting itself with.
Stick to the basics: cost-benefit analysis of all the solutions out there to get moving on the ones that will work for the best reward, to govern effectively, really crunching the numbers. I cried on election day...but not what you think. I woke up early, and there was a slideshow on our new Dish network on the UC station by a photographer who had covered Congo (and Somalia). Really crazy sad stuff. The rapes, the absolute poverty and suffering, the machete hacking of limbs, the lack of almost any healthcare (it's too dangerous for doctor's without borders), cannibalism, child soldiers, the ruination of what could be a really successful country with it's resources by a government that has consolidated it's power through tyrannical killing, it's really sickening. I hope he doesn't just get dry facts from his intelligence professionals, but movies and slideshows that really reveal the faces of what's happening in the world. I hope there are fireside chats that really inspire people to make a difference, as they say, that relay what his thought process is, with some transparency. In a word, cold calculations and number-crunching, and warmhearted and passionate kindness and considerations, for the most needy, in the US, and throughout the entire world, where really it's pretty damned bad in some places. The president is in an exceptionally good position to relieve suffering.
I also think it would be cool if he could relay to the people some information that he might be privy to about aliens, if that's even possible.
As for security, he can respond to Russia and Afghanistan with maybe unilaterally eliminating our nuclear arsenal (but not our capability, just like how Japan could make nukes in a short time, despite not having a military), to show that we won't continue to be the hypocritical country that builds more of them while not allowing others (sovereign states, I might add) to not have them, because we think we're so morally superior. Seriously, I don't think anyone in their right mind wants the threat of nuclear detonation, so let's work together internationally to really eliminate the damned things. Yes we can! Also, our military simply has to stop killing civilians. I assume we don't want to, already, but we shouldn't deny it, or call it "collateral damage" or depersonalize the injustice, that really puts America at risk, I would imagine.
100,000 Iraqis I heard have been killed. CNN always puts up the American casualty numbers on their ticker on the bottom of the screen, with nary a mention of the Iraqi devastation/slaughter. That isn't right. Let's please consider ourselves humans over Americans, and really try to inspire each other that national interest is really the worldwide interest, embodied in each individual, who more or less want the same things, like opportunity (read: wealth, comfort), hope (read: real progress, change, improvement, development), peace (read: security, absence of war, presence of things like peace corps, doctors without borders, understanding, relationships between people of different countries and cultures), health (thriving, not just survival), and of course, an environment that doesn't threaten to collapse on us. Smile, cuz YES WE CAN.
As for the economy, well it's pretty psychological and crazy, so we have to pull whatever levers and push whatever buttons to keep things humming along, I guess. Theoretically, what if there were no money, though? Could it even be conceivable that people would all work hard to make life good for themselves and others without it? Economics was never my subject, and I always think a purchaser of anything should just have the money and make the transaction, without all this paying money for money stuff. Savings need to be emphasized, in my opinion. What do I know, though. I'm crazy. Isn't the stock market like gambling? Isn't the profit motive somewhat inhuman? Aren't there crazy amounts of externalities, that markets just don't account for? The winner is not he who dies with the most toys...it's whoever relieves the most suffering and makes the most happiness. Toys are overrated in the happiness game.
Okay, signing out,
God (lol)
p.s. I think the "America is the best country in the world" is fine and all, but I had a thought today that that's like saying "Jews are god's people" or "Republicans are the true patriots": it's exclusionary and a bit ridiculous.
