I like Barack Obama. I really do. While I doubt that he can completely deliver on all his promises for change, there is something extremely fortifying about the way he speaks. He makes you believe that he can make the difference, and that you want to help him do so! And I love his no-nonsense demeanour, and his unassuming upbringing. Truly, this is a man with the charisma to rally an ailing nation to its feet again.

The video of him accepting his nomination as the democrats' presidential candidate is below. Towards the middle there are parts of his speech which really remind me of that "I have a dream speech", especially the repetitive "Now is the time" rhetoric. I wonder if it isn't just a coincidence that it was structured as such, since Obama's speech was made on the anniversary of MLK's original dream speech. Check it out for yourself, but be warned that the whole video is over 50 minutes long. Heh.



I watched McCain's vice-presidential announcement of Sarah Palin too, and like everyone else I went "Huh???". If he thinks that 44-year old Palin's one-year of governing experience equips her to lead a country, then surely he must concede that Obama's "judgement" will suffice as well. It just seems like a desperate attempt to generate some interest in his rather lacklustre campaign thus far. What bugs me the most is still McCain's pro-war stance, and it sickened me to see Palin speak in length about her eldest son who had just begun his tour of duty in Iraq. I hate it when people glorify war. And I hate the way Palin made use of her son's sacrifice just to garner a few nationalistic cheers, and emphasise McCain's fully heroic Vietnam war experience which he (and now Palin) are determined to never let us forget.

Arming yourself to kill others simply because they disagree with your political ideas is something which can just never be justified. In fact, it is as bad as killing fetuses, and it is true hypocrisy for McCain to be both pro-war and pro-life at the same time. But I guess maybe he just believes that citizens of other countries are less deserving of life than say a unicellular zygote. And the suspicion of peace-threatening activities is totally an excellent reason to just invade and conquer all oil-producing countries! And while we're at it, we should occupy and oppress their innocent civilians FOREVER, muahahaha, says McCain.

I hope Obama crushes McCain like a friggin cockroach!

So, I had hoped not to rant any more on this blog, but I certainly have to today. Because a terrible injustice has been done to my Anna!! My Anna Bessonova, queen of rhythmic gym! Well she's not -my- anna per se, but she's my FAVOURITEST gymnast of all time, possibly even more so than Khorkina. And today, she was yet again denied her Olympic gold.

Why I love Anna is because she's full of grace, elegance, poise, and her routines are always creative and a joy to watch. And unlike some gymnasts of old, coughKABAEVAcough, she infuses some artistry into her routines even whilst maintaining high technical prowess. And apart from her at times ridiculously fast ribbon routines, she is always so composed during competition that she really makes everything look so incredibly easy when in fact it's the complete opposite of that.

Whilst I must admit that Kanaeva was truly a class act today (and I totally support her too but more later), I completely think that Anna DID NOT deserve to be placed behind Zhukova in any of her routines. Anyone who watches gym will be able to tell you that anna's routines were clearly stacked with more difficulty, and better executed. In fact Zhukova kept falling out of her pirouettes, and she definitely didn't have the flexibility required to consider the pirouettes as "completed skills". Her legs were barely, if ever, even 90degrees on those. Are the judges blind??? Or just BIASed???

Anna, on the other hand, obviously oversplit on all her leaps and balances, and because she didn't make any big mistakes today, she should have scored above 18 for all. After her 17.9 on rope, Anna was visibly upset and I think eveything sorta went downhill from there. I've seen her perform her hoop routine many times before and she somehow didn't quite do it today with the same confidence and coolness that she usually does. That being said, she didn't deserve the kind of shit that the judges were soon to give her, especially with the 0.05 adjustment on her clubs routine. Like, what was that about??? It was so obvious that the score was too low. Even the audience knew it and was in a total frenzy after her last 2 performances. Anna had to get up twice whilst to wave and bow because the cheers were crazily loud whilst the judges were still deliberating on her ribbon score. Even Kanaeva didn't get that kind of reception! That certainly says something, doesn't it ;)

So anyway, I have to end with something nice, and I can't think of anything nicer than Anna's 2005 gala, in which she choreographed a hoop routine to the theme of swan lake. It was non-competitive, so it's not full of anything too technical, but she really had freedom to create a routine which was breathtaking. And indeed she did :) Check out the 7 consecutive split leaps and how she rotates the hoop on her raised and flexed foot towards the end. Humanly impossible! The video quality is poor and her tutu is a bit ridiculous, but you must admit that Anna is truly queen. Enjoy: