Barack Hussein Obama...yoga enthusiast?

From the first time he threw his hat into the ring as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama has had every part of his identity from his nationality to his religion. A more subtle form of the latter part of his life, which I find most intriguing, is his spirituality.

A South Asian blog called Sepia Mutiny (which I encourage you all to check out for more than just the article I am referring to) has done a very interesting piece on President Obama's sprituality and its link to Kriya Yoga. Though its purely speculation, it really is interesting to delve deeper into the brain of the man making decisions that affect us all.

Read the article here.

Breaking News: College Loan Reform

With President Obama signing the last of the healthcare fixes into law, healthcare is not the only thing is going to chang ein the United States. What also changes with the signing of this bill is the college loan system.

From the Associated Press:

"Under the measure, private banks would no longer get fees for acting as middlemen in federal student loans. The government would use the savings to boost Pell Grants and make it easier for some workers to repay their student loans. 

In addition, some borrowers could see lower interest rates and higher approval rates on student loans.

Obama has touted the changes as a way to make college more affordable for students and their debt load more manageable after graduation. He used his weekend radio and Internet address to cite expected benefits for young people: more student lending, caps on those repayments and more money for minority colleges and universities.

"This reform of the federal student loan programs will save taxpayers $68 billion over the next decade," Obama said in his weekly address. "And with this legislation, we're putting that money to use achieving a goal I set for America: By the end of this decade, we will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."

For many of my friends who are college students, especially those who are at Northwestern and peer institutions, where tuition hovers close to 40,000 dollars per year, this is big news. With the removal of the middleman system in college lending, we can only hope that college students will be in a more advantageous position when they come out of college and enter a turbulent economy.

-Sahil

Terror Alert: It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt

Another terrorist threat looms above us - they have found ways to turn our most beloved technologies against us. But in war, we must sacrifice. How do we know, you ask, what sacrifices must be made. Luckily for you, our friends at Fox News are always the first to tell us about threats. And this one, my friends, is no game (bad pun intended).

Recently in an arms cache found in an Afghan village, a PLAYSTATION controller being using by fighters in Afghanistan as a bomb detonator! Glenn Beck is expected to condemn Sony for building such controllers, and purport that the controller might have even belonged to Barack Obama, who Beck claims is an avid Playstation enthusiast with his own game:

Sarah Palin: Kill the Bill...literally

Facebook started out as a way for college students to connect to one another. This eventually spread to all users and now is open to anyone who is above the age of 13 and in possession of an email address. Facebook now permeates society, and along with Twitter allows celebrities and politicians to remove barriers and layers of people between us and them...also its great for giving us gems like this from Sarah Palin's Facebook:

This image, taken from Sarah Palin's facebook, outlines congressmen that voted for the bill that Sarah wants to get rid of - whats interesting is the use of crosshairs to denote the districts. Really? Crosshairs? 

Part 1 of my feature on South Asian Politics coming tomorrow.

Sahil

Changing Gears

I'm going to dedicate the next few posts to South Asian candidates in the 2010 election cycle and the political environment they operate in.

This feature will be split into three parts

Part 1: Our Community Speaks: Spotlight on South Asian Candidates 

Part 2: Identity Crisis: What about politicians that share our heritage, but not our views? Spotlight on Bobby Jindal, and Nikki Hunter.

Part 3: From Apathy to Engagement: The dynamic shift between generations of politics in the South Asian community. 

I hope you will enjoy my posts. Please comment with your thoughts.

-Sahil

Clarification

I promise that I will post about something other than the healthcare soon!

However, I wanted to present a quick clarification about the bill that many people don't realize. Some have stated that Americans have "lost their freedom" because people will be unable to choose whether or not they want insurance.

A few things...

1) People without insurance are a huge financial burden on the state.

2) This is entirely constitutional.

3) There will be an affordable option for people. 

4) This will only affect people who CAN afford insurance but deliberately choose not to get it. 

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the bill will fine people who don't have Health insurance starting in 2014, however:

 "Exemptions will be granted for financial hardship, religious objections, American Indians, those without coverage for less than three months, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated individuals, if the lowest cost plan option exceeds 8% of an individual’s income, and if the individual has income below 100% of the poverty level."

Will he follow through?

(photo from Boston Herald)

Rush Limbaugh once said that if the Heatlhcare bill passed he would leave the country and leave to Costa Rica.

Healthcare reform has passed - I've received no word of any plans for Rush to leave. Though I do not believe with his views, and think that he is part of the radical right that commands too much attention within the right, he is an entertaining man, and I would be sad to see him go to Costa Rica (which has a more socialized healthcare system than the US).

Some people would rather see him gone.

A facebook group amassing almost 50,000 people has already formed.

In addition, a blogger has already offered to cover the airfare.

Its a pretty popular topic on Google as well:

I'll write more as the week unfolds.

-Sahil