Most of the news is filled with tragedy, bad economic news or the newest ponze scheme, but, today, I heard two very news stories that really made me smile.
#1 President Obama signed into law the bill that I wrote about in an earlier post called the “Serve America Act”. The bill will fund Americorps, tripling its size over the next eight years. The bill also provides ways for senior citizens and high school students to give back to their community for very small education grants.
I actually can’t believe that there were so many people in Congress (mostly, if not all, Republicans) who voted against this bill. The bill is perfect for our bad economic times. It gives opportunities to new college graduates who are looking at a very dismal job market. Plus, it will give us cheap labor all across America! The amount of money spent for the work that these volunteers do is equivalent to paying someone less than minimum wage… for often very skilled jobs.
There is still one bill waiting for Congress’s approval. This is the “Incentive to Serve Tax Act” giving companies tax breaks for allowing employees to volunteer their time. I could personally be affected by this one, so, I REALLY hope it passes. If it does, I’m going to try and push Adobe to give us some “Volunteer Days” as an official benefit.
#2 The second piece of news that I enjoyed today was the clip from last Sunday’s Miss America pageant. Apparently, Miss California was asked by judge Perez Hilton how she felt about gay marriage. She stumbled on her answer eventually saying that she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. The b*tch lost and a lot of people think it is because of the way she answered that question. If someone actually lost Miss America because they came out against gay marriage, then, we’ve come a long way in America. And…this makes me proud!
In case any of you missed it, here is the video:
Posted by jlafferty 
Laff In SF 