OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE SPEECH

September 9, 2009. Obama gave a powerful speech about health care reform. Just when I was starting to get used to dim-witted, inarticulate, smirking, devious, fundamentalist hillbillies running the country--along comes Obama. What is happening to my country?!? Something good, actually. Step aside, fear-mongers.


President Obama, September 9, 2009

"Still, given all the misinformation that's been spread over the past few months, I realize that many Americans have grown nervous about reform. So tonight I'd like to address some of the key controversies that are still out there.

"Some of people's concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Such a charge would be laughable if it weren't so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple."

The full text of President Obama's speech can be found here.

THE BIG SPEECH FOR THE BIG GAME

A mash-up of inspirational speeches, in and out of the locker room

Part of football mythology is the inspirational locker room speech. You know the one, where the coach rallies the troops at halftime to win the game for God, Country and the Gipper. Here are a few good ones jammed together in two minutes.

The best inspirational speech of all time--at least my favorite--didn't echo in some locker room reeking of sweat and Phiso-Hex--in fact, it wasn't even given by a coach. The best inspirational speech was delivered far from the jockstraps and Jacuzzis and hampers of damp dirty towels in a wild green patch of Northern France just before the Battle of Agincourt, on Saint Crispin's Day in 1415.


Henry V (played by Kenneth Branagh) rouses his exhausted troops with the stirring St. Crispin's Day speech (touched up a bit by William Shakespeare), a speech that changed the course of the Hundred Years War, and successfully destroyed the French home team advantage.