Our American Community Archive

A post by Peter Slutsky

Happy Friday!

I just watched this video and was shocked! I didn’t know that children were so adamant about their disdain for the health care system! Watch for yourself.


Study: Most Children Strongly Opposed To Children’s Health Care

Tim Russert 1950 - 2008

Russert and Lauer

Tim Russert, host of Meet The Press and NBC News Washington bureau chief, had died at the age of 58. Our condolences to his family and friends. Mr. Russert was a consummate professional and one of the best in the business. He will be missed.

A post by Joshua Skaroff

Sweet Ride Man

Taking a weekend off from the campaign trail to catch up with the family and relax a bit, Barack Obama spent some quality time in Chicago on his bike (with what looks like a kids trail-a-bike attached to the rear). We’re all big cycling enthusiasts here at DoubleSpeak and it’s good to know the next president will be one too. Though of course, our current president likes his bike and look where that got us.

Senator Barack Obama cruising

Senator Obama wears a helmet. Do you?

UPDATE: Obama admitted he looks like Urkel in the photos.

Josh Sack, 1986-2008

Josh Sack, February 4, 1986 -- May 4, 2008
Josh Sack, February 4, 1986 — May 4, 2008

This past weekend, we lost Josh Sack. Josh was a great friend and a talented genius in all things musical. Josh lost a courageous battle with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) on Sunday and he will be deeply missed.

Over the past several years, Josh’s band, The Brakes, have become one of the premiere up-and-coming bands in music. They came onto the scene in Philadelphia back in 2001, and have since built a dedicated fan base throughout the country. The Brakes performed at South by Southwest, along with many other major music festivals, and their tunes are loved by many. In fact, we have featured a number of their songs on DoubleSpeak over the past two years.

That’s Josh the musician. Fortunately, we were all lucky to know Josh as more than that.

Many of Josh’s fans and admirers never had the chance to know him as intimately as we have. Growing up, all three of us have wonderful memories of daily trips to the Sack household to hang out with our fellow partner in crime and Josh’s older brother Bill. As soon as the day ended at Lower Merion High School, we would jump in a car and roll over to the house - indulging (usually overindulging) in delicious snacks that mama Sack would have stashed in the kitchen cabinets.

We can remember sitting on overstuffed leather couches, stomachs filled to the brim, awaiting Josh’s arrival home from school. Despite the fact that he was five years younger than us, even then we knew we were lucky to hang out with such a good kid and talent. As soon as he sat down we would each pickup one of the many different musical instruments that were customarily stashed around the room and begin an epic (or so we thought at the time) jam session. Later we might go upstairs for a round of Golden Eye, though again Josh could beat us all handily at the age of 12.

Even then Josh already showed a remarkable ability to excel at anything he put his mind to. He would put on a Dave Matthews Band CD and literally play note by note along with Dave Matthews’s guitar riffs or Carter Beauford’s drum solos. Suffice to say, that’s not an easy task for anyone.

Josh was a character – he was loud, funny and rambunctious. He had a cutting wit that you couldn’t miss and that you couldn’t help smiling at.

We mourn the loss of a friend and we celebrate the life of a truly great person. To Josh’s family – Bill, Joan and David – we are truly sorry for your loss. Josh has given many people a lot of love, a lot of great memories and probably above all, a lot of fantastic music.

He will live in us forever. He dared to follow his dreams and in doing so made us all want to do the same.

-Peter, Matthew and Josh

The Sack family has requested that donations be made in Josh’s memory to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In addition, you can get The Brakes new album, “Tale of Two Cities,” released only today on Hyena Records in stores and online.

A post by Peter Slutsky

Bush Dances In Africa

Okay, this was too funny not to post. Bush actually has some moves. Of course, it’s all relative…you should see my brother dance!

A post by Peter Slutsky

Do You Have Your iPhone Yet?

That’s the big question these days…

iPhone

A post by Peter Slutsky

This Is Why I Like Jim Webb

The Hill has more on the Webb/Graham confrontation…

A post by Matthew Slutsky

Awkward

The two most awkward things i’ve seen in a long time.

1. Willary Romney trying to explain how his position on abortion has changed from this:

2. Evan O’Dorney, this year’s national spelling bee winner, getting interviewed on CNN:

A post by Peter Slutsky

Start A Cause On Facebook

First, a disclaimer: My brother and I have been involved with this project for a couple months. I am promoting it to the DoubleSpeak community because I really believe in it and I think that the more users we can get, the more good we can do for the world. If you have any questions or need more information, please send a message to DoubleSpeak.

Facebook is a really interesting and innovative social networking site. With a community of over 20 million people, it is not the largest social networking site around, but I believe it offers some functionality that is unique and that sets it apart from other sites, like Friendster and MySpace. If you want to learn more about Facebook, you can read about it here.

Facebook recently launched the Facebook Platform, a set of tools to allow outside companies, organizations, and developers to create applications on the Facebook system that are made available to the entire 20+ million users in the Facebook community. Facebook is doing this, in part, to compete with the functionality of MySpace, but also because Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has a grand scheme in mind whereby any and all Facebook users can have an entirely unique and specially tailored online identity, all stemming from the Facebook platform. When this new functionality launched, Facebook included 85 launch partners, who offered a wide range of innovative and interesting profile add-ons like widgets, games, music programs, non-profit donation tools, YouTube skins, horoscopes, picture and video software and many more.

One of the applications is called Causes.

Causes Logo

Facebook Causes

This application allows Facebook users the ability to start causes and raise money for them - anything from saving Darfur, to helping end poverty, to controlling the pet population, to stopping the clubbing of baby seals. Once you set up your cause, you pick a beneficiary to receive the money that you and your network raise. Beneficiaries are 501(c)(3) non-profits.

If you are a Facebook user, please add the Causes application to your profile now and start playing around. If you don’t have a Facebook account yet, you can easily set one up. Please note, you do not need to be a college student or a young 20-something to have a Facebook account. It’s available to anyone and many older people have accounts.

Once you’re on Facebook and have added the Causes application, make sure you also check out the DoubleSpeak group, which is nearing 500 members. We want to grow that well into the thousands over the coming months.

Click the picture below to check out the Doublespeak group:

DS Screenshot

A post by Peter Slutsky

Craig Thomas, Rest In Peace…

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Senator Craig Thomas and his family.

From AP (via Huffington Post):

Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, a three-term conservative Republican who stayed clear of the Washington limelight and political catfights, died Monday. He was 74.

The senator’s family issued a statement saying he died Monday evening at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He had been receiving chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia.

Rest in peace, Senator.

Craig Thomas