a patriot's weapon of choice...

Dear media:

I am well aware that tomorrow's inauguration is a huge deal and quite a news-worthy event, to say the least.  However, it is being broadcast and advertised as if it were the literal second coming of Jesus.  While I agree that the inauguration IS something which should be covered by all major outlets, I would appreciate it if you would please remember that almost HALF of all Americans did NOT want to see Obama take this office.  It's not like he won 99% of the popular vote or anything.  So instead of acting like this is something that the entire country got together and unanimously agreed upon, PLEASE just treat it like you would any other presidential inauguration.

Dear everyone who is attending the inaurguration (that the local news feels compelled to feature on a daily basis):

I have been to an inauguration before, as well as an inaugural ball.  While it is a pretty exciting event, it's not something that's going to change your life, I swear.  And to those of you who were able to score tickets to the swearing in, trust me, that doesn't mean a whole lot.  That just gets you on the other side of the ropes.  That doesn't mean you can see or hear any better than the people who are crowding around outside of the ropes.  In fact, you'll be lucky to even be able to fight your way through the crowd to GET to the inside of the ropes.  That ticket is not magic.  Again, trust me, I speak from experience.

Having said that, if we do have work tomorrow (Weather Channel is calling for 4 inches of snow, and in NC, that is HUGE), I will be wearing all black.  Oh, and all the news channels say that one day we'll be asked where we were when Obama was inaugurated?  I'll be able to say that I was sitting in my cubicle hard at work, because we can't all be on welfare.

That last sentence was a joke, for all you Obama-humor impaired on my friend's list ;)

Having been feeling particularly down on myself lately with no obvious reason, I felt a strange vindication this morning while listening to Neal Boortz.  A listener called the show with the intention of explaining to Boortz how sometimes government assistance is a necessity, and cited his daughter as an example.  An otherwise “good” girl, his daughter, a single mother, was trying to get government assistance in finding a place to live.  The basis of the argument was that sometimes bad things happen to good people, and that’s why the government is there to help.

Rather than confess to the man that he’d seen the error of his ways, Boortz admonished him for assuming that hard-working Americans should be forced to pay for his daughter’s mistakes.  Oh no, the man countered, she was actually married when she had the child, but the guy turned out to be a drug addict.  And that’s not a mistake?  It was a rather light-hearted conversation, considering the subject matter, but Neal basically wrapped up his argument that this girl’s hardships are more the responsibility of her and her family (i.e., the caller) than the rest of America.

Then, making a statement that I have often thought but never repeated aloud, Boortz addressed the failures of the American family to teach responsibility to their children.  Why stress the importance of responsibility, he argued, when the government is always there to catch you whenever you make mistakes?  Why worry about having a child that you can’t afford when you can count on government to supplement you housing, food, and health costs?

At that time, my text message alarm went off, and there was a text from Matt: “Boortz is on a roll about gov subsidized house… making some great comments.”  I responded that I was also listening, and commented that whenever I try to make similar arguments, I get called “heartless”.  To which he resopnded, “It’s the truth.”

I started to think about my views and how irritated I’ve been lately, especially while listening to talk radio.  Boortz is the only conservative show I can pick up during the day – the morning guys are both fairly liberal (although admittedly a little more common sense about it than most radio liberals), and the afternoon guy has me screaming at the radio on almost a daily basis.  And while is was bad during the election, that was to be expected, and was almost welcome as a way for me to hear the other side of the issues.  But for the past few days, a great deal of air time has been given to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and perhaps that is what has pushed me over the edge.

The afternoon guy, Alan Handleman, basically specializes in pathos.  Everyday he talks about the conflict, and every day he does it from the standpoint of “is this right?”  Perhaps he’s not that bad, since he doesn’t really have much of a spine, but his callers whole-heartedly answer that emotional appeal and call in to scream about how Israelis, completely unprovoked, are bombing hospitals and schools.

Earlier this week --  Monday, I think, -- he had a weapons expert on the show who happened to be pro-Israel.  Throughout the entire show, I don’t think I heard one pro-Israel caller, but there was certainly a plethora of pro-Palestinian callers, all students of the emotional argument.  Almost all were young, likely students, and amost all argued that the land which currently makes up the physical state of Israel rightly belonged to the Palestinians prior to 1948, and because it was unfairly taken from them, they had the right to threaten and harm Israeli citizens.  It didn’t matter what calm, intelligent argument he provided to them – his responses were always met with emotional pleas to end the senseless bombings, but only the ones being done to Palestinians.  One particularly fun caller insisted on screaming that the Israelis were “occupying” Palestine, and insisted that the only way for the conflict to end would be for Israel to “end the occupation” – basically admitting, through her very argument, that it is not the Israelis who refuse to stop the conflict.

No one could respond directly to this guy’s very good points.  A few tried to accuse him of lying, but they couldn’t back up their own assertations.  This is the crux of the emotional argument: ignore what is either common sense or general knowledge, and appeal to the emotions.  The occupation girl, while annoying, certainly tugged on the heartstrings as she sobbed about seeing children injured and killed by Israeli missiles.  The Arab man who told of his family being forced to leave their home in Palestine decades ago added a personal element, and no one who was listening could argue that what happened to his family was horrible and unfathomable – but does it justify today’s bombings by Hamas?

Perhaps that is what I couldn’t get over.  With these kinds of arguments, there is little discussion over justification, aside from “fairness”.  When it was mentioned that Hamas had begun the fighting, people argued that it wasn’t fair for Israel to fight back, because Gaza doesn’t have a military, or an equitable amount of manpower.  When arguing the virtues of communism, there is often a general assumption that anyone who becomes wealthy in a capitalist society has done so by cheating.  Almost every liberal point of view that I can think of appeals to the emotions.

And this brings my back to my original concern, that odd pang that I feel whenever I tell someone that I am a conservative, or proudly capitalist, or when I find myself agreeing voraciously with an essay by Ayn Rand.  Am I heartless?

Am I competely off base here?  I’m actually not trying to start anything… really just curious to see if anyone else felt the same way.

 All I want for Christmas is for the Panthers to win this game tonight against the Giants.

Oh, and a trip to the Super Bowl too.

Thanks.

The Michigan lottery is up to $146 million.

Just thought you guys might be interested in seeing how the majority of hard-working Americans attempt to finance their "bail out".

Oh, also, the michigan.gov website crashed my computer.  FAIL.  Someone throw a few billion to the IT people there in the Michigan government.

My, but it has been a while.

I'll go ahead and apologize in advance for any typos. I (ironically) broke my "W" key a couple of weeks ago, and while it still works, it takes some effort to use, and sometimes it gets skipped over.

So... how bout that election?

I guess to say that I was surprised about anything would be false. I knew, whether I admitted it or not, that any Republican candidate would have an uphill battle to fight this year. But I really let myself get my hopes up about the North Carolina gubernatorial race. After all of the debates, the interviews, and the endorsements, I was just sure that anyone who had been paying attention to the candidates -- not the parties -- would be voting for Pat McCrory.

I was almost right. Madeline Shoemaker, the grassroots coordinator for the McCrory campaign did the math and found out that McCrory received 1,115,861 votes from non-straight ticket voters, whereas Beverly Perdue only received 857,546. Perdue, who distanced herself as much as possible from Barack Obama during the campaign should be falling all over herself to thank him for that win.

I've always been against straight-ticket voting. This is not something that I am suddenly against this year because of this particular election. I have never voted straight-ticket, and I have never suggested that anyone vote straight-ticket. It encourages uninformed voting, which is something else that I am very much against.

There's no doubt that there was a lot of that going on during this election. Every polling place I went to had Obama workers handing out little yellow cards with instructions on "How the vote for change". Step one was to vote for Barack Obama, step two was to vote straight ticket Democrat, and step three was to vote for a list of liberal judges (as those races are "non-partisan").

Voting straight-ticket Democrat in North Carolina is NOT voting fo change at the state level. Our Democratic governors have done a great job over the years of running our state into the ground. Pat McCrory was change.

The presidential election was Obama's before he even won the primary. Whichever candidate had won the Democratic primary was going to be our next president. We can thank George W. Bush and the rest of the big-government Republicans for that one. As much as I hate to admit it when the far-right is right, the Obama victory should (theoretically) promote change in the Republican Party. The idea of another Ronald Reagan isn't that exciting, but perhaps it's time for a Barry Goldwater?

Likewise, I was going to be happy regardless of who won our Senate race. Elizabeth Dole deserved to lose. Sure, she was going to be another GOP vote in the Senate, but she was nothing more than an opportunist when it came to running in North Carolina. Kay Hagan's victory will give the NC GOP a chance to put a real North Carolinian up against her in 2014.

But Pat McCrory was a victim of bad Republicans and uninformed voting. He ran a positive campaign about the issues, and North Carolinians showed that it pays to go negative (or hire Andy Griffith). I was at the election night party in Charlotte, and aside from the actual act of conceding itself, the most heartbreaking aspect was in Pat McCrory's concession speech when he brought up his positive campaign and appeared to realize, in front of our very eyes, that perhaps refusing to run attack ads had hurt him.

I know that at times I fall back on the Republican cliche attack system (such as the "Respect your president?" sign from the last post), but in all honesty I'm not that person. There are much more important things in politics than party politics. I want North Carolina and the United States to move forward and succeed -- I would never want for things to go horribly wrong just so the person from the other party will look bad or be impeached/voted out of office. I believe that both Barack Obama and Bev Perdue have our country's best interests in mind, which is why they worked so hard to get elected. We simply have different ideas of how to move our country/state forward.

If things really are better off four years from now, I will be the first to admit it. I want to see economic growth, but not at the expense of our country's brightest minds. I will not blindly support a Republican in 2012 simply for the fact that he or she is a Republican. I will look at who I feel will continue to move our country in the right direction. If Bev Perdue is the better candidate, then she will be able to count on my support. Let's face it, if the gubernatorial election had come down to Perdue vs. Fred Smith (McCrory's major opponent in the primary), I very likely would have voted for Libertarian Mike Munger.

I will respect Barack Obama as my president, and I will respect Bev Perdue as my governor. But I will also be watching them closely to make sure that they are not taking advantage of their positions -- just as I do with any leader, regardless of their party.

And you best believe I'll be leading the revolution if ever one is necessary.


NCpoliticalnerd.com

I'm still alive, don't worry.

I need to somehow get these McCain and McCrory stickers off of my computer.  Before the election, it was kinda cool to have stranger comment on my laptop's decorations.  Now, not so cool.

Like this crazy old woman that's talking to me right now about praying for America.  wtf.

Obviously, neither one of my guys won.  I didn't expect McCain to win, but the McCrory loss left me stunned.  I want to write more about that later.

Also, I cleaned my keyboard this week and now the "W" key doesn't work too well.  Won't go back on all the way.  I guess it's a good thing Bush is almost done.

Dole accuses senatorial challenger Hagan of being "godless"

For those of you that don't live in NC, let me give you a quick play-by-play of what's been going on here in our very close Senate race:

State Senator Kay Hagan -- "I'm going to run against Elizabeth Dole.  Even though I'm a well-known moderate in the NC Senate, I'm going to pander to the extreme Left for support and let Senator Chuck Schumer fund all of my attack ads against Elizabeth Dole.

US Senator Elizabeth Dole -- Whatev.  No one knows you.  Fail.

Hagan -- No one should vote for Dole because she's from Kansas, not North Carolina.  You North Carolinians are too stupid to have realized that six years ago when you first elected her.

Dole -- Wtf.  Kay Hagan is Big Oil.

Hagan -- Nuh uh.  Dole is Big Oil.

Dole -- Hagan raised taxes and single-handedly caused the economic crisis.

Hagan -- Dole is BFF with George W. Bush.

Dole -- Hagan is BFF with athiests.

Hagan -- OMG WTF!!!!!!111  I <3 God!  Cease and desist!

Dole's lawyers -- Nope.

Hagan -- Sued, bitches.

-------------

Was it a low blow for Dole to infer that Hagan is an athiest?  Maybe.  But why is it any more "offensive" to claim that about someone than to claim that your opponent takes money from "Big Oil"?  If they are all half-truths, why does one okay but another gets a lawsuit?

You know what the REAL deal is?  This deal with Hagan taking contributions from the Godless Americans PAC happened almost two months ago, and Dole held onto the info until less than a week before Election Day.  Hagan had to think quick to make herself look golden, so she feigned being extremely offended, to the point of filing a lawsuit.  That way, not only does she get national attention, but she "proves" to everyone that she loves God SO MUCH that she is willing to go to court over him.

And before you go assuming that I'm just another stupid Republican, Kay Hagan totally had my support up until about a month ago.  You can ask any of my Republican friends, they were quite disappointed in my lack of support for Liddy.

Dear Professors Jovanovic and Poulos,

I'm so glad to see that you felt the need to sign the petition of Communication Studies professors at politicalcommunication.info which accuses McCain of sinking to racist tactics to attack Obama.  I'm glad to know that, although the McCain campaign had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the racist photos you posted on your site, you felt the need to associate with a site that would completely attribute such things to the McCain campaign.  That completely makes sense, especially since you state on your site that "The purposeful dissemination of messages that a communicator knows to be false and inflammatory is unethical."  Good call on that one.

As you are both professors at UNCG, I assume that 2 years ago when a good portion of the student body was accusing me of being racist because of my disdain for Angela Davis, you also took it upon yourself to stand up for me, as it was clear that those accusations were false and were meant to deceive people who had not actually ever read my column or knew anything about the circumstances.  I also assume that, had a petition been sent to your office which chastised the people who called me such hateful names, you would have gladly signed it to show your support of my right to criticize the political beliefs of someone with whom I disagree regardless of the color of their skin.

Yeah.  Right.

Anyway, thanks again for your input into this election.  Communications professors are some of the most important people in the world, and I value your opinion so much more than I would value my own, if I had one, of course.

Melissa

Just a few moments ago, I visited dictionary.com to look up the current definition of a word that has been highly contested over the last few weeks.  The result was just so awesome that i had to do a screen capture.  Check out the advertisement than popped up on the side of the screen, as well as the word that I was researching:


(click on the picture to enlarge)

Classic!  I got far too much amusement out of that little picture :)

http://tinyurl.com/6mve5v

Well what do you know…

Bev Perdue has been running negative ads against Pat McCrory that accuse him of wanting to let New Jersey and New York dump their trash in North Carolina. Her reason for running this ad? A $1000 contribution made to Pat McCrory from “an individual connected to a North Carolina waste management company”. Because of this single contribution, Perdue has concluded that Pat McCrory must be in the back pocket of “Big Garbage”, and has run numerous ads about this very issue.

Interestingly enough, it seems Bev Perdue is being quite hypocritical in this respect. Perdue recently received a $4000 contribution from Tonio Burgos of New Jersey, the owner of a lobbying firm that represents Sims Hugo Neu, a company which has been planning to build a landfill in Brunswick County.

Huh.

You know, this isn’t even about the issue of allowing landfills in North Carolina. I personally think that such an issue should be left up to the communities they affect. If the people of Brunswick County think that it would be best for their local economy to build a landfill, then what business is it of mine in Guilford County? Likewise, why does is this Raleigh’s business? Why should Brunswick County forgo what they think may be a lucrative contract because Big Brother in Raleigh has decided to limit what businesses are allowed in our state?

That’s not even what this argument is about. Perdue is not attacking McCrory’s views on the issue, she’s attacking the fact that he accepted $1000 from someone connected to NC waste management. And yet, she is the candidate who accepted four times that amount from someone in New Jersey with a fiscal interest in North Carolina’s waste management system.

As SNL’s Amy Poehler would say – “REALLY, Bev Perdue? Do you REALLY want to make that argument? Huh!”

One of my facebook friends posted a link to the story about a McCain supporter being robbed, beaten, and maimed by an angry Obama supporter (a story which you can read here if you haven't already).  Anyway, I'll just copy and paste the comments that started almost immediately after he posted the link:


Me -- Gosh you're right, slashing tires is SO much worse than robbing, beating, and carving up the face of someone.

Obama-lover 2 -- Yeah, where's the mention of the Obama volunteer who was assaulted and hospitalized in Wisconsin this week? No side has a monopoly on civility, or the lack thereof. Also, what evidence is there at all that the perpetrator was an Obama campaign volunteer as you claim? Incredible claims require, you know, evidence...

Me -- Interesting. I had not heard about the attack on the Obama volunteer until your comment, so I looked it up. After reading about 20 different news stories, I have ascertained that an Obama volunteer was arguing with a homeowner on his front porch and refused to leave the property after being asked several times. The victim's story then differs depending on what article you're reading, because in some she accuses the homeowner of grabbing her by the neck and/or shaking her, and in others she states he grabbed her hair and slapped her. The homeowner admits to pulling the volunteer's hair in an attempt to get her off of his property.

There she is!!


( A select few of the 200 pictures that were taken. )

Yeah, that's right, I'm a loser.  Don't be hatin'


( Yes, that is glass chalk you see on the window behind me... )
My favorite US Senator, Richard Burr (until he voted for the bailout, but whatev)

more to come....

richardmooresays.com

It seems the Republican Governors Association (NOT the McCrory campaign) has re-posted a website that the Richard Moore camp put out during the primaries. Richard Moore was Bev Perdue's Democratic opponent in the primary earlier this year, and their attack ads against each other were infamous on local television stations.

The site, originally WhichBeverlyIsIt.com, is not written by Republicans who want to see Pat McCrory in office -- it's written by Democrats who DIDN'T want to see Bev Perdue in office. Of course, the original site has been removed, since it's not kosher to go against your own party these days (Joe Lieberman, anyone?), but the facts are still there.

Interesting stuff. I'd be interested in how Richard Moore feels about this.

White sheet -- $4 at Walmart

Spray paint -- $3 at Walmart

Fine for compromising the structural integrity of your yuppie apartment complex -- $15


Having a top-floor apartment right across the street from an Obama/Biden rally and letting Obama know that not everyone in this hippie-infested city thinks he's "The One" -- PRICELESS

Did anyone catch the gubernatorial debate last night between Pat McCrory and Mike Munger (Libertarian) on UNC-TV?  I think this is the first time I've ever witnessed a "debate" between a Republican and a Libertarian candidate with no Democratic candidate.

I say "debate" because McCrory and Munger tended to agree on many of the issues, with the major exception being the death penalty (and Munger seemed extremely excited to have found an issue on which they disagreed so strongly).

One of the major issues on which the two candidates agreed?  Democrat Bev Perdue should have been there.  She was invited, and she declined to attend.  Why?

I personally think there are two answers to that.  One is, of course, the obvious -- she's just not a good debater.  I'm not being mean, I'm not attacking her -- but that woman can't debate.  According to political consultant Gary Pearce, "letting Bev Perdue debate five times amounts to political malfeasance."

The other reason?  Perdue is better off with the majority of North Carolina not knowing her views.

The national Democratic Party would like for most Americans believe that North Carolina is an all-around red state that is only recently turning blue with the advent of Obama and Hagan, but we here in North Carolina know that Democrats have had a hold on this state for over a hundred years, and Republicans are only recently beginning to take over many state offices.  The driving force behind this monopoly are the numerous "Southern Democrats" that still vote Democrat, not yet realizing that today's Republicans are much more like the Southern Democrats they used to vote for than today's Democrats.  As North Carolinians slowly but surely realize that they should be voting Republican in state elections as well as national, the Democrats are losing ground.

Beverly Perdue, like the rest of today's Democratic Party, thinks the government knows how to spend your money better than you do.  There will undoubtedly be many people voting on November 4 that don't know that about her -- and she will be better off for everyone of those people that doesn't see her debate.

The last thing Bev Perdue wants -- and the rest of the North Carolina Democratic Party, for that matter -- is for the citizens of North Carolina to know what she really stands for.  She says that she's for transparent government, but she's already hiding from the people of North Carolina, and she hasn't even been elected yet. 

Two days ago, when I informed my co-workers that I would be skipping the first few hours of work on Friday for a gubernatorial forum on public schools, most people just nodded politely. One woman, with a bit of a sneer, said, “Why do you care about public schools? You don’t even have any children.” I smiled sweetly and informed her that ironically, although I have no children, I helped pay for their education, and therefore have an interest in how the schools are run. She didn’t say too much after that.

What I witnessed at the SAS campus in Cary yesterday morning were two intelligent people with two fundamentally different opinions on how to run North Carolina’s education system. I have to give Bev Perdue some credit – this is the best I’ve seen her in any of the debates. Don’t read too much into that statement. She bombed the last two debates, making such embarrassing gaffes as telling us that including vocational training for mechanics, electricians, or plumbers in our high school was lowering our expectations for our children.

I noticed that Perdue didn’t make that same mistake during this debate, but I also noticed that her argument against Pat McCrory’s vocational training in high school proposal was rather empty. Could it be that her only reason for disagreeing with McCrory’s plan is that she thinks people who work with their hands are second-class citizens? If that’s not it, she didn’t give this blogger a reason to think otherwise.

Both candidates seemed fairly relaxed, and perhaps that was what made the biggest difference for Perdue. In the other debates, she has seemed nervous, uptight, and almost jittery, and maybe that’s due to the fact that she’s a one-issue candidate. She knows her education platform, and there’s no denying that, even for someone as pro-McCrory as myself. However, the question remains – which candidate has the best plan to reform the North Carolina public school system?


( PERDUE'S PLAN )


( MCCRORY'S PLAN )


COMPARISON

Local involvement

Both candidates have valid opinions on how to change the NC school system, but only one truly appeals to the best interests of the community and the future of North Carolina. Pat McCrory’s common sense approach to letting the local government have more of a say in their schools is a plan that I’ve been hearing citizens espouse for years. If we don’t think the federal government should be able to judge all schools the same across the nation, why do we think the state government should be able to judge all schools the same across the state? Different areas have different education needs. Conversely, Perdue states “that responsibility rests with the governor”. She seems to have this idea that she will be able to visit every school system in the state and will be able to determine how to best education their kids in one meeting.

Education & Economy

McCrory’s plan to get the business leaders involved is another plan with great potential. As I told my co-worker, we are all paying for the public schools, so we all have an interest in how they work. North Carolina’s economy relies on our future workers, and business leaders would best be able to determine what future skills our children will need to find a job when they graduate. McCrory looks at education as a team effort between the private and public sectors – Perdue sees it as a competitive “every man for himself” system, as witnessed by her remark that our children will be forced to compete against each other as well as children across the world.

Drop-out rate

Finally, Bev Perdue’s plan to lower the drop out rate by making sure students stay on grade level just doesn’t hold water in the real world. High schoolers don’t always drop out because they just aren’t good at school. I had several friends in high school who were very intelligent and made good grades, but quit because they didn’t have any desire to go to college. They preferred to quite school at 16 and go directly into the workforce, usually construction of some sort. McCrory understands that not all kids need that four year degree and that our workforce always needs skilled workers, and he offers hope for those students who don’t have any interest in higher education.

 

Both candidates stressed using “common sense” in our education policy, but only one actually illustrated how to do so. I think Pat McCrory’s common sense education policy will lower the drop-out rate and make North Carolina’s public school system one of the most effective in the nation. Bev Perdue's ideas just represent more of the same -- centralized control over the education system, unrealistic testing expectations for students, and higher taxes for NC citizens. As someone with a real interest in our state's education system, I know who I'll be voting for. How about you?

This is sick.

Saving Bristol

Basically, this guy (Doug Stanhope, real name?)is attempting to raise $25,000 "so that [Bristol Palin] can abort [her] child and move out of that draconian home."

My favorite part of the page is where he tells us how excited he is to have been the father of an aborted child. "I was once in a similar situation where I'd accidentally impregnated a girl and she had to make that same fateful decision that now faces you... We made the right choice and rather than end up bitter rivals in court battles over custody or support, we are great friends who high-five over our decision and have all the free time and disposable income that young mothers never know."

I'm aware that this is likely someone's poor attempt at a joke, but that crosses the line, even to a pro-choicer such as myself. An abortion is not something that you turn into an internet phenom or that you "high five" over. The decision to have an abortion should never be taken lightly, and it is attitudes such as this that push people even further to the right of this issue.

I'm glad to see that the potential father was able to effectively remove himself from such a situation, but I doubt this pinhead has any clue what kind of a toll the abortion may have had mentally on the mother. Nor do I think he cares too much, so long as he has his money.

I know I didn't post the preliminary pictures as promised, but I'm not photogenic, and that goes double for when I'm wearing glasses.

However, it appears that a picture of me doing my live blogging at the debate watch party tonight has made its way to the internets, so I figured I may as well show it here.

And so ladies and gentlemen, my blonde impersonation of Sarah Palin



And before anyone makes any smart ass "lady-like" comments, it's kinda hard to cross your legs when you're supporting a laptop.

I do love my pink suit tho! :)

(PS -- Pat McCrory, whose pin I am wearing in that picture, KILLED in that debate, and he's now 8 points ahead in the polls!  I may in fact live to see a Republican governor in North Carolina!)