Welcome to CNH’s Water Cooler, where fellow Hubsters commiserate and comment on current events, or whatever you like, while our boys Jon and Stephen are away.
It seemed for a while that there was not going to be much to write about for this week’s Water Cooler post, but then the gosh-darned news cycle picked up again, and here we are, awash in stories. Over the weekend my home town of Chicago hosted this year’s NATO summit, prompting protests — with some of my countrymen (citymen?) bloodied, scuffling with police in some of the city’s most iconic spots. Contrasting this with the adoring throng that accompanied President Obama on his big win on election night in 2008, one can see that even in Obama headquarters-land, all is not necessarily peaceful in the land of Oz. To their credit, Chicago’s finest did show admirable professionalism and restraint, so big ups to them not interfering with people’s right to protest.
At the summit on Monday, the President and the world leaders in attendance mapped out an exit strategy for Afghanistan, with Obama indicating in an address to the leaders that troops would begin withdrawing in 2013 and be fully out by the end of 2014. While it is a relief to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the endless War on Terror’s campaign in Afghanistan, it is hard to find much solace while knowing the cost expended in human lives, affected military families, and dollars spent in the conflict. Let’s wish all of our troops speedily home, leaving behind what is hoped to be a better Afghanistan, and a more stable region. I did say, “hope.”
In this election year, everything gets politicized, even commencement addresses. Last week President Obama gave a pretty rousing speech to the all female Barnard College in New York, bolstering his credibility with crucial women voters. Presidential rival Mitt Romney also spoke at Liberty University, giving some heft to his ultra-conservative credentials. These appearances were purely coincidentally selected to address what the respective campaign’s suspect to be their weak (or at least up-for-grabs) demographics, of course.
We all know Stephen is the Boss at commencement addressing; so for all you graduating Hubsters, whether it be from high school, college, Devry, what have you, please re-enjoy Stephen’s address last year to his real alma mater of the magnificent Northwestern University, replete with the fantastic take-home message, “Service is love made visible”:
Getting back to the headlines, some American Archdioceses in the Catholic Church are now suing the Obama Administration, alleging that the government infringes upon its rights by forcing it to provide birth control in its vast medical institutions. Methinks this will create quite a firestorm both in the Catholic Church and within the Administration, for a variety of reasons. Catholics made up for a strong voting bloc that got the President elected in 2008, and the Catholic Church overall has been pretty pro-Obama. However, there are differing camps within the Church who have been long split on issues of reproductive rights, and this lawsuit will certainly bring those differences to the forefront in this highly charged political time. I am sure we will see a bit more of Fr. Martin et al at the TCR studio to explore this issue more in depth. What do you guys think?
Finally, excitement over the Facebook IPO is making big headlines in the finance world, with investors clamoring to get a bit of FB on Friday. There were stories indicating that even on day one, its IPO of $38.00 was struggling to maintain, having to be bolstered by the banks leading the offering by actually purchasing large volumes of shares themselves. On Monday, the stock plummeted 11%, bad news for the IPO and for Mark Zuckerberg’s bold corporate strategizing. However, the billionaire social media magnate did get married on Saturday to his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan, so, “Felicidades!” (I will refrain from saying “Mazel Tov” so as to avoid being predictable.)
I am sure these stories are just the tip of the iceberg. Which begs the following query:
What stories do you think Stephen and/or Jon would cover right now? Was there anything that happened this week which prompted you think, “Stephen would have totally talked about that”?
Feel free also just to chat around the CNH office’s Water Cooler. Fandom is also friend-dom.
Water Cooler — May Edition
Welcome to CNH’s Water Cooler, where fellow Hubsters commiserate and comment on current events, or whatever you like, while our boys Jon and Stephen are away.
It seemed for a while that there was not going to be much to write about for this week’s Water Cooler post, but then the gosh-darned news cycle picked up again, and here we are, awash in stories. Over the weekend my home town of Chicago hosted this year’s NATO summit, prompting protests — with some of my countrymen (citymen?) bloodied, scuffling with police in some of the city’s most iconic spots. Contrasting this with the adoring throng that accompanied President Obama on his big win on election night in 2008, one can see that even in Obama headquarters-land, all is not necessarily peaceful in the land of Oz. To their credit, Chicago’s finest did show admirable professionalism and restraint, so big ups to them not interfering with people’s right to protest.
At the summit on Monday, the President and the world leaders in attendance mapped out an exit strategy for Afghanistan, with Obama indicating in an address to the leaders that troops would begin withdrawing in 2013 and be fully out by the end of 2014. While it is a relief to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the endless War on Terror’s campaign in Afghanistan, it is hard to find much solace while knowing the cost expended in human lives, affected military families, and dollars spent in the conflict. Let’s wish all of our troops speedily home, leaving behind what is hoped to be a better Afghanistan, and a more stable region. I did say, “hope.”
In this election year, everything gets politicized, even commencement addresses. Last week President Obama gave a pretty rousing speech to the all female Barnard College in New York, bolstering his credibility with crucial women voters. Presidential rival Mitt Romney also spoke at Liberty University, giving some heft to his ultra-conservative credentials. These appearances were purely coincidentally selected to address what the respective campaign’s suspect to be their weak (or at least up-for-grabs) demographics, of course.
We all know Stephen is the Boss at commencement addressing; so for all you graduating Hubsters, whether it be from high school, college, Devry, what have you, please re-enjoy Stephen’s address last year to his real alma mater of the magnificent Northwestern University, replete with the fantastic take-home message, “Service is love made visible”:
Getting back to the headlines, some American Archdioceses in the Catholic Church are now suing the Obama Administration, alleging that the government infringes upon its rights by forcing it to provide birth control in its vast medical institutions. Methinks this will create quite a firestorm both in the Catholic Church and within the Administration, for a variety of reasons. Catholics made up for a strong voting bloc that got the President elected in 2008, and the Catholic Church overall has been pretty pro-Obama. However, there are differing camps within the Church who have been long split on issues of reproductive rights, and this lawsuit will certainly bring those differences to the forefront in this highly charged political time. I am sure we will see a bit more of Fr. Martin et al at the TCR studio to explore this issue more in depth. What do you guys think?
Finally, excitement over the Facebook IPO is making big headlines in the finance world, with investors clamoring to get a bit of FB on Friday. There were stories indicating that even on day one, its IPO of $38.00 was struggling to maintain, having to be bolstered by the banks leading the offering by actually purchasing large volumes of shares themselves. On Monday, the stock plummeted 11%, bad news for the IPO and for Mark Zuckerberg’s bold corporate strategizing. However, the billionaire social media magnate did get married on Saturday to his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan, so, “Felicidades!” (I will refrain from saying “Mazel Tov” so as to avoid being predictable.)
I am sure these stories are just the tip of the iceberg. Which begs the following query:
What stories do you think Stephen and/or Jon would cover right now? Was there anything that happened this week which prompted you think, “Stephen would have totally talked about that”?
Feel free also just to chat around the CNH office’s Water Cooler. Fandom is also friend-dom.