I watched Captain America in the cinema this weekend. Ironic as it was seeing it in England, the movie reminded me—as I’m sure it did thousands of others—that our country is resilient. The issues that we face today may be large, but we’ve made it through civil wars, world wars, terrorist attacks, and rap*.

At the end of Captain America, the song that read the credits was Star Spangled Man. The song is hummy, and warrants flag waving. It also seems to represent a symbol which our country is lacking. In no certain terms, what America is looking for is “a star spangled man (or woman) with a plan.”

*Purely for entertainment value. But for the record, if I can’t hum a song, it is probably not on my iPod.

This past Friday, I visited the Knole House in Sevenoaks, Kent. Known as one of the largest homes in the United Kingdom, it has 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances, and 7 courtyards. For about 525 years it has served as a residence.

Today, the home serves as a tourist attraction. What I enjoyed most about the home is how the National Trust, the non-profit group operating it and over 350 other historical properties, is concentrating its efforts on preservation rather than restoration.

The home itself was beautiful, but when I walked in to the rooms of the Knole House, I immediately noticed the dullness of the upholstery and aging of the artwork and furniture. Dating back to the 17th century, the furniture has simply suffered from use, light, and humidity damage. I found after speaking with some volunteers staffed throughout the house that good-faith preservation efforts made decades ago has also accelerated the aging process.

Today, the National Trust is doing their best to preserve the house and its furniture. Window shades are closed whenever guests are not in the house. In fact, an agreement only allows the shades open for 1,000 hours per year. The antique furniture will be replaced only when it is deemed to fragile for display. This is a refreshing practice compared to organizations too eager to replace original items because they have lost some of their luster.

Long before I left for summer school at Oxford or enrolled at Washington and Lee for college, my parents started to save. In this months Trea$ury Note$, the monthly broadcast of West Virginia State Treasurer John Perdue, my father and I walk through the process of just how easy college savings can be.

Click here to view the episode.

— Rules have been formatted from their original version. They have been formatted to fit this generation. —

Rule No. 1: Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses the phrase “It’s not fair” 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever. When they started hearing it from their own kids, they realized Rule No. 1.

Rule No. 2: The real world won’t care as much about your self-esteem as much as your school does. It’ll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated self-esteem meets reality, kids complain that it’s not fair. (See Rule No. 1)

Rule No. 3: Sorry, you won’t make $40,000 a year right out of high school. And you won’t be a vice president or have a (cell) phone either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn’t have (an American Eagle) label.

Rule No. 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait ’til you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he’s not going to ask you how you feel about it.

Rule No. 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it opportunity. They weren’t embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have been embarrassed to sit around talking about (friends on Facebook) all weekend.

Rule No. 6: It’s not your parents’ fault. If you screw up, you are responsible. This is the flip side of “It’s my life,” and “You’re not the boss of me,” and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When you turn 18, it’s on your dime. Don’t whine about it, or you’ll sound like a baby boomer.

Rule No. 7: Before you were born your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way paying your bills, cleaning up your room and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. And by the way, before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents’ generation, try delousing the closet in your bedroom.

Rule No. 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life hasn’t. In some schools, they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and class valedictorians scrapped, lest anyone’s feelings be hurt. Effort is as important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life. (See Rule No. 1, Rule No. 2 and Rule No. 4.)

Rule No. 9: Life is not divided into semesters, and you don’t get summers off. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eight hours. And you don’t get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on. While we’re at it, very few jobs are interested in fostering your self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to self-realization. (See Rule No. 1 and Rule No. 2.)

Rule No. 10: Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs. Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston.

Rule No. 11: Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.

Rule No. 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you’re out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That’s what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for “expressing yourself” with purple hair, (piercings, and tattoos).

Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven’t seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school’s a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you’ll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You’re welcome.

I’ve enjoyed the likes of those whose voices are just pleasant to listen to: James Earl Jones, Casey Kasem, and the guy whose voice narrated every movie every written, to name a few. There’s now a new name to add to the list. Ted Williams was homeless just days ago. He stood next to the road, advertising his golden voice. Needless to say, his voice lives up to the claim.

An honorably discharged Army veteran, recovered alcohol and drug addict, and proud father and grandfather, Williams has gone from the streets of Columbus Ohio to having job offers from around the world. I can’t wait to see this story unfold, but here is one of Ted’s first interviews:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWG6zNf4xY0 (Update: Due to the rights of this video, this video cannot be embeded in this post.)

The movie trailer guy is Don LaFontaine, by the way. A video of him, I can embed:

Clever commercials at the Super Bowl are as common as a JCPenney ”One Day Only Sale.” Outside of Super Bowl, however, few campaigns emerge that make me do a double take. Last week, a TV ad promoting Hugh Jidette for President made me do just that. Before you read any more, check out the ad for yourself below:

The cleverness of this ad campaign is multi-faceted. I didn’t pay much attention the first time I watched it. Just thought it was an eager candidate wanting to get his name out for 2012. By the end of the commercial, I rewound the DVR, laughed, and then decided to write about it. I’m excited to see how far this campaign is pressed forward.

My classes were challenging, and I’m happy to have taken what I did. Nevertheless, for all the hours that I labored, I’ve managed to condense my classes to one line apiece.

American Government: James Madison Rules America

Microeconomics: MR = MC

Writing: Destroy passive voice

Calculus: I am never becoming a mathematician

Merry Christmas, everyone!

A practice that I have noticed in many foreign countries is that cigarette manufacturers are required to put large, often-graphic images of what smoking does to one’s health. Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed policy that would require that the Surgeon General’s Warnings that are now on cigarette packs to be replaced with a graphic lineup of labels.

Phrases like “SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide” and “SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy” have been replaced with the more straightforward and concise ”WARNING: Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease” and “WARNING: Smoking can kill you.” The most noticable difference is that each of the new labels has an accompanying photo illustrating the warning.

The warnings are required to contain an image (like the one seen above) that covers at least 50 percent of the front and rear of cigarette packaging. As can be seen in the example above and in the PDF file below, the proposed images are grave. (No pun intended.) The new labels are set to be enacted by June 22, 2011. Here is the full list of the proposed warning labels:

• WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive.
• WARNING: Tobacco smoke can harm your children.
• WARNING: Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease.
• WARNING: Cigarettes cause cancer.
• WARNING: Cigarettes cause strokes and heart disease.
• WARNING: Smoking during pregnancy can harm your baby.
• WARNING: Smoking can kill you.
• WARNING: Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers.
• WARNING: Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health.

View all labels in PDF format (PDF 13 MB) to see a composite of all of the proposed images.

For more information visit the FDA’s website.

In my politics class, we have discussed how the health care reform debate will be tolerated in the future. We were each asked to analyze just how Democrats accomplished health care reform. In my paper, “Politics, Policy, and Health Care Reform,” I discuss the effect and influence of politics and policy in the passage of Health Care Reform in the 111th Congress.

View Paper

What is required for learning to take place? Professors, classrooms, lectures, and labs are commonly associated as being one and the same with a proper education. Sal Khan has set out to change that. With his founding of Khan Academy, Khan has reached everyone from traditional students to residents of the Middle East to Bill Gates by posting short—often 10 to 15 minute clips—corresponding to curriculums ranging from kindergarten to college to professional studies.

Unlike Wikipedia which is a free online encyclopedia editable by anyone, the free lessons taught in Khan Academy are entirely of the instruction of Sal Khan. Topics include lessons in math, science, humanities and test preparation. Google loved the idea, recently awarding Khan Academy with $2 million “to translate their core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages” during Google’s Project 10¹⁰⁰.

In the Fortune magazine article, “Bill Gates’ favorite teacher,” critics argue that the Khan Academy isn’t an academy, but rather more of a library. Nevertheless, Khan desires that the Khan Academy expands to become a premier source of tuition-free learning for all students.