I really wish I had a screen-capture of the ugliness that was the Bush Administration’s face to the web world. It was like the websites I remember from the 90s. But now I might have to say the Obama Administration‘s website might be too cool–it’s hard to tell its a government website it’s so slick. The only truly awkward thing about it is the screen that pops up whenever you link to another government website:
Thank you for visiting our site.
You are exiting the White House Web Server
http://www.amtrak.com/
We hope your visit was informative and enjoyable.
To comment on the site, send feedback to the Web
Development Team by clicking here.
It looks like a great private blog, except for all of the seals and stuff. The colors are great–I love the deep red and brilliant blue. The web design is also great–with logical headings, clean menus. It might become a joy to stalk what our administration is doing.
I also love the multimedia–not only is our President posting his weekly address to YouTube through the White House’s YouTube Channel, but he also has slideshows (this one is portraits of all previous presidents) and blog posts with videos. Great stuff for us visual learners.
Unfortunately, while the design is lovely, the content is lacking. The blog is fawningly supportive of the President, and his position pieces are clearly copied from his campaign website. They seem to be more focused on advocating Barack Obama’s stances than explaining them. For example, in the section titled “Women” we hear about what Senator Barack Obama has done to support women in Science and Technology and in the workplace, and only vague descriptions about what President Barack Obama will be doing. Here is the preamble to that section:
President Obama has a long record of standing up for women. In Illinois, he passed the Equal Pay Act to give 330,000 more women protection from pay discrimination and passed another law that ensured victims of domestic violence could seek treatment without losing their jobs. In the U.S. Senate, he introduced and sponsored legislation to reduce unintended teen pregnancy, strengthen families by supporting fathers who are doing the right thing and cracking down on those who are not, guarantee workers paid sick leave, and ensure that women are not receiving less pay than men for comparable work. And throughout his career, in the Illinois Senate, the U.S. Senate, and the White House, Obama has stood up for a woman’s right to choose.
Sounds like a campaign blurb rather than a Presidential one. Now, he’s only been president for a week, but in six months time, if these pages haven’t been re-written with achievements (and if the tone of the website doesn’t become more professional) I will be disappointed.
Don’t fall in love with yourself too far, Mr President, there’s a lot of work to do.
PS: maybe this is me being a super geek, but can I describe how exited I am that the President made clear that all Presidential papers go to the National Archives unless the President has a really good reason to not let them go? And, in case you hadn’t heard–the President revoked the Mexico City Policy (more commonly known as the Global Gag Rule). So. Cool.
Inspirational Quote:
Reader Responses from the Eternal Perspectives Ministries review of the book Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions by Randy Alcorn.
I am a first-year family medicine resident at SWMC. I have made the difficult decision to not prescribe any contraceptives (pills, patches, IUD’s, etc) in my practice. The main motivation for this has been Randy’s article Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortion? These possibilities were not taught to me in medical school and I really believed that the Pill completely suppressed ovulation. Now I know differently and it has changed the way I approach women’s health care. I encourage Natural Family Planning and I am trying to put together some resources to give patients. I wanted to let you know that as a ministry, you are changing hearts and my wife and I are all the more committed to life. We had been on the pill for our first 3 years of marriage. After we both read the article, we felt that the Spirit was telling us to trust God and not use contraception except NFP. It has been the best year of marriage yet! We are even expecting our first child in April! Thank you for preaching the truth fearlessly even in the face of so much confusion in the Christian medical world. – D. H.
PS: yeah DH, that’s totally your job to decide. I hope you tell your patients your beliefs before they treat you as a normal family medicine doctor. I hope this guy understood what commenting on the internet means. If you want a more medical view of Birth Control options, try Scarleteen’s Birth Control Option table. And in case you were wondering, check the author’s definition of abortion to see if it fits with yours before going off the Pill.
