ShAARP Session: Observations from AARP

Because you got to hold onto to summer, (at least through Monday). Happy Labor Day, everyone!

Did you know that you can blog your way to a sunny few days at AARP's Orlando@50+ conference? We are looking for bloggers interested in winning an all-expenses trip to Orlando@50+. Contest winners will attend Orlando@50+ and document conference events via Flipcam, photography, and of course, blogging. Oh yeah, and, the Flipcam is yours to keep...

Are you interested yet? Of course. But, the real question is, do our judges think you have the chops? Earlier this week we announced our first judge, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.

Today, we are pleased to announce that elderblogger Ronni Bennett will join Craig and shAARPsession editor, Alejandra Owens to judge the contest.

Ronni has been blogging for the last seven years at Time Goes By, an enthusiastic community of elderbloggers and readers. Through this platform, she's watched a new demographic materialize, which she describes as "old people writing on their blogs about their past and present lives, interests and passions." For this, Ronni is grateful because they are "creating a remarkable record of what it's really like to get old."

We know there are more bloggers like Ronni out there. Inspiration, entry form, rules and such can be found right here! The deadline to enter our blogging contest is September 5th.

We're headed into a holiday weekend over here, and just a little giddy.

Your morning headlines: So yesterday was an eventful day, as another oil drilling rig caught fire (but didn't explode) in the Gulf. All onboard survived, and there's so far no sight of an oil slick. Exhale, world. Over at the White House, Israeli-Palestine negotiations continued, under the shadow of some menacing noise from Hamas. New jobs numbers out this morning aren't super encouraging (unemployment still rising will do that to you) but private sector jobs are gaining steam. And as election season 2010 heats up, those elusive young people might not be so comfy in the Democratic party after all.

Your Friday dose of culture comes via a very cool project: a Louis Armstrong biopic, silent film style, with live musicians along on its showings. Listen to Bill Newcott for more.

AARP Bulletin has a must-read on the atmosphere around the 2010 elections, and what you should expect:

The elections have Tea Party candidates, sex scandals, lie detector tests, third parties, professional wrestling magnates, intra-party squabbling and more. Thirty-seven Senate seats are at stake, there are races for governor in nearly 40 states, and all of the seats in the House of Representatives are at stake. Control of Congress is really up for grabs this year, as Democrats are trying to hold on to House and Senate majorities in the face of agitated, "throw the bums out" public sentiment.

Republicans are salivating at the thought of controlling the House and Senate, but are worried about also being burned by the anti-incumbent fire. And the issues are as big as ever: Social Security, Medicare, health insurance reform, the federal deficit and immigration top the list of concerns.

For the Democrats, there's no shortage of problems--the economy, two wars, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, health care reform and financial reform. They've combined to hurt incumbents this election year. Most of those incumbents are Democrats, leading to speculation that another political apocalypse, similar to 1994, could occur, when Republicans ended 40 years of Democratic control. In addition, President Barack Obama's approval ratings are as low as they have been at any time in his still-short presidency.

Check out more about what the experts have to say and what's on the line in the midst of national economic turmoil.

Image by MB Hopkins

How do we break cycles of hate, abuse, disrespect and mistrust? It's not a flippant question: Numerous studies show that people who are abused, dismissed, bullied and generally looked down upon are more like to adopt those behaviors later in life.

Watch this riveting presentation by economist and sociologist Jeremy Rifkin on why we need more empathy. Now consider your opinions and relationships and see if you can't find room to be a bit more forgiving of those with whom you disagree.

I'll start: I disagree with Glenn Beck. I think he fosters divisiveness. I am pretty sure he mangles facts to rile up his fans. But if I rant about how much I "hate" him or how "wrong" he is, what happens? People who agree with me say, "Yeah!" and people who disagree say "F#&! off!" and we are right where we started.

So I'll give Glenn Beck a break. I don't know how he grew up or how he was treated as a kid. I don't know what shaped his worldview. He is a fellow human and, for all of our disagreements, I bet we would agree on at least one or two things. He has a TV show and a whole lot of people like him. Good for him and good for them.

It's up to each of us to be nice, no strings attached. If we all wait for the other guy to put down the first stone, nothing will change for a very long time.

Morning, guys. We don't know about you, but here in the nation's capital, we had a particularly tense afternoon.

In honor of that, well... there's this.

As my friend said... I dare you to watch that and not crack a smile.

Morning headlines, hostage-free: Peace talks continue at the White House between Israel's Netanyahu and Palestine's Abbas, plus King Abdullah (Jordan) and Hosni Mubarak (Egypt). In Afghanistan, an unstable country is even more so after many Afghans withdraw their money from the country's largest bank; and batten up your hatches, East Coast, because Hurricane Earl is about to make things just a little windy. Oh, and there's a few new Apple toys out.

Happy Thursday. Hug your loved ones today.