President-elect Barack Obama has already saved one American industry from recession: gun sellers. The Enquirer reported today that gun enthusiasts nationwide are so afraid that Obama will take away their freedom to own assault rifles and other war-style home defense tools that they're buying out local gun shops.  

As the Bushes clear out of the White House and the Obamas move in, it's easy to get caught up in the euphoria of a new era dawning. But if President Obama truly wants to bring about real change in America, as he's long promised, he needs to address the helplessness so many of us feel about our lives and the world around us. Applying the nation's laws to everyone (including CEOs, investment bankers and ex-presidents and vice presidents) would be a good start.  

Inauguration Day is finally upon us, fittingly coming at the end of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Given the anticipation so many of us have about Barack Obama’s presidency, Tuesday truly will be the Day the Earth Stood Still. Do we still have the energy to get excited one more time about Barack Obama becoming the President of the United States? I say we should try.   

It's time to celebrate! Get in on the Obamaction by attending any of the myriad parties going on around the Queen City on Inauguration Day. Start the festivities off right with a viewing party and carry the patriotic fun on into the night by stopping by some local bars.  

I'm working on the mixtape of a lifetime. This is not, of course, a mixtape in the traditional Hip Hop sense, replete with recycled beats, guest appearances and endless self-aggrandizing promotional drops. My mix is a personal collection of tracks that I've chosen to capture the range of emotions I experienced as Barack Obama became our 44th President of the United States.   

When Aretha Franklin takes to the stage at President Barack Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20, it would be fitting if she were to serenade him and his guests with the late Sam Cooke's anthemic 'A Change Is Gonna Come.' During 2008, the song has come to represent not just Obama's quest to become President but also to bring about a better, post-Bush America once he's in office. And the success of his campaign has come to signify the whole arc of the civil rights movement, from the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott to the White House.