I came across an article titled "Father abandons 9 kids under safe-haven law" and it immediately caught my attention. As I read through the story I found out that Nebraska had passed a law this past July allowing parents to abandon their children as long as they take them to any state-licensed hospital. It gets better...they won't be prosecuted for leaving them.
Even just in the lead it puts Nebraska in a bad light when officials had said they were afraid situations like this one would happen once the law was in effect. Now what in the world were you expecting? Were you expecting them to just check in kids like you would a hotel?
What really made me wonder was the fact that these nine kids ranged from 1 to 17 years old. Now if you weren't sure the first time you had a kid and couldn't handle it, you should have stopped there, not popped out eight more to add to the group. What was so bad about the family that this guy would leave his kids? I mean you hear parents joke about leaving their kids somewhere or sending their kids off to live somewhere else, but again it's just a joke.
The article went on to report four more children between 11 and 15 were left at the hospitals on top of these nine others. Now come on, just because the kids have hit puberty doesn't mean you get to take the easy out parents and ditch them somewhere else. You should have known what in the hell you were getting into before then. This is the part that really upset me. Could you imagine being 11 years old again just hitting puberty with so many questions and hormones and then being abandoned at the hospital because your parents couldn't stand to be with you? That would scar me for life. Doesn't this just scream crime rate hike or spike in suicides and depression?
This law is going to become a problem and I think Nebraska officials are realizing that now. Come on people, think a little before you vote on something that can become such an ongoing problem.
To see this article go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26887181/.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Mothers, you can't miss the newest fashion trend...
Mothers of America you can sleep soundly tonight. Even though there are problems with children who cannot afford clothes, and people sleeping on the streets tonight you can still purchase your infant her high heels! Yes that's right ladies, you can get your daughter high heels even if they haven't taken their first steps. These amazing shoes can be found in six styles: leopard satin print, hot pink patent, black satin, zebra satin, black patent and hot pink satin! They're even packaged in "see-through 'runway bags.'"
Does anyone else see the problem in this? OK first of all let's take the factor of who in the world comes up with baby high heeled shoes? Please! I guess the only thing I can come up with to justify this is strictly for money purposes. Second of all these shoes are for infants and kids who cannot walk yet. Now I'm sorry, but this has got to send a message across to these children and children around their age that it's necessary to be in on the newest fashion or need to be a girly girl. As a kid I was more of the tom-boy type that liked to explore, have fun and climb on the monkey bars. What's going to happen when this generation hits grade school and they feel the need to wear high heels? My third point comes down to the $35 a pair. Why in the hell would you charge $35 for a pair of squishy, shiny shoes that'll only last a few months with the kid? You can get at least two pairs of shoes at Payless for that price!
This concept is just taking "fashionable" too far. Do we need another generation of baby girls who fight to keep their birth weight? No pun intended. Personally I know I've been struggling with my own weight situation. For months I've been looking at myself in the mirror and telling myself I'm too overweight for my size. Now I'm not one to take it to the extreme, I just excersized more and ate healthier. However, I grew up with girls in middle school who I'd have to drag out of the bathroom after lunch before they threw up what little bit of crackers or juice they ate that day. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. It's because of situations like this that I commend shows like "How to Look Good Naked," which teaches women that it's OK to look the way they do and that they distort the way they look because they don't feel as skinny as they should be.
So mothers, you can buy those newest fashion shoes, but beware of the message you may be sending to your daughter. Is it really what you want for her? Or would you rather her have a healthier life emotionally, physically and mentally?
To see more about these shoes visit: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26673132/?GT1=43001
Does anyone else see the problem in this? OK first of all let's take the factor of who in the world comes up with baby high heeled shoes? Please! I guess the only thing I can come up with to justify this is strictly for money purposes. Second of all these shoes are for infants and kids who cannot walk yet. Now I'm sorry, but this has got to send a message across to these children and children around their age that it's necessary to be in on the newest fashion or need to be a girly girl. As a kid I was more of the tom-boy type that liked to explore, have fun and climb on the monkey bars. What's going to happen when this generation hits grade school and they feel the need to wear high heels? My third point comes down to the $35 a pair. Why in the hell would you charge $35 for a pair of squishy, shiny shoes that'll only last a few months with the kid? You can get at least two pairs of shoes at Payless for that price!
This concept is just taking "fashionable" too far. Do we need another generation of baby girls who fight to keep their birth weight? No pun intended. Personally I know I've been struggling with my own weight situation. For months I've been looking at myself in the mirror and telling myself I'm too overweight for my size. Now I'm not one to take it to the extreme, I just excersized more and ate healthier. However, I grew up with girls in middle school who I'd have to drag out of the bathroom after lunch before they threw up what little bit of crackers or juice they ate that day. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. It's because of situations like this that I commend shows like "How to Look Good Naked," which teaches women that it's OK to look the way they do and that they distort the way they look because they don't feel as skinny as they should be.
So mothers, you can buy those newest fashion shoes, but beware of the message you may be sending to your daughter. Is it really what you want for her? Or would you rather her have a healthier life emotionally, physically and mentally?
To see more about these shoes visit: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26673132/?GT1=43001
Monday, September 8, 2008
I'll take "Insure my fingers" for $1200 please...
Heidi Klum, Mark McGwire and Ilja Gort. What do they all have in common? They all have insurance policies on body parts. I was intrigued as I watched rotating story headlines pop up on MSN tonight, especially when I saw the title "Weirdest Insurance Policies." Now who can seriously pass that story up?
The story was written by Dana Dratch for Bankrate.com and describes some of the world's most outrageous insurance policies held by famous and not-so-famous people. For example, Ilja Gort is probably not a well known name amoung many, but he is a Dutch winemaker. He recently insured his nose, yes I said it, his nose, for $7.8 million. I had to laugh at the thought because I'm so used to hearing people complain about the shape or size of their nose. This guy just spent millions of dollars insuring his own. According to the article, the guy did it "...to reflect the value of his nose to his business...."
If that wasn't good enough for you, how about this one: Heidi Klum has signed a deal with an insurance company to take out a policy for her legs. Estimated cost: $1 million. Now those must be some really good legs to spend $1 million on.
This whole idea really didn't hit me until I put it into perspective of what I'll be paying for my own health insurance. My health insurance will cost me around $174 every two weeks for both my fiancee and myself. Now it's not the best coverage in the world but it will cover me as a full-time student well enough to get along. That's $9,048 for my whole body, physically and psychologically for a full year, well technically for two people.
Maybe I'm not meant to understand these million dollar extreme policies, but it just seems like another way to get money. Hmmm...imagine that. Someone coming up with a new way to boost their sales. Maybe I'll just have to go with the trend. After all I need my fingers to type. I wonder if I can get a policy on all of them.
(http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/AssessYourNeeds/insurance-of-the-rich-and-famous.aspx)
The story was written by Dana Dratch for Bankrate.com and describes some of the world's most outrageous insurance policies held by famous and not-so-famous people. For example, Ilja Gort is probably not a well known name amoung many, but he is a Dutch winemaker. He recently insured his nose, yes I said it, his nose, for $7.8 million. I had to laugh at the thought because I'm so used to hearing people complain about the shape or size of their nose. This guy just spent millions of dollars insuring his own. According to the article, the guy did it "...to reflect the value of his nose to his business...."
If that wasn't good enough for you, how about this one: Heidi Klum has signed a deal with an insurance company to take out a policy for her legs. Estimated cost: $1 million. Now those must be some really good legs to spend $1 million on.
This whole idea really didn't hit me until I put it into perspective of what I'll be paying for my own health insurance. My health insurance will cost me around $174 every two weeks for both my fiancee and myself. Now it's not the best coverage in the world but it will cover me as a full-time student well enough to get along. That's $9,048 for my whole body, physically and psychologically for a full year, well technically for two people.
Maybe I'm not meant to understand these million dollar extreme policies, but it just seems like another way to get money. Hmmm...imagine that. Someone coming up with a new way to boost their sales. Maybe I'll just have to go with the trend. After all I need my fingers to type. I wonder if I can get a policy on all of them.
(http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/AssessYourNeeds/insurance-of-the-rich-and-famous.aspx)
For Comm. 3880
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Twilight addictions
Twilighter, Twinerds, Cullen fan, whatever you want to call me I'm proud to admit I'm one of those crazy, obsessed fans who waits at the doors of Barnes & Noble awaiting the newest release of Stephenie Meyer's books. Originally I chose not to pick up the so called "teen reading" books, but was otherwise convinced by a good friend of mine who said I'd be impressed, lending me her copy. After reading the first 100 pages I gave her back her copy and ran to the bookstore to buy all three books ("Twilight", "New Moon" and "Eclipse") and started my two week long venture to finish them. Not only did I catch the bug, but I might have shared it a bit with my best friend in Layton whose husband now probably resents me for the two weeks she disappeared into the Forks adventure. ;) Just kidding Jason. So when "Breaking Dawn" released I was up until 3 a.m. after waiting in line for four hours. For those of you who want to know, yes I loved the fourth book.
But this wasn't the point that drew me to this blog. Because of my constant need to feed my addiction I have always paid attention to Stephenie Meyer's Web site. For those of you who haven't been on the site it is: www.stepheniemeyer.com. Stephenie is known to post her own messages on the Web site now and again and on Aug. 28, 2008 she posted this message, which may I add tore my heart out!
"As some of you may have heard, my partial draft of Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the Internet and has since been virally distributed without my knowledge or permission or the knowledge or permission of my publisher...I think it is important for everybody to understand that what happened was a huge violation of my rights as an author, not to mention me as a human being...So where does this leave Midnight Sun? My first feeling was that there was no way to continue. Writing isn't like math; in math, two plus two always equals four no matter what your mood is like. With writing, the way you feel changes everything. If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn't dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely."
If you didn't catch that it's not being finished. It will never be published. Now as a writer myself I found myself angry with what someone could do to violate a close friend's life work. Then it hit me that her newest book, which would easily have topped the sales of all of her books in the time it takes to swipe a credit card, would never be brought to life. She did however give her fans what she had written, about 264 pages. Readers can find the manuscript on the same link as above.
All things aside about Twilight, it made me wonder about my own work and how easily someone can feed off of someone else's creativity for their own personal gain. Now I've been writing for the Dixie State College newspaper the "Dixie Sun" since my senior year in high school. How many people may have plagerised my articles? How many people typed up the same information I worked hard to obtain into their class report at the last minute to save themselves a little time? Has our reality sunk to you can't trust your closest friends to allow you to achieve your own successes? Or am I wrong?
I hope at one point someone gets a reality check and gets it through his or her mind that life isn't about cheating your way through or finding loopholes that benefit you at the moment but maybe demolish the person who actually did the work.
But this wasn't the point that drew me to this blog. Because of my constant need to feed my addiction I have always paid attention to Stephenie Meyer's Web site. For those of you who haven't been on the site it is: www.stepheniemeyer.com. Stephenie is known to post her own messages on the Web site now and again and on Aug. 28, 2008 she posted this message, which may I add tore my heart out!
"As some of you may have heard, my partial draft of Midnight Sun was illegally posted on the Internet and has since been virally distributed without my knowledge or permission or the knowledge or permission of my publisher...I think it is important for everybody to understand that what happened was a huge violation of my rights as an author, not to mention me as a human being...So where does this leave Midnight Sun? My first feeling was that there was no way to continue. Writing isn't like math; in math, two plus two always equals four no matter what your mood is like. With writing, the way you feel changes everything. If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn't dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, and so it is on hold indefinitely."
If you didn't catch that it's not being finished. It will never be published. Now as a writer myself I found myself angry with what someone could do to violate a close friend's life work. Then it hit me that her newest book, which would easily have topped the sales of all of her books in the time it takes to swipe a credit card, would never be brought to life. She did however give her fans what she had written, about 264 pages. Readers can find the manuscript on the same link as above.
All things aside about Twilight, it made me wonder about my own work and how easily someone can feed off of someone else's creativity for their own personal gain. Now I've been writing for the Dixie State College newspaper the "Dixie Sun" since my senior year in high school. How many people may have plagerised my articles? How many people typed up the same information I worked hard to obtain into their class report at the last minute to save themselves a little time? Has our reality sunk to you can't trust your closest friends to allow you to achieve your own successes? Or am I wrong?
I hope at one point someone gets a reality check and gets it through his or her mind that life isn't about cheating your way through or finding loopholes that benefit you at the moment but maybe demolish the person who actually did the work.
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