A comment on the CSPAN YouTube video of last night's debate:

"All I heard from McCain was tax cuts for Oil, which is not surprising, since we all already know what the Republican drive is in entering politics. Republicans have and never will be interested in anyone's civil rights, or in the nation's progress or social evolution. They have no idea what the purpose of government is or what the word means. It's all about personal profit and nothing to do with "governing" and the immense responsibilities that come with it. It's just a playground to them."

So...wait. Government is supposed to fix all your problems by throwing money at you that they took from people who worked hard to get it? Social evolution? Socialism is not evolution is deevolution. Yes, it's ALL ABOUT PERSONAL PROFIT. That's the very definition of CAPITALISM, my friend. If I want to give my money to Poor Sallie Sue, that's my business and good for me. But the government FORCING me to? That's COMMUNISM. The government's job is - and always has been - to stay out of the way. Look it up.

Just in case you need to do CPR any time soon.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE49F86520081016?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

And it's not a loose link, either.

http://pressoffice.cornell.edu/oct06/tv_autism.shtml
http://www.whitedot.org/issue/iss_story.asp?slug=ADHD%20Toddlers

Not only may early television watching trigger autism (a possible link), it's been shown that for every 10 minutes a day of TV a child watches before they hit 2 years of age, they have a 10% more likely chance of having ADD when they are older. This includes "infant" television such as Baby Einstein. (Which, by the way, is a JOKE. We studied this in child psych - it's far more harmful than helpful. I can't believe they haven't been sued yet.)

So if a 10 month old watches 30 minutes of TV a day, they are 30% more likely to have ADD. That is a HUGE statistic. And by the time they are six, their TV habits are ingrained - will they be a couch potato? How much they watch TV in the first 2 years will determine that.

Now I should say that Ari watches TV. She'll get an average of about 10 minutes a day of Baby Signing Time or the Signing Baby Einstein DVDs. But - apparently - the key to letting a kid watch TV is to (a) let them say no! I know a lot of parents whose kids aren't interested but basically beg the kid and plop them in a chair and make them watch. (B), be there with the kid. TV should never be used as a babysitter, even for 10 minutes, because the AAP's study directly links this with decreased ability to focus (and they will never learn anything, anyway). A child needs interaction to learn - it is IMPOSSIBLE for a child under 2 to learn anything from TV - IMPOSSIBLE. Their brains cannot process the 2D image. (C), the show should move slowly. One of the problems is kids watch TV that moves fast and they think that this is how fast real life moves and get bored with real life.

So much controversy! What kind of TV and how much do your kids watch?

It is with shock and horror that I write this blog. Please do not think that I care more for this dog than for the 4,000 soldiers that have died in Iraq since the war began. However, this seems so...cruel, so completely pointless, so inhumane that I really am having a hard time believing it is happening. Soldiers make a huge sacrifice in Iraq everyday - and this seems completely unnecessary.

You can read the story for yourself here, but basically it looks like a soldier adopted a dog in the US and it was being sent to the SPCA to be shipped home to her parents when the soldier's commanding officers confiscated the dog and are going to hold it for execution. The outrage is that this dog has served as a "pet therapist" of sorts to the victim (i.e., the soldier) and to rip him away from her to face death is beyond pointless, cruel, pitiless and stupid. If there were something we could do, some petition to sign, I would have posted the link. But there isn't. I feel a terrible loss, not because of the "poor dog" but because the military is treating it's wounded with such incredible insensitivity, disrespect, and arrogance. How can we do something like this to someone who has sacrificed already so much for this country?

Don't vote before you watch this.



Things to note: How many times does Barak Obama mention that it "sounded good on paper"? And THAT is the difference between socialism and free market economy. Socialism (Obama) sounds terrific on paper, but in practice? Yeah, we saw how great that turned out.