Filed under: Media, Television, Newspapers

A prominent Republican Congressman has resigned in the wake of a scandalous discovery regarding sexually explicit emails he sent to male teenage pages.

Mark Foley was chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, and had just introduced tough new legislation to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet.

"We track library books better than we do sexual predators," Foley has said, which, in light of his emails, makes my stomach turn.

The emails in question included one to a 15-year-old page asking "Do I make you a little horny?" Several other suggestive emails were sent to various male pages, all young teenaged boys.

I think the only thing worse than a child sexual predator is one who pretends to be the opposite - especially one who is in a position of power and privilege. I hope this was brought to light prior to any actual physical assaults.

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Filed under: Pregnancy and Birth, Newborn, 0-3 months, Going into labor, Birth complications, Home birth

When a cop gives you a ticket, it's not really a happy occasion, nor is he really someone you want to see again, even if you were eventually cleared of the charge. Janene Bull used to think so too. A year ago, she was given a ticket for driving with a suspended license by officer Chris Paey. Bull had recently moved to the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania from Buffalo, New York, and the reinstatement of her license had not yet made it into the official records.

That was then; this is now. Fast forward a year and Bull is two weeks overdue for the birth of her son. She started having symptoms -- wobbly legs, achy thighs, a tightening in the bottom of her stomach -- and called 911. A police officer was dispatched and it turned out to be the same one who had given her a ticket a year ago. "I asked him when the ambulance was coming and he said, 'Janene it's five to seven minutes away,'" Bull recalled. "I said 'Chris, I don't have five to seven minutes.'"

So he did what any one would do in his situation, he grabbed his catcher's mitt some towels and delivered the baby with the help of a 911 operator. Little Tyler weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds, 12 ounces. "He was kicking, he was looking good, definitely the miracle of life there," said Paey. Although I'm sure she wouldn't give up her son for anything, I think Ms. Bull will find that another traffic ticket would be much cheaper in the long run. Congratulations to mother and cop!

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Filed under: Child Development, Lifestyle, Pregnancy and Birth, Parental relationships

I've been trying to figure out how to write about this for a while now. You see, I'm so far left that I'm up to my neck in the Pacific Ocean. So this worries me immensely. According to this article, conservatives are pumping out future voters in far greater numbers than us liberals. (Excepting the Duggars, of course, who I am quite certain are ultra-liberals.)

This has been going on for the last thirty years, apparently, without anyone noticing. Now, I'm not saying this is a conspiracy or anything, but it is a disturbing trend. "When secular-minded Americans decide to have few, or no, children, they unwittingly give a strong evolutionary advantage to the other side of the culture divide," writes Phillip Longman, senior fellow at the New America Foundation. "If 'Metros' don't start having more children, America's future is 'Retro.' " And here I was thinking I was doing the right thing by not contributing to global over-population, when in reality, I'm just helping out the Republicans.

Liberals, in addition to being concerned about over-population and the planet's finite resources, also tend to be more open to using birth control, tend to live in cities where they have less room and money for children, and do not necessarily share the traditional view of large families as being an equally large blessing. And, despite the well-known (and fictional) example of Alex P. Keaton, children apparently overwhelmingly grow up to share their parents' political ideology.

So, what's an overworked, underpaid liberal to do? Should we head for the bedroom and start working on number 3? Or is this really nothing to worry about and it will all sort itself out in the long run? What do you think?

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Filed under: Health and Safety, Blogs

Since I've become a parent, I've realized just how lucky I am to have healthy children. There are so many things that could afflict a child, it just amazes me that my children were born without any problems.

So when I received an email from Joe about a family who has brittle bone disease, I felt the need to post about it. OI, as it is called, affects 20,000 Americans. Basically, to put it very simply, bones are made improperly from the beginning and break very easily.

Could you imagine having a toddler with this disease?

Joe is having a 24 hour blogathon for OI. That means 24 hours of posting twice an hour, which, honestly I don't think I'd be able to do. So stop by and think about donating. The money is for a good cause and you can get entered to win an IPod Nano in a drawing.

Here's the link to the main blogathon site. Joe is up and running...get some coffee!

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Filed under: Media, Celebrity babies, Celebrity kids, Rumors

Yes, the sick fascination lingers. I still can't quite believe that the man with the triangle-nose and pallid complexion is the same man I worshiped in grade 2 when he was all golden and white-suited on the cover of my favorite record of all time. What happened to Michael Jackson?

He's in the news again, this time because his ex-wife Debbie Rowe is fighting for custodial rights of their two children, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr (Prince Michael) and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.

At one point, Debbie Rowe had relinquished all rights to visitation of her children, declaring in court documents that "I want to forever give up any and all rights pertaining to the children because I believe that by doing so, it is in the children's best interest."

Now, she says she shouldn't have done that (duh?) especially in light of recent sexual abuse allegations involving Michael, and also in light of his association with the Nation of Islam, which Debbie says is anti-semitic.

No details of the agreement were released, but officials state that both parties are satisfied.

I am going to be up all night worried about Michael Jackson's children. I don't know if they have much of a chance to be normal. I sure hope they have an insider who loves them fiercely.

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Filed under: Health and Safety

I'll never forget Halloween of 1985. Some friends and I dressed up as various Star Trek characters, and although we were a little long in the tooth for it (I was 15), we went out Trick-Or-Treating.

We were walking down a dark sidewalk past a school when a car slowed down on the road right by us. All at once we heard a loud CRACK!, the car drove off in a squeal of tires, and our friend Emily was holding her leg and crying, "Oh! I think they shot me!!"

Turns out, it wasn't blood she felt, but egg yolk. She'd been egged. It really hurt her, and we were all scared.

Nicole, over at Slashfood, brings this article to our attention. A team of UK researchers studied 13 people with eye injuries caused by thrown eggs and decided that the results were significant enough to issue a public health message. Eight of the 13 had severe damage, such as retinal tears and increased eye pressure, which can cause blindness. The researchers also said that in the US in 1988, two people lost their vision after being hit with thrown eggs.

Halloween is coming. If your kids are big enough to go out without you, let them know that throwing eggs isn't a harmless prank. Tomatoes, on the other hand. . . . (I'm kidding!!)

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Filed under: Child Development, Literacy

There's a playground about a block away that just re-opened with a new play structure, new ball field, and so on. Unfortunately, it was also quickly marked up with new graffiti. I don't approve of graffiti; call me an old fogy if you will, but it's not right. It costs the community time and money and degrades the neighborhood. Businesses are required to clean it up; homeowners too, often enough. Even when cleanup is not mandated by law, it is by general principles. It may even encourage increased criminal activity.

Be that as it may, I've come across some graffiti that I can approve of. First off is an extremely clever idea -- painting with soap and water. A graffiti artist that goes by the name Moose uses unconventional tools -- a shoe brush, water, and elbow grease. By cleaning away dirt and grime, he "paints" with cleanliness. I once biked through the Alameda tunnel to a meeting and accidentally brushed up against the wall. Thanks to the thousands of cars that go through there, the walls were disgusting and I ended up with an equally filthy shoulder. I could certainly see how a bit of cleaning could leave a distinctive mural.

Next up, I came across an interesting project out of Montreal where a "street artist" was commissioned to create a more interesting bike lane in Montreal as part of an art exhibition. The artist notes that it's rather surreal to be spray painting the street, surrounded by police who are there to make sure his work goes uninterrupted. There are some neat pictures of the trail. I think I like the telephone cord the best, although the light bulb and plug shown here are pretty cool too.

I think if I ever catch Jared or Sara drawing graffiti, I'll swap their markers for a shoe brush and a bucket of soapy water. If they're really good, maybe I'll put them to work painting the shed or something.

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Filed under: Pregnancy and Birth, Newborn, 0-3 months, Going into labor, Pain, C-section, Home birth

Life is, by nature, unfathomable. It is impossible to fully experience an event, a rite of passage, an emotion - before it has actually happened.

I remember reading countless books before giving births, quizzing veteran Mothers, pleading with coworkers to "give me the straight goods". Most Moms hemmed and hawed when I asked what it felt like to give birth, muttering that "It was all OK in the end" or "Make sure you get the epidural, sweetie."

And if I hadn't written down exactly what happened before Nolan's birth, I would have totally forgotten the pain. My brain would have minimized it, fulfilling its job as Mother Nature's great preservative. And that's OK, because even when I do re-read my birth story, and remember shrapnels of the intensity of the experience, Nolan was worth every moment.

I came across this site today, which asks "What's it like to give birth?" I read through the several dozen responses and what struck me was the uniqueness of every experience. The one commonality: no one said it feels nice, no one said it wasn't worth it.

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Filed under: Media, Teenager, Newspapers

Teenagers can be cruel. I remember the angst my cystic acne caused me, I will never forget witnessing the high school "fat girl" walking away with her head down and shoulders slumped after being mocked relentlessly by a group of jocks.

I simply cannot imagine what life must have been like for this teenaged girl, who recently had a 16-pound tumour removed from her face.

15-year old Marlie Casseus recently underwent surgery in Miami to remove the growth that had stretched her facial features so far apart that only her eyes, nose, and one tooth were recognizable.

Her Mom says her daughter is "very happy now", though there is still work to be done, including reshaping a titanium plate previously implanted in her jaw. The lesion is not expected to grow back.

Marlie is Haitian, and the Haitian nonprofit Good Samaritan for a Better Life helped bring the teen to the US for medical treatment. The Miami Hospital International Kids Fund is asking for donations to continue Marlie's care.

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Filed under: Lifestyle, Media, Teachers, Middle school, Public school

Parents of four teenaged girls who were suspended from school for dressing alike are suggesting the motive was racial. The girls were suspended for four days after school officials incorrectly branded them as gang members.

The girls, grade 8 students at McCulloch Middle School in Indianapolis, say they dressed alike simply because they are friends.

The school refused to address what the girls had done to trigger suspension, but stated that they have a "code of conduct" that the girls had broken. The girls say that the only "gang" they are in is an after-school dance program.

You know, I remember arranging to wear the same Parachute pants and Miami Mice shirt as my friend Cindy in grade 4. But I don't remember coordinating my outfits with my friends in junior high, though the times have certainly changed. What do you think? Was the school correct in suspending these girls or is this a blatant case of racism?

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