Old Dudes As Fathers

New York Times writer Thomas Vinciguerra revisits the families where the man entered fatherhood in his 60s and 70s: He's Not My Grandpa, He's My Dad. Guess what? Some of the fathers are dead. Guess what? Other of the fathers are sick. Guess what? The surviving mom have second thoughts. Guess what? The kids miss their dads.

Lori Cohen Ransohoff also has regrets. She was married to Dr. Joseph Ransohoff, a neurosurgeon 41 years her senior. When he died in 2001, their children — Jake, then 11, and Jade, 5 — were hit hard.

“I don’t ever really remember preparing the kids,” Mrs. Ransohoff said. “He was so healthy I just took it for granted. I never thought that far ahead. Looking back, I realize that was foolish. Now I tell my daughter, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t marry an older man.’ ”

It's selfish. It's the final indulgence in a life full of indulgences. There will be more of it as the Boomers who opted out of procreation decide at 70 to find out what experience man they missed.

Crystal Gail Magnum: Criminal

Well, Ace is on a righteous tear and he is absolutely right: the only victims in the Duke Rape Case were the three accused and the woman who started all this, Crystal Gail Magnum, committed a heinous crime:

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum, and she plunged the nation into yet another spasm of racial recriminations.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum, and she made it more difficult for any woman actually raped to find justice in court.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum. She plunged the Duke innocents you obviously emphatize so much with into a waking nightmare.

Why does society back off a woman criminal? Ace suspects it's because she's poor and black. Her color may explain the pass society seems to be giving her, but it doesn't entirely explain why she accused and had good reason to believe she'd get away with it, to begin with. This crime could be committed because she's a woman. Women do not carouse in groups and attack grown Chippendale men. Have you heard of that crime yet? I haven't, and we live in a pretty heinous society.

Crystal Gail Magnum exploited a situation. Her game is actually rather routine. Female strippers take their money, fore go providing the service they were paid for, and what will the guys do? She can blackmail them. She can walk away. If they get pissed off, she can yell rape. Even a woman of ill repute, who puts herself in a situation where she may decide to give the men sex for some extra cash, can accuse the men and on her word, their lives can be ruined. Can you imagine if one of these guys had consensual sex with her? Life over. The men, especially young, horny, stupid men, don't get this until they've been had. I'm guessing that the Duke lacrosse players steer clear of in-home strippers from here on out.

No woman with any sense whatsoever puts herself in that situation. No man with any sense whatsoever would put himself in that situation, either--if he's thinking. If he wants a future.

Part of the reason people don't want to name the crime and name the criminal, Crystal Gail Magnum, is because they figure she must have had a tough life. She must have been poor or abused or suffered somehow. But that reasoning is bigoted and offensive, too. There are plenty of poor, black, women who don't resort to a life of crime. For every Crystal Gail Magnum, there are hundreds of women who get educated, work hard, move up in the world without resorting to stealing or cheating or lying or killing. Can the bar be set any lower for women? Only if the woman is a woman of color.

Do we expect women to be a little crazy, a lot helpless and easily induced into criminal situations? So the female teacher predators, the female mother mutilators, the female stalkers, the female murderers, the female liars who use their ovaries as cover for their sins are let off the hook?

I don't buy it. If women want equal rights, they need to support equal treatment under the law. Nothing besides anger, avarice, greed and no character influenced Crystal Gail Magnum. If she were a white male and yelled "fire" and people died, she'd be in prison. If she were a white male and got caught extorting, she'd be in prison. If she were a white male, and had consensual sex with a black woman and the woman claimed rape, she'd be in prison. For life.

She did not commit a small crime. And if she were white and male, she'd be in jail.

Ace has lots to read, and you should be reading it. He's rightfully outraged. More here, here, here, here and here.

Don Imus, Shock Jocks & The Socks To Muzzle Them

Have you heard about Imus saying racist things? If you haven't, you haven't been paying attention. Here's my opinion: Don Imus is a racist, misogynist, entitled middle aged white male. His voice is grating, his takes predictable and for some reason I've never understood, people like listening to him. To me, he's a relic of the halcyon days when men came home to a martini, their dogs brought them the paper and their kids put on their slippers. Ah, the good old days when women and blacks, and little people generally, knew their places. Don Imus says naughty things that used to be considered conventional wisdom. He used to be shocking, not for the content, but because he was bold enough to say what people were thinking. Now he's shocking because most people don't agree with what he's saying, but find it interesting that he' ll still say it. Imus shares audio space with many other outrageous talk show hosts.

Have you ever listened to Howard Stern? When I was in New York, he was all the rage. The guys from Long Island loved him, man, and so I decided to figure out what I was missing. The most politically-correct, smelly, progressive socialist friend I've ever had loved Howard. "He's a comic genius, Melissa. You have to hear him to understand him." So I listened. I got it. He's the young, frustrated white male's guilty pleasure. Thumbing his nose at what is good and decent and politically correct, Stern dares people to define boundaries. He says the dirty words a politically correct guy can't say. He does to women and minorities what a politically correct white guy can't do. He's an auditory catharsis.

Have you listened to Michael Savage? Extreme rhetoric, history lessons and incoherent free associations make for schizophrenic radio. His narcisstic rants, his perpetual kvetching about impending cultural doom remind me of the weird guy with the placard running around the town square yelling,"The end is near! The end is near!" They are always right--the end will come eventually. Sprinkled through his apocolyptic analysis are doses of Bush bashing, gay bashing, progressive bashing, bash, bash, bash.

Have you listened to/watched Rosie O'Donnell? Misinformed, shrill, brash and bold, she authoritatively spouts invective and everyone listens. In New York, they applaud. She makes ching-chong jokes, she calls out "Christianists" and equates them to Islamists offending most of America, and she rolls on her merry way.

Is America to the point where the envelope pushers are to be silenced? Some say that Imus' problem was his direct critique of specific players. I read Marcus Mabry's point of view describing this episode:

Frankly, I don’t care if Imus is a racist. Racists and racism are a part of life. What is significant is that Imus’s brand of offensive racist, sexist and homophobic humor has been accepted by the mainstream for years. Imus did not trot out his harshest caricatures when establishment journalists were on, engaging them instead in playful—sometimes playfully abusive—banter and substantive discussion about foreign policy, politics or social issues. What the denouement of the Imus controversy will show is whether the standard of acceptable speech has changed.

Where, except for by entertainers, has the standard of acceptable speech not changed? Anything said by these shock jocks, save Rosie, would garner immediate disapproval and/or firing in the real world. No one dares utter the unspeakables--not just words, but ideas, theories, or science. America is good and thoroughly politically correct.

For those intent on saving the public's baby ears from offensive everything: Who gets to decide the "standard for acceptable speech"? You?

I've listened to Howard Stern and been alternatively horrified and amused. He is sly and cunning in his speech. Underneath, he's angry. Aren't all the shock jocks/comedians angry? Isn't that part of it? Humor is revealing the tragedy of humanity and laughing at it. What guy in his teens and twenties isn't obsessed about sex and kinda pathetic because of it? Ultimately, in Stern's case he's making fun of himself and men in general. But that's not to excuse his degrading excess. He is still playing "Butt Bongo" after all. Pathetic. Gross. Juvenile. And he's free to do it. And I'm free to listen. Or not. I choose "not."

My overarching concern is for a culture that values correctness over freeness. The same people who will defend to the death pornography and the right to produce it, will condemn a shock jock's speech and demand censorship. But the argument is the same: people are free to change the channel.

Would the people up in arms about Imus' racist comment demand that a serious, misogynist Islamic leader spouting female subordination and death to classic Western values be fired? Somehow I doubt it. That's why Rosie can get away with what she is saying, but Imus or Stern can't get away with what they say. The irony is at least there is a chance that Imus and Stern are being satirical. Rosie is deadly serious. And I haven't seen evidence that Islamists are conversant with any types of humor--humor requires at least some self-awareness.

Those intent on silencing voices, even nasty voices, worry me. Who are they to decide what is or is not acceptable? Why should one group be allowed to decide what's okay? The problem with censoring speech is that invariably only certain offensive speech gets filtered because what's offensive to one isn't to another.

As for those who go on Imus' show or Stern's show, I wonder and have always wondered, what the hell they were thinking. You're either bound to look like an idiot or you're associated with Butt Bongo. Who wants that? Well, lots of people, evidently, and it does say something about them. We are known by the company we keep.

We are also known by the radio we listen to, I guess. Or, are we just trying to stay informed and balanced? I listen to NPR, the 80's station, the pop station, Laura Ingrahm (when I have a chance), and bits and pieces of Rush, Savage (I'm tired of Sean Hannity) and financial guys here and there. And when my kids and husband force me, I listen to the Christian music station. I figure I'm smart enough to sort it all out and other Americans are too.

College Picking

I thought this article was really great for those choosing colleges. It's a big decision, but for reasons not typically thought of:

1. Quality of life: Do you love the community vibe? Weather? Rural or city?
   
2. Quality of education: Are the professors great in your area of study? Does the school have a program that helps you with grad school?
3. Quality of Alumni help: Does the school help you get a job after graduation?

While the Ivies have name recognition, that might not mean much in some places. My brother is a Baylor MBA grad and I'd say that his chances for a career in Texas were enhanced by going to a Texas school. He told me of a friend who is also a Baylor grad and financial genius. The genius has three Ivy-leaguers reporting to him, much to their chagrin. But guess what? He's smarter and more creative. Ivy league schools don't suck up all the I.Q. in America. I know it's hard to imagine, but some students don't want to go to an Ivy league school. They prefer to stay near home or just like what another school offers.

And unless you're George Bush, no one cares about your grades in school besides your graduate school. Finish college. Preferably, finish in four years. And make sure that the undergrad degree helps you on your way to graduate school.

Otherwise, have fun! A person can only be 18, 19, or 20 once; unfortunately, the pressure kids labor under makes college seem like the most important phase of a person's life. It's not.

College is a means to the end, not the end.

Autism: I'm Stalling

I'm stalling. In a few minutes I have to talk with the principal about my son and I'm stalling. These meetings bring back my school anxiety, my new kid anxiety, my people pleasing anxiety, and my ever-present nervous mother anxiety. I'm anxious and I'm stalling.

The topic du jour? What to do about fill-in-the-blank. Remember the song from the Sound of Music? The nuns wondered what to do with Maria. I wonder what to do for my son. What's the best choice? What helps him to his ultimate goal of being a contributing member of society? I always feel like I'm pushing, probably because I'm always pushing and during moments like these, I wonder if it makes a difference. I wonder if I shouldn't lay off and let time sort things out.

Parents of Autistic children are notoriously willing to try anything, ANYTHING, to help their kid. From strange diets, to special sleeping arrangements, to paint colors, to supplements, to medication, to every kind of therapy, parents of autistic kids try and do everything and a lot of it seems to help for a week or two and then the effect wears off. At least that's how it feels to me.

Okay, I'm really stalling. See ya later. Time for me to be a grown up.

American Idol Results: Please Send Haley Back to San Antonio

What she said. And she said. But I'll be live-blogging the results anyway. Because I have things better to do, but don't want to do them, and isn't that the definition of blogging anyway?

See ya in five.

Here we go. As a side note, I agree with Ann and Anchoress, J-Lo impressed me more than I expected.

Group effort: Jordin's voice soars over scary Phil's. Otherwise, the song, bleh.

Opinions about Idol kids--man on the street stuff. I've been to that mall. Ha! Who's Chris? That's what I'm sayin', too. Good-bye Chris. That's my prediction. I'm in the pool over at Brendan Loy's place. Maybe I'll be right this week. Odds are against me, though.

Akon singing. More personality in his little toe than all the Idol contestants put together.

Freaky Ford commercial. Sanjaya into Melinda-Aiieeeeeeeeeeeeeee! LaKisha looks so uncomfortable. How would she be an Idol? She's not okay in the skin she's in.

African kids cute--making fun of Simon's moobs. (Man boobs, if you must know.) We're you thinking what I was thinking? If we can adequately educate 10 kids with $185, what the hell are we doing in America? And with all the trees killed by loads of paper and homework, that chalkboard looks really good. I've wondered why we don't still use them. Talk about environmentally friendly.

Perhaps it's the five years without TV but I am very disturbed with the provocative commercials during a family show. Venus razor and Victoria Secret bras? Come on!

Phil goes low.

Yahoo Haley is low!!!!

Toying with Sanjaya.

Chris is in bottom three.

Well, I'm wrong. Chris is staying. Phil is "just blessed to be here." Video of J-Lo's butt. Family show. Family show! Ugh. She's singing in Spanish. Hola, Ms. Lopez? Besamé and all.....but si no hable Espanól. Oh well, she sings with passion and confidence and demonstrates her talent as an entertainer. She truly seemed kind. I like her a lot more than I did before this show.

Scary commercial: Disturbia. Do you notice all the scary, supernatural, freaky movies?

Haley goes home!!!!! It's harsh, watching that retrospective video and then having to sing.

But now she's singing and I'm really glad I don't have to hear her anymore. More than any of the other remaining singers, her voice makes my stomach feel like lemon juice mixed with gravy straight up. Hurl.

Let's hope next week is better.

Gina Cobb: "We Need To Remember Who We Are"

Gina Cobb writes of used-to-be Great Britain's demise and says:

Britain is still great. At its worse, Britain far outstrips its strongest enemies -- in decency, in honor, in prosperity, in respect for life, in democracy, in simple human freedom.

The same is certainly true of America and most Western nations.

Our worst is usually better than our enemies' best.

We need to remember who we are.

Who are we? We are a nation divided with a good percentage believing that "Amerika" is the biggest terrorist state. In fact, it's the only country the Democrats refuse to negotiate with. That's not the America that I know and experience, but it's the media's America and the Democrat's America. And the fact that they portray America thusly makes me loath part of America. See the conundrum?

Civic pride in the greatness of the idea of individual freedom, capitalism, the pursuit of happiness, the freedom to assemble, jury trials, representation, and on and on, are part of what anger the Left. Hollywood even refuses to make movies showcasing America's warriors and they'd make bucket loads of money doing it.

It's hard to remember greatness, when America receives less media and Leftist political respect than a terrorist sponsor-state like Syria.

Duke Rape Charges To Be Dropped, But the Fallout Won't End

Finally!

What a blessing to these families that have struggled over a year under the weight of false charges. And yet, as K.C. Johnson indicates, there are some who will never see these boys as innocent, they will always be guilty no matter the evidence. Let's examine how Wesleyan "tenured radical" professor Claire Potter connects Don Imus' racist rants with the Duke lacrosse players (my commentary in red):

That these male lacrosse players at a private university (Wesleyan is private, no? Would Ms. Potter characterize the majority of her students as privileged and white? Or do they not count as privileged if they're female.), almost all of whom are white, have not been repeatedly identified (would Ms. Potter mind backing up her assertion? I guess covers on Time magazine and Newsweek rushing to judgement don't count as being "repeatedly identified")-- in jest or seriously -- as the semi-criminal youth gang that they appear to be (again, does Ms. Potter have evidence of their semi-criminal activities? I'd like to see it. And would she like to explain why the female lacrosse team has been 100% supportive to the men's team?); and that C. Vivian Stringer's squad of public university scholar-athletes, almost all of whom are black and who have consistently carried themselves with dignity and grace, are slandered on national radio, ought to tell us something about selling race and sex in Amerika (Does Ms. Potter really believe what the spelling of America wrongly implies or does she always employ hysteria to support her points?) today. *Who* is innocent? And where are the conservative cultural critics right now who are so eager to purge our public culture of vulgarity? (And one could ask the same thing of Leftists consumed with purging the culture of vulgarity but doing so selectively--willing to get rid of has-been comedien talk show hosts--who can hardly be called conservative [I myself am no fan of Don Imus and thought he was an idiot before his racist comment]--but unwilling to sanction the invective that passes for standard commentary by bloggers, Hollywood types and even self-described liberal thinkers such as herself--and she is not liberal.)

Her ignorance of the case is demonstrated when she makes an addendum to her post wondering who KC Johnson is. He just happens to be the most thorough reporter/commentator on the case regarding the legal ramification of Mike Nifong's conduct as well as the concrete reasons the charges are specious against the Duke lacrosse players. Had she done her homework, perhaps she would know this. It is not surprising that her emotion and conviction in her own rightness passes for an informed argument. She feels strongly about this, therefore it must be true.

My point wasn't to get side-tracked by some predictably incoherent rant by a member of the academy. My point was to demonstrate that the Ms. Potters of the world will continue to malign three guys who are wholly innocent of crimes. Even exoneration won't stop them. The real criminals turn out to be the accuser and Mike Nifong, but the soundbite will be "Duke Rape", "Duke Lacrosse". In fact, while I watched Duke play during March Madness, my mind kept wandering to the case. I wondered if the case had affected basketball and other sports recruiting. I wondered if they had to lower requirements to meet enrollment for 2008. In short, I wondered about the institution that could so easily jump on the bandwagon and persecute their own before knowing all the facts. Duke. Rape.

So while the legal system will release Reade Seligmann, Colin Finnerty, and David Evans tommorrow, these men will forever be attached to a crime they didn't commit. And as Liestoppers notes:

One year ago today, many of us thought the Hoax was over when results from DNA testing conducted at the State Bureau of Investigation were revealed to have exonerated the entire lacrosse team.

DNA evidence taken from 46 members of the Duke's men's lacrosse team does not match any DNA material from the woman who claimed she was raped by members of the team at a March 13 party, lawyers representing the players said at a press conference Monday.

One year. One year of complete hell for the families. One year and millions of dollars spent on defense. One year of destroyed athletic hopes. One year of delayed professional attainment. A lifetime of ruined reputation.

Like Shoeless Joe Jackson of Black Sox infamy, these guys will live with this notoriety for the rest of their lives--with one major difference: we know for sure that these guys are innocent, but it won't matter to those only interested in a narrative and not interested in the truth.

Embryo Rights

A woman who had ovarian cancer and split with her partner will not be able to carry the stored embryos to term. They will be destroyed. Her ex doesn't want a child around. She wants to have a child--probably any child given that her ovaries don't work anymore.

This story has so many levels of wrongness, it's almost impossible to sort it out.

1. No marriage.
2. Fornication.
3. Creating embryos.
4. Abandonment. (Can't call it divorce, can you?)
5. Infertility secondary to cancer.
6. Single motherhood by choice.
   
7. Forced parenthood for the man (and ostensibly the financial responsibility as well).
8. Abortion.

This is science in absence of morals, ethics, and the God given law of love: Love your neighbor as yourself. In the above example it's all about me, me, me.

Hormone Plasticity and The Genetics of Sexuality

More research asserting that homosexuality, all forms of sexuality are genetic--even though, in women, it can get expressed "much later" in life. Since the vast majority of people are genetically encoded to be heterosexual, does that mean that homosexuality is a genetic defect? Well, it's "evolutionarily maladaptive" for the obvious reason: gay men have 1/5 as many children, therefore, the "gay gene" if there is only one, doesn't get passed down.

It's not just genetic, though. There seems to be a intrauterine environment with lower testosterone that creates homosexual boys:

The finding suggests that male homosexuality in these cases is caused by some event in the womb, such as “a maternal immune response to succeeding male pregnancies,” Dr. Bogaert wrote last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Antimale antibodies could perhaps interfere with the usual masculinization of the brain that occurs before birth, though no such antibodies have yet been detected.

Wouldn't it be fascinating if it was found that the mother's view of boys would affect her intrauterine environment? How many women do you know who had two or three boys and dreaded another boy while simultaneously desiring a little girl--what if her body tried to create a girl even though the gentics lean toward a boy? Emotions are physiology afterall. Anger increases blood pressure, increases stress hormones, etc. What does the body do when a woman who deeply desires a girl and doesn't want another boy, or, doesn't want a boy, period?

Perhaps the homosexual firstborn boys could be explained by a mom who never wanted a boy to begin with. I remember reading somewhere that Elton John was "the little girl his mother always wanted".

Coyote Attacks New Jersey Toddler

Would it be okay to shoot the coyote? It's okay here in Texas, but in New Jersey, can you defend your family from predators?

Leftist Women--UPDATED

I'm tired of politics, so haven't blogged. Well that and my family was in town and I wanted to reorganize and got partway there.

Here's just one way I'm tired of politics: I'm tired of Leftist bigots who feel free and are in fact supported, in venting their paranoid venom. Elizabeth Edwards is jonesin' to be the first, or is it another, Leftist bigot first lady. Was Hillary the first? Do you get the sense that Hillary despises the little people, too? What is it with these ladies? Their husbands do a better job at concealing their contempt for the common man, but the wives just can't fake it as well. Theresa Heinz-Kerry, too. It's personal with them. The people who Just Don't Get It and thwart the will of the omniscient few, ruin everything! Oh, and there is only one sin: To disagree with their point of view. And because everyone who disagrees with them must be stupid, it's okay to disparagge and mock them as Elizabeth Edwards demonstrates as she publicly runs down a neighbor she's never met but who, unfortunately, is a Repubican. Idiot.

This contempt comingled with entitlement makes for a bitter witches brew. Time quotes Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on her trip to Syria:

"What others were saying and doing was many miles away, in a different time zone and had no impact on our trip except to call more attention to it," Pelosi said.

Of course what citizens in American time zones think makes no difference to Nancy Pelosi, the Third Most Important Person In America, and the Most Important Woman in the World. She is the all-knowing Grandma. She gads about, mucking with foreign policy--she's going to correct Georgie, the President Who Needs A Good Spanking. She is naive and silly and willingly used by bad men to serve as propoganda for a terrorist sponsor-state and hopefully, weaken her own state. (Just long enough to get a Democrat elected.)

Ms. Clinton, Ms. Edwards and Ms. Pelosi seem intent on proving every cliché true. Women are emotional. They're vindictive. They're petty. They're naive. They're inept in power. They're conniving.

These professional women act like novices in the public arena, confirming every stereotype along the way. Why can't just one of these women have the intelligence, wit, and stateswomanship of Margaret Thatcher? Well, I do think the ideology and philosophy behind the words and actions make the man and woman, and that's the problem.

UPDATE: Betsy Newmark says this:

I thought the Edwards were supposed to be worried about the two Americas. But it seems they don't like that other America when it impinges on their own mansion. Here's this guy whose family has had this property for 80 years or more and now he can't afford the taxes to keep his family property. I'm sure the Edwards will be happy to know that they'll be losing their "slummy" neighbor when some rich guy snaps up the property. Then they won't have to worry about having to look at someone from the "other America" living next door.

Make sure and read the comments section. Either Elizabeth Edwards herself or a staffer shows up to defend her actions.

April 9 in Pictures

This is NOT my house.

Stinkin' pavers are holding up my pool. Okay, I'm holding up my pool because I can't decide what kind of pavers to put around the perfect coping that I don't want messed up with ugliness. We drove in neighborhoods looking hither and thither at pavers and pea gravel.

And to totally annoy my pool guy, we picked the one he recommended two weeks ago. I hope he keeps his Tums with him.

Do you like the pavers here? I'm insecure about pavers.






Park time over NOW! My mouth hurts from biting my lip, my head hurts from getting my molars, I have a slight fever, I'm tired and I'm hungry. OKAY?????

And I love my orange and teal jammies, they're comfy and stylish!















A coy cardinal at the park.












This is what happens during unsupervised bath time.
















The last flower in the bunch refused to bloom, but isn't it beautiful this way?

Government Health Care Doesn't Work: See the VA

Part of war funding is preventative (missle shields), active (combat troops and equipment), passive (military bases, technology, R&D) and post-combat (wounded, reassimilation, etc.). It seems to me that America has been so out of practice and so defunded militarily that parts and pieces of all these aspects of war readiness have been ignored. It is especially egregious to know that Vets from all wars receive sub-standard and mismanaged care, but truly there hasn't been the funding or stream-lining of beaurocracy (an oxymoron if I've ever written one) to efficiently help Vets.

Still, it is important to remember that beaurocracies in general are uncaring beasts. Private doctors know the frustration of dealing with insurance companies, as do patients, trying to get care they need. At least with private insurance, there is some recourse. A vet has no recourse, really, with the government--except through elected officials. The Washington Post finds a disgruntled Vet who says:

"Once we can no longer be utilized as a soldier, we are of no use to them," said Michael Foley, 52, a former Navy intelligence specialist who served in Vietnam and Cyprus during the 1970s. "There is an impression of indifference when you are dealing with the VA benefits people. They are going to get a paycheck no matter what."

I don't believe the first part at all. All branches of the government do care, but are rather impotent to do anything about it without being irresponsible with the taxpayer dollar. The second part of his concern is true. With insurance workers and claims advisors (doctors who couldn't make it in real practice) detatched from their client's plight, what difference does it make?

I remember a story about a patient who pulled a gun on a doctor because his Workers Comp benefits didn't come fast enough and he was about to lose his home. He was in pain, out of money, absolutely hysterical and didn't know who to blame. Like any institution, the government is very efficient at taking in money, but not so efficient in disbursing it. And citizens have little recourse.

The solution is not more government. The solution is private industry. At least there would be some accountability.

A Mean Peace

Drudge shares the news that the Peace House in Crawford ain't so peaceful. It has become an ugly abode:

Sara L. Oliver and some others are calling for a state investigation as to why only $14,700 is now in its bank account, saying tens of thousands donated during Cindy Sheehan's 2005 war protest are unaccounted for.

"There are people who have said, `Don't say anything because you'll hurt the peace movement,'" Oliver said. "But if the peace movement isn't pure and transparent and holy as it can be at its heart, then it's just like George Bush: lying, thieving, conniving, backstabbing bastards."

Sandra Row, another former member, said up to 75 people have left the peace group over concerns about financial issues or hurt feelings. She said in the summer of 2005, she saw buckets of cash donations in the Peace House — some of which went to pay veterinarian bills for the cat living there. But some demonstrators who bought tents, lanterns and other supplies never got reimbursed, she said.

"You'll never know how much money there is because the cash is gone," Row said.

Peace begins at home.