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Stumbled across a discussion centered around the question “Will obama run our country into the ground?” I was surprised to find very few responses indicating people think Obama will indeed run the country into the ground, whatever that means. Most of the people who replied seem to be of the opinion that the country was already run into the ground by George Bush.

What constitutes running the country into the ground anyway? And who should be blamed in such a situation, the president of the destroyed country or the nation’s people? It’s foolish and unreasonable for anyone to expect Barack Obama and his administration should be able to fix the problems that plague the country and the world. What’s wrong with America and with the world cannot be fixed without tearing up backwards thinking and arbitrary rules, laws and ways of life at their root; but who’s going to permit that? We don’t want our rules, our laws, our ways of life, or belief systems messed with. Obama was elected because people say they want change but the truth is people are afraid of change; and no matter how dramatically he delivers his speeches, the power of that fear will prove impossible for Barack Obama to overcome with his message of hope.

On New Year’s Day 17-year old Jesika Kelsey was found stabbed to death in her bed. Police arrested her 19-year old brother Steven Kelsey and charged him with her murder after they found a bloody knife in a backpack he abandoned at a Wendy’s restaurant.

The latest reports on the case allege that Steven Kelsey has confessed to killing his sister, telling police “I got a knife and I killed her”. Steven Kelsey also allegedly told police he had sex his sister as she lay dying.

Friends of the family express shock over the crime. They describe Jesika Kelsey as a beautiful, caring girl. They say the family celebrated the New Year together and everything was normal. So why did Steven Kelsey kill his sister Jesika?

Perhaps Steven Kelsey is schizophrenic or bi-polar. Perhaps he found himself feeling attracted to his beautiful sister and in his confused state, under the influence of his schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder he attacked her. Then again he had sex with her while she was dying. That doesn’t seem to be an action that schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder would explain. That seems like the purely depraved, sinister action of a truly evil sociopath. But if you’re that depraved, sinister and sociopathic are you able to hide the fact for 19 years?

Maybe there was some history of abuse there. Steven Kelsey could have been sexually abusing his sister. He might have gone to her room to resume the abuse and she might have found the courage for the first time to threatened to scream or go tell their parents. Who knows? Unless Steven Kelsey shares the reason for his choice to kill his sister, all anyone can do is speculate at this point.

Steven Kelsey is facing two charges of first degree and felony murder. It’s possible even he will not be able to explain why he killed his sister.

No one will dispute that what happened to Laura Garza was a tragedy; and everyone wants her to be found so her family can start the healing process. We’d probably all pick up a rock and hurl it at Michael Mele’s head if there was to be a public stoning held; but it’s been a month since Laura Garza disappeared and while it’s heartening to think that the NYPD goes to any and every length to find missing people, it’s hard to believe no one else has gone missing since Laura Garza disappeared. So if other people have gone missing since Laura Garza disappeared, why haven’t we heard their stories at all? What made Laura Garza’s story so special and her case so important that police are more invested in finding her one month following her disappearance that they appear to be invested in finding the other people who have disappeared since?

One of the most interesting aspects of the reporting of Laura Garza’s story by the mainstream media has been the focus on the fact that she was beautiful. Read through any New York Daily News report about the case and you’ll be bombarded with adjectives about how attractive the victim was. Examples: “gorgeous young Brooklyn woman“, “The family of a Brooklyn beauty who disappeared this month said“, “Brooklyn beauty Laura Garza remains missing“. Pretty much every report the Daily News has done about the Laura Garza case has included some kind of reference to her looks.

What I’m wondering is, was it because she was young and beautiful that there was so much interest in Laura Garza; and also was it because the suspect in the crime was a convicted sex offender? Are there factors that make one missing person’s case more relevant and more urgent to solve than another? If Laura Garza was fat and ugly would the media have cared the same or less? If Mele was just a regular citizen and not a sex offender would the outrage about what he’s alleged to have done be the same or less?

You might have heard of Dean Durrant and Alison Spooner before. 7 years ago they became proud parents of twin girls who gained some noteriety because one twin was “white” and the other “black”. This was not like the case of the world’s least alike twins Koen and Tuen Stuart where there was a mix up at the fertility lab that resulted in a White woman married to a White man being fertilized with her husband’s sperm and the sperm of a Black stranger. Dean Durrant and Alison Spooner are an interracial couple.

In 2001 Alison gave birth to twin girls Hayleigh and Lauren and was surprised to discover a startling difference in their complexions. One twin came out looking completely White and the other twin came out looking bi-racial. This was deemed quite astonishing by one and all. Now, 7 years later, Dean and Alison have become parents again and history has repeated itself. The couple have become parents to a new set of twins, Miya and Leah, with one twin looking “White” and the other looking bi-racial just as it was with Hayleigh and Lauren.

With headlines like “Twincredibles” and comments like “We mix so well”, the British couple and the British tabloids appear to consider this quite amazing. Admittedly twins are always amazing and when you have a situation where there are two sets of twins in a family that’s pretty interesting, but the one black one white thing isn’t interesting once you know it happens. Who cares that they have a different complexion? It would be remarkable if both their parents were Black or both their parents were White, but with one parent Black and 1 parent White it’s really not that interesting. Just my opinion. What’s yours?

After reading comments being left on various websites in response to the case of Melissa Sekulski, the Staten Island mother who beat her obese 10-year old son to death, I feel compelled to write this plea to parents of overweight children: It’s not your child’s fault he’s obese. Don’t blame him. Don’t hate him. Don’t abuse him out of frustration and shame. Help him. A 10-year old weighing 250 pounds is far from normal and it’s not okay. You need to get over yourself. Get over your shame. Stop concerning yourself with your neighbors and strangers who make rude comments. Concern yourself with the welfare of your child. Get help for your child.

Melissa Sekulski thought she was helping her son by taking him out of school and homeschooling him to spare him from being teased. Who can fault a mother for trying to spare her son from having to endure daily taunting because of his obesity? But Melissa Sekulski was clearly not equipped to handle the situation she was faced with. She was clearly frustrated and disgusted with her son for being obese; and let’s be honest with ourselves before we start condemning her. I’ve heard parents of perfectly healthy children complaining that their child is too fat. Imagine having a 250-pound 10 year old. Few of us would have the ability to love such a child unconditionally. We’d be ashamed and we’d let the child know how ashamed we were at every opportunity, especially if we ourselves are not obese.

Melissa Sekulski was obviously ashamed of her son. She tried to hide him, and behind closed doors she punished him for being fat. She probably hated him for being fat. More of us would hate our child for being fat that will be willing to admit it. No one wants an overweight child; and Jaquan Porter was beyond overweight. He was 10 years old and weighed 250 pounds. His mother probably received as much ridicule herself and she took it out on him, unfortunately; but it wasn’t Jaquan’s fault he weighed 250 pounds, even if he might have had the eating habits of a glutton; and it wasn’t Melissa’s fault Jaquan was obese even if she might have habitually allowed him to eat five whoppers for breakfast every day (just throwing out an example).

What Melissa really needed to do was get professional help for her son, not try to handle the situation on her own. This was a tragedy that could have been avoided by Melissa first deciding that what really mattered was Jaquan’s health and well-being. She took him out of school to spare herself and to spare him from having to deal with the stares and jeers. That wasn’t a case of her putting his health and well-being first and foremost. That decision was made under the influence of the intense shame she was feeling about his weight. Had she been thinking about him, concerning herself with his health, she might have gone to seek help for him instead of hiding him away and absuing him for years as punishment for burdening her with 250 pounds of shame.

Yvette Starzyk was an athletic trainer and part-time substitute teacher at Hinkley High School in Aurora Colorado. She was inapproriately intimate with at least one of her students. She was arrested back in March and accepted a plea deal in October. On Monday the Adams County court sentenced her to a suspended three year prison sentence. She will undergo 3 years of sex-offender-intensified probation. She is also required her to register as a sex offender; but she will not face any jail time.

Question: When you hear reports about teachers having affairs with students, do you react differently when the incident involves a female teacher being inappropriate with a male student than when a male teacher is inappropriate with a female student? Does it seem more outrageous and intolerable when an adult female becomes involved with an underage boy than when an adult male becomes involved with an underage girl?

I suggest that adult males becoming involved with underage girls doesn’t shock and outrage nearly as much as when an adult female becomes involved with an underage boy. Share your thoughts on the subject.

I don’t get why police will approach a suicidal person with their guns ready to shoot the person. I guess if the person is in a public place then it makes sense they might be concerned with the safety of other people who might be around. After all the suicidal person might decide to take out a few other people before taking their own life, but if the suicidal person is in their own home, why bother to go with the intention of managing the situation if you’re only going to shoot them anyway? Just let them go ahead and blow their brains out. At least give them that satisfaction.

An elderly woman in Orange County California was shot dead by police. Police received a call about 70-year old Jerry Nadine Lunceford toting a gun and threatening to kill herself. When they arrived, presumably to talk the woman down so they could disarm her and get her into a loony bin so she could get some help, she apparently greeted them with her gun aimed in their direction. It doesn’t really clearly state that she had the gun pointed at them, but considering four of them shot her with bullets and a fifth shot her with “non-lethal beanbag rounds”, one can assume she must have used her gun in a threatening manner against the officers.

No harm no foul I guess. Jerry Nadine Lunceford wanted to die. She’s dead.

I probably won’t make any friends with this post, but seriously, if a dog attacks you what are you supposed to do let it maul you to death out of fear that if you try to save your life by killing it before it kills you you’ll end up facing charges of felony animal cruelty and spend years in jail? I’m just asking. I’m not saying Glynn Johnson really did kill his neighbor’s dog in an act of self defense but it’s possible isn’t it? Even puppies can do serious damage when they attack.

Glynn Johnson, the L.A. County Assistant Fire Chief who has been charged with beating his neighbors puppy Carly to death is claiming he was just trying to fight back when the dog attacked him. He’s saying the puppy turned on him and severely bit him on his hands, arms and legs several times and that’s why he punched it up to 10 times in the head with his closed fist then hit it a few more times on the head with a rock.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not justifying animal cruelty; but if we can excuse one person for killing another in self defense why would be have difficulty excuse someone for killing an dog in self defense? Of course it would be hard to defend going to such extremes where after you’ve already punched the puppy repeatedly in the head you then get a rock and go for broke. One would imagine the puppy couldn’t have been biting him at that point so why the need to finish him off with a rock?

I suppose I shouldn’t really be shocked to discover the depth of depravity of which people are capable; but every day I read something that makes me shake my head in disbelief over the horrible things that people do to each other. I was just reading on another site about an incident that took place in Hopkins Minnesota last April. A pregnant woman named Shyloe Linde was intentionally punched in the stomach to make her miscarry her baby.

The guy who  punched her in the stomach, Paul A. Petersen, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree assault today. Apparently the girl’s boyfriend, Dameon Gatson, offered Petersen $200 to punch Linde in the stomach and make her suffer a miscarriage. Linde was six months pregnant at the time. As a result of the assault she went into labor. Her baby, named Destiny Gatson, was born weighing 2 pounds and suffering health problems that included bleeding in her brain. Destiny Gatson died on May 1, 2007, nine days after she was born.

A woman from Wisconsin is claiming she had a sudden and strong vision of Laura Garza which revealed to her that Laura Garza is alive. The woman claims that Garza was “looking up” in the vision which indicates to her that Garza is somewhere underground, probably in a basement. She also saw the number 76, a woman in a gray coat and people walking outside.

The woman sent an email to an organization claiming:

“I see her alive, in a basement, I think. She is cold and wet and bloody. I see the number 76.”

Not to mock people who have visions, but seriously, was that the best she could do? Why would Mele lock Garza in a basement? Unless it’s not that he locked her in a basement alive for some bizarre reason. Maybe he thought she was dead.

Police say they’ll “look into” the woman’s claims, but they admit they don’t take “visions” into consideration when trying to crack a case.

It would be wonderful for her family if the psychic turns out to be right but at this point in time it seems silly to hope Garza will be found alive.