I’ve seen some worthless news articles. I assume they are filler for a slow news day, although I cannot imagine what reporter with even an ounce of brains cannot find legitimate news to write about in this day and age.

A recent Associated Press article I read yesterday might just take the proverbial cake. Of course, it is about a bit of data collected by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that I sincerely pray no institution was foolish enough to fund. In a world where we need every penny we can get for things like AIDS and breast cancer research, there are people throwing money at studies that will tell us that “More Americans Googling themselves”.

What the hell?

First of all, I take immense offense at people who use “Google” as a verb. It is a company, and an unscrupulous one at that. There are tens upon tens of search engines that are just as useful as Google, so please people – get over yourselves and stop dumbing-down your own vocabulary by using worthless pop-isms like “Google” as a verb.

Note to Anick Jesdanun who wrote this article: You are paid to use language and you should use it responsibly. Most people are no more than sheep who repeat what they hear and read. At least try and set a good example by using proper, logical written language. It is not your job to latch onto pop culture-isms and run recklessly through the streets. It’s your job to be a professional in the world of the written word.

But, onto my main beef.

So, more than double the number of people who admitted to entering their own names into a search engine in 2002 now admits to doing so? How is this significant to my daily life? Why should I care? I can see how tracking people who search for information on a Corvette suspension (my most recent search ), or strawberry jam, or online banking might be useful information. Those things tell me about buying trends and economic interest. Please, though, tell me why anyone should care enough about people searching themselves that it should merit a top headline link on a site like CNN? We have a war on. We are dealing with shootings and drug issues and an upcoming election. How about 7-year-old Alexis Goggins, who willingly took bullets for her mother? Those are things I expect to see taking up valuable headline real estate.

What a waste of information collection.

That should be the headline today as Al Gore accepted the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize today.

Of course, I want to ask you to remember that Gore did not win this award on his own – as he may wish the world would go on believing. He has to share the award and the $1.6 million prize with the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The Nobel committee called Gore “one of the world’s leading environmental politicians”.

So, how DID Gore travel to Oslo, Norway? Did he kayak, walk, or perhaps ride a bicycle? Did he make sure that he did not leave a carbon footprint or use up valuable fossil fuel resources? Did he turn the electric off in his 20-room Nashville mansion to make up for the difference?

Oh! That
S right! Gore buys people off to reduce his carbon footprint. He purchases energy credits (from his Own non-profit organization, no less) and makes donation to the needy. Sure, yes…that certainly makes up for the waste he generates monthly. I’m just not quite sure how our CO2 emissions can be counterd simply by spending money.

Gore’s an ill-informed tool, and Chicken Little to boot. Someone please enroll the man in a comprehensive course about the history of our plant. Just a couple months ago, scientist began publishing studies that overturn  the IPCC’s scientific “consensus”.

Here in Florida we have pretty much put our hurricane kits away. Cruise ships are going back to their regular non-hurricane routes, and the general mindset here is just more pleasant. Of course, it’s been a couple of years since Florida has been hit with a very bad storm. I sure wish someone would tell the home owners insurance companies to back off and stop raising rates.

Anyway, here we are off-season and well into December and along comes a storm that could potentially be named Olga. There is a disturbance near the Caribbean Sea that some forecasters are watching to see if it turns into Tropical Storm Olga. If it does, it would be only the 10th December storm since 1851.

Even if it the weather does develop into a tropical storm, Florida should be safe with the storm’s path likely taking it close to Puerto Rico and the mountains of Hispaniola.

By now, most of you have read about the suicide of 13-yer-old Megan Meier. She is the young girl who hung herself after being pushed to the brink by hurtful, personally insulting messages posted about her on MySpace. Almost more tragic than her death is that the person attacking her on MySpace was doing it via a fake account for a nonexistent teenage boy. The account was opened by an adult mother of one of Megan’s friends who lived on her street – Lori Drew.

The local district attorney decided that no charged would be filed in relation to Megan’s suicide, primarily based on the fact that Lori Drew is now blaming the actually negative comments on a temporary employee she hired at her home-based advertising business. Drew said that “somehow” other people had gained access to this fake MySpace account that the teenaged employee created. The employee says the account was created by Drew after a brainstorming session between Drew, the employee, and Drew’s own daughter.

Justice has a way of being served, though. Even if mainstream legal processes will not punish Drew she will still feel the burn of her unwise decisions thorough community channels. Most of her clients from her business dropped her like a ton of bricks. Her neighbors are polarized against her, coming together with the singular request that she leave the area. She is being shunned, just like in days of old when right and wrong were more clearly understood and society did not suffer wrongdoers for long.

Drew has issued statements through her lawyer saying she had nothing to do with the negative comments. Tell me, though, what adult opens a false internet account with the intension of spying on a child, as Drew has admitted was her motivation? It is natural for her community to doubt her, to call to question her judgment and worthiness as a neighbor, parent, colleague and friend.

Drew may claim ignorance about the mean spirited messaged now that the heat is on, but we are talking about a situation where a legal adult hatched a plan with two underage children. Who is responsible in this situation? What adult blames the minors involved? Pathetic.

I say Lori Drew deserves the shunning that is currently occurring in her Missouri neighborhood. If she moves and a stigma flows, she will deserve that as well. Our nation has too long been full of apathetic people who do nothing about the blatant wrongs we see daily. It is high time that people spoke out about it. Until people start being met with public humiliation for their sins, they will just keep on committing self-serving, wrong deeds.

As powerful as peer-pressure is in schools, community pressure can be all the more powerful. Public disapproval is natural and we should thank communities that hold true to their beliefs.

I’m sure there are a lot of things you associate with Christmas and Toys for Tots is probably one of those things. In fact, 2007 is the 60th anniversary of Toys for Tots, the endeavor headed up by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves that brings toys to millions of needy children at Christmas.

More and more people contribute to this effort each year, most by donating a new, unwrapped toy. You can contribute by donating toys at various drop locations in your area, or you can simply use the Month2Month.com e-card site.

Almost sounds too easy, huh? The site makes a donation to Toys for Tots for each holiday e-card that is received. And, the cards are free. It’s effortless on your part, since the site does not require a subscription and actually has cool cards you’d be proud to send.

Pass this information around to everyone in your address book. The more people who send the free e-cards, the more Month2Month will donate to Toys for Tots. And, the more they donate, the more toys will find their way into eager hands this Christmas.

Here's where to find Toys for Tots free eCards

I was just out in the garage trying to better organize my tangle of cords and computer parts I am not using right now. It’s a bit of a mess. I left a lot behind for my ex husband when I moved this past summer, but I do believe I brought just as much with me. There are monitors, old PCs and even my old Mac G3, which would be a fine old thing for some of my design work if I would just take it in for a power supply repair.

I think the biggest reason that I am keeping so many old computer parts is that I have been reading more and more about how unwise it is to jump electronics into the landfills. We need to dispose of these things properly, and I am not always sure how to do that. Our county does have a day, several times a year, which you can go to a centralized location and drop off hazardous household waste like computers, TVs, stereos, telephones, transformers, batteries, fluorescent lamps and ballasts, and the like. They also have a webpage that lists companies that will pick up, for a fee, hazardous items.

Every morning on my way to take Gigi to school, I pass a little row of businesses that are very close to the road. The biggest business is an auto body shop that takes up most of the strip, spilling out into the grass and paving around it with junker cars, vehicles there to be fixed, and assorted body shop supplies. It’s a real eyesore.

I suppose the worst part of it all is that beside the auto body shop, right on the road basically, is a little row of one-storey apartments. Their doors all but open onto this busy little street and if I happen to be sitting at the light I can see right in their windows.

I keep wondering how anyone would agree to rent one of these apartments. Some of the occupants have children. Can you imagine your toddler getting out the front door – as toddlers tens to do – and walking right into the street? It’s frightening. All I can rationalize is that the rent is very low and there are many families who cannot budget a more expensive apartment. When the housing bubble in this market caused all of the homes in the area to go way above anything a middle-class family could afford, rents went up as well. Gone are the days you could rent a 2 bedroom duplex is a semi-shady part of town for a little over $400.

People with low and median incomes are being forced out of the area or into deplorable properties. When I think of renting a new place for me and my daughter, I am almost stricken with fear, because I know that in order to live in a safer neighborhood I will have to pay more than I can afford for rent.

Incomes have not risen in our nation at the same rate as housing, gas, and utilities. Until this is remedied, middle class families will continue to struggle and will not be able to accumulate a savings.

When children are being raised by parents who are immature and evil, do those children even have a chance at a life where they will ever know right from wrong?

I am pondering this because of an article I just read about Megan Meier. She was a 13-year-old who killed herself after a boy called Josh she met on MySpace suddenly turned on her and started sending her cruel messages.

It turns out the boy did not exist and his profile had been created by the PARENT of another child who lived down the street from Megan and her family.

Here is how this adult tried to justify her actions. She told the police she created “Josh’s” profile because she wanted to gain Megan’s confidence to know what Megan was saying about her own child online.

What kind of freak does that? Who created a fictitious online profile to fool a child and then uses that profile to terrorize her? What a sick woman this “adult” must be. She was intentionally toying with Megan’s emotions.

Megan already struggled with depression and attention deficit disorder. When “Josh” suddenly ended their online friendship and began sending cruel messages. This was followed by the posting of electronic bulletins calling Megan fat and a slut. “Josh” told Megan the world would be better off without her in it.

What makes it worse is that the woman who created the profile turned the sick little game into a family activity, allowing her daughter and at least one other person to send and monitor the communication between the “Josh” and Megan.

So, what kind of chance does the daughter of this sick woman even have to learn appropriate social behavior?

There is an odd story that has been in the headlines a lot the last week.

An Australian couple flew here looking for their adult son. He had come to the United States last month on a vacation, with plans to arrive in Tampa after a non-stop flight from Chicago on October 13.

He called his parents just before boarding his plane in Chicago and apparently told them he would contact them when he arrived in Florida and that he was going to get a cell phone and would pass the number along to them.

He did not call again after that. And, he did not check into the hotel in Tampa at which he had planned to say.

So his parents, Hugo and Faviola, became upset when they did not hear from his since. They used money they had set aside to work on their home and borrowed money form other family members. Then, they flew to the US and checked into a Tampa hotel. They have been busy talking to the police, passing out fliers, and spreading the word about their missing son. Local papers and TV station have run the story.

Recently, a hotel worker who read one of the articles recognized Dennis Mosquera’s picture and called police and the private investigator working with the parents. It seems Dennis stayed at a different hotel between Oct. 16 and 19. That same worker had recorded a contact e-mail and cell phone number.

The phone number was used to reach Dennis Mosquera today. Are you ready for his reply to this entire situation? A situation where his parents have been going out of their heads with worry and spend untold amounts of cash looking for him?

He said he was “working on his business” and hadn’t wanted to talk to anyone. The police plan only to relay to his parents that he is OK.

He’s 30. He still lives at home. He has money to travel extensively, having visited Japan and Europe last year. He sounds spoiled and thoughtless. What a tool.

I do not live in a small town. I actually live in a sweeping metropolitan area. I can go days without seeing someone I know when I am out shopping and doing errands. It’s not like when I lived up in Gainesville and everywhere I went, I saw at least one person I knew from church, school, MOPs, or the neighborhood.

So, why is it that when I make a special point of driving out of the way to pick up coffee and a breakfast pastry at a little bakery I have to run into my ex-husband? What in the world is wrong with the universe that he would be in the same out-of-the-way location at the same time? — especially when he should have been at work by then.

It’s enough to make me not want to leave the house, people.

Many parts of our country are under strict water restrictions. I cannot remember a time recently where we did not have a once a week lawn watering where in my area of Florida. Local authorities say that although our current restrictions are set to run out, the the laws may be extended or even tightened.

As hard at things seem here, I think about Orme, Tennessee. Natural water source levels there are so low that the town had access to water only three hours each evening; from 6 pm to 9 pm. The 145 residents rely on water trucked in from Alabama.
Imagine having only three hours for the laundry, bathing, doing housework, watering animals and absolutely anything else that requires running water.

I hope this will be a lesson to the people in my neighborhood who feel it is their right to water 3 times a week as long as they do it on the sly in the middle of the night. Or, for the businesses who water as they wish. Running out of water is a very real possibility in some areas.

From time to time I see a parent let their opposite sex child use a public restroom on their own. I feel sad for them. Usually, the child is just old enough that they should indeed be using the bathroom along with those of their own gender and the parent knows that taking them into their own restroom would be awkward.

I know Gigi’s dad still takes her along with him and that is fine. She is 4. Once she is older, though, it could pose a problem. I wish more public places offered family bathrooms. Most malls have them and so do some super and department stores.

Moms, don’t let your little boys go it alone if you happen to be at the Sears at Volusia Mall here in Florida.

Police just finished a sting operation where nine men are accused of lewd and lascivious behavior and exposure of a sexual organ. The suspects went into the Sears bathroom and tapped their feet or zipped their zippers up and down several times, sometimes even looking under bathroom stalls, seeking others to join in sexual misconduct.

Among those arrested Detectives arrested were former Daytona Beach city commissioner Michael Shallow; David Behringer, a teacher at Sea Breeze High School; and two registered sex offenders (including one sick freak who was caught pleasuring himself in the bathroom of a daycare center).

When are we as a society going to wise up and start requiring chemical castration for men who cannot control their sexual behavior? By engaging in sex acts in public places, they are endangering the public, our children, anyone who happens to walk in on them.

Do what you need to do to make sure your children are escorted to the bathroom by yourself or someone you know and trust. Know where the family bathrooms are at the mall before you even begin shopping.

Associated Press reporter Shannon McCaffrey wrote a story on state laws regarding teen sex, using Georgia’s Genarlow Wilson as an example. Her slant was decidedly leaning toward the opinion that the laws forbidding teen sex that can sometimes lead to young boys enduing up on sex offender lists is ridiculous.

What she failed to mention in her story is that not only did Wilson have sex with a 15-year-old when he was 17, he filmed it. Everyone who viewed that tape was technically watching child porn. I think it is a shame that the mainstream media wants us to forget that point. It is a very important part of what made Wilson’s case so much more grievous than other teens arrested for violating state sex laws.

I’m just posting this as a reminder that having ALL of the facts is important.

Today Gap Inc. is lamenting in the press their shame and disappointment that one of its Indian vendors used an “unauthorized” subcontract who, in turn, used child labor to produce clothing for Gap clothing stores.

They say they have fired the Indian company.

Here’s an idea” make the clothes in the USA instead.

You get what you pay for, folks. If you are going to try and cut costs (and eliminate jobs for American workers) by hiring a cheapie Indian company, then you are going to risk that the work ethics of that country are going to enter into your equation. Is it really any surprise to any of the execs at The Gap that (gasp!) India has sweatshops?

What kind of numbingly brainless people are running Gap Inc.?

“It’s deeply, deeply disturbing to all of us,” Gap President Marka Hansen said.

I’ll bet.

It’s disturbing now that your cost-cutting tactics have come back to bite you in the ass.

Hansen is busing passing the proverbial buck, blaming his vendors and their sub-vendors. I don’t hear him taking any of the blame for making poor business decisions, though. If The Gap would employ American workers in American factories located IN America, the standards American consumers expect could be better regulated.

Keep in mind that The Gap also operates Banana Republic and Old Navy stores when you are out doing your shopping. This is just one more reason to seek out product Made in the USA.

Here is a grisly story for you, just in time for Halloween.

All around the Tampa Bay area, one of the more compelling news items this weekend has been the story of Kevin Wade Daley, a 50-year-old Citrus Springs man with something seriously wrong inside his brain.

Daley struck up an internet friendship with a St. Petersburg man and at some point he asked the man to help him kill someone for the express purpose of having sex with the corpse. In fact, Daley had already targeted a young man who did work around his neighborhood. Initially, though, he had mentioned going to St. Petersburg to commit the act.

Thank goodness the St. Petersburg man called the police and reported the impending plans to commit necrophilia. Citrus County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Daley on Friday and charged him with criminal solicitation to commit first-degree murder.

There are people out there in our world who need to be locked up indefinitely for the good of society. Daley is one such person.