The Lottery

-I broke down as I came across this clip today. In the quest to get further information about Twin A and his learning disability I came across a documentary coming out in Spring 2010. I can't wait to see it. I was saddened and my heart broke for the many families that I don't even know. This movie is going to be stellar! Just the trailer gave me shivers ... I will be bold and say it LOUD and clear... this is a national epidemic and THE CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE OF our generation!

National Human Trafficking Month

Although I realize that it is also Black History Month, I would like to acknowledge that it is also National Human Trafficking Month. Although, we've all heard reports about modern day slavery in other countries, there is so much more going on under our own noses then most would like to admit. Jaycee Duggard is just scratching the surface. In honor of the month I would like to post some recents stats:

27 million – Number of people in modern-day slavery across the world.

14,500 - 20,500 – Number of foreign nationals trafficked into the United States every year.
These victims originate from at least 77 different countries

244,000 – Number of American children and youth estimated to be at risk of child sexual exploitation, including commercial sexual exploitation, in 2009.

38,600 – Estimated number of an approximate 1.6 million runaway/thrownaway youth at risk of sexual endangerment or exploitation in 2009.

12-14 – Average age of first involvement in prostitution

California
559 – Potential victims identified between Dec. 1, 2007 and March 12, 2009 by five CA Task Forces.

Virginia
43 – Number of trafficking victims served by 4 organizations in Northern Virginia.

Wisconsin
200 – Number of identified cases of sex and labor trafficking.
 85% – Proportion of victims in the 200 identified cases who were adults.
 75% – Proportion of victims in the 200 identified cases who were victims of sex trafficking.
o Data obtained through a survey of over 1,300 sexual assault and domestic violence service providers, law enforcement and district attorney’s offices, with a 30% return rate.

Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Civil Rights Unit:
 751 – Number of trafficking cases opened between 2007 and April 5th, 2009.
 185 – Convictions
o Includes joint investigations with ICE, and both sex and labor trafficking.

*It is estimated that there are currently more slaves in the US than when Abraham Lincoln first signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Celebrity 2009 Year in Review

2009 was a year of many first - too many events to count, celebrity news, and untimely deaths. As my blog has unfolded I've done less celebrity news and more writing about me. I decided to take a quick year in review on just a few of this years celebrity happenings.

Lets take a look back

Falls from grace:

Chris Brown - beating up Rihanna and then complaining on Twitter that his album wouldn't sell.

Tiger Woods - cheating with high priced prostitutes and tacky blonde barmaids

Joe Wilson - who became instant idiot overnight shouting "You Lie" in a public forum at President Obama

Plaxico Burress - receiving prison time for shooting yourself in a public nightclub. Plaxico Burress translates to "idiot" in swahili you know.

Kanye West - who stole Taylor's Swift's moment of glory then promptly went AWOL. At least for a moment.

Deaths:

Michael Jackson

Walter Cronkite

Brittany Murphy

Naomi Sims

Senator Ted Kennedy

Ed McMahon

Farrah Fawcett

DJ AM

Steve McNair

Wayman Tisdale

E. Lynn Harris

Billy Mays

Natasha Richardson

Chris Henry

Alaina Reed Hall Amini

Percy Sutton

Mr. Magic

Come Ups:

Barack Obama - Need I say More?

Mo' Nique - Not only her own hit talk show on BET but her performance in Precious was simply amazing "Precious, take your a** to da welfare" - CLASSIC!

Twitter - A social watering hole that allows "celebs" to amass a following and believe they are much more important than they really are while giving us "I'm drinking the coldest water ever" and "Jesus is my homeboy" updates 24/7. Twitter creator is the definition of come UP!!!

Susan Boyle - 48 year old Scottish chick who has never been kissed. She stuck to the "young newbie idols" to the tune of 3 million units (and counting)

Sonia Sotomayor - First Latina Supreme Court Justice who makes more waves in 4 months than Clarence Thomas has done in 18 years.

The Kardashians - I have a blog ban on these no talent chickenheads but you can't deny they were EVERYWHERE in 2009

Whitney Houston - the voice is still a bit raggedy but at least she is trying and produced a sellable album and at least she doesn't look like this - anymore.

Tiger Woods "Jump offs" - They are already counting the loot they will be making in expose interviews, playboy photo shoots, and reality shows to come.

Just Go Away Already:

Octomom

The Gosselins

Sarah Palin

Balloon Boy

Frankie and
Neffe

Rappers that add nothing to a social discussion (looking at you Gucci Mane and Souljah Boy)

Happy New Year!

The Return of Jaycee and Crazy comes in All Colors

This Jaycee Duggard thing just has my mind in an uproar. I had to literally decompress yesterday after I really sat down and began to think of the magnitude of how this woman's life will just never be the same. It almost enrages you to imagine a life being literally stolen. Is this worse than death? The same feeling comes after seeing some of these prisoners who have done 10-20 years be released after the DNA test reveal that they didn't "do it". Can you imagine being kidnapped at 11 years old and now 18 years later you emerge to the nation...stunned that you are still alive and have literally lived a nightmare. When I first heard that she had children (15, 11)immediately I thought, wow she had a baby at 14 and in a backyard. How scarey must that have been? My next thoughts were filled of the life that she must now lead after not having attended school since 5th grade. Never having gone to a doctor or dentist. Her children, whom have never sat in a classroom, nor been to the doctor, nor interacted with many children if any at all. How will they adjust to the life ahead of them? This family will need many many prayers. God somehow has a way of taking care of children and fools so I pray that Jaycee and her family recover and that Mr. Garrido lives a long long life in prison.

On another note, after going back and forth with friends on this subject on facebook one of my pals made the comment of "is it just me or is it always white people doing this crazy stuff". My response "crazy comes in all colors"....every color is CRAZY and has crazy hidden in their past. The Virginia Tech killer was asian, and if you don't think that's crazy enough let us not forget Mr. "Crazy Himself" Marcus Wesson, a black man who fathered at least nine children with his daughters and nieces and then turned and killed nine of the children once it was exposed and police were on their way. The authorities later found coffins he had built for each family member in the home.

I think the thing that bothers me the most and I'm constantly called nosey by my family for "paying attention" to small things that some may say "that's not my business". The neighbors claim to have called police and alerted them that two little girls were seen living at the home with a known pedophile and authorities did nothing. This man went regularly to meet with his parole officer yet when the officer came to the home he never entered the backyard. I'm amazed. No matter how busy your workload is, if you get to the house it's your job to get nosey. Just as a neighbor alone I've looked in the backyard of both of my neighbors...just to see what's back there. I also check out every car that passes by or makes a u-turn and know the comings and goings of most in my area. That's just me though. If I see your kid outside I'm probably gonna ask what school they go to. This story will only make me MORE NOSEY and pay MORE ATTENTION as we all should even if it makes people uncomfortable. People who are behaving themselves shouldn't be afraid of the police or CPS. Makes you want to go back and review all the Megan's list felons in your city huh? I have.

For the Duggard family, we can only hope that time will heal some of the deep wounds that will live with them forever. I pray that the love of family, community and the Lord will feel their hearts and they will enjoy the many years ahead of them.

Mr. C - Yes you are STILL the man

Although I'm sure there are still many deserving people locked away in foreign prisons I was so elated watching the news yesterday to see that the two journalists had been pardoned and that our former President with the massive people appeal had a hand in it. I got a little teary eyed as they stepped off the plan this morning and the hugs were exchanged. I'm still a little disturbed as to way one would travel abroad and "mistakenly" enter a territory that could get them 12 years of hard labor for a "investigative story". It troubles me a bit more to wonder if the same would be done for me. Wonder why he troubles me. I know Bill Clinton wouldn't. Then again...I'm not going anywhere near North Korea.

Anyway, it's a great FEEL GOOD STORY that we needed this summer.

Go CLINTON!

More Susan Smith Type Ish!

Okay so this morning I'm watching the news. I see that a mother and her child were abducted by "two black men" who "hit her car" then put her in the trunk of their cadillac. She had called 911 7 times from her cell phone but the authorities were unable to locate them.

So let me tell you my first reaction when I saw this story on the news. I looked at the screen, pointed my finger to the tv and said "LIAR". Yes, folks. I looked right at the broad's face and knew she was somewhere having a good laugh, and in a day or two would be on tv crying and saying she was sorry and she had some mental "issues". Just wait...it's coming. I didn't know that Susan Smith had a sister....guess she thought blaming two black men would make the story more plausible. Hope they throw the book at this loser. Of course, she will be "evaluated" for psychological problems and then receive counseling....what a world, what a world!!!

Why did I call her a liar before it was announced? Simple! You and your little kid are kidnapped in broad daylight in your cadillac escalade by two black men who force you into a trunk? LADY WHO THE HELL YOU FOOLIN! Even if you were neck deep in the Oakcliff Projects somebody would be calling the police from their metropcs saying "some white lady and her little girl just got forced into a trunk by Pookie and Mookie, ya'll better get over here". Nobody called the police BUT HER! 7 times too!

How can I not be critical of this story following "Mrs. BLACK MAN DID IT", herself, Susan Smith, who claimed that a black man was stupid enough to carjack her and drive around the city with her two little white kids in the backseat? If he was crackish enough to carjack her PURPLE KIA he would have stolen her purse maybe and dropped that car off at the next block....and further more, what mother is not getting dragged by her fingernails as a crazy carjacker drives off with her two babies in the car!

LIAR! CONVICTED MURDER - AND LIAR I should say.

Let's not forget Charles Stuart, the infamous coward who shot his pregnant wife in a black neighbor, not 5 blocks from a hospital and claimed that a black man with a raspy voice hopped into their car and robbed and shot them. Why oh Why would a black man hop in someone's car at the light, rob them and then shoot the man in the stomache and the woman in the head? I mean really! AND THE POLICE. They ran with this BS! Stopping every black man in the city. They made GROUP ARRESTS! I do realize they were doing their job but this dude had the gull to even pick an innocent man out of lineup after creating havoc in Boston's black community. It was only after his brother Matthew Stuart grew a conscious and admitted to helping Charles that night this is story crumpled. The coward did Massachusetts a favor by saving tax dollars and leaping to his own death.

I won't go into the massive amounts of other false stories that I'm sure some other's have gotten away with but I'll leave you with the famous story of Rosewood, Fl. ,in which at least 6 blacks were murdered because of a LIAR!!! The woman claimed to have been raped and beaten by a black man but later a neighbor described seeing a white man leave out of her back door. It was later found that she had a relationship with this man behind her husband's back.

I say this to say, if you want a divorce...LEAVE. If you are tired of raising your children, don't be afraid to be a coward, BOUNCE! Leave them right on the curb and drive away! If you don't want to want to marry the man - just RUN AWAY AND NEVER CONTACT HIM AGAIN! Don't say some stranger kidnapped you on your wedding day. If you embezzled money from your company, MAN UP! Fake your own death if you must but don't involve others! Don't blame Kobe because he bent you over the chair and hit it doggystyle and now he is on to the next conquest! Cheater yes, Rapist no. Oh darn, I'm getting off the subject.

Frustration I guess with a mother who simply wants attention and decides to say to black men stole her and her daughter, meanwhile they hopped a flight to Florida for Disneyworld. What story will she come up with now to get her out of this mess. Stress? Mental Disorder? Drugs? The Mob? Abusive Husband. Whatever it is I hope for once someone has to actually pay for the police effort put into this - IN DOLLARS AND JAIL! We as mothers have all wanted to run away some days. Can you imagine if I ran away for two days and said some white man kidnapped me and was later found in Vegas at the roulette table. I would be CRUCIFIED for life as the crazy black chick who blamed a white man for kidnapping her. I have a feeling this is what Mrs. Bonnie Sweeten has coming though...the soccermom will be receiving whispers behind her back even after she pays her $500 fine and 3 days of time served in jail.

Last but not least, the thing that annoys me the most is that stories like this even make the news. Meanwhile a little girl who escapes her REAL KIDNAPPERS barely made the evening paper and we can't even get a follow up story.

GET OUT!

Backseat bickering bugs just about every mother, but when a Manhattan lawyer had enough of her quarreling daughters, she kicked them out of the car and drove off. Madlyn Primoff, 45, dropped her tweens in a shopping district three miles from their home on Sunday night and has since pleaded not guilty to child endangerment.

"Police would not say if Primoff ever returned to look for the girls, but they said, without explaining how, that the 12-year-old eventually caught up with the mother. The 10-year-old was found by a "Good Samaritan" on the street, upset and emotional about losing her mother, police said."

Here's the thing...been there done that. Yes, you heard me! I BEEN THERE DONE THAT AND I WILL DO IT AGAIN and dare you to get in my business. When I say "DON'T SAY NOTHING UNTIL I STOP THIS CAR" I mean that dammit! Especially if I've been saying "knock it off". I have put my kids out, granted, not downtown where they can freak me out and run into some store or get snatched up in two minutes. Blocks from home and on roads I can see from end to end. Each time I've come back and said, "you ready to get in this car and act like a passenger now" and had no issue the rest of the ride home.

Now, listen, I have no doubt that those kids will remember this incident for the rest of their lives. I have no doubt the mom will remember it, too. But can we give kids - and parents - a little bit of credit for resilience? The idea that a bad day, even a scary awful day, means a child is scarred for life just means that every day in every way we could be ruining our kids forever. God forbid we do or say something stupid, the gig is up. If you really want to punish them....take them to a store and buy yourself a pint of ice cream. Then drive them out to a country road and park 3 miles from them and watch them walk to you while eating your ice cream.

Naturally, I do not think that this mom handled her kids in a truly optimal way. But most of us have days when we don’t. That doesn’t make us criminal parents. It makes us human parents. And kids are built to live with humans, not Robo-Mamas. As I said, her mistake is in the fact that she put them out downtown in a town where at least one passerby was too nosey to actual care. Not one person said "oooo yeah, she is pissed" and stand nearby to watch the kids as she drove around a long busy block. We don't live in a world were people can put her two girls out downtown without some pedophile thinking it's his or her chance to "pounce". We also don't live in a world ANYMORE were most kids are smart enough to say, "lets sit here until she comes back" or "lets get to hiking". These too chickenheads took it upon themselves to go separate directions. Which means, mom probably hadn't done this before or that the kids are spoiled as hell and decided they would give her a scare and go in opposite directions.

Either way, the mom learned, the kids learned. If Sandra Cantu's parents were not prosecuted for letting her roam the trailer park, if Adam Walsh's parents were not prosecuted for allowing him to stand in a crowded store and play video games while they shopped, and if Gwen Araujo's mother let her walk out the house knowing what could happen and she wasn't prosecuted...well then who are we to judge a mother who is fed up with bickering and puts her kids out the car.

There I said it!

Mountain Dew Mountain

So most of my buddies know I have a few daily routines I can't help but do each morning. My newspapers, CNN.com, my forums and GOOD MORNING AMERICA! While watching GMA this morning I saw that they will be doing a special on "The Hidden America - Children of the Mountains". In the hills of central Appalachia where children and families are facing unthinkable conditions in which most Americans take for granted. Appalachia have three times the national poverty rate, an epidemic of prescription drug abuse, the shortest life spans in the nation, toothlessness, cancer and chronic depression. What I find quite amazing is that more than half of these people's dental issues come from an addiction to MOUNTAIN DEW! Yes, Mountain Dew folks. It has an extremly high rate of caffeine, sugar and acid. There is a 6% increased rate of tooth enamel and is said to be addictive. There were several children as well as adults on the program who stated they were addicted to Mtn. Dew and had been drinking it since they were children. Most of these people's teeth were rotten, broken, missing and just plain awful. When GMA asked Pepsi/Mountain Dew for a response the general statement was that this was "irresponsible reporting and that people should floss after drinking sweets, soda and sex and they needed a more personal hygiene". Well I've shortened the state but that was the jist. This area has the biggest epidemic of toothlessness in the nation with 1 out of 10 adults missing teeth. The area is so poor that milk, fruits and veggies are often unaffordable. Mountain Dew is often put in baby bottles. It is not uncommon to see several cavities in 2 year old baby teeth. Diane Sawyer reports on this and more tonight on 20/20. If you have time at 10pm please try to catch this special.

I've been known to give my little ones soda now and then, but it's a rare treat. I'm tempted to cut it out completely now.

Jesus Take the Wheel

A couple of things have been on my mind the last few days with news and such. I waited patiently for details on the economic stimulus package before speaking on it and I'm annoyed about much of what is included.

I'm just trying to figure out how millions going towards teen STDS creates jobs? I definetly support tax cuts for small businesses and working Americans. I also believe there should be another one time stimulus check for Americans. I realize this didn't work with President Bush but now people are definetly hurting and will surely spend the money. I support federal money to build infastruture. That puts people to work as well as making the nation better. On the other hand some of this other crap is simply put, ridiculous. $400 Million for Global Warming? Are you insane? $2.4billion on Carbon Capture projects? What the hell is that???? That does not stimulate the economy. NO! There is entirely too much environmental humbug in this "stimulus package". Those things are definetly worthy but they should be considered in a separate bill! $650 Billion for digital tv conversion coupons? NUTS! $150 million for the Smithsonian and $1 Million for Amtrak???? INSANE!!!If it's costing money SELL IT. It's been losing money for 40 years! Let the private industry run it. There are billions for increasing foodstamps, childcare, medicare. All that having absolutely nothing to do with increasing the economy! Okay, done with this subject. NEXT!


Ervin Lupoe needs to come back to life so we can put him in front of a firing squad and shoot him again. If you have no idea who Mr. Lupoe is. He and allegedly, his wife are the two idiots who lost their jobs last week following an investigation at Kaiser Permanente. They decided (Mr. Lupoe left a suicide note), that they no longer have anything to live for and did not want to leave their children behind so they killed their children and themselves!

A man fatally shot his wife, five young children and himself Tuesday after he faxed a note to a TV station claiming the couple had just been fired from their hospital jobs and together planned the killings as an escape for the whole family. “Why leave our children in someone else’s hands,” Ervin Lupoe wrote in a letter posted late Tuesday on the KABC-TV Web site. Officers rushed to the home in Wilmington, a small community between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, about 8:30 a.m., apparently within minutes of the killings.

Officers could still smell the gunshot residue in the air. A revolver was found next to his body. Ana Lupoe’s body was found in an upstairs bedroom with the bodies of the couple’s twin 2-year-old boys. The bodies of an 8-year-old girl and twin 5-year-old girls were found alongside Ervin Lupoe’s in another bedroom. All were shot in the head, coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter said. Kaiser Permanente Medical Center West Los Angeles released a statement confirming both Lupoe and his wife had worked there; both were medical technicians. The letter indicated that Lupoe and his wife had been under investigation for misrepresenting their employment to an outside agency in order to obtain childcare.

If grown people wanna off themselves because life gets a little tough, that’s their decision, but taking the children is where the line needs to be drawn. The whole thing is terrible, but the mother participating in it makes it all that much worse. Here's a thought idiot. Go buy yourself a life insurance plan and then drive your car off a cliff and kill yourself since you are an obvious coward. At least your KIDS can have a good life. We've all gone through hard times. Keep it moving or move out of the way so your kids can grow up and be productive citizens. Do you honestly think you'll be with them doing the angel dance in heaven after you commit murder and suicide? There has got to be something in the water lately...gggrrrrr

On a side note - I'm not completely frustrated with life. My insomnia seems to be subsiding. With the new year I've realized that life is too short to be unhappy and unsatisfied. In the word of Andy Dufresne "Get busy living, or get busy dying". I've realized that I have so much more to offer and I am "needed". God had to turn the world upside down in order for us to realize that we needed CHANGE. I'm very excited in what the future has in store.

News, Blues and Screws

I had a hard time trying to figure out today's blog. I had to decided between the many different subjects going through my mind right now. I was up early listening to the idiots of Citigroup actually try and talk their way out of shopping for a $50 dollar airplane, meanwhile my home value has completely crashed and burned. Skip forward to the exciting talk of that poor woman in Southern California who just gave birth to a puppy litter (oh don't be so sensitive). Damn 8 babies!?!?!? I have one 3 year old that feels like 8 babies. One piece of advice I'd love to offer her is to uummm Run Away Now! When all the newness of those cute little babies wears off and all the help goes away....OH I NEED TO STOP. God Bless her little heart.
So I've decided I'll go ahead and tell you all about how I got away from the MAN! Now that it's the end of January, I've finally figured out all the speed traps near the school. Some other unlucky parents have not so while I was was going 15 mph because I had the feeling "Roscoe" was near, the Benz, BMW and Town and Country peeled out of the school and into the residential area going about 40. Now that I've finally replaced my glasses I could see him hiding in the corner as they rounded the corner. I didn't let out my relief just yet, not until he waved each of them to the curb to line up for their tickets. As I drove by I thought "awww, too bad for them, yeeeaahhh for me". Last thing I need right now is a ticket!
Today has been a little screwy. I'm avoiding work this morning but I guess I should get to it. Sorry I have nothing profound and prolific for you. No juicy gossip or "no she didn't" tales today. Just a day in life.

PS - working on fixing my pic - I heard word back that I need a change (smile)