Online story: "On the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, President Obama said Saturday said he is committed to protecting what he considers a fundamental principle: "government should not intrude on private family maters." -- Amen! While I do not believe there is anyone, well maybe a few, who ever wants to see any medical procedure be relegated back to back alleys, "government should not intrude on private family matters" by protecting, facilitating, funding or providing for abortions as a form of general birth control, and government should prosecute for first degree murder any person involved in a partial birth abortion unless there is impartial medical confirmation that the death would cause irreparable harm or death of the mother.
---
L-E headline/story: "House subcommittee on military construction Bishop named ranking member * Bishop said in a statement after Rep. Norm Dicks made the announcement Wednesday. “This is a great honor for me and it provides great benefits for the state of Georgia and the Second District.” -- And herein lies the problem...Bishop puts himself above the state and District 2. BTW, has anyone followed up to see if Bishop has reimbursed (or seen to that the recipients have done so) the scholarship funds channeled to his family and staff/friends?
---
Another L-E headline: "Bishop named ranking member" -- Now, this is a headline I can agree with!
---
Has anyone else noticed how long its been since Kaffie Sledge's moniker/face/drivel have appeared in the L-E? I stopped reading her years ago so I've been slow to notice exactly when it stopped, but some of you who let her get under your skin might have noticed earlier. Let me know so I can go back in time and mark my calendar.
---
My one Kaffie Sledge story I will continue to remember/relate goes back 15 years or so. After an unusually one-sided political column (which was memorable considering all her political columns had but one side), I called her and left her a message to please call me back. She did, and I asked her a question. Kaffie, I said, "Do you remember the white line on the buses back when we were kids?" You could feel the ice and the bristle of her neck hairs in her 'searching' "Yes.....". I continued, "I hated that line. When my friends and I used to ride the bus down to the Saturday morning movies, our maid would walk to the bus stop on Wynnton, and when the bus stopped she would tell the bus driver which theater we were going to, and we were to sit right behind him, and she would ask him to tell her if we misbehaved in the slightest manner when she got on the bus to go and 'retrieve' us at noon. At noon, my friends and I would be waiting at the bus stop near the theater, and she would get off, herd us up the steps, make sure we put our coins in the turnstile, then parade us to the rear of the bus. She'd then plop us down in the seat just in front of 'the white line', and sit down behind us. No matter how we pleaded, she would not let us sit on the back seat that looked out the rear window. She was just mean that way or so we thought. We all celebrated when that 'white line' disappeared. We rejoiced at being able to sit on the back seat, and press our faces into distortion so the cars behind us could see us in bizarre poses of contortion. I could hear her let out a measured breath of 'huh'? Then she said she had never looked at that from my point of view. I replied, that's is what is wrong about what you write when you add politics to your columns. There is always another side to any story or issue, and to learn from anything, you must understand the other side. I thanked for the opportunity to communicate that to her, and hoped it would give her a new perspective she could add to her writings (her writings about her family were actually quite good and heart-warming). While she may have thought about our conversation for a fleeting moment after we hung up, that thought never made it to her columns. That saddened me.
---
L-E story: "The “Celebrity Apprentice” co-host announced Friday on Twitter that she’s pregnant. In 2009, she married Jared Kushner, a New York real estate scion and publisher of The New York Observer weekly newspaper. " -- How novel yet extremely refreshing...a celebrity couple who got married BEFORE they have a baby.
---
L-E headline: "L-E promotes editors as part of reorganization " -- Hmmm .... Quite a show of diversity...NOT! Well, two of the 8 were women.
---
Having offline discussions about what Jared Loughner should be tried for is strange. Lawyers look at Giffords shooting as only an attempted murder, because she didn't die because of the heroic efforts and expertise of today's medical practitioners. Has it come down to asking doctors to let victims die so the criminal can be tried and convicted for his intent? Loughner is guilty of multiple murders and the attempt on Giffords is one of them.
---
Council Agenda item of note: " EMERGENCY PURCHASE OF VARIABLE MESSAGE SIGNS * It is requested that council approve payment to American Signal Company (Atlanta), in the amount of $54,246 for the emergency purchase of four variable message signs. * The variable message signs will be utilized on the Moon Road Widening Project. The bids for the construction project are currently scheduled to be opened on Jan. 26. This project includes work at Veterans Parkway/Williams Road intersection, which experiences heavy traffic loads. The signs are critical to notify the public of construction zones and detours. " -- Signs ARE "critical" to notify drivers of upcoming construction zones, but wouldn't a 'silent policeman' stationary sign 'saying' "Construction Ahead - Reduce Speed - Merge to another lane" be just as efficient and a lot less expensive? You know, I'll even bet there are such sign materials already in the city inventory which would cost nothing extra!
---
Another purchase item in Council's agenda: "INMATE TELEPHONE SYSTEM (ANNUAL CONTRACT) * It is requested that council approve the contract with Bealls Communications Group for the Inmate Telephone System for the Muscogee County Prison. The contractor will provide a secure turnkey, fully operational and reliable inmate telephone system designed to improve the management and control of inmate telephone usage in the Muscogee County Prison. * The term of the contract will be for five years with the option to renew for five additional 12-month periods.." -- What does this entail? Do prisoners now have phones in their cells? Why does the jail/Council have to outsource something that using guards on duty to monitor a central phone bank wouldn't be more efficient and at no extra cost?
---