Online story: "FREEPORT, Fla. (AP) — In this rural part of the Panhandle, Christopher Mitchell finds few takers when he delivers his message about the importance of exploring insurance options under the federal health overhaul. * People in the conservative-leaning area tend to have a bad impression of President Obama's signature law because of negative messages they hear on talk radio or from friends, said Mitchell, marketing director for a network of nonprofit health clinics." -- "bad impression due to negative messages they hear on talk radio"? MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera... they have negative talk shows?

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I am going on a diet...Not too long ago, one of my daughters stuffed my granddaughter's "Ladybug" pillow under my then 18 month old's shirt, causing it to have a pillowy effect. She then asked her niece, "where's Ladybug", then yanked the pillow out from under the shirt. This week, "Ladybug's" location was not in sight, and Sophia was asked, "where's Labybug?". She turned and patted me on my belly, and tried to pull my shirt up. She's quite observant...

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HuffPost headline/story: "A $10.10 Minimum Wage Could Lift About 5 Million Out Of Poverty" 8 Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour could help lift nearly 5 million people out of poverty, a new study finds. * If Congress were to go through with a plan backed by President Barack Obama to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, it would reduce the poverty rate among Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 by as much as 1.7 percentage points, a study released Monday from University of Massachusetts-Amherst economist Arindrajit Dube finds. That would bring about 4.6 million people out of poverty directly and reduce the ranks of the nation's poor by 6.8 million, accounting for longer-term effects." --- Good grief... does Judas 00-bama have any shame about lying? First, hours workers work would get cut and jobs would be eliminated, but secondly, and most importantly to Judas 00-bama's campaign payback, every union contract is tied to the federal (and in some cases, local or state) minimum wage. There might be an exception, but I've never heard word about it. In other words, without bartering for a new contract, union wages get an automatic increase to all levels of hourly wages when the minimum wage is raised, and the employer gets stuck with the new expenses.

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HuffPost "story": "With the money they made in 2013 alone, the world's richest people could have paid to feed the world's hungry school kids 163 times over. In other words, they probably wouldn't have even noticed the cost. * That's one way to wrap your head around the staggering fact that the world's wealthiest people cumulatively grew $524 billion richer last year, according to a recent Bloomberg report. Approximately $3.2 billion per year is all it would take to feed the 66 million kids in the world who go to school hungry, according to a 2012 estimate from the World Food Programme." -- Governments could confiscate $6.4 BILLION from the world's wealthiest people, and 66 MILLION children would still be claimed to go to school hungry by World Food Programme. Confiscated money ends up in the pockets of the confiscators, not children's stomachs.

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Now it's SEC 7 - others 2. .. and both losses were upsets.

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Republicans should try to get back in good favor with the women's vote by overruling the liberals' law outlawing incandescent light bulbs. Liberals won't even feel the backlash creeping up on them until women have no choice but those ugly CFL, and LED light bulbs to put in their dining room, living room or bathroom chandeliers. No women will put up for ugly lightbulbs being the focus point of their home decor.

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Online quote source: "Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.”― Benjamin Disraeli" -- Hmmm, bet this is not hanging on the wall of any elected Dempocrats.

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Online quote source: "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”― John F. Kennedy " -- Hmmm, will someone make sure every NAACP office and "civil rights leader" gets a copy of this to hang on their wall?

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L-E headline: "Some schools want to stop serving as voting sites" -- Hmmm, guess teachers don't want to have to explain what our Constitution is really about.

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This reminds me of a true story concerning my Mother's first teaching job. She was teaching in a North Carolina high school. An election was coming up in November so she was constantly talking about the citizens taking their voting rights more seriously. She had students aged 21 who were eligible to vote. On Election Day, Mother called in "sick". She was only 20 at the time, and with all the preaching she had done about voting, she was afraid some student would ask her if she had voted. She couldn't lie about such, and she was afraid for the students to know some of them were actually older than she was, so she played hooky.

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L-E headline: "Georgia’s pay for correctional officers trails Southeast" -- Oooops, thought the Associated Press had discovered why GA has so many prisoners...

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L-E headline/story: " Atlanta mayor to start new term with focus on repeat offenders * ATLANTA — Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says he will discuss plans to reduce repeat criminal offenders, increase job training and invest in city infrastructure in an inaugural speech Monday." -- Hmmm... how about public hangings for violent criminals... it has a definite and immediate impact on recidivism, and is a pretty good example new criminals can expect if they do the same.

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Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has computed the excessive traffic that will be vying for use of the main rapids at the focal point of the Whitewater course? Surfers, kayakers, and rafters will all be competing for time at the same time whether they are doing so for free or have paid for the trip down. Are we going to have to post traffic cops on Sea-doos to control the traffic, or will Mayor Obamalinson just build a traffic circle around that intersection?

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L-E's "Thought for Today, “Wisdom is divided into two parts: (a) having a great deal to say, and (b) not saying it.” — Author unknown." -- Hmmm.. has anyone ever accused Judas 00-bama of having the wisdom to know which to do? I can answer that... no... NO... Hell NO.

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From L-E's Karl Douglass, un-annotated staffer for Congressman Bishop, column: " Auburn plays Florida State tomorrow night. When the final whistle blows, one team will be crowned the National Champion and the other will wonder what it could have done to change the outcome of the game. Fans on both sides will start talking about which new recruits are headed to their school next season and count down the days until the first inter-squad scrimmage." -- Hmmm, If you exchange "Republicans & Democrats" for "Auburn & Florida State", Douglass could make this a column about basic politics.

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Outside of immediate family, will anybody watch the bowl game on TV tonight bewteen Arkansas State and Ball State? Quick can you name the town either school is located?

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The SEC teams played 81 games with Top 25 teams (granted, most SEC conference games involve matching up with a Top 25 team), while the ACC played 41 such games. (For comparison.. the PAC 12 played the second most Top 25 games with 50). If SEC teams didn't knock each other off, the SEC would probably have 8 (or more) teams in the Top 10.